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From: cjh@petsd.UUCP (Chris Henrich)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Origin of expletive
Message-ID: <500@petsd.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Apr-85 16:49:48 EST
Article-I.D.: petsd.500
Posted: Tue Apr 23 16:49:48 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Apr-85 21:38:39 EST
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[]
> I was told that 'fuck' was placed on placards that were put before unhappy
> souls in the stocks and that it stood for: for use of carnal knowledge.
> Is this true? 
> 
> Hedley.
	No.
	"Fuck" is one of the oldest words in English, going
back to times when most speakers of the language were
illiterate and wouldn't have understood a round-about phrase
like "for use of carnal knowledge" if it had been read aloud
to them.
	Earlier forms of the word, with cognates in other
Germanic languages, are something like "ficken"; I think the
Indo-european root is "PHUG-".  When you go back that far it
is related to lots of other words.
	The earliest meaning (if memory serves) of 'fuck' is
something like the verb 'to plant.'  As in, "Tomorrow we have
to fuck all the turnips in the north field."

Regards,
Chris

--
Full-Name:  Christopher J. Henrich
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From vax135!houxm!whuxl!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!cmcl2!acf4!hkr4627 Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 1969
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From: hkr4627@acf4.UUCP (Hedley K. J. Rainnie)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Origin of expletive
Message-ID: <1260001@acf4.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Apr-85 23:19:00 EST
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Organization: New York University
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I was told that 'fuck' was placed on placards that were put before unhappy
souls in the stocks and that it stood for: for use of carnal knowledge.
Is this true? 

Hedley.