The Origin of the F-Word
Netlore Archive: In which we are asked to believe that the word 'fuck' originated as the acronym of 'Fornication Under Consent of the King,' 'Fornication Under Command of the King,' 'For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge,' or some other variation thereof.
Description: Folk etymology
Circulating since: The 1960s
Status: False
Example #1:
Email contributed by T. McInnis, March 22, 2001:
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In ancient England a person could not have sex unless you had consent of the King (unless you were in the Royal Family). When anyone wanted to have a baby, they got consent of the King, the King gave them a placard that they hung on their door while they were having sex. The placard had F.*.*.*. (Fornication Under Consent of the King) on it. Now you know where that came from. |
Example #2:
From a Usenet posting, Nov. 1, 1990:
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The word fuck comes from colonial times, when someone would be punished for 'prostitution' It was an acronym for the words 'For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge' FUCK was written on the stocks that held these criminals because For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge was too long to go on the stocks. |
Example #3:
From a Usenet posting, Oct. 12, 1990:
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I always heard that "F.U.C.K." originated in the 1800's in London, when they used to charge prostitutes "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge". So officer got sick and tired of writing those, um, lessee, 26 characters, not including spaces, so it got abbreviated FUCK and stuck. |
Analysis: Having consulted the definitive reference work on this subject (yes, there is such a thing: The F-Word by Jesse Sheidlower, published by Random House in 1999), I feel confident in dismissing all the claims above as imaginative bunk.
According to Sheidlower, the earliest claims in print of supposed acronymic origins for the F-word appeared during the 1960s. An underground newspaper called the East Village Other published this version in 1967:
It's not commonly known that the word "fuck" originated as a medical diagnostic notation on the documests of soldiers in the British Imperial Army. When a soldier reported sick and was found to have V.D., the abbreviation F.U.C.K. was stamped on his documents. It was short for "Found Under Carnal Knowledge."
Two more variants appeared in a letter published in Playboy magazine in 1970:
My friend claims that the word fuck originated in the 15th Century, when a married couple needed permission from the king to procreate. Hence, Fornication Under Consent of the King. I maintain that it's an acronym of a law term used in the 1500s that referred to rape as Forced Unnatural Carnal Knowledge."
Undoubtedly the most famous use of this etymological travesty was as the title of the 1991 Van Halen album, "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge."
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Origin of the S-Word
Purportedly a nautical acronym referring to the prudent handling of cow manure: "Ship High in Transit."Pluck Yew (Origin of 'The Finger')
Supposedly, both the expression "Fuck you" and the obscene gesture commonly referred to in America as "the finger" originated with uppity British archers during the Hundred Years' War.
Sources and further reading:
Fuck
From David Wilton's WordOrigins.orgThe Etymology of Some Obscenities
From the "Take Our Word for It" WebzineWhat's the Origin of the 'F' Word?
Cecil Adams, "The Straight Dope" (1984)The F-Word
Edited by Jesse Sheidlower (New York: Random House, 1999)Wicked Words
by Hugh Rawson (New York: Crown Publishing, 1989)
Last updated: 11/28/11
