I heard a story recently that the origins of American Englishes worst curse word came from the Medieval Times when literacy was low. I was told that the F word acronym for something, which i cannot remember.
Is any of this true, or just a good story to appease the masses?
Thanks
a) No, it’s not based on an acronym.
b) It’s a basic Anglo-Saxon word meaning, “to have sex with”. When the Normans invaded a lot of everyday A/S words were replaced by Latinate terms, eg fuck–>copulate
c) This has been discussed 18 millions times. Use the Search, please. It’s in the upper right hand corner.
–John
What Yue Han said. And what Cecil said in Attrayant’s link. Words that predate the 20th century are almost never acronyms. For the definitive work on fuck, check out [url=“http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375706348/o/qid=984778029/sr=8-1/ref=aps_sr_b_1_1/107-2869591-0925333”]The F-Word** by Jesse Sheidlower.
Oops. Some mod may want to fix that post.
Here’s the correct link: The F-Word by Jesse Sheidlower.
I remember it being an acronym for Fornication Under Consent of the King. I believe this was used in Spain some time ago. Apparently, it meant that certain people had to ask permission to fornicate for reasons unbeknownst to me.
Llardball, please note that your acronym was addressed by Cecil in the link provided by Attrayant.
It is still a false etymology:
-we know where the word came from (a Germanic word meaning thrust or strike) and
-acronyms tend to be a rather recent phenomenon in English.
I am curious as to the origin of the story that the acronym you heard was Spanish in origin. As nearly as I can work it out, had the phrase started in Spanish, the acronym would have been CSCR.
The OP said F***. Lets see, what word could it be? fork, from, ?