History of the word "fuck"

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In the modern English-speaking world, the word "fuck" is often considered highly offensive. Most English-speaking countries censor it on television and radio. A 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 (Hargrave, 2000)[citation needed]. Some have argued that the prolific usage of the word fuck has de-vulgarized it, an example of the "dysphemism treadmill." Despite its offensive nature, the word is common in popular usage. (Although in some countries, it is shunned by many people as a vulgar term to curse someone.)

The highly profane term remains a taboo word to many people in English-speaking countries, while others feel the word remains inappropriate in social etiquette when used in "mixed company" or a man utters the word in a presence of women. The word carries a sacrilegious connotation to some. Many religious people oppose profane, vulgar, and "curse" words which they may consider to be calling a higher power in vain. Morality in English-speaking lands consider that word must not be uttered in the presence of children, thus may robbed their "innocence" and interfere with their learning of social mores.

Non-English-speaking cultures tend to recognize the word's vulgarity. However, because the "foreign language" word has less impact, or because there are no rules requiring it, they generally do not censor it.

Proof of the more relaxed attitude about this English word in non-English countries was very publicly visible on billboards around the downtown of Paris, France in the early 1990s. They featured a woman sticking her tongue out in defiance, along with the slogan "Préservatifs Fuck le SIDA" ("Condoms fuck AIDS").

The Canadian Press now considers the word to be commonplace and has added usage advice to the Canadian Press Caps and Spelling guide. [1]

Contents

[edit] Modern usage

Most literally, to fuck is to copulate, but it is also used as a more general expletive or intensifier. Some instances of the word can be taken at face value, such as "Let's fuck," "I'd fuck her/him" or "Mindy fucks."

Other uses are dysphemistic: The sexual connotation, usually connected to masturbation (in the case of "fuck yourself"), is invoked to incite additional disgust, but has nothing to do with the matter of discussion. For example, "Fuck that!" or "Fuck no!"

It is interesting to note Fuck is oftentimes shunned as a word for intercourse but widely accepted for use as in the non literal sense, as in, "I found a fucking girl at the fucking bar, got fucked up, found a fucking hotel and Made love".

By itself, fuck is usually used as an exclamation, indicating surprise, pain, fear, disgust, disappointment, or anger. In this usage, there is no connection to the sexual meaning of the word implied, and it used purely for its "strength" as a vulgarity. Additionally, other uses are similarly vacuous; fuck (or variations such as "the fuck" or "fucking") could be removed and leave a sentence of identical syntactical meaning. For example, rap music often uses the word fucking as an emphatic adjective ("I'm the fucking man") for the word's rhythmic properties. Insertion of the trochaic word fucking can also be used as an exercise for diagnosing the cadence of an English-language word. For example, the word in-fucking-credible sounds acceptable to the English ear, and is in fairly common use, while incred-fucking-ible would sound very clumsy (though, depending on the context, this might be perceived as a humorous improvisation of the word). While neither dysphemistic nor connected to the sexual connotations of the word, even the vacuous usages are considered offensive and gratuitous, and censored in some media. For example, "None of your fucking business!" or "Shut the fuck up!" A common insult is "Get fucked," which in a non-offensive context would translate as "get stuffed."

In the last usage, the word fucker is used as a term of endearment rather than antipathy. This usage is not uncommon; to say "you're one smart fucker" is often a term of affection. However, because of its ambiguity and vulgarity, the word fucker in reference to another person can easily be misinterpreted. Though fuck can serve as a noun, the fucker form is used in a context that refers to an individual. Normally in these cases, if fuck is used instead of fucker, the sentence refers to the sexual ability of the subject (for example, "He's a great fuck!"), although confusingly in a minority of occasions the word "fuck" can hold the exact same meaning as "fucker" (e.g. when preceded by an adjective: "You're a pretty clever fuck.").

Related to fucker is the word motherfucker. Sometimes used as an extreme insult--an accusation of incest--this term is also occasionally used to connote respectful awe. For example, "He's a mean motherfucker" does not mean "He's abusive, filthy and copulates with his mother," but "He's someone to be afraid of." In this context, some gang members might even describe themselves as "motherfuckers." Motherfucker can be used as a rhythmic filler in hip hop, rap or dance music. A good example of this is in The Crystal Method's song "Name of the Game." At about 3:30 into the song, there's a dramatic buildup and then a sudden pause. To fill the space, an audio sample of someone exclaiming motherfucker (or, as it's pronounced, "mutha fucka") is injected, filling the gap with perfect rhythm. Perhaps motherfucker's rhythmic compatibility is due to its quadrisyllabic pronunciation, making it a natural fit for popular music that is written in 4/4 metre. Also contributing to its use in aggressive, high-energy music is the fact that it includes a hard "k" sound in its third syllable, making it easy to exclaim, particularly when pronounced as "mutha fucka." Despite these rhythmic qualities, motherfucker has not become as accepted in English usage as its root fuck.

An example of the flexibility of use of fuck is the song "Mercyfuck" (1998) by the singer/songwriter Mary Prankster:

I wish I could fuck all my sorrow away
And fuck 'til the dawn of the next fucking day
Fuck the chorus and verse, fuck the pain getting worse
Fuck it all 'til I burn
I wish I could fuck so and so's dad 'til you see
I'm the worst fuck-up in all history
Fuck your image and mine, fuck your limp valentine
Fuck it all 'til I learn

A more succinct example of the flexibility the word is the phrase "Fuck you, you fucking fuck!" (as heard in Strapping Young Lad's "You Suck" from their 2006 album The New Black) or "Fuck the fucking fuckers!"

Because of its vulgar status, the word fuck is usually restricted in mass media and barred from titles in the United States. In 2002, when the controversial French film Baise-moi (2000) was released in the USA, its title was changed to Rape Me, rather than the literal Fuck Me, though this may have been for effect. Similarly, the Swedish film Fucking Åmål was retitled Show Me Love.

Online forums and public blogs may censor the word by use of automatic filters. For example, Fark.com replaces the word fuck with fark. Others replace the word with asterisks (****) to censor it (and other profanities) entirely. To avert these filters, many online posters will use the word fvck. This particular alteration is in common usage at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where students use it in reference to the inscriptions on MIT's neoclassical buildings, in which the letter U is replaced by V. A typical coinage in this idiom would be "I'm fvcked by the Institvte." (Other less common spellings to cheat a censor are "fück" and "phuck.")

The word fuck is a component of many acronyms, some of which—like SNAFU and FUBAR—date as far back as World War II. Many more recent coinages, such as the shorthand "WTF?" for "what the fuck?," have been widely extant on the Internet, and may count as examples of memes. Many acronyms will also have an F or MF added to increase emphasis, for example OMG (Oh My God) becomes OMFG (Oh My Fucking God).

Despite the proclaimed vulgarity of the word, several comedians rely on fuck for comedic routines. George Carlin has created several literary works based upon the word. Other comedians who use the word consistently in their routines include Denis Leary, Lewis Black, Andrew Dice Clay, Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, and Sam Kinison.

Contextual usage

As language progresses and the modern generation ages usage of words such as fuck will most likely become more acceptable due to more liberal approaches to speech. Due to this the methods in which the word can be employed change regularly to reflect creative uses of language. A primary example of this being in the 2005 Channel 4 sitcom Nathan Barley where, as a celebration the lead character shouts "Michael fucking Jackson". Other usages of the word fuck include:

Fuck Off — offensive, "go away". Fuck Up — To damage something. Or if used as "He is such a fuck up." Someone who is a derelict or not ambitious. Fucked Up - when something or some situation is abnormal, broken, or unacceptable. Such as "The movie is canceled because the projector is fucked up." Fuckwit — A person who is particularly slow or unintelligent is said to be fuckwitted. For fuck's sake — As a substitute for "God" or another word. Fuckhead — derogatory remark suggesting someone is acting without thinking, is incompetent, or is just plain stupid. Fucktard — directed, offensive. A combination of fuck and the word retard. Widely used in online gaming environments. Fuck It - Expression to say "forget about it". It is used on an object or person saying "him" or "her" instead of "it" Fucking Eh - Offensive way of expressing agreement. Also used as "fucken eh" and "fuckin A". Fucked - state of being in a hopeless or difficult situation - 'we're fucked'.

[edit] Euphemisms

In situations where using or mentioning the word directly may be considered inappropriate, people often resort to euphemisms, one example being to bowdlerize it, either referring to it with terms such as the f-word or replacing it with similar-sounding words such as "feck", "flip" or "fudge." In software contexts, fook, fsck, fvck, fuk, fark and f2k are also used. In the formerly British Caribbean nations it is sometimes spelled fock. Fark is a bowdlerization which originated in the British Commonwealth countries, derived from exaggerated pronunciation in, for example, the Australian accent (but see also fark.com).

In such circumstance, initialisms or acronyms derived from phrases including fuck may be expanded substituting another word beginning with F, such as euphemising "FUBAR" as "Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition" or translating "RTFM" as "Read The Friendly/Fine Manual".

The fashion house French Connection United Kingdom controversially uses its initials, usually in lower case, fcuk, as a trademark symbol. The word appears on some clothing sold by French Connection, including clothes marketed to teenagers. It should also be noted that the Disneyland theme park does not allow clothing bearing the abbreviated French Connection name as part of the dress code.

In the Irish sitcom Father Ted the word fuck was replaced with feck, a common slang word in Ireland that was acceptable to audiences in other countries, although in one famous episode ' Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep ' the word fuck is heard for the one and only time. Similarly, people sometimes replace fucking with bloody, a British expletive similar in function but relatively inoffensive.

One of the first best-selling novels to use the word dozens of times, Norman Mailer's 1948 The Naked and the Dead, was bowdlerized by its publisher to render the word as "fug." In the James Bond novel, You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming, agent 007 uses the euphemism "Freddie Uncle Charlie Katie" to avoid saying the word directly.

Both versions of Battlestar Galactica use the fictitious expletive frak (also spelled frack or fraq) in the same contexts that fuck would be normally expected. Similarly, Farscape uses the term frell. The various versions of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy often use photon or zark in place of fuck; the 2005 movie features the character Zaphod Beeblebrox saying "zarking-A". The characters of the Judge Dredd universe use "drokk" in place of "fuck", and "stomm" in place of "shit". The Legion of Superheroes use "sprock" as one of their many substitute swear words. Another TV series, Red Dwarf uses the word "smeg" as a substitute for both "fuck" and "shit". Scrubs character Eliot Reed often uses the word "frik" and "double-frik" in situations of worry. In the show Firefly, they use both "humped" and "rut" in substitution for "fuck". The sci-fi novelist Larry Niven has characters use the word tanj, an acronym for "there ain't no justice", in the same contexts that fuck would normally be expected.

An online fantasy play-by-post site, Alleria employs the fictitious word "feth", which is used both as an in-game expletive and also as a convenient replacement for out-of-game conversation (the site being PG-13 rated). The series of Gaunt's Ghosts books also uses the word "feth" in place of fuck.

Chef, known from South Park, uses the word "fudge" in most known expression containing the word fuck, including: "What the fudge?", "Fudger!", and "Fudge me!"

In 2005, the Bloodhound Gang released "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo," an innuendo-laced song that skirts around the word "fuck" by using the NATO phonetic alphabet to spell it out. The song itself consists almost entirely of a list of euphemisms for sex (i.e. "fucking")

In the Austin Powers movies, star Mike Myers (as Dr. Evil) uses the term 'frickin as a euphemism of 'fucking'. ('I wanted frickin' sharks with frickin' laser beams on their frickin' heads!')

Among the first usages of the word 'fuck' in an english speaking movie were in the 1967 films Ulysses and I'll Never Forget What's'isname.

[edit] Incidents on British Television

In 1965, the critic Kenneth Tynan was the first person to say fuck on BBC television, during BBC-3, a late-night live satirical talk show hosted by Robert Robinson, causing a furor and a short TV career for Tynan. (This incident was later immortalized by comedian Billy Connolly - himself no stranger to the "F-word" - in his song "A Four Letter Word".)

The second person to use the word on British television was the commentator Peregrine Worsthorne in replying to a question over whether the public would care if a Government minister had shared a bed with two call girls.[2] The words most infamous use was probably on 1 December 1976 when the word was pointedly used in an early evening show, during a live interview with the Sex Pistols. The presenter Bill Grundy, who it was claimed had encouraged the incident, was suspended as a result.

-After the death of Graham Chapman, his televised eulogy was performed by John Cleese in which he said "fuck" on British television and got away with it being uncensored.

[edit] Censorship

The films Ulysses and I'll Never Forget What's'isname (both 1967) are contenders for being the first film to use the word 'fuck'. Since the U.S. adoption of the MPAA film rating system, use of the word has been accepted in R-rated movies, and under the older rules, use of the word in a sexual way would automatically cause the film to be given an R rating. Later changes could allow for a maximum of three, non-sexual, strictly exclamatory use of the word in PG-13 movies, extreme example being the movies The American President and Nine Months (this is more of a guideline then a rule, however, since the MPAA states it has no strict rules on how a movie is rated).

In 1968, The Beatles' "White Album" had the word censored in their track "Revolution 9" in which band member George Harrison exclaims "So I joined the fucking navy and sailed to sea." Just two years later in 1970 fellow Beatle John Lennon successfully got the word past the censors on his song "Working Class Hero" with the lines "They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool, till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules" and "You think you're so clever and classless and free, but you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see."

Since the 1970s, the use of the word fuck in R-rated movies has become so commonplace in mainstream American movies that it is rarely noticed by most audiences. Nonetheless, a few movies have made exceptional use of the word, to the point where such films as Scarface (1983), Pulp Fiction, Blue Velvet, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and Goodfellas are known for its extensive use. In the movie Meet the Parents, and its sequel Meet the Fockers, the main character's last name of "Focker" is a running joke. In the popular comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral, it is the chief word, repeatedly uttered, during the opening five minutes. To many, one of the most humorous tirades demonstrating various usages of the word appears in the comedy, Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), where Steve Martin expresses his dissatisfaction in his treatment by a rental car agency.

In several PG-rated movies, however, the word is used, mainly because at the time there was no PG-13 rating and the MPAA did not want to give the films R ratings; for instance, All the President's Men (1976), where it is used seven times; The Kids Are Alright (1979), where it is used twice; and The Right Stuff (1983), where it is used five times. Spaceballs (1987) is an anomaly in that it was rated PG after the 1984 introduction of the PG-13 rating, yet it includes Dark Helmet's line, "'Out of order'?! Fuck! Even in the future nothing works!" In the PG-13 rated movie Soapdish (1991), Sally Field, played an aging soap opera actress. Appalled that her costume included a turban, she complained to her show's producer "What I feel like is Gloria fucking Swanson!"

Films edited for broadcast use matching euphemisms so that lip synching will not be thrown off. One televised version of Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, for instance, had the actors dub in the words frick, Nubian, and melon farmer for fuck, nigger, and motherfucker, respectively. In similarly dubbed versions of Die Hard and Die Hard 2, Bruce Willis' catchphrase "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker" is replaced by "Yippee-ki-yay, Mister Falcon" or "Yippee-ki-yay, Kemo Sabe." In the film The Big Lebowski, John Goodman's character repeatedly yells "This is what you get when you fuck a stranger in the ass" while trashing a car. It was infamously censored on television as "This is what you get when you have fun with a stranger in the alps!" His character also repeatedly says to Steve Buscemi's character, "Shut the fuck up, Donny," or "Donny, shut the fuck up." When on television, "fuck" is censored with "hell."

In a similar vein, many stand-up comedians who perform for adult audiences make liberal use of the word fuck. While George Carlin's use of the word is an important part of his stage persona, other comedians (such as Andrew Dice Clay) have been accused of substituting vulgarity and offensiveness for genuine creativity through overuse of the word. Billy Connolly and Lenny Bruce were pioneers of the use of the word in their shows for general audiences.

Recently, the hip-hop group Black-Eyed Peas' hit song "Don't Phunk With My Heart" was censored on many radio stations to "Don't Mess With My Heart", establishing a new trend toward eliminating all euphemisms for "fuck" as well as the word itself. James Blunt's first major song, You're Beautiful, featured the line "she could see that I was fucking high" - this was censored to "flying high" for broadcasting purposes.

[edit] Usage in politics

In 1965, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson said to the Greek ambassador Alexandros Matsas when he objected to American plans in Cyprus, "Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fellows continue itching the elephant they may just get whacked by the elephants trunk, whacked good."[3]

During the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention, Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff, during a speech in which he nominated the anti-Vietnam War candidate George McGovern, departed from his written text to say, "If George McGovern were president, we wouldn't have these Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago." Many conventioneers, having been appalled by the response of the Chicago police to the simultaneously occurring anti-war demonstrations, promptly broke into ecstatic applause. As television cameras focused on an indignant Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, lip-readers throughout America claimed to have observed him shouting, "Fuck you, you Jew motherfucker." Defenders of the mayor would later claim that he was calling Senator Ribicoff a "faker" or a "fink." (When queried later by reporters as to what it was Daley had said, Ribicoff said it was "a four-letter word beginning with 'mother'".)

Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau caused a minor scandal when opposition MPs stated he had told them to "fuck off" in the House of Commons in February 1971. Pressed by journalists, Trudeau later unconvincingly stated he may have said (or mouthed) "'fuddle duddle' or something like that"[4], a phrase which then took on a humorous connotation of that event for Canadians.

A famous British usage of fuck comes from a 2001/2002 scandal at the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions, while Stephen Byers was the Minister. His press officer, Jo Moore, sent an email after the September 11, 2001 attacks suggesting it would be "a good day to bury bad news". As the scandal unravelled, Permanent Secretary to the Department, Sir Richard Mottram was widely reported to have said "We're all fucked. I'm fucked. You're fucked. The whole department is fucked. It's the biggest cock-up ever and we're all completely fucked." To British ears this was particularly amusing coming from someone so senior in the civil service.

In June 2004, United States Vice President Dick Cheney replied to criticism about Halliburton's role in the reconstruction of Iraq from Democratic senator Patrick Leahy with "fuck yourself". The media, and opposition parties were very quick to highlight the White House's stance on obscenities uttered in this manner, quoting their reaction to a similar outburst by John Kerry in December 2004. Ironically, Cheney's outburst occurred on the same day that the Defense of Decency Act was passed in the Senate.

In February 2005, British media chief Alastair Campbell accidentally sent the email "Just spoke to trev. think tbwa shd give statement to newsnight saying party and agency work together well and nobody here has spoken to standard. Posters done by tbwa according to political brief. Now fuck off and cover something important you twats!" to the Newsnight journalist Andrew McFadyen, instead of a party official. Trev. refers to Trevor Beattie the boss of TBWA.

[edit] Early mainstream musical use

Aside from various older blues and novelty artists, such as Lucille Bogan, who used virtually every obscenity imaginable in her 1935 classic "Shave 'Em Dry," The MC5 appears to hold the honor of being the first band to utter fuck in a widely-distributed recorded song. "Kick Out the Jams" opened with the scream "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!", which was seen as radical at the time of its recording in 1968. The song was censored on later pressings of the vinyl album with a far milder "Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters!" The censored passage has since been restored on CD.

It should also be noted, however, that in a section of "The End", recorded by The Doors in 1967, "fuck" is shouted unintelligibly, although clearly implied; "Father/ Yes son?/ I want to kill you/ Mother, I want to...fuck you", as an homage to Sophocles' Oedipus the King. The word was often shouted more clearly in live performances.

Country Joe and the Fish were notorious for an audience participation ritual known as 'The Fish Cheer' which involved chanting "Give Me an F... Give me a U... Give me a C... Give me a K... What's that spell?" with the last query repeated multiple times (In its original form the word 'fish' was spelt instead). Although they had been performing this live since around 1965 it first appeared on record in 1968 on the album I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixing-to-Die and was most famously performed at Woodstock. In 1970 Joe McDonald was convicted and fined $500 for obscenity and inciting anti-social crowd behaviour.

In 1969 Al Stewart released an 18-minute song entitled Love Chronicles that used the word "fucking" near the very end of the song. The song appeared on an album also titled Love Chronicles that was voted "Folk Album of the Year" by Melody Maker.

At the end of a performance of "Young Mans' Blues" on The Who's 1970 live album, Live at Leeds, frontman Roger Daltrey clearly shouts "fuck all".

In Mott the Hoople's 1971 song, "The Moon Upstairs", Ian Hunter sang "you're too fucking slow".

In the song Billy the Mountain by Frank Zappa of the album Just Another Band from L.A., "Fuck" is used numerous times. Example: Ah listen, that only goes to show you And it'l show you once again that A mountain is something you dont wanna fuck with You dont wanna fuck with Dont fuck around Dont fuck around Dont fuck with billy, no And dont fuck with ethel You saw what just happened To the guy with the flies


The opening of Pink Floyd's 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon sampled a man ranting "I've been mad for fucking years".

In 1978, The Who released their album, "Who Are You", in which the title track has singer Roger Daltrey shouting the line, "Who the fuck are you?" several times throughout the song. There are some classic rock radio stations that play this song unedited, as this was the last major hit the band had with all four original members in the band.

The late-seventies punk rock explosion saw the word forced into the musical mainstream. The Sex Pistols song "Bodies" from Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (1977) described an illegal abortion as a "screaming fucking bloody mess," while The Stranglers won notoriety for their song "Bring on the Nubiles," which contained the chorus "Let me let me, fuck you fuck you." The same year rock veterans Pink Floyd used the line "you fucked up old hag" in their song "Pigs," from the album Animals. A later Pink Floyd song, 1983's "Not Now John", utilized multiple instances of the word "fuck", particularly the line "fuck all that" sung with a female choir.

American Punk-Rock/Alternative Piano player/Singer Ben Folds's song Rockin' The Suburbs features him screaming fuck at the top of his lungs. In live performances he does not say it and the entire audience screams it. Later in the song he repeats the lines "you better watch out because I'm gonna say fuck" over and over again.

In Colorado Springs, tavern owner Leonard Carlo had over 29 signs containing the word fuck, including the slogans "Leonard's II Fucking Much," "No Fucking Children, Animals, Tabs or Checks!", and "No fucking tap or draw beer." Signs on the restroom doors read "Fucking Men" and "Fucking Women." Also, the top of Leonard's bald head was tattooed with the words "Fuck U. Leave Me the FUCK Alone." A state liquor agent removed all 29 signs from Leonard's Bar on August 31, 1999 because he believed the signs violated a state regulation that prohibits profanity in bars.

Most United States broadcasters replace fuck (and other so-called four-letter words) on broadcast television and radio with a beep "at times of day when there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience" (otherwise known as "safe haven"), or have the word silenced out, or a reverse of the sound of the word when the word in question is used.

Following the death of Monty Python legend Graham Chapman in 1989, a speech at his memorial was read by fellow Monty Python actor John Cleese, which claims to be the first time someone has said the word fuck in a British memorial service.

[edit] See also

The 1969 Jefferson Airplane song "We Can Be Together" contains the lines:

"Up against the wall. Up against the wall, motherfucker. Tear down the wall ..."

[edit] Further reference

  • Hargrave, Andrea Millwood (2000). Delete Expletives? London: Advertising Standards Authority, British Broadcasting Corporation, Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission.

[edit] Books

[edit] False etymology

  • Snopes Urban Legend Archive entry
  • About.com Urban Legend and Folklore article
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