Fucking Deadwood

[Ghetta Life]

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=f&p=14

a difficult word to trace, in part because it was taboo to the editors of 
the original OED when the "F" volume was compiled, 1893-97. Written form 
only attested from early 16c. OED 2nd edition cites 1503, in the form 
fukkit; earliest appearance of current spelling is 1535 -- "Bischops ... may 
fuck thair fill and be vnmaryit" [Sir David Lyndesay, "Ane Satyre of the 
Thrie Estaits"], but presumably it is a much more ancient word than that, 
simply one that wasn't likely to be written in the kind of texts that have 
survived from O.E. and M.E. Buck cites proper name John le Fucker from 1278. 
The word apparently is hinted at in a scurrilous 15c. poem, titled "Flen 
flyys," written in bastard L. and M.E. The relevant line reads:

Non sunt in celi
quia fuccant uuiuys of heli

"They [the monks] are not in heaven because they fuck the wives of Ely."

Fuccant is pseudo-L., and in the original it is written in cipher. The 
earliest examples of the word otherwise are from Scottish, which suggests a 
Scandinavian origin, perhaps from a word akin to Norw. dial. fukka 
"copulate," or Swedish dial. focka "copulate, strike, push," and fock 
"penis." Another theory traces it to M.E. fkye, fike "move restlessly, 
fidget," which also meant "dally, flirt," and probably is from a general 
North Sea Gmc. word, cf. M.Du. fokken, Ger. ficken "fuck," earlier "make 
quick movements to and fro, flick," still earlier "itch, scratch;" the 
vulgar sense attested from 16c. This would parallel in sense the usual M.E. 
slang term for "have sexual intercourse," swive, from O.E. swifan "to move 
lightly over, sweep" (see swivel). Chronology and phonology rule out 
Shipley's attempt to derive it from M.E. firk "to press hard, beat." As a 
noun, it dates from 1680. French foutre and Italian fottere look like the 
Eng. word but are unrelated, derived rather from L. futuere, which is 
perhaps from PIE base *bhau(t)- "knock, strike off," extended via a 
figurative use "from the sexual application of violent action" [Shipley; cf. 
the sexual slang use of bang, etc.]. Popular and Internet derivations from 
acronyms (and the "pluck yew" fable) are merely ingenious trifling. The O.E. 
word was h¿man, from ham "dwelling, home," with a sense of "take home, 
co-habit." Fuck was outlawed in print in England (by the Obscene 
Publications Act, 1857) and the U.S. (by the Comstock Act, 1873). The word 
may have been shunned in print, but it continued in conversation, especially 
among soldiers during WWI.

"It became so common that an effective way for the soldier to express this 
emotion was to omit this word. Thus if a sergeant said, 'Get your ----ing 
rifles!' it was understood as a matter of routine. But if he said 'Get your 
rifles!' there was an immediate implication of urgency and danger." [John 
Brophy, "Songs and Slang of the British Soldier: 1914-1918," pub. 1930]

The legal barriers broke down in the 20th century, with the "Ulysses" 
decision (U.S., 1933) and "Lady Chatterley's Lover" (U.S., 1959; U.K., 
1960). Johnson excluded the word, and fuck wasn't in a single English 
language dictionary from 1795 to 1965. "The Penguin Dictionary" broke the 
taboo in the latter year. Houghton Mifflin followed, in 1969, with "The 
American Heritage Dictionary," but it also published a "Clean Green" edition 
without the word, to assure itself access to the lucrative public high 
school market. The abbreviation F (or eff) probably began as euphemistic, 
but by 1943 it was being used as a cuss word, too. In 1948, the publishers 
of "The Naked and the Dead" persuaded Norman Mailer to use the euphemism fug 
instead. When Mailer later was introduced to Dorothy Parker, she greeted him 
with, "So you're the man who can't spell 'fuck' " [The quip sometimes is 
attributed to Tallulah Bankhead]. Hemingway used muck in "For whom the Bell 
Tolls" (1940). The major breakthrough in publication was James Jones' "From 
Here to Eternity" (1950), with 50 fucks (down from 258 in the original 
manuscript). Egyptian legal agreements from the 23rd Dynasty (749-21 B.C.E.) 
frequently include the phrase, "If you do not obey this decree, may a donkey 
copulate with you!" [Reinhold Aman, "Maledicta," Summer 1977]. Intensive 
form mother-fucker suggested from 1928; motherfucking is from 1933. Fuck-all 
"nothing" first recorded 1960. Verbal phrase fuck up "to ruin, spoil, 
destroy" first attested c.1916. A widespread group of Slavic words (cf. Pol. 
pierdoliã) can mean both "fornicate" and "make a mistake." Flying fuck 
originally meant "have sex on horseback" and is first attested c.1800 in 
broadside ballad "New Feats of Horsemanship." For the unkillable urban 
legend that this word is an acronym of some sort (a fiction traceable on the 
Internet to 1995 but probably predating that) see here, and also here.

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