History of the "F" word
Uploaded by Janclan66 on Nov 15, 2003
Jonathan Yentzen
CMCN 200
Outline for Informative Speech
Topic: History of the “F” Word
1. INTRODUCTION / ATTENTION GETTER
a. Whether you were helping your dad while he hit his finger building a fence around the house or watching a movie that you probably weren’t suppose to, everyone has been exposed at some point to the only word in the English language known as the “F” word. A taboo word in which we as a culture shun in public and preach in private.
i. As a frequent and long time user of this word, I will attempt to explain this unique and fascinating word in a different light by showing the etymology, written history, and the amazingly flexible use this word has in grammar.
ii. And to help you with understanding the terms that I may use, this poster will have all forms of the word listed.
Transition Statement: Now to give you a little understanding of the word lets jump to the etymology
2. BODY / MAIN POINTS
a. The actual root of the word is very unclear. The first recorded use of the word is before 1500 in the English/Latin poem Flen Flyys, (“Non sunt in celi quia fuccant uuiuys of heli” meaning they are not in heaven because they f*ck the wives of Ely”)
b. There is an evident connection to German, the other 40% of our language, in the word Ficken (“to copulate” in dialects, historically to strike)
i. There are cognates in other Germanic languages such as Dutch fokken (to copulate or thrust), Norwegian fukka (just copulate), and the Swedish Fock (penis)
c. Part of the trouble of etymology is that the word was too taboo for the original Oxford English Dictionary
d. As far as the acronyms of the Puritans; such as “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge”, and the edict of King George “Fornication Under Consent of King”, all are myths as the words never appeared before 1960’s, according to the authoritative work, The F-Word.
3. The history of the F word is very deep, as it can be traced to 1250 to the proper name, John Le Fu*ker according to John Ayto’s Dictionary of Word Origins. What John did to earn this name is unknown. Shakespeare himself only made brief references to the word, considering his plays were scandalous at the time. The first actual publication was in 1965, and it didn’t reach the Oxford Dictionary until 1972. A few first for the F word are:
a. Kenneth Tynan – first person to say...