Quote:
Originally Posted by Panzergranate
The "F" word came into existance, in the English language in 1872, according to Whitely's Oxford Dictionary of Swearwords and Expletives.
It is a Police charge sheet abreiviation and stands for "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" which one would be charged with if caught with one's pants down in a brothel during a police raid.
The offence came onto the statute books in the UK in 1872, as part of the government's on going moral campaign to stamp out prostitutution in the UK.
Until then, patrons of brothels were allowed to go free and uncharged during a police raid.
Prisoners in the cells would ask each other what they were in for and one could be in jail, awaiting trail, for f**king.
Its use in films and plays set before this date are historical language errors, in the same way as the Sherif Of Nottingham, in Kevin Costner's Robin Hood film, telling someone to come and see him at 12:30.
There are many urban myths about the word's origin, this is the true origin.
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No it isn't it's one of the urban myths. There are examples of the word dating back way further than that..
earliest appearance of current spelling is 1535 -- "Bischops ... may **** thair fill and be vnmaryit" [Sir David Lyndesay, "Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits"]
All of the acronyms are urban myths. There's loads of them.
When he was compiling the first dictionary Dr Johnson excluded the word, and **** wasn't in a single English language dictionary from 1795 to 1965.
The earliest version on record is recorded in the OED 2nd edition and cites 1503, in the form fukkit;