[Ads-l] new sense of the F-word

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM
Tue Dec 7 23:21:13 UTC 2021


We discussed this rather extensively in a thread back in January, initiated
by one JL.

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2021-January/thread.html#158798

On Tue, Dec 7, 2021 at 5:47 PM Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:

> Yeah, I've been noticing this for a little while. I think we've also
> previously noted positive _fuck with_ 'to enjoy, appreciate' (esp. with
> _heavy_), which seems to stem from the sense 'to associate (with)', which
> goes back 30 years or so.
>
> Early examples appreciated!
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
>
> On Tue, Dec 07, 2021 at 05:33:02PM -0500, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > John Oliver  ("Last Week Tonight") was reporting on the brief, incredible
> > success of Chex cereals in 1992, after the introduction of the
> "ChexQuest"
> > video game:
> >
> > "For six weeks in 1992, Chex cereals _fucked!_"
> >
> > Like "rocked" but better.
> >
> > JL
> >
>

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