The F-Word

by Jesse Sheidlower

  fuckaholic noun [FUCK , verb, definition 1a + -aholic]

  a person who compulsively engages in promiscuous sexual intercourse. Jocular.

  1981 D. Jenkins Baja Oklahoma 246: He’s just a fuckaholic, is all he is. 1989 S. Chapple & D. Talbot Burning Desires 294: Both were serious fuckaholics. 1997 N. Kotker Billy in Love 50: Every Tuesday morning. We had a regular date. Plus Marie twice a week. Plus Alice, whenever. That’s what I mean fuckaholic. I needed to have it. 2002 F. C. Wilson Jaded Rose v. 30: I’m still a fuckaholic and I enjoy it! Why the damn tears? More sex, more better, I always say.

  fuck all noun

  1. absolutely nothing; FUCK, noun, definitions 2a & b; (in negative constructions) anything at all; the least thing.—also as adjective.

  1916 Record of the Trial of H. Farr (Public Record Office: WO 71/509) f. 4: He then said, “You are a fucking coward & you will go to the trenches—I give fuck all for my life & I give fuck all for yours & I’ll get you fucking well shot.” 1918 Noyes Slang Manuscript (unpaged): Fuck-all.—(1) nothing. “There’s not a fuck-all to do this afternoon.” 1919 Athenaeum (Aug. 1) 695: There is a very queer phrase denoting “nothing”—“—all!” No record of war slang is complete without it. 1929 F. Manning Middle Parts of Fortune 130 [refers to 1916]: We all go over the top knowing sweet fuck-all of what we are supposed to be doing. 1939 A. C. Bessie Men in Battle 133: Nobody’s seen fuck-all of ’em. 1941 in G. Legman Limerick (1954) 35: The cube of its weight…/Was four fifths of five eighths of fuck-all. ca1944 in A. Hopkins Front & Rear 54: The officers they know fuck all. ca1950 in E. Cray Erotic Muse 116: There was fuck-all else to do. 1965 S. Linakis In Spring the War Ended 74: Didn’t mean fuck-all to the ones that busted you. 1967 J. Kornbluth Notes from the New Underground 91: The Daily Mirror carried thirteen thousand inches of advertising—and fuck-all to read. 1976 P. Atlee Last Domino Contract 160: They would have fuckall chance against us. 1978 L. K. Truscott Dress Gray 45: Said the supe…didn’t know fuckall. 1979 L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1987) 283: What have we got! Fuckall! 1984 J. Hughes Breakfast Club (final draft screenplay) 139: Brian. apprehensive What if he calls my mother? A satisfied, fuck-all grin spreads across his face. I’ll trash the bitch. 1994 Loaded (Sept.) 41/2: My ambition is to go on the Antiques Roadshow and say to some old bag, “You’re thinking this old wardrobe is worth a million quid but it’s worth fuck all.” 1994 J. Kelman How Late it Was 99: Sammy sniffed. There was fuck all to say. He wasnay even angry any longer. 1995 R. Williamson, folk singer, in concert in N.Y.C.: Shut up, Dad, you don’t know fuck-all! 1997 Harper’s (Feb.) 68: I taught you nothing. I taught you fuck-all. 1997 A. Proulx in New Yorker (Oct. 13) 83: But fuck-all has worked the way I wanted. 2002 E. Hartmann Truth About Fire vi. 52: The local police aren’t doing fuck-all about the investigation. Another dead Injun, what’s the big deal. 2006 G. Malkani Londonstani ix. 100: There were other people with fuck all to do with the fight out by the track that afternoon.

  2. hell (as an expletive).

  1938 E. Hemingway in Selected Letters (1981) 466: It’s been a fuckall of a six weeks. Nobody’s got any social standing at all now who hasn’t swum the Ebro at least once. 1958 L. F. Cooley Run for Home 138 [refers to 1920s]: Who the fuck-all does he think he is?

  3. a damn; a fuck.

  1958 L. F. Cooley Run for Home 20 [refers to 1920s]: I don’t give a fuckall what you think! 1998 P. Biskind Easy Riders, Raging Bulls 177: We didn’t give a fuck-all; we’d let anybody have a screening. 2007 L. Kleypas Sugar Daddy 400: Honey, I don’t give a fuck-all if you believe me or not.

  fuck-all adverb

  utterly; at all; absolutely.

  1961 G. Forbes Goodbye to Some 169 [refers to WWII]: Nothin’. Absolutely fuckall nothin’. 1961 E. Hemingway Islands in the Stream 336: I feel fuck-all discouraged about things sometimes. 1961 E. Hemingway Islands in the Stream 400: But I am not going to put Willie and Ara and Henry into one of those burp-gun massacres in the mangroves for fuck-all nothing. 1975 N. Dickens Jack Nicholson 122: She was a guest of the company and we didn’t have to do fuck-all anything for her. 1991 O. Stone & Z. Sklar JFK (film): Don’t matter fuck-all. 1992 J. Wolcott in Vanity Fair (Sept.) 301: The flatulent influence of Foucault on sex, about which Foucault…knew fuck-all nothing. 1997 Esquire May 64/1: Darrell Miers, big as a Buick with loose steering, possesses the fuck-all equanimity of a bail bondsman. 2005 J. Walter Citizen Vince 177: You think the job is a certain thing and you can just go along, fuck-all blind.

  fuck-all interjection

  = FUCK, interjection, definition 1.

  1918 Noyes Slang Manuscript (unpaged): Fuck-all…(2) Also used as an expression of disgust. “Oh fuck-all!” 1963 H. S. Thompson Letter (Nov. 22) in Proud Highway (1997) 418: It hardly matters what you believe as long as you’re on top, and laughing. Fuck all. 1966 F. Reynolds & M. McClure Freewheelin Frank 29: FUCK ALL! I GOT THE CLAP. 1993 G. F. Newman Law & Order 2: I mean, what can you do about it anyway?… I mean, fuckall, they come back and nick you, can you? You can get up in court and scream about them fitting you.… But you’re up the steps before a wrong sort of judge, you see what good it does you. 2000–01 Ploughshares (Winter) 174: Her voice is so slight, so worried-like, that, well, fuckall, I feel leaky, wrinkled, like an old birthday balloon.

  fuck almighty interjection

  (used to express extreme pleasure, distress, disbelief, etc.; FUCK interjection).

  1977 M. Scott Threeway Team 101: Fuck…shit, I’m coming! I’m coming, Don! Oh holy fuck almighty! 1985 S. Saladino Erebus 7: “Fuck almighty,” Jay yelled, eyes bulging, a grin across his face. 1993 T. King One on One 134: Two bodies flow and change and rise to meet each other, harder here, softer there, opening up and enclosing, tightening and releasing. So close. So close. Almost there. Oh Fuck Almighty. 2006 I. Welsh Bedroom Secrets of Master Chefs 289: Jesus fuck almighty…I get a big shock as a stunningly beautiful girl of about nineteen, twenty, appears before me.

  fuckaround noun

  contemptuous treatment; a disappointing situation. Also: a worthless person.

  1965 H.S. Thompson Letter (Apr. 18) in Proud Highway (1997) 509: My good time badass fuckaround is going out of style. 1970 in H.S. Thompson Great Shark Hunt 101: Well, to hell with it. You don’t need publicity and I sure as hell don’t need this kind of fuckaround. 1972 in H.S. Thompson Great Shark Hunt 123: A gig that was a…fuckaround from start to finish. 1980 P. Conroy Lords of Discipline 394: This is the last night we’re going to play fuck-around with that bunch. 1987 J. Ferrandino Firefight 39: I’ll teach you to play fuck around with me. 1996 D. McCumber Playing off Rail 245: Just another fuckaround, waiting all night for no action. 1999 T. Corcoran Gumbo Limbo 213: All these years, Rutledge has been a straight dealer, never a player, never a fuck-around.

  fuck around or (Brit.) fuck about verb

  1. to engage in promiscuous sexual intercourse.

  ca1890 My Secret Life VIIII. ix.: Liz had learned to like the red knobbed flesh stick far better than another woman’s cunt, and I dare say is merrily fucking about somewhere now, and I hope is happy. 1931 H. Miller Letter (Feb. 16) in Letters to Emil (1989) 76: I fucked around with this one and that. 1942 H. Miller Roofs of Paris 201: Does she know that you’ve been fucking around with her father? 1951 American Journal of Sociology XXXVII 138: Eddie f—s around too much; he’s gonna kill himself or else get killed by some broad. And he’s got a nice wife too. 1969 J. Crumley One to Count Cadence 100: Yes, I know my wife is fucking around. 1978 P. Schrader Hardcore 39: Your daughter was an absolutely clean girl, she never had rebellious or impure thoughts, she didn’t fuck around. 1987 C. Fischer Postcards from the Edge 127: Sometimes I think I should marry one of them and just fuck around. 1989 A. Sorkin A Few Good Men 36: Don’t fuck around with this one, Danny. 1991 N. Friday Women on Top 343: I’d do anything to have a chance to fuck around with a girl. 1997 C. Rock Rock This! 137: Some guys don’t fuck around because they just don’t. Other guys know they won’t be able to see their kids.… For most of us it
’s much simpler: who’s got the time to fuck around? 2007 J. Díaz Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao 168: At college you’re not supposed to care about anything—you’re just supposed to fuck around—but believe it or not, I cared about Lola. 2008 “J. Jameson” Something Blue 37: You fucked around with a woman? When?

  2. to play or fool around; trifle; mess. Compare FRIG, verb, definition 3.

  1922 T. E. Lawrence The Mint (1955) 49: I wasn’t going to fuck about for those toffee-nosed buggers. 1929 F. Manning Middle Parts of Fortune 17 [refers to WWI]: They kept ’em fuckin’ about the camp, while they sent us over the bloody top. ca1933 in E. Sevareid Wild Dream 39: What’s the difference between a mountain goat and a soda jerk?…The soda jerk mucks around the fountain. 1935 T. Wolfe Death to Morning 73 [refers to 1917]: What are ya doin’ here ya f— little bastards!—who told ya t’come f— round duh hangah? Ibid. 74: Don’t f— aroun’ wit’ me, ya little p—. 1936 J. Dos Passos Big Money 313: If you f—k around it’ll cost you more. 1942 H. Miller Roofs of Paris 260: And here I am fucking around trying to get her to buy a camera. ca1944 in A. Hopkins Front & Rear 55: They fuck around but they never work. 1948 N. Mailer Naked & Dead 539: We’re gonna move out in half an hour, so don’t be fuggin’ around. 1950 G. Legman in Neurotica (Autumn) 13: I could stop fugging around writing pulp. 1952 J. Kerouac Visions of Cody 220: I stayed out all night and fucked around. 1954 J. A. Weingarten American Dictionary of Slang 141: Stop f—g around. Common in the street language. 1955 L. Yablonsky Violent Gang 48: We don’t fuck around—man, when you want to whip one on, just call.… Our boys are always ready. 1971 J. Torres Sting like a Bee 34: He’s just fucking around.… He’ll be O.K. 1978 N.Y. Post (Dec. 9) 13: I won’t shoot to kill, but I’ll shoot them so they know not to fuck around with me no more. 1981 T.C. Boyle Water Music 67: A sandstorm is nothin’ to fuck around with. 1984 J. Kelman Busconductor Hines (1992) iv. 167: What’s the point of fucking about. You leave half of the second pint and get off your mark. 1994 I. Welsh Shooter in Acid House 4: That’s my man, Gary slapped my back.—Always knew you had the bottle, Jock. All you fucking Jocks, all fucking crazy! We’ll show that cunt Whitworth just who he’s fucking abaht wiff here. 1995 W. Monahan in N.Y. Press (Apr. 26) 18: Brompton Cocktail[:] Heroin, Morphine, Cocaine, Gin.… There’s definitely no fucking around with a Brompton Cocktail. 1999 T. Parker et al. South Park (film script) 53: Canadian Prime Minister We’re not fucking around. This is not aboot deals. This aboot [sic] dignity. This is aboot freedom. 2005 K. Alley How to Lose Your Ass 167: That’s the best fudge recipe in the world. Why candy companies fuck around and try to improve it, I’ll never know.

  3. to cheat or treat with contempt; make trouble for.

  [a1900 in English Dialect Dictionary under frig: They are not going to frig me about.] 1944 L. Glassop We Were the Rats 69: “It’s the way they — you around .… They — you around.”…“You’re in the army, aren’t you? You’re being — around by experts.” 1960 F. Pollini Night 29: Why you fucking me around? 1970 A. Young Snakes 144: Big a juicehead as he is, he gon fuck me round over some gauge. 1970 E. Thompson Garden of Sand 328: Don’t try to fuck me around, old man. 1970 T. Wolfe Radical Chic 125: They ripped off the white man and blew his mind and fucked him around like nobody has ever done it. 1973 W. Crawford Stryker 68: Don’t try fucking me around. 1975 T. Cook Vagrant Alcoholics vii. 128: Some of the geezers fucked her about and then she began to change. 1977 E. Bunker Animal Factory 105: “Would he kill somebody over that?” “Oh yeah…quick if he thought the guy was deliberately fuckin’ him around.” 1991 M. S. Power Come the Executioner xiv. 143: “Your contact in Dublin—who is he?” Parr hesitated. “Don’t fuck me about,” Harwood told him. “A Mr Clancy.” 1992 A. McGahan Praise 72: I don’t think you’d fuck me around or anything, or have other women. 2002 T. Geoghegan In America’s Court i. xxix. 131: These types of guys in the 1960s would get “fucked around” by us. By us, who went to the real college.

  4. to astonish; bring up short.

  1978 W. Brown Tragic Magic 139: Sands of Iwo Jima. That’s the one that really fucked me around.

  fuckass noun

  a despicable or contemptible person.

  a1960 E. Partridge Dictionary of Slang & Unconventional English (ed. 5) 1099: F*ck-arse. A low term of contempt: C.20. 1968 G. Cuomo Among Thieves 219: LaSala was really a slob, old fuck-ass everybody called him. 1969 R. Hugo Good Luck 40 [refers to WWII]: Fuckass…shithead…cunteyed bastard. 1978 E. Morris Straightjacket 108: “Fuck-ass,” I told her behind my face. “Shit-fart.” 1989 V. Eaton Self-Portrait of Someone Else 234: You’re going to need it, fuckass. 2002 G. Easterbrook Here & Now 133: Don’t touch me, you fuckass, I’ll kill you with my bare hands. 2008 D. Glib Flowers 221: Don’t yell at my mom, fuckass!

  fuckass adjective

  contemptible.—used before a noun.

  1961 J. Jones Thin Red Line 30 [refers to WWII]: Any man’d leave it layin around’s a fuckass soldier anyway. 1968 R. Sukenick Up 106: It strikes me…that you have a very fuck-ass attitude toward witch burning. 1975 D. Curzon Misadventures of Tim McPicks (1980) 230: Get the fuck-ass white folk! 1986 N. Freeling Cold Iron 194: Tying us up or something tricky out of some fuckass movie even if he doesn’t think it funnier still to blow our heads off and bury us in the sand. 1993 J. Womack Random Acts of Senseless Violence 141: We gonna halfway house fuckass white girls now? 2000 P. Cadigan Dervish is Digital 208: They’re sure not ready for what happens to them, and the fuck-ass company that supplies them don’t care. 2006 J. Solow Booster 285: I ain’t talking to none of you people. Fuckass shitwads.

  fuckathon noun [FUCK + marathon]

  a prolonged period of orgiastic sexual activity. Jocular.

  1968 M. Bloomfield in Rolling Stone (Apr. 6) 13/4: If you were at a fuck-a-thon, you’d have to know when a good fuck went down to know what’s happening. 1970 D. Wakefield Going All the Way 97: Gunnar had gone over the apartment…to remove any traces of evidence of what he called the “fuckathon” of Saturday night. 1972 Anthropological Linguistics (Mar.) 102: Fuckathon (n.): Refers to an extended period of sexual activity in which a large number of persons participate. 1973 Ribald (Sydney, Australia) (May 18) 7: We are giving our services free for the night.… She’s calling it a fuckathon. 1982 J. M. Del Vecchio 13th Valley 336: How could he confess to him that he’d been on a fuckathon? 1988 R. M. Brown Bingo 272: It sounded as though the guy went on one big fuckathon. 1991 D. Jenkins Gotta Play Hurt 295: We’ll have an old fashioned fuck-a-thon. 1998 J. Collins Thrill! 173: His supply of females had accelerated, a new one arriving every other day. Roxy commented he was having a fuckathon. 2003 “J. Le Carré” Absolute Friends 139: You remember how you called it our fuckathon? Well, let’s have another, and take life from there.

  fuck away verb

  to squander or idle away; “piss away.”

  [1948 in G. Legman Limerick (1954) 308: On his honeymoon sailing the ocean/A tightwad displayed much emotion/When he learned, one fine day,/He’d been fucking away/What could have been bottled as lotion.] 1965 J. Cremer I, Jan Cremer 209: To keep him from fucking away the entire family fortune. 1971 M. Schulman Potatoes are Cheaper 64: I ain’t gonna provide the vehicle for you to fuck away the Zimmerman millions. 1975 S.P. Smith American Boys 171: The others…fucked their bread away on booze. 1979 C. Keller Subway Orgy 158: The money he would receive from the kidnapping would be gone soon. He would spend it on broads, booze, and just fuck it away in general. 1989 E. L. Doctorow Billy Bathgate 208: While the Feds have been fucking away the summer on the beach we been up here sowing our oats. 1999 P. Caputo Voyage 258: Hey, mon, you got to work to drink up and fuck away four t’ousand dollars. 2004 S. Bishop-Stall Down to This 374: I mean, they’re really fucking away any burgeoning sense of community down here. The dealers are going to grab it all.

  fuckbag noun

  a disgusting person; “asshole”; etc.

  1969 J. Nuttall Pig 50: Silly old fuckbag.… Completely off her head. 1970 W. J. Craddock Be Not Content 75: W
hat sort of a ruined mind would want to be a fuckbag cop? 1984 M. Amis Money 76: Apparently I called her a whore, cursed her for a gold-digging fuckbag, and kicked her out. 1989 R. McL. Wilson Ripley Bogle (1998) 8: They were, undoubtedly, rancid Welsh fuckbags like himself. 1993 I. Welsh Trainspotting (2002) 255: She discovered that the rapist fuckbag was HIV. Then she discovered that she was. 1998 Re: Wrestling, on Usenet newsgroup rec.sport. pro-wrestling (Nov. 3): What a fuckbag. If this guy was my dad, I’d open my wrists with a rusty can opener. 2007 D. Matthews Ace of Spades 174: I have never been able to process…humans and their true meanings. If someone were to walk by me and say top of the morning, fuck-bag! I would be halfway through my why…hello before the insult registered.

  fuckbar noun

  Homosexuals. a bar in which one can engage in sexual activity, esp. one having a back room for such a purpose.

  1977 M. Christofer Shadow Box II. 69: I go inside the bar and he goes inside the bar. A real “fuck bar.”…People are humping on the tables. 1981 Gay Community News (Nov. 28) 8: After hours, there are several possibilities for the gay male on Oxford Street. There are three fuck bars.… There are the 253 Baths, one of four baths in the city, and a porn bookshop-cum-movie-house-cum-fuckbar called Numbers. 1996 G. W. Dowsett Practicing Desire 158: A good example is Ralph’s first visit to a backroom fuck bar. 1998 B. Rumph trans. G. Dustan In My Room 50: I said to Stéphane I want to fuck you in a sling in a fuck bar. 2001 P. Gilovich et al. Stranger Guide to Seattle 7: The city’s most down-and-dirty faggot fuck bar is also the only gay bar where DJs play rock.