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Re: Fwd: a little history lesson




Poster: Bob Minowicz <minowicz@nc.na.auspex.com>

> That in itself is questionable.  Some references pin it down to a German
> word that means 'to strike', but there's another German word that seems
> more likely, *vehrkern*, which means 'intercourse'.

And for what I hope is the final word on the subject...

fuck, verb hence noun, is a Standard English word classed, because of
its associations, as a vulgarism. The derivative expletive Fuck (it)! -
derivative agent fucker - and verbal noun and participial adjective
fucking, except when literal (then, they are likewise vulgarisms),
belong to low slang. _Fuck_ shares with _cunt_ two distinctions: they
are the only two Standard English words excluded from all general and
etymological dictionaries since C18 and the only two Standard English
words that, outside of medical and other official and semi-official
reports and learned papers, still could not be printed in full anywhere
within the British Commonwealth of Nations until late 1961. 

That _fuck_ cannot descend straight from Latin _futuere_ (whence Old
French-French _foutre_) is obvious; that the two words are related is
equally obvious. That it cannot derive unaided from German _ficken_, to
strike, (in popular speech) to copulate with, is clear; it is no less
clear that the English and German words are cognates. 'To _fuck_'
apparently combines the vocalism of f_u_tuere+the consonantism of
fi_ck_en, which might derive from _*f"cken_ (only dubiously attested). 

Now, Latin _futuere_ is formed similarly to Latin _battuere_, to strike,
hence to copulate with a woman. With both, compare Irish _bot_, Manx
_bwoid_, penis; _battuere_, says Malvezin, is borrowed from Celtic and
stands for _*bactuere_; and _futuere_ recalls the Celtic root _*buc-_, a
point, hence to pierce (malvezin); compare also Gaelic _batair_, a
cudgeller, and Gaelic _buail_, English/Irish _bualaim_, I strike. Both
Latin _battuere_ and Latin _futuere_ (compare Latin _fustis_, a staff, a
cudgel: ? for _*futsis_) could have got into Latin from Celtic, which,
it is perhaps worth adding, had originally no _f_: basic idea. 'to
strike', hence (of a man) `to copulate with'.

Nevertheless, the source probably long antedates both Latin and Celtic:
a strikingly ancient etymology one is apparently afforded by Egyptian
_petcha_, (of the male) to copulate with, the hieroglyph being an
ideogram of unmistakably assertive virility. The Egyptian word has a
close Arabic parallel.- A Mediterranean word? 

[Words are _italicized_ when thus indicated] [Words preceded by *
indicates presumed word, form of word, or sense] [f"ucken is fucken
where u has umlaut]


Confused yet?

--
Stanislaw Mynyowycz  (I told you it might change, didn't I?)
Canton of Elvegast, Barony of Windmasters' Hill, Kingdom of Atlantia
m. k. a.  Bob Minowicz
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