The F-Word (24 page)

1
. (used as an expletive); the hell.—also used with
in
. [The phrase
why
or
what the puck
in the 1864 and
a
1903 quotations is precisely synonymous with
why the devil
; the similarity of both the phonetics
and the construction may have influenced the development of the present usage of
fuck
.]

[
1864
S. LeFanu in
Oxford English Dictionary
(ed. 2) under
puck, n
.: And why the puck don’t you let her out?] [
a
1903
in
English Dialect Dictionary
under
puck, n.
: What the puck are you doing?]
1934
H. Roth
Call It Sleep
23 [refers to
ca
1910]: An de nex’ time watch out who de fuck yer chas—.
1936
M. Levin
Old Bunch
122: Where the f—you think you’re trying to horn in?…Who the f— wants to ride in your robber hacks anyway?
1942
H. Miller
Roofs of Paris
23: I don’t know what the fuck to say.
1943
R. Tregaskis
Invasion Diary
45: You f—g eight balls get the f— off this God-damn hill before I rap this rifle-barrel around your neck!
1945
in T. Shibutani
Derelicts of Company K
291: Where in the fuck’s that truck?
1951
American Journal of Sociology
XXXVII 138: But what the f—, that’s his business.
Ibid.
140: Sure, they’re a bunch of f—ng squares, but who the f— pays the bills?
1959
W. Burroughs
Naked Lunch
33: How in the fuck should I know?
1962
G. Mandel
Wax Boom
273: I might blow my top…if people don’t start leaving me the fuck alone!
1963–64
K. Kesey
Sometimes a Great Notion
6: He don’t even the fuck know!
1968
J. Schell
Military Half
185: Abruptly, someone called out, “Where the fuck are we?”
1971
L. Bangs in
Psychotic Reactions
(1987) 86: Why’n the fuck d’ya think?
1977
Illinois photographer, age
ca
25: What the flying fuck is he talking about?
1979
National Lampoon
(Dec.) 59: I go to Medicine Hat, way the holy fuck up in fuckin’ Alberta, Canada, man.
1966–80
J. McAleer & B. Dickson
Unit Pride
128: “Did you ever see such a screwy bunch?”…“Guess the fuck I ain’t.”
a
1987
C. Bunch & A. Cole
Reckoning for Kings
42: “Looks that way.” “What the fuck, over.”
1990
L. Bing
Do or Die
218: What the fuck I want to change for?
1997
New York Magazine
(June 16) 81: It’s always those people who get harassed and picked on who flip the fuck out.
1997
A. Bourdain
Chef’s Night Out
in K. Williamson
Rovers Return
(1998) 137: Save me from vegetarians and the lactose-intolerant. Deliver me from the tyranny of the food critics, for they know not what the fuck they do.
1998
G. Ritchie
Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels
92:
Dog
(
seeing an unconscious man at his feet
): What the fuck did you do to Fauntleroy?
Plank
(
fumbling and panicking
): I didn’t touch him, he just passed out.
1999
F. Renzulli “
Toodle-fucking-oo
” (television shooting script) in
Sopranos
(2nd Ser.) 6: I don’t know Carm’. I yelled. What
the fuck else could I do?
2004
J. Jameson & N. Strauss
How to Make Love Like Porn Star
i. xi. 82: What the fuck did you do with my meth?… The whole fucking bag is gone.

2
. (used to introduce a response expressing emphatic disagreement); “the hell”; “like hell.” Also: (used as an expletive); “what the fuck?”, etc.

1965
S. Linakis
In Spring the War Ended
50 [refers to WWII]: “They don’t keep you locked up.”…“The fuck they don’t.”
1966
F. L. Keefe
The Investigating Officer
184: “This one I happen to remember very well.” “The fuck you do.”
1970–71
J. Rubinstein
City Police
328: “You ain’t [arresting] my mother.” …“The fuck I ain’t.”
1974
G.V. Higgins
Cogan’s Trade
4: The fuck you sell driving lessons to people.
1975
J. Sepe & L. Telano
Cop Team
148: The fuck I am!
1983
P. Dexter
God’s Pocket
65: The fuck I have, you think I’m crazy?
1998
J. Cahill
Boca
in
Sopranos
((television shooting script) 1st Ser. 2) 7:
Vin Makazian has just come in, blinded by the relative darkness. Tony goes to meet him.
Tony: The fuck you doing here?
1998
M. Burgess & R. Green
Isabella
in
Sopranos
((television shooting script) 1st Ser. 1) 3:
Jimmy
: How many of these things you gotta go to, huh? Brendan Filone’s mother at that kid’s funeral: The way she carried on.
Junior
: The fuck?
2000
W. Monahan
Light House
xxvi. 145: “Give me another one.” “No more drink.” “The fuck you say.”

3
. daylights; hell; used in phrases of the sort
to — the fuck out of
to ——(a person or thing) to an excessive, violent, unpleasant, or powerful extent.

1957
N. Coward
Diary
(Feb. 17) (2000) 349: I am very old indeed and cannot understand why the younger generation, instead of knocking at the door, should bash the fuck out of it.
1960
N. Coward
Diary
(June 19) (2000) 442: There was a real blazing row in the course of which Peggy and I roared at him, banged the table and generally frightened the fuck out of him.
1970
G. Slick in
Rolling Stone
(Nov. 12) 28/1: When they busted me in Hawaii I even got another guy out of jail, a spade cat they’d busted the night before and beat fuck out of, and we just bailed him out.
1972
College student: There’s only one thing left to do—beat the fuck out of you.
1974
B. Greene
Billion Dollar Baby
87: I always wanted to beat the
fuck out of somebody on stage.
1985
S. Braudy
What the Movies Made Me Do
102: All I want is to act the fuck out of the best role I ever had in my life.
1987
B. E. Ellis
Rules of Attraction
111: But thinking about it bores the fuck out of me so I just walk around the dorm for a while and then split.
1987
O. Hawkins
Scars & Memories
140: It pains the fuck out of me sometimes, in a beautiful way, to think that I learned, figured out, studied a bunch of garbage, to become intellectually intelligent.
1989
Life
(July) 27: “This s—, literally, scares the f—outta me.”…girl, 15.
1999
L. Leblanc
Pretty in Punk
iv. 104: Hey, Tad, Cooper, we gotta beat the fuck out of Chris.
2003
M. McDonagh
Pillowman
53: I’d’ve tortured the fuck out of them if I had them here, just like I’m gonna torture the fuck out of you now too.
2004
T. Lee & A. Bozza
Tommy Land
102: Every night after our show, we’d party all night in whatever town we were in…then show up in a new town the next morning, rock the fuck out of it, fuck the fuck out of it, and move on again.

the fuck of it
, the fun of it; the hell of it.

1970
College student: I’d beat him up just for the fuck of it.
1976
S. Hayden
Voyage
196: Take a look. Just fer the fuck of it.
1985
D. Bodey
F.N.G.
174: I wonder if he is doing it officially or just for the fuck of it.
1990
L. Bing
Do or Die
123: Who’s gonna die “for the fuck of it”?
1994
“Nine Inch Nails”
Big Man with a Gun
(rock song): Maybe I’ll put a hole in your head you know, just for the fuck of it.
1995
T. Rebeck
Family of Mann
44: I drove through Compton just for the fuck of it, and that scared me so bad I went back to Beverly Hills.
2000
W. T. Vollmann
Royal Family
438: I wish we had more time to plan and shit. Just for the fuck of it we can…we can…oh, Henry, it’s gonna be over so soon.
2006
D. Kalla
Rage Therapy
113: “Why would I make it up?” Attention seeking? Manipulation? Just for the fuck of it? I kept the thoughts to myself.

to fuck
, very much, a great deal; “to hell.”

1919
W.H. Downing
Digger Dialects
12:
Blow-to-fook
, shatter to fragments.
1970
H. S. Thompson
Letter
(Jan. 29) in
Fear & Loathing in Amer.
(2000) 277: I wish to fuck I could lay off some kind of healing wisdom—for either one of us.
1978
L. Kramer
Faggots
135: He’s medium height, reddish-blond, very handsome, and I wish to fuck he would hurry up.
1986
R. Hewitt
White Talk Black Talk
i. 27: But then I thought I’d be cut to fuck. I mean I’d be stabbed. I knew it.
1994
J. Kelman
How Late it Was
17: Mind
you he once telt it to a woman and it annoyed her to fuck, she thought it was a load of bullshit.
2002
Time Out
(Jan. 2) 111/3: Because it’s a soul album…modernised and styled to fuck, for sure, but simultaneously dignified, mellifluous, tough, funky and exquisitely, properly soulful.
2003
A. Swofford
Jarhead
212: Word has it that two light-armored-vehicle crew members were blown to fuck yesterday by friendly fire—an A-10 Warthog dropped a bomb on them, by mistake, a big fucking devastating bomb,
by mistake
.

fuck
adjective

describing, depicting, or involving copulation; pornographic; erotic.—used before a noun.

1941
W.C. Williams
Letter
(Jan. 6) in Witemeyer
Williams-Laughlin
(1989) 61: You’ve got to feed ’em the bunk—love and war and all the old fuck stuff.
1942–44
in
American Speech
(Feb. 1946) 33:
F—k Books, n
. Sexy pulp magazines.
1950
E. Hemingway in
Selected Letters
(1981) 694: They start writing those over-detailed fuck scenes.
1966
in G. L. Steinbrook
Allies & Mates
70: A boy approached me and asked if I wanted to buy some “f--k pictures.”
1966
Fry
Slang Transcript
: Will show fuck movies.
1967
N. Mailer
Why We Are in Vietnam
27: Pretending to write a…fuck book in revenge.
1967
J. Rechy
Numbers
105: I got some fuck-movies at home.
1969
in M. J. Estren
History of Underground Comics
(1974) 11: The State University will never contain any “fuck books.”
1975
T. Berger
Sneaky People
60: He’s got a fuck-book there, too.
1975
C. Skinner
Carol’s Curious Passion
23: You mean, I might have a career with Bobby in fuck films?
1976
“N. Ross”
Policeman
105: Phil liked to hear fuck stories on stakeouts.
1981
National Lampoon
(Aug.) 68: Let’s turn this solemn occasion into a real fuck party.
1984
J.R. Reeves
Mekong
12: Bullshitting, kidding, telling fuck jokes.
1987
H. Zeybel
Gunship
6: I’d watched the live fuck shows in the Angeles night clubs.
1994
M. Gilmore
Shot in the Heart
166: If a girl went out with Gary… they knew it was a fuck date. That was his reputation.
1995
V. Chandra
Red Earth & Pouring Rain
392: The thing was, I’d been negotiating for months with a major studio, which, with an already Oscared director, was trying to put together that elusive thing—a mainstream fuck film, you know, big budget, cast of thousands, maybe some real stars.
1998
New Yorker
(Apr. 6) 89: A stack of fuck books on one side of the toilet.
a
2002
S.-L. Parks
Topdog/underdog
49: I was over there looking for something the other week and theres like 100 fuck books under yr bed and theyre matted together
like a bad fro, bro, cause you spunked in the pages and didnt wipe them off.
2002
I. Welsh
Porno
42: They make their fuck films and show clips of them on the Net.