Fuck is an English word that, as a verb, literally means to engage in sexual intercourse. The word is generally considered offensive.
It is unclear whether the word has always been considered vulgar, and if not, when it first started to be considered vulgar. Some evidence indicates that in some English-speaking locales it was considered acceptable as late as the 17th century meaning "to strike" or "to penetrate."[1]. Other evidence indicates that it may have become vulgar as early as the 16th century in England, although neither set of evidence is inherently contradictory to the other, since many words have multiple connotations. The word became increasingly offensive over time because of its usage to describe (often in an extremely angry, hostile or belligerent manner) negative or unpleasant circumstances or people in an intentionally offensive way, such as in the term "motherfucker", one of its more common usages.
Fuck is used not only as a verb (transitive and intransitive), but also as a noun, interjection, and, occasionally, as an expletive infix. The etymology of the word is uncertain (see below).
Older etymology
The word fuck has cognates in other Germanic languages, such as German ficken (to copulate), Middle Dutch fokken (to thrust, copulate, or to breed), dialectical Norwegian fukka (to copulate), and dialectical Swedish focka (to strike, copulate) and fock (penis).
This points to a possible etymology where Common Germanic fuk–, by application of Grimm's law, would have as its most likely Indo-European ancestor *pug–, which appears in Latin and Greek words meaning "fight" and "fist". In early Proto-Germanic the word was likely used at first as a slang or euphemistic replacement for an older word for intercourse, and then became the usual word for intercourse.
Other possible connections are to Latin fūtuere (almost exactly the same meaning as the English verb "to fuck"); but it would have to be explained how the word reached Scandinavia from Roman contact, and how the t became k. From fūtuere came French foutre, Catalan fotre, Italian fottere, Romanian futere, vulgar peninsular Spanish follar and joder, and Portuguese foder). However, there is considerable doubt and no clear lineage for these derivations. These roots, even if cognates, are not the original Indo-European word for to copulate, but Wayland Young (who agrees that these words are related) argues that they derive from the Indo-European *bhu– or *bhug– ("be", "become"), or as causative "create" [see Young, 1964]. A possible intermediate might be a Latin 4th-declension verbal noun *fūtus, with possible meanings including "act of (pro)creating".
The Spanish verb follar has a different origin: according to Spanish etymologists, it (attested in the 19th century) derives via fuelle ("bellows") from Latin folle(m) < Indo-European *bhel–; the old Spanish verb folgar (attested in the 15th century) derived from Latin follicare, also ultimately from follem/follis.
The original Indo-European root for to copulate is likely to be *h3yebh– or *h3eybh–, which is attested in Sanskrit yabhati, Russian ебать (yebat'), Polish jebać, and Serbian јебати (jebati), among others: compare the Greek verb οιφω, and the Greek noun ζεφυρος (ref. a Greek belief that the west wind caused pregnancy).
There is perhaps a Celtic derivation: futuere is related to battuere (to strike, to copulate); which may be related to Irish bot and Manx bwoid (penis). The argument is that battuere and futuere (like the Irish and Manx words) may come from Celtic *bactuere (to pierce), from the root buc– (a point).[citation needed]
False etymologies
One reason that the word fuck is so hard to trace etymologically is that it was used far more extensively in common speech than in easily traceable written forms.
There are several urban-legend false etymologies postulating an acronymic origin for the word. None of these acronyms was ever heard before the 1960s, according to the authoritative lexicographical work, The F-Word, and thus are backronyms. In any event, the word fuck has been in use far too long for some of these supposed origins to be possible. Some of these urban legends are:
There are unproved stories that fuck arose as an abbreviation of one of the versions containing "unlawful":
- That the word fuck came from Irish law. If a couple were caught committing adultery, they would be punished "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge In the Nude", with "FUCKIN" written on the stocks above them to denote the crime.
- That it came from any of:
- "Fornication Under Carnal/Cardinal Knowledge"
- "Fornication Under [the] Control/Consent/Command of the King"
- "Fornication Under the Christian King"
- "False Use of Carnal Knowledge"
- "Felonious Use of Carnal Knowledge"
- "Felonious Unlawful Carnal Knowledge"
- "Full-On Unlawful Carnal Knowledge"
- "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge"
- "Found Under Carnal Knowledge"
- "Forced Unlawful Carnal Knowledge", referring to the crime of rape.
- In armed forces log books , when reporting courts martial of men accused of homosexual intercourse.[citation needed]
- On tombstones around English cemeteries, referring to being put to death for crimes against the state and the church.[citation needed] No such tombstone has been provably found.