The history of the F word

[blindzebra]

Contrary to manys belief that it comes from the German word Ficken (to strike) It owes it's heritage to a slightly more easterly country. Yes, England once again plays a part in history. Back in midevil England it was illegal to have sex or fornicate unless married. Even if you were married, you had to pay a tax to the king in order to be allowed to have sex. Rather than keep a roster of who had paid and who hadn't, being that the literacy rate was so low, they decided to post a sign over the front door in order to tell who had paid their taxes. The sign read, "F.U.C.K" Known in full as, "Fornication under the consent of the king." Thusly turned into a verb, to****. To fornicate under consent of the king. See kiddies. history can be fun :beerchug:

[funkzilla]

That is one story as to it's orgin. No one really knows where it truely came to be used as it is used today.

[DarthKarl]

myth

http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/fu*k.htm

(you'll have to paste the link and add in the "c" to get the linkie to work)

[CO Hummer]

The version I've heard has to do a with historical "stamp" used on pornographic materials, representing "For Unnecesary Carnal Knowledge".

But this thread still deservers this:

[Petey]

PHUCK YEW.

[KenP]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu*k (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu*k)
Copy/Paste and correct spelling

Etymology

Reputable sources such as the Oxford English Dictionary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary) contend the true etymology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology) of "****" is still uncertain but appears to point to an Anglo-Saxon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_language) origin. Early modern English ****, fuk, answering to a Middle English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_English) type *fuken (weak verb) was not found, and ultimate etymology is unknown. As far as it is accepted, synonymous German (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_language) ficken may or may not be related. It would point to a common Germanic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_languages) origin.
The first known occurrence, in code (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_%28cryptography%29), is in a poem composed in a mixture of Latin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin) and English sometime before 1500 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1500). The poem, which satirizes the Carmelite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmelite) friars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friar) of Cambridge, England (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge%2C_England), takes its title, "Flen flyys (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flen_flyys)", from the first words of its opening line, "Flen, flyys, and freris"; that is, "Fleas, flies, and friars". The line that contains **** reads "Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk". The Latin words "Non sunt in coeli, quia", mean "They [the friars] are not in heaven, because". The code "gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk" is easily broken by simply substituting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substitution_cipher) the preceding letter in the alphabet, keeping in mind differences in the alphabet and in spelling between then and now: i (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I) was then used for both i and j (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J); v (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V) was used for both u (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U) and v; and two vs were used for w. This yields "fvccant (a fake Latin form) vvivys of heli". The whole thus reads in translation: "They are not in heaven because they **** wives of Ely (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ely)" (a city near Cambridge). (Available, with minor adjustments to the translation, at The American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Edition (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=****)). The phrase was coded because of its meaning; it is uncertain to what extent the word itself was considered acceptable.
Other possible connections are to Latin futuere (hence the French (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language) foutre, the Catalan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_language) fotre, the Italian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_language) fottere, the Romanian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_language) fute, the vulgar peninsular Spanish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language) follar and joder, and the Portuguese (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_language) foder). However, there is considerable doubt and no clear lineage for these derivations. These roots, even if cognate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognate), are not the original Indo-European word for to copulate; that root is likely *h3yebh-, ("h3" is the H3 laryngeal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laryngeal_theory)) which is attested in Sanskrit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit) (yabhati) and the Slavic languages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_languages) (Russian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language) yebat`, Polish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_language) jebać, Serbian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbian_language) јебати (jebati)), among others: compare Greek "oiphô" (verb), and Greek "zephyros" (noun, ref. a Greek belief that the west wind caused pregnancy). However, Wayland Young (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland_Young) (who agrees that these words are related) argues that they derive from the Indo-European *bhu- or *bhug-, believed to be the root of "to be", "to grow", and "to build". [Young, 1964]
Spanish follar has a different root; according to Spanish etymologists, the Spanish verb "follar" (attested in the 19th century (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_century)) derives from "fuelle" (bellows) from Latin folle(m) < Indo-European *bhel-; ancient Spanish verb folgar (attested in the 15th century (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15th_century)) derived from Latin follicare, also ultimately from follem/follis.
A possible etymology is suggested by the fact that the Common Germanic fuk-, by an application of Grimm's law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimm%27s_law), would have as its most likely Indo-European (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_language) ancestor *pug-, which appears in Latin and Greek (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language) words meaning "fight" and "fist". In early Common Germanic the word was likely used at first as a slang or euphemistic replacement for an older word for "intercourse", and then became the usual word for "intercourse". Then, **** has cognates in other Germanic languages, such as Middle Dutch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Dutch) fokken (to thrust, copulate, or to breed), dialectical Norwegian fukka (to copulate), and dialectical Swedish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_language) focka (to strike, copulate) and fock (penis).
There is perhaps even an original Celtic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_languages) derivation; futuere being related to battuere (to strike, to copulate); which may be related to Irish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_language) bot and Manx bwoid (penis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penis)). The argument is that battuere and futuere (like the Irish and Manx words) comes from the Celtic *bactuere (to pierce), from the root buc- (a point). Or perhaps Latin futuere came from the root fu, Common Indo-European bhu, meaning "be, become" and originally referred to procreation.
[edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=****&action=edit&section=2)]

False etymologies

One reason why the word "****" is so hard to trace etymologically is because it was widely used by poor or lower class people, much like it is today but on a more extreme level. Because English was written by oligarch's until around 1800-1900, and because one was unlikely to hear the King of England say, "**** you France!", it is hard to trace.
There are several urban-legend (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legend) false etymologies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_etymology) postulating an acronymic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym) origin for the word. One legend holds that the word "****" came from Irish law. If a couple were caught committing adultery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adultery) they would be punished "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge", with "****" written on the stocks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stocks) above them to denote the crime. Alternative explanations for "****" as an acronym for adultery pin it as "Fornication Under Cardinal/Carnal Knowledge," or "Fornication Under [the] Control/Consent/Command of the King." Another story is that it was written in the log book as "****" when people in the military or navy who had homosexual intercourse were being punished. Variants of this include "Found Under Carnal Knowledge", "For Using Carnal Knowledge", "Felonious Use of Carnal Knowledge", "Fornication Under the Christian King", "Full Unlawful Carnal Knowledge", "False Use of Carnal Knowledge" and "Forced Unlawful Carnal Knowledge", a label supposedly applied to the crime of rape (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape).

[f5fstop]

Dang, and here I thought it stood for Florida University of Carnal Knowledge.:eek:

[Agriv8r]

i thought it was just another way of asking for sex:giggling:

[Steve - SanJose]

Might be a repost but I missed this in my higher education.:beerchug:

S.