Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!caip!rutgers!seismo!lll-crg!lll-lcc!csustan!smdev From: smdev@csustan.UUCP (Scott Hazen Mueller) Newsgroups: net.jokes.d,talk.bizarre Subject: Re: newspeak, (...etc...) Message-ID: <222@csustan.UUCP> Date: Mon, 6-Oct-86 15:32:22 EDT Article-I.D.: csustan.222 Posted: Mon Oct 6 15:32:22 1986 Date-Received: Thu, 9-Oct-86 00:46:18 EDT References: <425@vaxb.calgary.UUCP> Reply-To: smdev@csustan.UUCP (Scott Hazen Mueller) Distribution: net Organization: City of Turlock Lines: 31 Xref: watmath net.jokes.d:1878 talk.bizarre:406 Cc: smdev In article <> hermann@calgary.UUCP (Michael Hermann) writes: > > P.S. I've heard that fuck had its origins in an abbreviation > used in the old British legal system. It stood for > something like "Fornication U... C... K...". I've > not however been able to find a reference to this > anywhere; if someone knows of some documentation on > this, please let me in on it. Thanx. I have (at home, of course) a page from one of my high-school notebooks detailing the derivation of "fuck". We actually spent a considerable portion of one day's linguistics class studying etymologies... In short, and from memory (will he drop it?), "fuck" is derived from the "root" Indo-European "language". The original derivations involve two root forms, "poik-os" and "peig-yos" (I think, no flames please). The meanings relate to plowing (as in agriculture) and evil. One of the related (more-or-less) modern-day words is "fey". Medieval forms in various Germanic tongues include "fokken" and "fucken" (I have no idea what the word is in modern German - I could never get my German teacher to admit what it was...) \scott If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me. Flame me, and you'll learn the meaning of nuclear-powered urban renewal... -- Scott Hazen Mueller lll-crg.arpa!csustan!smdev City of Turlock work: (209) 668-5590 -or- 5628 901 South Walnut Avenue home: (209) 527-1203 Turlock, CA 95380