The F-Word

by Jesse Sheidlower

  5. an evil turn of events; a cheat of fortune.

  1972 W. Pelfrey Big V9: “Regulars by God.” Conscripts by fuck. a1984 in S. Terkel “Good War” 306: Know what they did? They made him a lieutenant colonel and me a captain. Ain’t that a fuck? 1998 T. Gilliam in New Yorker (May 25) 74: To start pulling things off the soundtrack now is a fuck!

  In phrases:

  flying fuck, see under FLYING.

  for fuck’s sake, for heaven’s sake.

  1943 D. Brennan Never so Young Again xxiii. 206: They’re coming up to starboard! Weave! For f—sake! 1961 J. Jones Thin Red Line 16 [refers to WWII]: Don’t talk like that!…for fuck’s sake. 1964 A. Davidson in Worlds of Tomorrow (Aug.) 11: You space-apes who haven’t signed the Declaration, don’t hang around picking your toes, for —sake, come on out and sign it! 1966 G.M. Williams Camp 94: What’ll we call you then for fuck’s sake? 1976 A. Schroeder Shaking It Rough 20: An inmate kicked irritably at an uncooperative piece of machinery and announced succinctly that “the fuckin fucker’s fucked, fer fuck sakes!” 1964–78 J. Carroll Basketball Diaries 26: Now he’s on tour for fuck’s sake. 1997 Sick Puppy Comix (Sydney, Australia) (No. 5) 17: The moral of this story is: for fuck’s sake don’t talk to strange little kids! 2008 L. Weisberger Chasing Harry Winston 129: Come here, for fuck’s sake, and hug me again!

  fuck knows, Chiefly British. (used to indicate that something is unknown to the speaker); “God knows.”

  1976 P. Callow Story of my Desire vi. 42: “When’s your case come up?” David said. “Fuck knows.” 1988 G. Patterson Burning your Own (1993) 245: I know what youse’re thinking: “he must be mad.” Well, if that was mad, then fuck knows what youse’ll say when youse see the next knockdown bargain. 2001 C. Glazebrook Madolescents 302: Tell spaceboy to turn the volume down. I can’t get through to him, fuck knows what he’s on. 2007 I. Welsh If You Liked School, You’ll Love Work 85: Fuck knows what they are, I ain’t seen them anywhere else.

  fuck of, a notable example or quantity of; “hell of.”

  1928 in A. W. Read Lexical Evidence from Folk Epigraphy (1935) 55: This is a fuck of a rain. 1942 H. Miller Roofs of Paris 121: It would be a fuck of a lot more interesting. 1970 T. Thackrey Thief 230: Oh, wow! What a fuck of a way for a couple hot-rocks like them to go out. 1973 J. Flaherty Fogarty & Co. 26: It was a fuck of a country that could scrimmage for souls. 1977 K. Bartlett Finest Kind 20: I’ll have a fuckuva time getting back in. 1978 L. K. Truscott Dress Gray 219: It’s gonna be one fuck of a long two months. 1982 C.R. Anderson Other War 171: Thanks a lot, Altizer. Thanks a fuck of a lot. 1985 D. Bodey F.N.G. 114: He’s lost a fuckuva lot of blood. 1996 P.F. Hamilton Reality Dysfunction 983: The doctors wired your neural nanonics to your liver.… It was one fuck of a lot smarter than your brain. 2002 W. Self Dorian 120: Finding out you’re going to die a fuck of a lot sooner, rather than the hoped-for hell of a lot later. 2006 H. Shearer Not Enough Indians 147: Lobbyists…get paid a fuck of a lot better than G-15s at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

  holy fuck! (used to express astonishment).

  1945 in T. Shibutani Derelicts of Company K 202: Holy fuck! We’re gonna freeze our ass off. 1967 H. Wentworth & S. B. Flexner Dictionary of American Slang (supp.) 690. 1977 T. Jones Incredible Voyage 373: “Holy fuck!” I thought, “I’ve only got a mile of sea-room.” 1983 W. D. Ehrhart Vietnam to Perkasie 138: “Holy fuck,” he muttered. 1989 R. Zumbro & J. Walker Jungletracks 89: Holy fuck, Lieutenant, kill ’em quick! 1996 Picture (Sydney, Australia) (Dec. 4) 3: “Holy fuck!” whispered one. “Jeez!” murmured another. 1999 K. Smith Dogma (film script) 41: Holy fuck—all the fine, immoral bitches coming out of that place, and we gotta find the one Jesus freak! 2006 M. Pessl Special Topics in Calamity Physics 397: “Holy fuck,“ Milton said, staring down at the photograph. I turned it over, but there was nothing written on it, no date. “It’s her isn’t it?”

  like fuck, Chiefly British, absolutely not; “like hell.” Compare definition 2c, above.

  a1950 E. Partridge Dictionary of Slang & Unconventional English (ed. 3) 1054: F*ck! like.… “…certainly not!”: low: late C. 19-20. 1966 S. Hignett Picture to Hang on the Wall 237: “Don’t worry too much, lad.” “Thanks. Like fuck, I won’t.” 1980 J. P. Donleavy Schultz 292: “I will scratch your face.” “Like fuck you will.” 1990 H. Benedict World Like This 99: “I’m only telling you what they say, Larry.” “Like fuck you are.” 1995 N. Hornby High Fidelity 302: Like fuck you are. 1995 A. Enright Wig my Father Wore 134: “Game show one night, date show the next,” says Marcus. “Same set?” “New set. Two new sets.” “There’s posh. And after that, twice as much for their money.” “One and a half,” he says. “Like fuck. We’ll be going live in half the time,” I say, “because I’m a fucking eejit.” 1997 M. Evans Glass Mountain ii. 17: “What in the fuck are you?” I looked at Jimmy Barry, surprised. “I’m a punkette,” I said. “You are like fuck.” 2001 I. Sinclair Landor’s Tower i. ix. 122: If Tunstall rewound the tape, he could enjoy once more his envelope of meditative calm.… Unknowing knowingness. Like fuck he could. In telling me, he confirmed the tale. 2005 L. Dean This Human Season xlvii. 280: There are some things you hear and you can’t forget and they stay with you and you wish like fuck you’d never heard them or never seen them.

  the fuck

  1. (used as an expletive); the hell.—also used with in. [The phrase why or what the puck in the 1864 and a 1903 quotations is precisely synonymous with why the devil; the similarity of both the phonetics and the construction may have influenced the development of the present usage of fuck.]

  [1864 S. LeFanu in Oxford English Dictionary (ed. 2) under puck, n.: And why the puck don’t you let her out?] [a1903 in English Dialect Dictionary under puck, n.: What the puck are you doing?] 1934 H. Roth Call It Sleep 23 [refers to ca1910]: An de nex’ time watch out who de fuck yer chas—. 1936 M. Levin Old Bunch 122: Where the f—you think you’re trying to horn in?…Who the f— wants to ride in your robber hacks anyway? 1942 H. Miller Roofs of Paris 23: I don’t know what the fuck to say. 1943 R. Tregaskis Invasion Diary 45: You f—g eight balls get the f— off this God-damn hill before I rap this rifle-barrel around your neck! 1945 in T. Shibutani Derelicts of Company K 291: Where in the fuck’s that truck? 1951 American Journal of Sociology XXXVII 138: But what the f—, that’s his business. Ibid. 140: Sure, they’re a bunch of f—ng squares, but who the f— pays the bills? 1959 W. Burroughs Naked Lunch 33: How in the fuck should I know? 1962 G. Mandel Wax Boom 273: I might blow my top…if people don’t start leaving me the fuck alone! 1963–64 K. Kesey Sometimes a Great Notion 6: He don’t even the fuck know! 1968 J. Schell Military Half 185: Abruptly, someone called out, “Where the fuck are we?” 1971 L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1987) 86: Why’n the fuck d’ya think? 1977 Illinois photographer, age ca25: What the flying fuck is he talking about? 1979 National Lampoon (Dec.) 59: I go to Medicine Hat, way the holy fuck up in fuckin’ Alberta, Canada, man. 1966–80 J. McAleer & B. Dickson Unit Pride 128: “Did you ever see such a screwy bunch?”…“Guess the fuck I ain’t.” a1987 C. Bunch & A. Cole Reckoning for Kings 42: “Looks that way.” “What the fuck, over.” 1990 L. Bing Do or Die 218: What the fuck I want to change for? 1997 New York Magazine (June 16) 81: It’s always those people who get harassed and picked on who flip the fuck out. 1997 A. Bourdain Chef’s Night Out in K. Williamson Rovers Return (1998) 137: Save me from vegetarians and the lactose-intolerant. Deliver me from the tyranny of the food critics, for they know not what the fuck they do. 1998 G. Ritchie Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels 92: Dog (seeing an unconscious man at his feet): What the fuck did you do to Fauntleroy? Plank (fumbling and panicking): I didn’t touch him, he just passed out. 1999 F. Renzulli “Toodle-fucking-oo” (television shooting script) in Sopranos (2nd Ser.) 6: I don’t know Carm’. I yelled. What the fuck else could I do? 2004 J. Jameson & N. Strauss How to Make Love Like Porn Star i. xi. 82: What the fuck did you do with my meth?… The whole fucking bag is gone.

  2. (used to introduce a response e
xpressing emphatic disagreement); “the hell”; “like hell.” Also: (used as an expletive); “what the fuck?”, etc.

  1965 S. Linakis In Spring the War Ended 50 [refers to WWII]: “They don’t keep you locked up.”…“The fuck they don’t.” 1966 F. L. Keefe The Investigating Officer 184: “This one I happen to remember very well.” “The fuck you do.” 1970–71 J. Rubinstein City Police 328: “You ain’t [arresting] my mother.” …“The fuck I ain’t.” 1974 G.V. Higgins Cogan’s Trade 4: The fuck you sell driving lessons to people. 1975 J. Sepe & L. Telano Cop Team 148: The fuck I am! 1983 P. Dexter God’s Pocket 65: The fuck I have, you think I’m crazy? 1998 J. Cahill Boca in Sopranos ((television shooting script) 1st Ser. 2) 7: Vin Makazian has just come in, blinded by the relative darkness. Tony goes to meet him. Tony: The fuck you doing here? 1998 M. Burgess & R. Green Isabella in Sopranos ((television shooting script) 1st Ser. 1) 3: Jimmy: How many of these things you gotta go to, huh? Brendan Filone’s mother at that kid’s funeral: The way she carried on. Junior: The fuck? 2000 W. Monahan Light House xxvi. 145: “Give me another one.” “No more drink.” “The fuck you say.”

  3. daylights; hell; used in phrases of the sort to — the fuck out of to ——(a person or thing) to an excessive, violent, unpleasant, or powerful extent.

  1957 N. Coward Diary (Feb. 17) (2000) 349: I am very old indeed and cannot understand why the younger generation, instead of knocking at the door, should bash the fuck out of it. 1960 N. Coward Diary (June 19) (2000) 442: There was a real blazing row in the course of which Peggy and I roared at him, banged the table and generally frightened the fuck out of him. 1970 G. Slick in Rolling Stone (Nov. 12) 28/1: When they busted me in Hawaii I even got another guy out of jail, a spade cat they’d busted the night before and beat fuck out of, and we just bailed him out. 1972 College student: There’s only one thing left to do—beat the fuck out of you. 1974 B. Greene Billion Dollar Baby 87: I always wanted to beat the fuck out of somebody on stage. 1985 S. Braudy What the Movies Made Me Do 102: All I want is to act the fuck out of the best role I ever had in my life. 1987 B. E. Ellis Rules of Attraction 111: But thinking about it bores the fuck out of me so I just walk around the dorm for a while and then split. 1987 O. Hawkins Scars & Memories 140: It pains the fuck out of me sometimes, in a beautiful way, to think that I learned, figured out, studied a bunch of garbage, to become intellectually intelligent. 1989 Life (July) 27: “This s—, literally, scares the f—outta me.”…girl, 15. 1999 L. Leblanc Pretty in Punk iv. 104: Hey, Tad, Cooper, we gotta beat the fuck out of Chris. 2003 M. McDonagh Pillowman 53: I’d’ve tortured the fuck out of them if I had them here, just like I’m gonna torture the fuck out of you now too. 2004 T. Lee & A. Bozza Tommy Land 102: Every night after our show, we’d party all night in whatever town we were in…then show up in a new town the next morning, rock the fuck out of it, fuck the fuck out of it, and move on again.

  the fuck of it, the fun of it; the hell of it.

  1970 College student: I’d beat him up just for the fuck of it. 1976 S. Hayden Voyage 196: Take a look. Just fer the fuck of it. 1985 D. Bodey F.N.G. 174: I wonder if he is doing it officially or just for the fuck of it. 1990 L. Bing Do or Die 123: Who’s gonna die “for the fuck of it”? 1994 “Nine Inch Nails” Big Man with a Gun (rock song): Maybe I’ll put a hole in your head you know, just for the fuck of it. 1995 T. Rebeck Family of Mann 44: I drove through Compton just for the fuck of it, and that scared me so bad I went back to Beverly Hills. 2000 W. T. Vollmann Royal Family 438: I wish we had more time to plan and shit. Just for the fuck of it we can…we can…oh, Henry, it’s gonna be over so soon. 2006 D. Kalla Rage Therapy 113: “Why would I make it up?” Attention seeking? Manipulation? Just for the fuck of it? I kept the thoughts to myself.

  to fuck, very much, a great deal; “to hell.”

  1919 W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 12: Blow-to-fook, shatter to fragments. 1970 H. S. Thompson Letter (Jan. 29) in Fear & Loathing in Amer. (2000) 277: I wish to fuck I could lay off some kind of healing wisdom—for either one of us. 1978 L. Kramer Faggots 135: He’s medium height, reddish-blond, very handsome, and I wish to fuck he would hurry up. 1986 R. Hewitt White Talk Black Talk i. 27: But then I thought I’d be cut to fuck. I mean I’d be stabbed. I knew it. 1994 J. Kelman How Late it Was 17: Mind you he once telt it to a woman and it annoyed her to fuck, she thought it was a load of bullshit. 2002 Time Out (Jan. 2) 111/3: Because it’s a soul album…modernised and styled to fuck, for sure, but simultaneously dignified, mellifluous, tough, funky and exquisitely, properly soulful. 2003 A. Swofford Jarhead 212: Word has it that two light-armored-vehicle crew members were blown to fuck yesterday by friendly fire—an A-10 Warthog dropped a bomb on them, by mistake, a big fucking devastating bomb, by mistake.

  fuck adjective

  describing, depicting, or involving copulation; pornographic; erotic.—used before a noun.

  1941 W.C. Williams Letter (Jan. 6) in Witemeyer Williams-Laughlin (1989) 61: You’ve got to feed ’em the bunk—love and war and all the old fuck stuff. 1942–44 in American Speech (Feb. 1946) 33: F—k Books, n. Sexy pulp magazines. 1950 E. Hemingway in Selected Letters (1981) 694: They start writing those over-detailed fuck scenes. 1966 in G. L. Steinbrook Allies & Mates 70: A boy approached me and asked if I wanted to buy some “f--k pictures.” 1966 Fry Slang Transcript: Will show fuck movies. 1967 N. Mailer Why We Are in Vietnam 27: Pretending to write a…fuck book in revenge. 1967 J. Rechy Numbers 105: I got some fuck-movies at home. 1969 in M. J. Estren History of Underground Comics (1974) 11: The State University will never contain any “fuck books.” 1975 T. Berger Sneaky People 60: He’s got a fuck-book there, too. 1975 C. Skinner Carol’s Curious Passion 23: You mean, I might have a career with Bobby in fuck films? 1976 “N. Ross” Policeman 105: Phil liked to hear fuck stories on stakeouts. 1981 National Lampoon (Aug.) 68: Let’s turn this solemn occasion into a real fuck party. 1984 J.R. Reeves Mekong 12: Bullshitting, kidding, telling fuck jokes. 1987 H. Zeybel Gunship 6: I’d watched the live fuck shows in the Angeles night clubs. 1994 M. Gilmore Shot in the Heart 166: If a girl went out with Gary… they knew it was a fuck date. That was his reputation. 1995 V. Chandra Red Earth & Pouring Rain 392: The thing was, I’d been negotiating for months with a major studio, which, with an already Oscared director, was trying to put together that elusive thing—a mainstream fuck film, you know, big budget, cast of thousands, maybe some real stars. 1998 New Yorker (Apr. 6) 89: A stack of fuck books on one side of the toilet. a2002 S.-L. Parks Topdog/underdog 49: I was over there looking for something the other week and theres like 100 fuck books under yr bed and theyre matted together like a bad fro, bro, cause you spunked in the pages and didnt wipe them off. 2002 I. Welsh Porno 42: They make their fuck films and show clips of them on the Net.

  fuck verb [English form of a widespread Germanic word; compare Middle Dutch fokken ‘to thrust, to beget children, copulate with’; Norwegian regional fukka ‘to copulate’; dialectal Swedish focka ‘to strike, push, copulate’; and fock ‘penis’; and German ficken ‘to copulate’; probably borrowed into English in the fifteenth century from Low German, Flemish, or Dutch; part of a group of words in Germanic languages having the basic meaning ‘move back and forth’, and the common figurative meaning ‘to cheat’; see Introduction for a fuller discussion; the recent forms fug, fugg are printed euphemisms and do not represent pronunciation.]

  1.a. transitive. to engage in heterosexual intercourse involving the penetration of the penis into the vagina with (a person). [The date of the initial citation, from a poem attacking the Carmelite Friars of Ely (a town in Cambridgeshire), may be as early as 1450–75. The poem is written in a garbled mixture of English and Latin, and several English words have pseudo-Latin endings. In the manuscript, the English words in this passage, from fuccant (the -ant is pseudo-Latin) to heli (i.e. Ely) are written in a cipher in which each letter is replaced with the one following it in the alphabet. The cipher suggests that the word was considered taboo even at that time (the word swive, a now-arch
aic vulgarity for sex, was also in cipher). It translates as “They [the monks] are not in heaven/because they fuck the wives of Ely.” For asterisks in 1848 quotation, see note at FUCKING, adjective.]

  a1500 Flen, Flyys (ms. Harl. 3362) f. 47, in T. Wright & J. O. Halliwell Reliquae Antiquae (1841) I. 91: Non sunt in cœli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk [= fuccant uuiuys of heli]. 1730 N. Bailey Dictionary: To Fuck…a term used of a goat; also subagitare foeminam. 1760 in I. McCormick Secret Sexualities 109: He asked me, if I never got any girls, or if I never f—ed ’em. 1775 J. Ash New and Complete Dictionary: Fuck (v.t. a low vulgar word) To perform the act of generation, to have to do with a woman. 1778 in Connor Songbag 24: He often times fuck’t the old whore in the Night. 1785 F. Grose Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: To f—k. To copulate. 1848 [G. Thompson] House Breaker 42: I was going to **** that same little blowen, in Boy Jack’s crib. 1865 in M. Hodes White Women, Black Men 142: Did he say he fucked the young gal? 1865 Capt. E. Sellon New Epicurean 14: I don’t see why I am not to be fucked as well as her! 1872 Contested Election 155: Mr. Miller said to him these words: “You cock-sucking son of a bitch, you have been fucking half of your congregation to-day, keeping two or three whores, and now come here to vote the Reform ticket.” 1877 in P. Y. Stallard Glittering Misery (1978) 146: Didn’t you —that girl yourself? 1879 Harlequin Prince Cherrytop 5: Flat on my back he stretched me in the sun,/Fucked me three times, and paid for every one! 1882 Boudoir 226: She f—d me as dry as a stick, last night. 1887 Stanislaus de Rhodes Autobiography of a Flea 141: “In fact, I want to fuck you, my darling.” Bella saw the huge projection give a flip up. “How nasty you are!—What words you use.” 1922 J. Joyce Ulysses III. 729: His wife is fucked yes and damn well fucked too. 1928 D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley’s Lover iv. 44: Fellows with swaying waists fucking little jazz girls. 1939 H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1961) 256: I used to fuck her standing up in the vestibule. 1947 J. Kerouac Letter (Sept. 13) in Selected Letters 1940–56 (1995) 127: I’ve met a lot of girls out here, and at least two of them are anxious for me to fuck them. 1964–66 R. Stone Hall of Mirrors 194: Is she fuckin’ other people? 1966 R. Fariña Been Down So Long 105: I wasn’t making love to her, I was fucking her. The difference is kind, not goddamned degree. 1967 J. Morrison The End (rock song, perf. “The Doors”): “Father?” “Yes, son.” “I want to kill you. Mother? I want to fuck you.” 1985 E. Leonard Glitz 88: Iris was fucking some body. 1993 L. Phair Flower (pop. song): Every time I see your face…I want to fuck you like a dog.… I’ll fuck you till your dick turns blue. 1996 T. McMillan How Stella Got Her Groove Back 145: “Well, I didn’t like just fuck him.” “Oh, don’t tell me you guys made love and shit.” “We did. That’s exactly what we did.” “You fucked him, Stella. Get real.” 2001 S. MacGowan in S. MacGowan & V. M. Clarke A Drink with Shane MacGowan 76: Then I fucked her afterwards. And that was an amazing fuck cause she was going different colours while I was doing it. 2007 J. Hayes Precious Blood 272: “I think you’ve been incredibly brave.” “Was that what you were thinking while you were fucking me?”