"flying fuck"--something of negligible value

[Marc Velasco]

Was 'flying' ever a softened substitute for f****ing, possibly like
flipping?  (Similar to 'darn it' for 'damn it').

And if so, was flying fuck a construction of a softened form of the
word and the word itself?  A wry, ironical version of fucking fuck,
perhaps?





On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 3:33 PM,  <RonButters at aol.com> wrote:
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>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       RonButters at AOL.COM
>  Subject:      "flying fuck"--something of negligible value
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  I think we have now, right, Larry? "Take a flying fuck at a running rooster"=
>  =20
>  =3D "Go do something totally stupid"; "not worth a flying fuck" =3D "not wor=
>  th as=20
>  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"...=A0=A0 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.
>  >=20
>  > LH
>  >=20
>
>
>
>
>  **************
>  Need a new ride? Check out the largest site for U.S. used car=20
>  listings at AOL Autos.
>      =20
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>
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