fuck

Meanings

Verb

Noun

Origin

  • From Middle English *fukken, probably of North Germanic origin: possibly from Old Norse *fukka, from Proto-Germanic *fukkōną#Etymology_2, from Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ-. Compare windfucker and its debated etymology.
  • Possibly attested in a 772 AD charter that mentions a place called Fuccerham, which may mean "ham of the fucker" or "hamm of the fucker"; a John le Fucker in a record from 1278 may just be a variant of Fulcher, like Fucher, Foker, etc. The earliest unambiguous use of the word in a clearly sexual context, in any stage of English, appears to be in court documents from Cheshire, England, which mention a man called "Roger Fuckebythenavele" (possibly tongue-in-cheek, or directly suggestive of a depraved sexual act) on December 8, 1310. It was first listed in a dictionary in 1598. Scots fuk/fuck is attested slightly earlier, probably reinforcing the Northern Germanic/Scandinavian origin theory. From 1500 onward, the word has been in continual use, superseding jape and sard and largely displacing swive.
  • A range of folk-etymological backronyms, such as "fornication under consent of the king" and "for unlawful carnal knowledge", are all demonstrably false.
  • Sense 10, from related sense feck.

Modern English dictionary

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