F**king-A

[Douglas G. Wilson]

There are various stories about the "A". "Aye" has somewhat the right sense
but I find it phonetically unlikely (perhaps a case could be made for a
variant of the "ayup" Stephen-King type?). "All-right", "A-one", etc.,
don't have the usual sense, which I believe is or was basically "f*cking A"
= "[that's] right" (NOT "that's great" or so). "Arsehole" etc. would be
just nonsense (not necessarily impossible though!).

My own conjecture is that the "A" was originally "amen" ... *possibly* with
"F*cking amen!" = "Amen" [intensified]/"That's right"/"I agree" reanalyzed
as "F*cking A, men!" (in a military setting) or "F*cking A, man!" by (maybe
less religiously inclined?) listeners. This conjecture may not be provable,
but it seems to me so natural that I presume somebody has presented it
before (but I haven't seen it AFAIK).

-- Doug Wilson