Finally!

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>... I would read "to
>frak over X" as to cheat, or ....

So would most folks in 2007, but to guess at origins (which I like to
do) one should (I think) look at the earliest available examples. The
earliest one available to me is in HDAS, dated 1961: <<Eagle ain't
even cold yet and you cats are effin' over him already.>> Looks to me
like Eagle is dead; too late to put one over on him; so what does
"eff over" mean here? Even if I knew for sure, the origin would
probably be unclear to me: the expression may have had a long
unrecorded or poorly-recorded history before 1961.

Unless I'm missing something, the stress and grammar in the old days
were (at least according to some) parallel to "lord over", "fuss
over", "argue over", etc., and _not_ to "work over", "knock over", etc.

Of course there may have been reanalysis, or convergence of two
originally distinct expressions ... or the 1961 citation or some
other citations might be aberrant ... or ....

(HDAS gives 'probable' etymology "fuck [up] + [work] over".)

-- Doug Wilson


--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.13.30/1030 - Release Date: 9/25/2007 8:02 AM

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org