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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!oliveb!3comvax!michaelm
From: michaelm@3comvax.UUCP (Michael McNeil)
Newsgroups: net.singles,net.nlang
Subject: Re: versatile word (ROT 13)
Message-ID: <239@3comvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 28-Sep-85 00:45:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: 3comvax.239
Posted: Sat Sep 28 00:45:42 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 30-Sep-85 01:33:52 EDT
References: <1170@vax1.fluke.UUCP> <567@unisoft.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: 3Com Corp; Mountain View, CA
Lines: 46
Xref: watmath net.singles:9369 net.nlang:3609

["Make my day, Line Eater Monst..."]

> In article <1170@vax1.fluke.UUCP> suz@fluke.UUCP (Suzanne Jurgensen) writes:
> (in net.jokes)
> >	Perhaps one of the most interesting words in the English language
> >today is the word "fuck."  It is the one magical word that, just by its
> >sound, can describe pain, pleasure, hate, and love.  Fuck, as most words in
> >the English language takes its name from the german word "fricken" which
> >means to "stick."
> 
> That's not what *I* heared... In my dictionary, it said that the
> word 'fuck' came from german 'ficken', meaning 'to hit.'  That would
> make more sense, given the way I hear it used by people.
> ---> Tim Bessie ----- {ucbvax,dual}!unisoft!tim

The *American Heritage Dictionary* (an interesting dictionary for word
derivations) says much the same, except for spelling the Middle English
Germanic word as `fucken' rather than `ficken.'  `Fucken' is given the
meaning "to strike, move quickly, penetrate," and is said to be akin to
or perhaps borrowed from Middle Dutch `fokken,' which means "to strike,
copulate with."  Details are lacking due to lack of early attestations.  

In its appendix on Proto-Indo-European roots, the *American Heritage
Dictionary* goes on to derive `fokken' from the Proto-Indo-European
root word `peig' or `peik,' which originally meant "evil minded,
hostile."  From this one ancient root, the modern English words
`fickle' ("treacherous"), `foe' ("enemy"), `fey' ("fated to die"),
`feud' ("hostility"), and `fuck' ("copulate") are all descended.  

-- 

Michael McNeil
3Com Corporation     "All disclaimers including this one apply"
(415) 960-9367
..!ucbvax!hplabs!oliveb!3comvax!michaelm

	Who knows for certain?  Who shall here declare it?  
	Whence was it born, whence came creation?  
	The gods are later than this world's formation;
	Who then can know the origins of the world?  

	None knows whence creation arose;
	And whether he has or has not made it;
	He who surveys it from the lofty skies,
	Only he knows -- or perhaps he knows not.  
		*The Rig Veda*, X. 129


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