hkr4627@acf4.UUCP (Hedley K. J. Rainnie) (04/19/85)
I was told that 'fuck' was placed on placards that were put before unhappy souls in the stocks and that it stood for: for use of carnal knowledge. Is this true? Hedley.
jeff@rtech.ARPA (Jeff Lichtman) (04/22/85)
> I was told that 'fuck' was placed on placards that were put before unhappy > souls in the stocks and that it stood for: for use of carnal knowledge. > Is this true? > > Hedley. George Carlin, in his "The Seven Words You Can't Say On Television," says that "fuck" originally meant "to hit with a stick." I have no idea whether this is correct. -- Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.) aka Swazoo Koolak {amdahl, sun}!rtech!jeff {ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!jeff
polard@fortune.UUCP (Henry Polard) (04/22/85)
In article <1260001@acf4.UUCP> hkr4627@acf4.UUCP (Hedley K. J. Rainnie) writes: >I was told that 'fuck' was placed on placards that were put before unhappy >souls in the stocks and that it stood for: for use of carnal knowledge. >Is this true? > >Hedley. NONONONO!!! Fuck comes form an Indo-european root related to modern 'beat'. This is the second time we are starting on this word in less than a year. If you are interested in the origins of a word, find an etymological dictionary and look it up. Your local librarian will be delighted to point you to such a dictionary. Do not simply do a brain dump on us. In any case, the answers (including this one) you will get from this newsgroup may be quite unreliable, so you might as well look it up anyway. You would perform a valuable service to this newsgroup by posting several etymologies of 'fuck', quoting sources, so that the tidal wave of false 'fuck' etymologies may be nipped in the bud. From the metaphorical mixmaster of -- Henry Polard (You bring the flames - I'll bring the marshmallows.) {ihnp4,cbosgd,amd}!fortune!polard N.B: The words in this posting do not necessarily express the opinions of me, my employer, or any AI project.
cjh@petsd.UUCP (Chris Henrich) (04/23/85)
[] > I was told that 'fuck' was placed on placards that were put before unhappy > souls in the stocks and that it stood for: for use of carnal knowledge. > Is this true? > > Hedley. No. "Fuck" is one of the oldest words in English, going back to times when most speakers of the language were illiterate and wouldn't have understood a round-about phrase like "for use of carnal knowledge" if it had been read aloud to them. Earlier forms of the word, with cognates in other Germanic languages, are something like "ficken"; I think the Indo-european root is "PHUG-". When you go back that far it is related to lots of other words. The earliest meaning (if memory serves) of 'fuck' is something like the verb 'to plant.' As in, "Tomorrow we have to fuck all the turnips in the north field." Regards, Chris -- Full-Name: Christopher J. Henrich UUCP: ..!(cornell | ariel | ukc | houxz)!vax135!petsd!cjh US Mail: MS 313; Perkin-Elmer; 106 Apple St; Tinton Falls, NJ 07724 Phone: (201) 758-7288 From vax135!houxm!whuxl!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!cmcl2!acf4!hkr4627 Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 1969 Relay-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site petsd.UUCP Posting-Version: version nyu B notes v1.5 12/10/84; site acf4.UUCP Path: petsd!vax135!houxm!whuxl!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!cmcl2!acf4!hkr4627 From: hkr4627@acf4.UUCP (Hedley K. J. Rainnie) Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Origin of expletive Message-ID: <1260001@acf4.UUCP> Date: Thu, 18-Apr-85 23:19:00 EST Date-Received: Sat, 20-Apr-85 00:32:33 EST Organization: New York University Lines: 5 I was told that 'fuck' was placed on placards that were put before unhappy souls in the stocks and that it stood for: for use of carnal knowledge. Is this true? Hedley.
riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (04/24/85)
> I was told that 'fuck' was placed on placards that were put before unhappy > souls in the stocks and that it stood for: for use of carnal knowledge. > Is this true? I believe that this story is apocryphal. As far as I know, the Germanic origins of 'fuck' are well attested. The modern German equivalent is 'ficken'. --- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.") --- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle --- riddle@ut-sally.UUCP, riddle@ut-sally.ARPA, riddle%zotz@ut-sally