F***in A

[epraz]

OK…so what does the A in “f***in A” stand for?

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NOTE ADDED BY CKDH (28-Oct-2011): This thread was originally posted in General Questions Forum, back in 2001. In 2003, the question was answered by a Staff Report, found here: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2077/whats-the-origin-of-fuckin-a

Please be aware of the dates as you read, there’s not much point in responding to a 9-year-old joke.
– Dex
Administrator, Straight Dope Message Boards

[heptapod]

I have no idea because I’m at a loss for how to pronounce the *** characters. Are they vowels? Consonants?

[Violet]

WAG: asshole.

[atypicalcarl]

I’ll take a WAG and say it’s based on the letter “a” being used as a grade or rank - as in “grade A milk.”

[mancunian]

Is this related to the movie Aliens???
I always thought the “a” was like “yeah” (in agreement) hence “fuckin yeah”, dunno for sure though.

[Johnny_L.A]

“Fuckin’ A, Bubba!” WAG is that it means “I see the trueness of your statement, and if my assesment is incorrect then I would willingly submit to an undesireable ransom to be extracted from me; for example, my dear friend Bubbothy, fuckin’ me up the ass.”

But I’ve wondered about the etymology myself.

[heptapod]

Oh!!! Fuck! Why didn’t he fucking say fuck in the first fucking place? That makes things a fuck of a lot clearer. Fuckin’ a, man.

[Cisco]

*Originally posted by heptapod *
**Oh!!! Fuck! Why didn’t he fucking say fuck in the first fucking place? That makes things a fuck of a lot clearer. Fuckin’ a, man. **

I agree that there was no need for him to censor his own honest question in the OP but come on, is this really necessary? You knew what he was trying to say and you’re acting pretty immature for this forum if I may say so.

As for the OP, I remember having a good theory on this a few years back but for the life of me I can’t think of it, and google is turning up nothing. This might take awhile.

[friedo]

“Effin’ A” means “Fucking Asshole.”

[Cisco]

*Originally posted by friedo *
**“Effin’ A” means “Fucking Asshole.” **

I don’t think it does…Think about the context it’s used in. It is generally used as an agreement and not an insult. You frequently hear:

“Check out the break in those waves, this is gonna be great!”
“Fuckin’ A bro!!”

But you never hear:

“You smell funny”
“You fucking a!”
See what I mean?

[El_Kabong]

Ahem, I’ve always understood that “fuckin’ A” was a contraction of “You bet your fuckin’ ass”. It’s used as an affirmative, sometimes phrased as “fuckin A right”. Sorry I can’t provide a cite, except that the phrase is used repeatedly by the owner of the bar where de Niro and Wlken’s characters hang out in “the Deer Hunter”.

[friedo]

*Originally posted by Cisco *
“Check out the break in those waves, this is gonna be great!”
“Fuckin’ A bro!!”

But you never hear:

“You smell funny”
“You fucking a!”
See what I mean?

Well, we must live in alternate universes. I always hear it in the context of an insult.

“What a fuckin’ A.”

[GIGObuster]

*Originally posted by friedo *
Well, we must live in alternate universes. I always hear it in the context of an insult.

“What a fuckin’ A.” **

My WAG is that it originated as an insulting swearing phrase that morphed into a “good” phrase, kinda like the word “bad” turning to mean good. Looks like the guys at Princeton WPRB college radio are claiming responsibility for the insulting meaning:

http://www.wprb.com/old_site/history/60s.html

"It happened sometime in 1961, maybe 1962, but no later than that I am sure. I defy anyone to find an earlier use of that lyrical profanity (don’t confuse the phrase with ‘A-okay’ made so popular by the astronauts). Of course, since then the phrase has captivated the English-speaking world, being of particular attraction to those serving in the military. No doubt the prevalence of war in the national conscience and consciousness since then has accounted for the rapid dissemination of the phrase. It wasn’t long before the phrase rivaled and then surpassed other gems, like ‘snafu’ and ‘bubkus.’ You have to admit that ‘Fucking A’ flows so easily off the tongue. It has the natural flavor of apple pie to it. It’s difficult to appreciate it for what it is‹a truly seminal expression, the ultimate primal scream, the shadow of humanity’s deepest frustrations leaping off the wall of Plato’s cave into the concrete world.
"It was all due to Studio A. In those days, everything at WPRB was broadcast out of Studio B‹an intimate glassed-in box only large enough to hold a DJ and a few sycophants. Studio A was larger, but its console never worked. If it weren’t for the fact that the large conference table in Studio A was a perfect place to set down those big boxes that pizza come in (even then!), Studio A would have been of no use whatsoever.
"Two members of the engineering staff, Minet and Auslander, decided to change this, though I’m not sure why. They espoused the Che Guevara school of electronics. Their modus operandi was to plug in anything on the fritz and hope that it exploded, because the sparks would pinpoint the problem. (They applied this principle to my roommate’s malfunctioning stereo and in 30 minutes transformed it into scrap metal.) That’s why the console in Studio A was so fascinating to them. It exploded with the persistence of a Mexican fiesta, which may have explained their predilection for working at it late at night with a case of cheap beer at hand.
"During one of these late night escapades, Minet was on his back under the console monkeying with some wires, while Auslander was standing up, hovering over the monster with his eyeglasses way down on the tip of his pimply nose, hoping to see the damn thing pop. I could see them through the window out of Studio B while I was on the air. I’m not sure exactly what happened next. Whatever it was, the lights flickered momentarily and Minet screamed ‘FUCKING A!!!’ so loudly that even with my earphones on I could hear him. And he continued yelling the words over and over, while he hopped around holding his right hand. So, when Auslander, who now was totally cracking up over his buddy’s misfortune, pushed open the door to Studio B to share the merriment with me, those fateful words went out ever so clearly over the air, making my engineer blanch. And, as Minet continued to yell and Auslander continued to prop open the studio door with his doubled-over body, those words continued to go out over the air, until the engineer came to his senses and flipped the switch. Of course, we never heard a word of complaint, proving that no one, not even the FCC, was listening.
"I don’t think Minet, after his pain subsided, ever used the words again. But Auslander did, all the time, and so did everybody else, me included. Soon, it was all over campus. From there, it conquered the nation. Tomorrow, the world, as they say.
“Of course, nobody knew what the ‘A’ was, except for the few of us there that night. But it didn’t matter what ‘A’ was. It really had nothing to do with any ‘A’ in particular. The phrase lassoed the Zeitgeist; ‘A’ really stood for everything so maddening and so frustrating that it couldn’t be put into words. What happened to Minet that day was just a happy accident, something like Newton and the apple. I mean, if he had yelled ‘Fucking B,’ who would have noticed? Auslander probably would have given a little chuckle and that would have been it.”

–Stephen Pribula '63

Of course that is a neat story, but years of reading the SD proved to me that great neat stories can be great neat lies. Anybody from the Princeton can confirm that?

Today’s younger people use the phrase as an agreement:

http://bookbuzz.com/panati/dirtydeed.htm
Fucking-A, on target; absolutely accurate.

http://www.csupomona.edu/~jasanders/slang/csrpf.htm
Used to agree, say yes, yeah, etc. Used in place of “Hell yeah” or “right on”. Did you hear Dave got an A? Fuckinaye dude! That’s sweet, eh? You’re getting a new car? Fuckin’ A! [Mendocino College, Ukiah, CA, 1999]

[brachyrhynchos]

I generally associated “f***in A” with an enthusiastic “Alright!” or “Amen!” In total agreement with some statement, such as:

Guy1: “That guy is totally nuts with his contrail conspiracy theory.”
Guy2: “Fuckin’ A, bubba!”

verses

Guy1: “That guy is totally on the mark with his contrail conspiracy theory.”
Guy2: “Yer a fuckin’ A-hole.”
When spoken, I haven’t had a problem distinguishing the two although I suppose the former could get confusing when written, lacking the verbal intonations. Even did the Google search and many many MANY :eek: porn pages later, I found:
Fuckin’ A

If GIGObuster’s source is correct, then the expression morphed into good by the following decade.

[samclem]

When in doubt, go to Lighter.

The college story is not correct.

All cites which follow are from Lighter, Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Vol. I:

l. 1947, Mailer, Naked & Dead 21[referring to WWII}, “You’re fuggin ay,” Gallegher snorted.

2. 1961, Peacock Valhalla 181[referring to 1953]: Fucking A.

The above are examples of usage meaning “yes indeed, absolutely(correct).” Almost certainly WWII military origins.

1955, Sack Here to Shimbashi 18: “That was a mighty freaking-A loud sneeze,” declared the sergeant major.

1960, Sire Deathmakers 211[referring to WWII]: You can fucking-aye say that again." Used to mean “very well” in this instance.

Lighter says “origin unknown” and adds: perhaps abstracted from a phrase such as “you’re fucking A-number-one right!”

While A was used in print since 1940 or so to mean=ASS, there is no evidence that the expression “fucking A” meant anything to do with ass.

[Johnny_L.A]

Aha. Now that I’m currently caffeine deprived, this popped into my head: “Fuckin’ absolutely!”

[Una_Persson]

F a B, it has two holes.

[Spoke]

The phrasing of the 1945 example, “you’re fuggin ay,” cited by samclem (the earliest reference we’ve seen) suggests that the phrase evolved from “You bet your fuckin’ ass,” as suggested by El_Kabong.

[Spoke]

1947, I meant.

[Cliffy]

I’m pretty sure Tom Wolfe used in in “The Right Stuff” when quoting one of the astronauts (Grissom, probably). The conversation would have been in the 50’s and was presented as typical military speak, although the book was written later.

–Cliffy