f-bomb
Justin Wells
jawell02 at YAHOO.COM
Tue Aug 31 19:09:57 UTC 2004
--- Tom Kysilko <pds at VISI.COM> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Tom Kysilko <pds at VISI.COM>
> Subject: f-bomb
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> My informal sense it that I am hearing "f-bomb" much
> more frequently than
> "f word" nowadays -- perhaps because there is a
> greater need for an
> expression referring to f word tokens than the f
> word type. In spite of
> this need, however, the earliest instance I could
> find in Google Groups
> (cited below) dates from 1990. I'm interested in
> what Larry Horn or any of
> the active antedaters have on it. It's not in the
> post-1999 archives.
>
> >Subject: Re: A little philiogy [sic]
> >Newsgroups: alt.sex
> >Date: 1990-10-29 16:35:49 PST
> >
> >As I understand it, (or at least what I read in a
> Carl
> >Sagan book), the "F-word" derives not from Italian
> or
> >English, but from the German "fokken," apparently
> meaning
> >to strike.
> >
> >Now I took high-school German and don't remember
> this
> >word, but I think that's what I read. I also
> recall
> >an article saying that the etymology of the f-bomb
> >has been labeled "hopelessy unclear" by
> etymologists.
> >
> >But what the fuck do I know, anyway?
> >-D
>
>
> Tom Kysilko Practical Data Services
> pds at visi.com Saint Paul MN USA
> http://www.visi.com/~pds
> I am new to this group, and I have been hesitant to
reply to anything since my knowledge of linguistics is
quite limited. I am a student in a Linguistics class,
so I am just learning about the subject. Regarding
the origins of the "F" word, though, I have read about
different origins of this word. I have read that it
is from the Dutch "fokken," which means to breed, as
in cattle. Also, I have seen that it may be from the
Swedish "fokka," meaning to copulate. I could be
wrong on this, but I am merely presenting what I have
read.
_______________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Win 1 of 4,000 free domain names from Yahoo! Enter now.
http://promotions.yahoo.com/goldrush
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list