# Friggin'? Frikkin'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 16, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049 "2003-01-16T20:22:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/1 "2003-01-16T20:22:19Z")
Some questions about the words friggin’ and frikkin’.\* 1. Are these both the same word and I’m mishearing one? 2. If they’re two different words: I figure “friggin’” means “fucking”. Does "frikkin’ " mean "freakin’ " or “fucking”? 3. In this context what does "freakin’ " mean? Crazy? [sub]\*BAND NAME! 😃 [/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Monkeypants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Monkeypants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monkeypants)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/2 "2003-01-16T20:30:27Z")
I wouldn’t look too deeply in to it. They don’t mean anything. They are just non-expletive ways of saying fucking. ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/3 "2003-01-16T20:32:09Z")
I understand that they all mean the same thing. Freakin Fricken Frikken Friggin Effing Farking I use them interchangably, anyways. ---
**Author:** ![Cillasi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@Cillasi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cillasi)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/4 "2003-01-16T20:32:37Z")
As far as I’m aware, friggin, frikkin, fuggin, freakin and most other permutations are masks for “fucking,” each having been the more popular permutation at one time or another. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/5 "2003-01-16T20:44:40Z")
Oddly enough, this particular subject was broached in today’s “Hi and Lois”. First time I remember seeing "friggin’ " in a daily comic strip. Of course, I remember seeing that particular word being used in some of the more pulchritudinous men’s magazines _cough_Penthouse Forum_cough_ as a synonym for female masturbation. ---
**Author:** ![Zagadka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zagadka/32/7272_2.png) [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/6 "2003-01-16T20:54:23Z")
There is only one true form that means anything. Farking. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/7 "2003-01-16T21:31:49Z")
Ah! Youth (and a lack of dictonaries). The verb _frig_ means to masturbate. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it appeared in several novels (usually about the military) as a minced oath/substitute for _fuck_ (which could still get a book in trouble at that time). By the end of the 1960s, the word _freak_ had morphed into a verb and the adjective (from the verb) _freaking_ began to gain popularity. Since a lot of impressionable teens read _frig_ (correctly) as a substitute for _fuck_, many (lacking a fuller education) began to use the word to mean _fuck_. I am not sure whether _frickin’_ is a corruption of _friggin’_, a conflation of _friggin’_ and _freakin’_, or some other construction, but it is basically a nonsense intensifier rather than actually carrying a meaning of its own. (No one actually _fricks_ anything, while many people _frig_ and _fuck_.) ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/8 "2003-01-16T21:36:50Z")
Hmmm, the Merriam-Webster claims that _frig_ has meant _copulate_ since the sixteenth century. I cry **error!** on them. The OED indicates “rubbing or chafing” and I have never seen the word used to mean fuck\* prior to the late 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/9 "2003-01-17T19:29:11Z")
So "Freakin’ " means fucking too. I never even thought about that. Thanks people. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/10 "2003-01-17T19:38:53Z")
> **[Definition of frig | Dictionary.com](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/frig)** > > Definition of frig from Dictionary.com, the world’s leading online source for English definitions, pronunciations, word origins, idioms, Word of the Day, and more. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/11 "2003-01-17T20:10:51Z")
> [@](#): > > So "Freakin’ " means fucking too. I never even thought about that. Thanks people. Only as an adjectival or adverbial intensifier. One does not _freak_ one’s SO (except by waving many-legged critters before his or her face). _Freakin’_ as an adjective came from the labeling of hippies and related counter-culture types as freaks–a term they then happily applied to themselves and while adding the “ing” suffix, began to use to identify especially salubrious actions or events. That period did not last long, but the continued use of _freakin’_ as an intensifier lingered on, leading to my conjecture/question as to whether _friggin’_ and _freakin’_ may have been conflated to create _frickin’_. _Farkin’_ is, pretty clearly, simply a later continuation of the trend to move away from the original pronunciation of any of those words, much in the manner of _par-taayyy!_ from party. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/12 "2003-01-17T20:31:38Z")
[Rod Flanders] “Ow, my freakin’ ears!” [/Rod Flanders] ---
**Author:** ![mogiaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mogiaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mogiaw)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/13 "2003-01-17T21:11:28Z")
As far as i know frig has been used in the substitutive (is that a word?) sense in Ireland since before the '60s. Unfortunately i don’t have a cite so i could be incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![friggae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/45deac/32.png) [@friggae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friggae)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/14 "2003-01-17T22:53:12Z")
Well freak, maybe it’s time for me to change my nick. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/15 "2003-01-18T00:03:27Z")
**Fricking** is cited from 1936. **Freaking** from 1928. Both were meant as a substitute for _fucking_. Either one could have been used before the other. **Frickin’** appears in print about 1970. **tom**. The word **frig** used as an expletive(frig you!) and substitute for “fuck”, appears in print as early as 1879. It doesn’t show up in everyday usage until the 1930’s. But it appears about then used by Kingsley, O’Hara, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Super\_Gnat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/16 "2003-01-18T00:21:46Z")
There’s _cursing_ in GQ! :eek: Somebody call the Morality Police 😉 ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/17 "2003-01-18T00:23:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tomndebb \* > \*_Hmmm, the Merriam-Webster claims that frig has meant copulate since the sixteenth century. I cry **error!** on them. The OED indicates “rubbing or chafing” and I have never seen the word used to mean []fuck_ prior to the late 1950s. \*\* I’ll second the cry of error. Frig was used in victorian erotica to mean exactly what you said: masturbation. Only in regards to women, though, at least from what I’ve read… ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/18 "2003-01-18T00:43:54Z")
**sam** , I’ll accept any version of a minced oath (or any effort to avoid a censorship trial) where frig is used for fuck. I suspect that the O’Hara and Kingsley citations were attempts to avoid censors, as well. (Dos Passos also used it, but it is not clear that he meant fuck, as opposed to simply using it as a general cuss word.) This obviously pushes it back prior to my 1950s dates. However, I’d be curious about the 1879 citation and what was actually meant by its use. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/19 "2003-01-18T03:02:48Z")
**tom**. The 1879 quote comes from _The Pearl_: reviewed thusly > [@](#): > > Lewd, bawdy, and sensual, this cult classic is a collection of Victorian erotica that circulated in an underground magazine known as The Pearl from July 1879 to December 1880. Now dusted off and totally uncensored, the journal of voluptuous reading that titillated the eminent Victorians is reprinted in its entirety. The 18 issues of The Pearl are packed with short stories, naughty poems, ballads of sexual adventure, letters, limericks, jokes, gossip, and six serialized novels including “La Rose d’Amour,” filled with inventive and exotic lovemaking scenes; “Miss Coote’s Confession,” with graphic descriptions of initiations into pleasure; and “Young Beginners,” a collection of exuberant sexual adventures. Scatological and scandalous, The Pearl is definitely not for the straitlaced or pure of mind. – from [http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:VrhmBB7FpJEC:www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1562011014%3Fvi%3Dglance+pearl+1879+book&hl=en&ie=UTF-8](http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:VrhmBB7FpJEC:www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1562011014%3Fvi%3Dglance+pearl+1879+book&hl=en&ie=UTF-8) The actual quoted cite is : > [@](#): > > Two prisoners were brought in…The Sergeant requested orders regarding them. The Major merrily answered: “Oh , take them away and frig them.” I guess I implied it was used as an expletive, rather I meant as a euphemism for “fuck.” Or, in the case of the Major’s quote, “screw 'em” or something like that. [sub]Unless the Major was telling the Sgt. to go _masturbate_ the prisoners[/sub] :eek: ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049/20 "2003-01-18T03:14:45Z")
**tom** and **elfkin477**. My sources _do_ cite **frig** as a verb meaning **copulation** as early as 1610, but I personally think the quotes(1610, 1650, 1684) can be interepreted as _either_ referring to masturbation or intercourse. They’re just not that clear cut, at least to me. There is an 1865 cite which _absolutely_ is referring to intercourse. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friggin-frikkin/149049.md?page=2)