F**king-A

[Dennis R. Preston]

I wonder how many times any of us have heard "fucking" with the velar
nasal? I find it hard to do. (Just like "fishing"; I go "fishin,"
commercial fishermen go "fishing." Actually, guys who dress up in
funnly pants-boots and hats and use big ol long skinny poles to catch
trout also go "fishing" in my speech.)

I suppose "fucking a's" pronunciation with an alveolar could cause
those given to alveolar pronunciations in general to folk etymologize
it. On the other hand, us alveolarizers could be said to have folk
etymologized for the same reason. I fact, the sense ("you bet," or
"damn straight") is absolutely right in my speech, and leads one to
hypothesize that "fucking" simply plays the role of an intensifier
(as it so often does) and "A" is not (as us kids had it) "ass-hole"
at all, but from the collection of "A" expression like "A number one"
(first class), etc... . An interesting proposal.

dInIs





>In a message dated 1/14/03 8:02:15 PM, sclements at NEO.RR.COM writes:
>
>
>>  I doubt that 60+ New Englanders would be good authorities on the expression.
>>  I am 58 and also remember it from my early college days(1962).
>>
>>  In "The F Word" by Jesse Sheidlower,
>>  "Fucking A" was certainly in use in WWII.  But those "60+" NE'ders weren't
>>  around in WWII to know that, were they?  They probably associate the two
>>  because Flying A gasoline was so prevalent? in NE.
>>
>>  --Sam Clements
>>
>
>I always thought this was "Fuck An A" or "Fuck A Nay"--I never in my life
>heard a velar nasal here, always an alveolar nasal. The full phrase from the
>1950s Iowa high school I attended was "Fuck-an-A John!" This meant about what
>"Right on!" meant in the 1970s, and translates roughly into what I hear as
>"Damn Straight" today.

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic,
      Asian & African Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027
e-mail: preston at msu.edu
phone: (517) 353-9290