"flying fuck"--something of negligible value

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

I think we have now, right, Larry? "Take a flying fuck at a running rooster" 
= "Go do something totally stupid"; "not worth a flying fuck" = "not worth as 
much as a totally pointless and fruitless enterprise"

In a message dated 4/18/08 9:32:52 AM, laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:


> Nice--but to return to where we started, this doesn't help us make
> the connection between the flying fuck as a feat hard to consummate
> and the flying fuck as a something of negligible value and hence a
> negative polarity minimizer with an implicit "not even ___" as in
> "(not) worth a sou/farthing/plugged nickel", "(not) sleep a wink",
> "(not) touch a drop", "(not) know squat"...   The flying
> leaps/jumps/fucks seem more likely to have originated as members of
> the "Go fuck yourself", "Fuck you", "Go to hell", "Go fly a kite"
> family of impolite invitations to get lost than of the "not know
> fuck/jackshit/squat about" or "not give a shit/fuck/(tinker's)
> dam(n)" families of minimizers.
> 
> LH
> 




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