The F-Word

by Jesse Sheidlower

  FTL interjection

  “fuck the law.”

  1992 New Yorker (May 18) 28: The graffiti on the walls everywhere said “F.T.L.”—I was told that it stood for “Fuck the Law.” 1995 H. Rawson Dictionary of Euphemisms (rev. ed.) 157: Kids still write “FTL” on walls instead of “Fuck The Law.” 1996 M. B. Hunt Sociolinguistics of Tagging & Chicano Gang Graffiti (Ph.D. Diss., Univ. Southern California) 94: FTL—Fuck the Law.

  FTN interjection

  Navy. “fuck the Navy.”

  1982 F. Mosco Whitemoon Crisis (2004) 47: Says right there under the anchor, FTN. That means, Fuck the Navy. 1992 M. Sprouse Sabotage in American Workplace 74: One guy was constantly harassed and attacked, especially after he carved FTN (fuck the Navy) in his forearm. 2004 C. Burke Camp All-American, Hanoi Jane, and the High-and-Tight 245: FTN: fuck the Navy (an FTN space is a small space in a ship where a sailor can hide from officers).

  FTW interjection

  “fuck the world.”

  1968 Psychiatry & Social Science Review II. 16: Fuck the world (FTW) is their motto and that they have done since their California founding in the early 1950’s. 1972 R.A. Wilson Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words 113: F.T.W. A slogan of Hell’s Angels…meaning fuck the world. 1981 Easyriders (Oct.) 68: F.T.W. 1991 D. Gaines Teenage Wasteland iii. 67: Joe grabs my arm and draws a tattoo: an iron cross with a snake in the center in purple felt pen; “F.T.W.” on the top, “M.O.D.” on the bottom. He explains as he retraces his artwork on my arm. “Fuck the World” and “Method of Destruction.” 1995 S. Moore In the Cut 111: I saw the letters FTW tattooed crudely on the boy’s arm. 2004 J. Meno Hairstyles of Damned 203: They were your typical stoners, one with a black baseball bat that read “F.T.W.”—which stood for Fuck the World.

  fubar adjective [“fucked up beyond all recognition”; suggested by SNAFU, definition 1]

  1. Originally Military. thoroughly botched or confused. Also fubar’d. Occasionally as noun. Jocular.

  1944 Yank (Jan. 7) 8: The FUBAR Squadron.… FUBAR? It means “Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.” 1944 Newsweek (Feb. 7) 61: Recent additions to the ever-changing lexicon of the armed services: Fubar. Fouled up beyond all recognition. 1944 in R. L. Tobin Invasion Journal 48: The Italian campaign was SNAFU for so long.… SNAFU… means, Situation Normal All Fouled Up—with, of course, an unprintable variation in the most common use.… To be FUBAR is much worse. It means Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition. 1952 L. Uris Battle Cry 114: Fubar on the nets and you can louse up an entire landing team. Ibid. 300: A full-scale fubar’d mess. 1957 A. Myrer Big War 119: What’s to this yarn about you being a fubar character from the word advance? 1972 B. Davidson Cut Off 30 [refers to WWII]: An even stronger superlative was Fubar—Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition. 1982 Daily Beacon (univ. newspaper) (Feb. 3) 2: Move it, fubar! 1987 Daily Beacon (univ. newspaper) (Apr. 9) 4: I already have a name picked out for my license plate.… “FUBAR.” figure it out for yourself. [Hint]…beyond all repair. 1990 E. W. Rukuza West Coast Turnaround 196: And the situation? FUBAR.

  2. thoroughly intoxicated.

  1985 U.S. college student: Fubar means drunk. Like, “Man, I was fubar last night.” 1990 J. Sanders Cal Poly Slang 4: Fubar—intoxicated beyond all recognition. [Example:] I was so fubar I couldn’t find my date to take her home. 1991 C. Eble Campus Slang (Fall) 2: Fubar—very drunk. 1998 Canberra Times (Australia) (May 30) A2: Many terms [for drunkenness] are insults—“full as a tick” and the acronym FUBAR, “fouled up beyond all recognition.”

  fubar verb

  to ruin; botch; SNAFU, verb.

  1946 “J. MacDougal” in Astounding Science Fiction (Oct.) 55/1: Well, there are a lot of minor ones, which must have fubared things in all directions once Co-ordination accepted them. 1953 L. M. Uris Battle Cry 114: Fubar on the nets and you can louse up an entire landing team. 1995 N. Stephenson Diamond Age 147: Financial transactions could no longer be monitored by governments, and the tax collection systems got fubared. 2001 O. West Sharkman Six xxii. 271: Nothing—not these fubared rules, this fubared country, or even the ambush—excuses Armstrong.

  FUBB adjective [suggested by FUBAR]

  Originally Military. “ fucked up beyond belief.” Jocular. [In 2000 quote, as noun.]

  1952 Time (Aug. 18) 6: Snafu and cummfu are a bit old hat in Washington, along with tarfu (“things are really”), fubar (“beyond all realization”), fubb (“beyond belief “). 1979 J. Homer Jargon 162. 1984 K. Weaver Texas Crude 40: F.U.B.B.… Fucked Up Beyond Belief. 2000 P. Morgan Parrot’s Beak 143: In Vietnam, we called it a FUBB, fucked up beyond belief.

  FUBIO interjection

  Military. “fuck you, bub, it’s over.” Jocular.

  1946 American Speech (Feb.) 72: The final word came after V-J day, FUBIO. Its description of the post-war attitude…meant “F—You, Bub, It’s Over.”

  FUBIS or FYBIS interjection

  Army. “ fuck you, buddy, I’m shipping out (or short).” Compare FIGMO.

  1967 H. Wentworth & S. B. Flexner Dictionary of American Slang (supplement) 685: Fubis…Fuck you, buddy, I’m shipping (out). Army use since c1960. 2007 L. Bucher Sea Stories 331: My own simple design consisted only of large, fat letters: FYBIS (Fuck You, Buddy, I’m Short).

  fuck noun [see etymology and note at the verb]

  1. a. an act of copulation.

  1663 R. Head Hic et Ubique I. vi. 18: I did creep in…and there I did see putting [sic] the great fuck upon my weef. 1676 Lampoon in G. Williams Dict. Sexual Language & Imagery in Shakespearean & Stuart Literature (1994) I. 563: Her wider cunt did gape/For a more substantial fuck. 1680 Lord Rochester Poems 37: Thus was I Rook’d of Twelve substantial Fucks. 1763 in J. Atkins Sex in Literature IV 154: Then just a few good fucks, and then we die. a1850 in H. N. Cary Slang of Venery I 91: Well mounted on a mettled steed,/Famed for his strength as well as speed,/Corinna and her favorite buck/Are please’d to have a flying f—k. 1865 “Philocomus” Love Feast vi. 59: Whoever thought ’twould be my luck/To get from my own sex a fuck. ca1866 Romance of Lust 35: I wished to quietly enjoy a fuck. 1867 in A. Doten Journals II 949 [in cipher]: Me & my love have had this far just one hundred good square fucks together. 1879 Harlequin Prince Cherrytop 28: Now we can do no better I’ll be bound,/Than to celebrate our joy with fucks all round. 1879 Pearl 127: Oh! What a nice fuck! 1888 Stag Party 42: Adonis…gave her a most systematical fuck. 1899 Memoirs of Dolly Morton 249: Here goes for the fust fuck. 1923 Poems, Ballads, & Parodies 22: He was working like a son of a bitch/To get another fuck. 1928 in A. W. Read Lexical Evidence from Folk Epigraphy (1935) 55: Me and my wife had a fuck. 1934 “J. M. Hall” Anecdota Americana (Second series) 26: Every time you threw a fuck into me I put a penny in the bank. 1934 H. Miller Tropic of Cancer 78: He has absolutely no ambition except to get a fuck every night. 1938 H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn 104: Into each…one…I throw an imaginary fuck. 1940 Ramirez v. State [of Arizona], in Pacific Reporter, 2d Series CIII 461: While she was in bed asleep the defendant entered her room, grabbed her by the throat… he stood at the head of her bed and when she awoke made this statement to her: “Gonna throw a fuck into you”; that he did not say, “I’m going to” but just “gonna”; that after telling her this he loosened his grip somewhat and kissed her. 1947 C. Willingham End as a Man 240: A fuck for a buck. 1956 J. Cheever in Letters (1988) 178: You’ve just talked yourself out of a fuck. 1971 Go Ask Alice 117: All I needed was a good fuck. 1987 K. Lette Girls’ Night Out (1989) 99: There aren’t many things that beat getting your best friend arrested. One is losing a limb down the food disposal unit. Another is remembering in the middle of a fuck that you’ve still got a tampon in. 1990 L.B. Rubin Erotic Wars 75: All she wanted was “a good clean fuck.” 1997 GQ (Mar.) 166: Good cry, good hug, one last fuck for old times’ sake. 2006 L. Douglas Catastrophist 263: “So why did you stop after only two fucks? Well?” “I don’t know. It just seemed enough.”

  b. as a mass noun: copulation.

  ca1675 in R. Thompson Unfit for Modest Ears 49: If
guifted Men before now sweare and Rant/(Then surely I for Fuck may Cant). 1687 Last Night’s Ramble in G. Williams Dict. Sexual Language & Imagery in Shakespearean & Stuart Literature (1994) I. 563: Half Ten Guineas spent in wine and F—k. 1689 Satire on Benting in G. Williams Dict. Sexual Language & Imagery in Shakespearean & Stuart Literature (1994) I. 563: She wanted fuck in her old age. a1720 in T. D’Urfey Pills VI 266: She’d dance and she’d caper as wild as a Buck,/And told Tom the Tinker, she would have some —. 1860 in M. E. Neely Lincoln Encyclopedia (1984) 155: When Douglas found his chances were scarcely worth a shuck/He bade his Delegates, go home, to take a little fu—. 1889 Capt. C. Devereaux Venus in India 37: He added his initials and “WTBF?” “What does it mean?” I asked. “‘Will there be fuck?’ of course.” 1918 in M. B. Carey Mlle. from Armentières II (unpaged): The S.O.S. was sure out of luck,/They stayed behind and got all the —. 1938 H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn 104: The place is just plastered with cunt and fuck.

  c. a person considered as a sexual partner. Chiefly with a modifying word.

  1870 Cythera’s Hymnal 75: A young woman got married at Chester,/Her mother she kissed and she blessed her./Says she, “You’re in luck,/He’s a stunning good fuck,/For I’ve had him myself down in Leicester.” 1874 Letter from Friend in Paris II. 168: I had always held that dear momma was the best fuck in the family, and in every way a most desirable and splendid creature. ca1890 My Secret Life II. iii. 57: Is she a good fuck? Where does she live? ca1927 in P. Smith Letters from Father 141: What a fuck she was. 1934 “J.M. Hall” Anecdota Americana (Second series) 27: You are a much better fuck than your old mammy here. 1938 “Justinian” Americana Sexualis 23: She’d make a good fuck! 1963–64 K. Kesey Sometimes a Great Notion 193: A cigar is just a cigar, but a good woman is a fuck. 1969 M. Lynch American Soldier 163: She was a good fuck. She did everything I told her. 1972 B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 87: Was Tyrone a good fuck? 1977 N. Wexler Saturday Night Fever (film): If you’re as good in bed as you are on the dance floor, I bet you’re one lousy fuck. 1977 A. Patrick Beyond Law 57: One o’ the nicest little gals and sweetest little fucks a man could ask for. 1979 O. Clark Diary (May 10) in H. Rous Ossie Clark Diaries (1998) 84: Angie stayed in Marianne’s bed—she is a junkie who was in Jimi Hendrix’s dressing room so long ago. “She’s a wonderful fuck,” said Marianne the following day. 1983 J. Groen & D. Groen Huey 122: She’s sure a wild fuck. 1984 “Pickles” Queens 34: Perhaps the commonest threat to success is the arrival of friends or former fucks. 1992 J. Eszterhas Basic Instinct (film script): I think she’s the fuck of the century, don’t you? 1993 B. Moore Lexicon of Cadet Language 151: Fuck…a girlfriend.… “Are you off with the fuck tonight?” 2000 E. L. Harris Not a Day Goes By 212: “He is the best fuck I’ve ever had.” “You slept with him?” “There was no sleeping going on.” 2008 A. Guthrie Savage Night 14: She was a great fuck, but she wasn’t worth dying for.

  2. a. the least bit; a damn.—usually used in phrases like not give a fuck or not care a fuck. [The ca1790 quotation, from a satirical poem (“The Discontented Student”), concerns a young man who cannot make love to his wife at night because he is preoccupied with his books, yet conversely cannot concentrate on his studies during the day. Sense seems to demand that the excised phrase in its final line be “a fuck”; no other word is correspondingly vulgar, and only fuck makes the pun work.]

  ca1790 St. G. Tucker in Poems (1977) 144: Our scholar every night/Thinks of his books; and of his bride by light.… /“My wife—a plague!—keeps running in my head/In ev’ry page I read[,] my raging fires/Portray her yielding to my fierce desires.”/“G—d—your books!” the testy father said,/“I’d not give —for all you’ve read.” 1879 Harlequin Prince Cherrytop 19: For all your threats I don’t care a fuck./I’ll never leave my princely darling duck. 1917 in E. Wilson Prelude 184: An English soldier on the boat: “I down’t give a fuck if the bowt goes dahn, it doesn’t belong to me!” 1926 F. Wray trans. H. Barbusse Under Fire 283: He doesn’t care a f—for us. 1929 F. Manning Middle Parts of Fortune 48 [refers to WWI]: They don’t care a fuck ’ow us’ns live. 1931 J. Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen 200 [refers to 1919]: The bosun said it was the end of civilization and the cook said he didn’t give a f—k. 1934 H. Miller Tropic of Cancer 22: Nobody gives a fuck about her except to use her. 1935 T. Wolfe Death to Morning 74 [refers to 1917]: I don’t give a f— what ya t’ought. 1936 in P. Oliver Blues Tradition 246: When I first met you I thought I fell in good luck,/Now I know you ain’t worth a —. 1946 in J. Jones Reach 61: It dont mean a fuck to me. 1960 G. Sire Deathmakers 44: They don’t give a fuck about you. 1965 B. D. Reeves Night Action 86: It mattered not a fuck. 1969 N.Y.C. man, age ca30: Doesn’t that pull on your heartstrings? Or don’t you give a rusty fuck? 1969–71 R. Kahn Boys of Summer 107: Rocco’s a helluva man, but that don’t mean a fuck. 1974 R. Carter 16th Round 53: What makes you think that I give a fuck about you—or the horse you came to town on? 1972–76 C. Durden No Bugles, No Drums 9: Nobody gives two fucks. 1977 Dowd Slap Shot (film): It don’t make a fuck’s bit of difference. 1979 D. Thoreau City at Bay 36: Who gives a rusty fuck about some wino? 1995 New York Review of Books (June 8) 48: Education nowadays isn’t worth a tup-ney fuck. 1998 J. Lahr in New Yorker (Sept. 7) 80: The actor doesn’t care a fuck about Shakespeare. The director doesn’t care a fuck about Shakespeare. He never really encounters Shakespeare. 2005 A. Smith Accidental 26: Why should I care about him when he clearly doesn’t give a fuck about me.

  b. anything whatsoever.—used in negative.

  1970 D. Crosby in Rolling Stone (July 23) 27/2: The Byrds would come there and be a mechanical windup doll. They didn’t play fuck. 1971 National Lampoon (Dec.) 58: That croaker don’t know fuck.

  c. (used with like, as, or than as an emphatic standard of comparison).—also used with a.

  1938 in G. Legman Limerick (1954) 393: The colloquial comparative, “hotter than a Persian fuck.” 1969 T. Raworth Serial Biography 66: Burned like fuck he said. Had to smear ointment all over it. 1976 C.R. Anderson Grunts 61 [refers to 1969]: To them it was still hotter than fuck and rising. 1978 in T. O’Brien Things They Carried 171: I’m sure as fuck not going anywhere. 1980 S. Whalen It Takes a Man to Cry 272: “You in pain, man?”… “It stings like a fuck.” 1983 M. Thickett Outrageously Offensive Jokes 60: It’s raining like a fuck outside. 1980–86 in D. J. Steffensmeier Fence 5: You sure as fuck don’t go around telling people: I’m a fence! 1988 “N.W.A.” Fuck tha Police (rap song): I’m sneaky as fuck when it comes to crime. 1988 P. Duncan 84 Charlie MoPic (film): He’s gonna slow us down like fuck, man! a1989 in J. Kisseloff You Must Remember This 72: It was no good, that’s all, and you suffer like a fuck. 1991 in RapPages (Feb. 1992) 67: Lawnge’s production is dope as fuck. 1993 J. Watson & K. Dockery Point Man 105: Raining like a fuck out, ain’t it? 1996 D. McCumber Playing off Rail 336: I sure as fuck hope so. 2002 J. Goad in N.Y. Press (Dec. 25) 28/1: I sure as fuck couldn’t feel sorry for girls who earned in a five-hour shift what I made in a week.

  d. a bit of difference.—used in negative.

  1984 A. R. Sample Racehoss 198 [refers to 1950s]: It don’t make a fuck who it is.

  3. semen (rare); in phrase: full of fuck, full of sexual desire or (broadly) energy. Compare BULL FUCK.

  1680 School of Venus in B. K. Mudge When Flesh Becomes Word (2004) 40: We were both of us so full of Fuck, that we did not let slip the least minute that was favorable to us; nay more; we sometimes did it in fear and had the ill luck to be disturbed and forced to give over our sport without spending, if it proved a false alarm we went at it again. ca1866 Romance of Lust 390: The cunt full of fuck only excited him the more. a1890–93 J. S. Farmer & W. E. Henley Slang & Its Analogues III 80: Fuck, subs.… The seminal fluid. Ibid. 85: Like a straw-yard bull, full of fuck and half-starved.… A friendly retort to the question, “How goes it?” i.e., “How are you?” 1916 H. N. Cary Slang of Venery I 98: Full of fuck.—Ready to work. 1938 “Justinian” Americana Sexualis 23: Full of fuck, amorously potent. 1
966 A. Wainhouse & R. Seaver trans. de Sade 120 Days of Sodom 494: She would raise her skirts, display her ass, and the libertine, all smiles, would spray his fuck upon it. [1978 “F. Pulsing” Whipped Cream 16: The combination drew the fuck-load from Ed’s shaking loins. He moaned and blasted. Ibid. 59: He gushed his fuck-load into the fink’s writhing mouth.] 1993 Farmer’s Step-daughter, on Usenet newsgroup alt.sex.stories: She had thought often about what it would be like to let [him] shoot a full load of his fuck into her face. Ibid.: She felt the warm fuck filling her mouth, coating her tongue and draining back toward her throat. 2003 J. Woodward Mister Goodbye Easter Island 42: I want my Redi-Serv Jesus with his eyes on fire, all fierce and full of fuck. 2006 P. May Spring & His Summers 39: They could have been having a huge orgy up there. They certainly looked like they were full of fuck and energy.

  4. a despicable person, usually a man.

  [1788 S. Low Politician Out-Witted I ii: Do you call me a foutre, you rascal?] 1927 [J. Fliesler] Anecdota Americana 188: I won’t sye nothin’ nawsty, all I sye is my bloody arse ’ole to you, you bloomin’ fuck. 1927 E. Wilson in Twenties 399: You oughtn’ta be a prizefighter, yuh fuck—yuh ought to be a bootblack! 1933 C. H. Ford & P. Tyler Young & Evil 40: Take that fuck McAllen. 1934 H. Roth Call It Sleep 414 [refers to ca1910]: Yer an at’eist, yuh fuck, he hollers. 1942 in S. J. Perelman Don’t Tread on Me 46: I was that superior fuck who smiled patronizingly and observed…“Recent statistics show that the French have the greatest land army in the world.” 1946–50 J. Jones From Here to Eternity ch. xxxvi: I told you, you dumb fuck. 1958 T. Berger Crazy in Berlin 136: Go on, you fuck, or I’ll take ya apart. 1964 H.S. Thompson Letter (Nov. 25) in Proud Highway (1997) 473: All these fucks who smile on the TV screen. 1967 J. Hersey Algiers Motel Incident 134: Them fucks took my tape recorder. 1968 J.P. Miller The Race for Home 294 [refers to 1930s]: “He said he don’t, you dumb fuck,” Dawg said. 1970 R. Byrne Memories non-Jewish Childhood 117: Come in off of there, you dumb fuck. 1972 B. Harrison Hospital 50: I swear I thought that fuck was going to offer me a bribe to save Tessa’s life. 1973 A. Schiano & A. Burton Solo 80: He’s the meanest fuck in town. 1973 P. Benchley Jaws 191: You lying fuck! 1987 Santiago Undercover 63: Don’t bother with this fuck. 1991 “Who Am I?” in L.A. Stanley Rap 383: He was a big-ass fuck. 1997 W. Allen Deconstructing Harry (film): You fucked-up fuck!…Fuck you! 2006 R. Flanagan Unknown Terrorist 172: Standing there, throwing herself on the mercy of a miserable fuck like Moretti, she realised this was madness.