The etymology of ‘f*ck’ and the war that popularized it

[Wingnut]

Posted for educational purposes.

You’re dashing around, running a bit late perhaps, and your pinky toe just happens to connect with the corner of an inanimate object that seemingly just popped up on you despite its relatively permanent and solitary position in your home.

Through watering eyes and an emanating pain that doesn’t seem natural for such a small appendage, you let out an anguished “F*CK!” It’s practically muscle memory.

And yet, most remain unaware of their favorite word’s origins, or the notion that, for many, the F-word become part of the daily lexicon due in large part to service members in World War II.

The etymology of the word itself is murky, but the epithet appears to have hit its stride in the 16th century after famed English lexicographer John Florio published “A Worlde of Wordes,” an Italian-English dictionary intended to teach people these languages as they were really “f*cking” spoken.

F*ck, however, remained in the shadows of polite society largely until the onset of World War II, according to historian Tom Harper Kelly.

“One new recruit James Nichol recalled that in basic training he ‘was still very nervous of the F-word (frig being the current substitute, but I avoided that, too),’” Kelly wrote. But a sergeant in Nichol’s training company impressed the young recruit with the word’s “repetition, if not invention. I lay in my bunk one evening and counted the number of times ‘f*ck’ occurred in his conversation. It occurred every four and a half words, though I was counting mentally and might have missed some.’”

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2021/03/12/the-etymology-of-fck-and-the-war-that-popularized-it/

[Idiot]

Posted for educational purposes.

You’re dashing around, running a bit late perhaps, and your pinky toe just happens to connect with the corner of an inanimate object that seemingly just popped up on you despite its relatively permanent and solitary position in your home.

Through watering eyes and an emanating pain that doesn’t seem natural for such a small appendage, you let out an anguished “F*CK!” It’s practically muscle memory.

And yet, most remain unaware of their favorite word’s origins, or the notion that, for many, the F-word become part of the daily lexicon due in large part to service members in World War II.

The etymology of the word itself is murky, but the epithet appears to have hit its stride in the 16th century after famed English lexicographer John Florio published “A Worlde of Wordes,” an Italian-English dictionary intended to teach people these languages as they were really “f*cking” spoken.

F*ck, however, remained in the shadows of polite society largely until the onset of World War II, according to historian Tom Harper Kelly.

“One new recruit James Nichol recalled that in basic training he ‘was still very nervous of the F-word (frig being the current substitute, but I avoided that, too),’” Kelly wrote. But a sergeant in Nichol’s training company impressed the young recruit with the word’s “repetition, if not invention. I lay in my bunk one evening and counted the number of times ‘f*ck’ occurred in his conversation. It occurred every four and a half words, though I was counting mentally and might have missed some.’”

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2021/03/12/the-etymology-of-fck-and-the-war-that-popularized-it/

That's one word that is repulsive to me.  I hear it constantly at a drilling rig, and other places as well.  Tends to be the ignorant people that use it the most.   

[Free Vulcan]

WTF?

[Sighlass]

That's one word that is repulsive to me.  I hear it constantly at a drilling rig, and other places as well.  Tends to be the ignorant people that use it the most.   

Me too, it drags the act of love into the most ugly area it can be cheapened to.

[andy58-in-nh]

It is a unique word that is at once, overused and irreplaceable.

Many people who object to it seem to assume that it refers only to the physical act of love, but that in fact is a narrow and dismissive point of view for an (at least) 600-year-old Anglo-Saxon word that can be used creatively as a noun, verb, adjective, or conjunction, and one that is routinely expressed by both educated elite and common folk each and every day.

Yes, it is often employed as a substitute for less crude, more specific, or more erudite figures of speech. But to my mind, its versatility outweighs its ubiquity, and its innate honesty often trumps its coarseness. In fact, by its very coarseness the word serves to make a point directly, especially in circumstances where mere erudition would obscure, rather than inform.

Who the f*** knows where we'd be without it?

[berdie]

If one is not prone to using the word, ever, when in an argument with one's spouse drop an f bomb.

Guaranteed to stop the argument immediately. 

[Cyber Liberty]

Please tell me this thread is not going to be "hot!" 

[corbe]

    Like this?

[Smokin Joe]

If one is not prone to using the word, ever, when in an argument with one's spouse drop an f bomb.

Guaranteed to stop the argument immediately. 

Laughing, because in the rare handful of moments when Mrs. Joe dropped one hearts paused and birds poised in mid-flight, from critters to humans eyes widened, and anyone present looked at anyone else sideways in hope they were not the offender.
Good memories, thanks.

[berdie]

Laughing, because in the rare handful of moments when Mrs. Joe dropped one hearts paused and birds poised in mid-flight, from critters to humans eyes widened, and anyone present looked at anyone else sideways in hope they were not the offender.
Good memories, thanks.

 

[240B]

No way to know if this is true. I was taught that bleep came from Germany in the empire times. Some king name Fuckinstein declared that all women in his province had to sleep with him one night as soon as they got a period. And the term 'I am Fuc - ed' became common. Who knows. Could be?

[Bigun]

F(ornication) U(nder) C(onsent) of K(ing). Medieval England