The F-Word

by Jesse Sheidlower

  2.a. to loaf; to evade work, shirk.

  1945 in T. Shibutani Derelicts of Company K 275: What’s the use of being on the ball.… May as well fuck off. 1945 in D. Levin From Battlefield 55: They…fuckoff [sic],…quarrel, bellyache, beat their gums. 1946 American Journal of Sociology LI 42 [refers to WWII]: There is little stigma to the expression “f—off” applied to…acts, such as when a man gets away with something against the Army by evading a detail…or in some other way avoids an Army requirement. 1947 N. Cassady Letter (Apr. 15) in Collected Letters (2005) 39: I presume you’ll work up there in his hotel.… It is really unimportant what you do, for, really, all anyone does there is drink, bang & fuck off in general. 1955 J. Klaas Maybe I’m Dead 327 [refers to WWII]: Vat are you furkin’ off for? 1964 H. Rhodes Chosen Few 65: You missed formation. You fucked off and we don’t tolerate fuckoffs. 1968 H. Maule Rub-a-Dub-Dub 127: And I personal am gonna see you get logged if you fuck off. 1970 S. Terkel Hard Times 136: If he didn’t fuck off those four years in the steel mills, he could’ve gotten ahead. 1977 J. Sayles Union Dues 57: You let me know he stots fuckin off, right? 1980 U.S. college professor, age ca58: I first heard fuck off in 1939 when I was working in the railroad yards [in N.Y. state]. “Quit fuckin’ off,” they’d say. 1985 B.E. Ellis Less Than Zero 33: Don’t fuck off. Don’t be a bum. 1987 H. Zeybel Gunship 10: I fucked off in Bangkok a few days. 1989 D. F. Wallace Girl with Curious Hair 246: To accept prime wages for doing the bare minimal and spending the rest of his time fucking off. 1997 M. Huxley Nine Inch Nails 100: Hey, I’m not fucking off in there. It just takes a long time. 2005 J. C. Hartley Just Another Soldier 104: I wouldn’t get anything done. I would totally squander my time fucking off all day at my ridiculous palace.

  b. to make a mistake; fail through inattention. Also: to ruin (something) by ineptitude.

  1954–60 H. Wentworth & S. B. Flexner Dictionary of American Slang 204: Fuck off…to make a blunder or mistake. 1964 H. Rhodes Chosen Few 225: You were on yo way t’breakin’ some kinda record, son, bu’cha fucked off on th’ five hundred. 1972 E. Bunker No Beast 158: It’s too late. We fucked off a score because you weren’t here. 1996 S. Jackson Caught Up in the Rapture 102: I can’t go out like no sucka. Not now. Not after I done fucked off my relationships with everybody.

  3. to disregard; brush aside; put off.

  1962 G. Ross Last Campaign 431 [refers to 1951]: They been trying to retire him for months…but he keeps fucking them off and turning down his retirement and refusing to leave the division.

  4. to idle away.

  1966 M. Braly On the Yard 14: The big yard’s a cold place to fuck off your life. 1969 Playboy (Dec.) 301: You’re going to get tired of running around in a pair of dirty Levis, fucking off your time with those other young cats. 1972 in Journal of American Folklore LXXXVI (1973) 222: Do you know what an old whore does on her vacation?—She just fucks it off. a1979 A. Pepper & L. Pepper Straight Life 332: I used to get on his case all the time behind his talent, fuckin’ off that talent in the pen. 1999 D. A. Levy Buddhist Third Class Junk Mail Oracle 12: Graduated from high school/& fucked off a summer/before joining the navy.

  5. Chiefly British. to anger; upset; “piss off.” Compare earlier FUCKED OFF.

  1977 Sniffin’ Glue (Jan.) 3/1: I was fucked off by that. 1995 N. Hornby High Fidelity 297: “I’m glad you’re back to sort him out.”…This really fucks me off. 1998 Gay Times (Aug.) 54/2: How can I put this without completely fucking him off…? He is a fantastic mixture of huge charm with a piranha’s instinct. 2002 S. Orr Attempts to Draw Jesus 180: People like you fuck me off no end.

  fuck-off money noun

  = FUCK-YOU MONEY.

  1993 “Bono” in Rolling Stone (Mar. 4) 42: Because we had been spoiled by success financially, we had what Groucho Marx called “fuck-off money.” 1999 T. Clayton-Lea Elvis Costello: Biography 194: You should always have your fuck-off money, as they say. 2000 H. Robbins Secret 246: She was his fuck-off money. He could walk away from his law firm or walk away from me. With Vicky he had a comfortable living available to him. 2007 New York Magazine (June 18) 40: She received a $1 million settlement of her Talk contract. “… I got my fuck-off money,” she [sc. Tina Brown] says, snickering.

  fuckola

  (used as an intensified form of FUCK in various senses).

  1970 D. Rubin Enough of this Lovemaking 146: Right now killing is on top and the war has replaced the usual Hollywood fuckola as the national entertainment. 1979 L. Gonzales Jambeaux 194: “Fuckola,” Page said, entering the dressing room. 1988 T. Harris Silence of the Lambs 105: Fuckola, Starling thought. “Nuts,” she said aloud. 1990 C. Harrison Break & Enter 119: We got a call from the Mayor’s office saying they wanted this done by the book.… That means he wants no fuckola bullshit screwups. 1998 E. Coen & J. Coen Big Lebowski (film): Fuck me! Fuckola, man. 2004 C. Naylor & M. Hare Second Assistant 213: “Holy fuckola!” Scott suddenly leaped up in his chair and high-fived me.

  fuck out verb

  1. of a thing: to fail, to break down; of a person: to back out; renege.

  1978 U.S. college student: My car fucked out on me. Motor conked. You can’t even jump it anymore. 1982 R. B. Wright Teacher’s Daughter 191: I just don’t want anybody to fuck out on this. We can make ourselves some nice money this morning if nobody fucks out. Ibid. 202: That’s what the job is worth. You fucked out on us. 1985 C. Hope Kruger’s Alp 154: “You fucked out on us, Trev,” said the man called Kramer from Accounts. 1993 J. Noon Vurt 96: lt works up to a point, and it’s not much of a point. lt can cure the tiny troubles; it fucks out on the big troubles.

  2. to be sexually unfaithful.

  ca1975 M. Moore Black Trade 62: You’re a loyal boy. You’ve never tried fucking out on me…like sometimes I suspect the others to do. 1984 J. McCorkle Cheer Leader 15: “I cannot tell a lie” is important and fucking out on Martha is not.

  fuck over verb [probably FUCK (UP) + (work) over] Especially Black English.

  1. to treat harshly or with contempt, in any manner whatsoever; mistreat, victimize, cheat, betray, etc.; damage. [The 1961 quotation is euphemistic.]

  1961 J.A. Williams Night Song 155: Eagle ain’t even cold yet and you cats are effin’ over him already. 1965 C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land 98: We couldn’t be fucked over but so much. 1966 in Folk Speech (Indiana University Folklore Archives): Used to mean that someone or something has been used to the point of abuse. fucked over. 1967–68 N. von Hoffman We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us Against 55: My head’s pretty badly fucked over by life in general. 1968 W. Mares Marine Machine 93: You fucked over those weapons so much they probably will never fire again for other privates. 1969 D. Mitchell Thumb Tripping 125: He couldn’t let this Brylcreamer fuck over his head. He’d have to keep it together. 1969 E. Willis in New American Review 6 (Apr.) 103: Fuck over the city. Do them in. 1970 D. Ponicsan Last Detail 17: Don’t it sound like somebody’s fucking over Meadows? 1970 T. Whitmore Memphis-Nam-Sweden 134: I was refusing to be a part of that country which was fucking over my own people. 1972–76 C. Durden No Bugles, No Drums 16: It was a weird scene, a noncom fuckin’ over an officer in front of grunts. 1976 in S. Mack Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies (unpaged): Bill, it’s a dog eat dog world. They gonna fuck all over you, man! 1974–77 A. Hoffman Property Of 221: Something gets fucked over in the store, take it out of her wages. 1977 M. Torres in R. P. Rettig et al. Manny ii. 63/2: Just because you can’t prove me guilty of your armed robbery, now you’re going to fuck over me with some phony charge. 1979 Coleman Young, Mayor of Detroit, in S. Terkel American Dreams 357: I was attracted to this…way of fighting back at the thing that had been fuckin’ me over all my life. 1985 W. J. Boyne & S. L. Thompson Wild Blue 453: We can’t let these punks fuck over the whole goddam Air Force! 1988 S. Gray How’s that for Telling ’em, Fat Lady? ii. 68: All that he understood was that he was being ordered not to be the actor that he is, playing the character that he’s playing—his very soul as an actor was being “fucked over” in fact was h
ow he put it. 1991 D. Simon Homicide (1993) 28: Is he really gonna go after a police on this Monroe Street thing? He’s gonna try and fuck over another police because of some dead yo? What is he, a rat or something? 1994 New Yorker (Mar. 21) 125: If Joel Silver fucked me over tomorrow, if he murdered my family, ruined me financially, I would still have to say, “But, God, when you add it all up, he was so great to me.” 2001 D. Lehane Mystic River 370: If you give ’em half a chance, they’ll fuck you over just to prove they can. 2005 N. Hornby Long Way Down 35: He’d been locked up for sleeping with a fifteen-year-old, and fucked over in the tabloids.

  2. to beat up; work over.

  1970 E. E. Landy Underground Dictionary 84: Fuck over…Beat someone up. 1971 T. Mayer Weary Falcon 31: The fourth mission I went on was the time they really fucked us over. 1986 College instructor, age 35: When I first heard fuck someone over in 1966, it meant specifically to beat them up. 2000 M. Albo Hornito 108: “I’m gonna fuck you up.” Just leave me alone, I say. “No. I’m gonna fuck you over.”

  fuck pad noun

  a dwelling or room used for esp. casual sexual encounters.

  1975 B. Gonzales Movin’ On Down De Line 36: When I walk into his combination office and fuck pad I see this little jive broad from Howard of Tuskegee. 1988 J. Ellroy Big Nowhere (1994) iii. 28: He met Howard Hughes and started bird-dogging for him, picking up star-struck farm girls, ensconcing them in the fuck pads the big guy had set up all over LA. 1997 G. Williams Diamond Geezers xi. 77: If it weren’t for the horses this could be the fuck-pad of some Cuban cocaine king. 2002 W. Self Dorian iv. 57: Such was the congruity of their home with the Wotton’s relationship that this was Henry’s bedroom, or, more properly, his fuck pad. 2007 R. Ellis City of Fire 217: Burell thought he was keeping his lifestyle in the vault, but everybody in the hood knows this place is a fuck pad.

  fuck-pig noun

  British. a contemptible person. Compare PIG-FUCKER.

  1922 T. E. Lawrence The Mint (1955) 127: “Look at me, look me in the face, you short-arsed little fuck-pig,” he is yelling again. 1949 E. Partridge Dictionary of Slang & Unconventional English (ed. 3) 1054: F*ck-pig. A thoroughly unpleasant man…from ca. 1870. 1961 A. Sillitoe Key to the Door (1962) 435: They can stuff their rifles.… Next time, I turn mine against that fuckpig. 1973 K. Tynan Diary (Mar. 20) (2001) 126: Where most men of his age, referring to slightly unpleasant people whom they regard as inferiors, would use words like “chap,” “fellow,” “blighter”.., L.O. [= Laurence Olivier] habitually calls them “fuck-pigs.” 1981 R. Spears Slang & Euphemism 150: Fuck-pig a very low and worthless person; someone who would copulate with a pig. 1993 I. Welsh Trainspotting (1994) 260: I know all about the crucial role of the anaesthetist. They’re the punters that keep you alive, not sadistic fuck-pigs like Howison. 1997 Sick Puppy Comix (Sydney, Australia) (No. 4) 13: Ahh…what’s your name? Hey, ahh…fuckpig!…Where are you going? 1998 Schizo (#3) 5: My co-workers were all loutish…fuck-pigs. 2003 E. Docx Calligrapher 69: Will you stop being such a fuckpig and think of a plan?

  fuckpole noun

  the penis; FUCKSTICK, definition 2.

  1965 in B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water & Swim like Me 159: A fuck-pole longer than mine. 1972 B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 49: Bone…fuckpole…meat. 1975 Ribald (Sydney, Australia) (May 29) 15: My fuck-pole was growing. 1985 “J. Blowdryer” Modern English 72: Genitalia… Male…Fuck pole. 1995 G. Vidal Palimpsest 94: The verse, what I could recall, moved him, and he would idly play with what he called his “fuck-pole” but in no provocative way. 1997 “G. Indiana” Resentment 35: My cunt lips grab that juicy donghead & i’m pulling your fuck pole into me. 2002 D. Porter Rhinestone Country 304: The deep-throating of Hank’s enticingly large fuckpole.

  fuckrag noun

  a worthless, contemptible, or despicable person.

  1993 Re: From the King, on Usenet newsgroup alt.tasteless (July 27): Yeah, sure, whatever, you dumbass Canuck fuckrag. 1996 K. Williamson Scream (film): It’s called tact, you fuckrag. 1998 D. Gaines in Village Voice (N.Y.C.) (Mar. 10) 135: His gift can be used for something much more than generating chaos, using people like disposable whip- and fuck-rags, and attaining petty ego gains. 1998 Re: Question to MonkeyMan, on Usenet newsgroup alt.atheism (Oct. 7): Shit-for-brains…ASSWIPE! What say you now, FUCKRAG? a2007 C. Doctorow Overclocked 35: [“]Whoever wins, at least we’re doing SOMETHING[.” “]Not if they vote for one of the fuckrags[.”] Fuckrag was the epithet that some of the sysadmins were using to describe the contingent that wanted to shut down the Internet.

  fuck rubber noun

  a condom. Also fucking rubber.

  1981 R. Spears Slang & Euphemism 150: Fucking-rubber a condom. 1984 K. Weaver Texas Crude 114: She found that fuckrubber under her pillow. 1991 M. Ruuth trans. R. Jönsson My Father, His Son 76: Comfortable armchairs worn to amiable perfection by a multitude of behinds, and probably more fuck-rubbers and more coins to count. 2000 L. Brown Fay 215: There were three knobs on the machine. She read slowly, out loud in a low voice: “Ribbed sen…shoo? Delight.” Then she nodded. Oh. Fucking rubbers.

  fuckshit noun

  a despicable person.

  a1973 S. Elkin Condominium in Searches & Seizures (1978) 239: “You ask them, you cheap fuckshit, you goddamn errand boy, you ass stink and cunt grease,” punching him about the head and shoulders with all his might. 1998 D. Menaker Treatment 258: His practitioner comes to get him and he says, “Hi, fuckshit Scott.” 2001 R. Joshi Last Jet Engine Laugh 61: “Can you tell me why Poresh babu is living in this way, here now in Calcutta, alone? Why he is not in Paris, as he was?” You slimeball little fuckshit. What business is it of yours? 2003 T. Green Fifth Angel 259: Listen, fuckshit.… Didn’t you listen to me about who my uncle is? They can find a bag of cocaine in your cell by four o’clock, then you can eat vanilla ice cream out of your cellmate’s ass for the next ten years.

  fuckshit interjection

  (used to express dismay, anger, disappointment, etc.)

  1970 J. Bouton Ball Four ii. 66: “Shitfuck,” he said, using one of his favorite words (“fuckshit” is the other). “Shitfuck. We’ve got a damned good ballclub here. We’re going to win some games.” 1996 Loaded (Sept.) 197/1: “Oh fuck-shit,” screams Tony, “it’s happy bloody hardcore!” 1999 P. Quarrington Spirit Cabinet 203: The black creature brought its teeth together and Rodolfo muttered, “Fuckshit.” 2001 C. Glazebrook Madolescents 74: Oh fuckshit, it’s crashed! I slam the phone down so hard it bounces. 2007 S. Rao Chambermaid 208: “Shit. Damn. Damn it. Fuck. Fuck it.” And my personal favorite. “Fuckshit.”

  fucksome adjective [perhaps punning on buxom]

  sexually desirable.

  1879 Harlequin Prince Cherrytop 29: Hot, wriggling, moist-lipped, fucksome Columbine. 1890–93 J. S. Farmer & W. E. Henley Slang and Its Analogues III. 80: Fuckable, adj.… Desirable. Also Fucksome. 1962 N. Thomas Ask at the Unicorn (1963) 134: Fucksome but diseased. 1969 C. Logue The Girls in Selected Poems (1996) 121: Suck this—you fucksome bitch! Suck this! 1992 W. Kennedy Very Old Bones 171: “I think you are probably at this moment…the most fucksome woman on this planet.” “What an exciting word.” 1998 Deadfuck owl, on Usenet newsgroup alt.tasteless (July 13): She is a comely young flapper, coiffed and petite and oh, so fucksome! 2007 T. Devine Bad As She Wants to Be 180: Marianne was telling us you all hooked up with some real fucksome guys on your road trip this week.

  fuckster noun

  = FUCKER, definition 1.

  ca1675 Advice to a C—monger in E. J. Burford Bawdy Verse (1983) 170: Fucksters, you that would be happy,/Have a care that C—t don’t Clap yee. 1680 School of Venus in B. K. Mudge When Flesh Becomes Word (2004) 26: If all of this nature, with [what] our voluptuous fucksters know, were communicated to the world, we need not translate French. 1680 Satire on the Court Ladies in G. Williams Dict. Sexual Language & Imagery in Shakespearean & Stuart Literature (1994) I. 564: Her house and body have a thousand wayes/To let in fucksters. 1867–92 Capt. E. Sellon Ups and Downs of Life
110: I’m a mere fuckster. I like women, and I have them. ca1890 My Secret Life III. xiv., I used to think her a plain woman, one of the plainest, but she was a glorious fuckster. 1890–93 J. S. Farmer & W. E. Henley Dictionary of Slang III. 81: Fuckster…A good performer…one specially addicted to the act. 1930 Lyra Ebriosa 20: Nearby there lived a fuckster tall. 1992 B. Unsworth Sacred Hunger xxx. 295: He is the only free fuckster on this ship then. 2002 S. Waters Fingersmith vi. 199: “You bloody swine!” I cried, twisting again, and pulling towards him. “You fuckster! Oh!”