English-language word

Fuck is an English-language word, a profane word which refers to the act of sexual intercourse and is also commonly used to denote disdain or as an intensifier. Its origin is obscure; it is usually considered to be first attested to around 1475, but may be considerably older. In modern usage, the term fuck and its derivatives (such as fucker and fucking) can be used in the position of a noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb. There are many common phrases that employ the word, as well as compounds incorporating it, such as motherfucker.

Contents [hide]

1 Offensiveness

2 Etymology

2.1 "Flen, flyys and freris"

2.2 Older etymology

2.2.1 Via Germanic

2.2.2 Via Latin or Greek

2.3 False etymologies

3 Grammar

4 Early usage

5 Rise of modern usage

6 Modern usage

6.1 Examples of more recent usage

6.2 Use in politics

6.3 Use in marketing

6.4 Band names

6.5 Holy fuck

6.6 Machine mistranslation

6.7 F-bomb

7 Censorship

7.1 Freedom of expression

8 Common alternatives

9 See also

10 References

11 Further reading

12 External links

Offensiveness

The word's use is considered obscene in social contexts, but may be common in informal and familiar situations. It is unclear whether the word has always been considered vulgar, and if not, when it first came to be used to describe (often in an extremely angry, hostile or belligerent manner) unpleasant circumstances or people in an intentionally offensive way, such as in the term motherfucker, one of its more common usages in some parts of the English-speaking world. In the modern English-speaking world, the word fuck is often considered highly offensive. Most English-speaking countries censor it on television and radio. Andrea Millwood Hargrave's 2000 study of the attitudes of the British public found that fuck was considered the third most severe profanity and its derivative motherfucker second. Cunt was considered the most severe.[1] Fuck has become increasingly less vulgar and more publicly acceptable, an example of the "dysphemism treadmill", wherein vulgarities become inoffensive and commonplace.[2][3] Fuck was included for the first time as one of three vulgarities in the Canadian Press's Canadian Press Caps and Spelling guide in 2005 because of its increasing usage in the public forum. Journalists were advised to refrain from censoring the word but use it sparingly and only when its inclusion was essential to the story.[4]

The term remains a taboo word to many people in English-speaking countries.

Etymology

The Oxford English Dictionary states that the ultimate etymology is uncertain, but that the word is "probably cognate" with a number of native Germanic words with meanings involving striking, rubbing, and having sex.[5]

"Flen, flyys and freris"

The usually accepted first known occurrence is in code in a poem in a mixture of Latin and English composed in the 15th century.[6] The poem, which satirizes the Carmelite friars of Cambridge, England, takes its title, "Flen flyys", from the first words of its opening line, Flen, flyys, and freris (= "Fleas, flies, and friars"). The line that contains fuck reads Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk. Deciphering the phrase "gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk", here by replacing each letter by the previous letter in alphabetical order, as the English alphabet was then, yields non sunt in coeli, quia fvccant vvivys of heli, which translated means, "They are not in heaven, because they fuck wives of Ely".[7] The phrase was coded likely because it accused monks of breaking their vows of celibacy;[6] it is uncertain to what extent the word fuck was considered acceptable at the time. (The stem of fvccant is an English word used as Latin: English medieval Latin has many examples of writers using English words when they did not know the Latin word: "workmannus" is an example.) (In the Middle English of this poem, the term wife was still used generically for "woman.")

Older etymology

Via Germanic

The word has probable cognates in other Germanic languages, such as German ficken (to fuck); Dutch fokken (to breed, to beget); dialectal Norwegian fukka (to copulate), and dialectal Swedish

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