# Frickin' A, man!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frickin-a-man/147850>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 10, 2003, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frickin-a-man/147850 "2003-01-10T23:59:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frickin-a-man/147850/1 "2003-01-10T23:59:30Z")

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What does the “A” mean?

On a related note, we use the phrase “F you!”. How did it become like that: Verb, then you? For example, it’s “Go wash yourself”, not “Wash you”.

Ah, the etymology of swear words.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frickin-a-man/147850/2 "2003-01-11T00:29:17Z")

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Already done.

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64268&highlight=fucking](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64268&highlight=fucking)  
and  
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=91613&highlight=fucking](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=91613&highlight=fucking)

NOthing conclusive.