"flying fuck"--something of negligible value

[Jonathan Lighter]

AFAIK, nope and nope.

  JL

Marc Velasco <marcjvelasco at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Marc Velasco
Subject: Re: "flying fuck"--something of negligible value
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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, wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> 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
> (http://autos.aol.com/used?NCID=3Daolcmp00300000002851)
>
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>

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