The F-Word (39 page)

fucking
adverb

exceedingly; damned; (often used with reduced force for emphasis).

a
1890–93
J. S. Farmer & W. E. Henley
Slang & Its Analogues
III 80:
Fucking… Adv.
(common) Intensive and expletive; a more violent form of
bloody.
1918
in E. Wilson
Prelude
210: The situation is fucking serious!
1918
E. Pound in J. Joyce
Letters
II 424: The world is too fucking with us.
1929
F. Manning
Middle Parts of Fortune
6 [refers to WWI]: They can say what they bloody well like.… but we’re a fuckin’ fine mob.
1933
C. H. Ford & P. Tyler
Young & Evil
31: It’s too fucking cold to be running around trying to raise fifty dollars.
1934
H. Miller in
Letters to Emil
(1989) 153: I’m getting fucking critical of people.
Ibid.
156: Maybe I’ll get…fucking famous one day.
1942
H. Miller
Roofs of Paris
250: I’m so fucking mad now that I don’t care what she does.
1948
N. Mailer
Naked & Dead
10: Pretty fuggin funny.
1956
T. T. Chamales
Never So Few
510: You’re asking too fucking much of me.
1963
S. Hayden
Wanderer
126: You’re pretty fucking dumb, kid, you know that.
1964
A. Sexton in
Letters
254: It’s too fucking hard to write.
1969–71
R. Kahn
Boys of Summer
312: “Well, how did you get to play it like that?” “I worked, that’s fucking how.”
1973
R. Roth
Sand in Wind
83: STOP! FUCKING STOP!
1977
R. Caron
Go-Boy
152: I’ll be fucking seeing you later.
1979
B. Gutcheon
New Girls
12: “You’re very fucking rude, Lisa,” said Jenny.
1987
T. Wolfe
Bonfire of Vanities
47: Why did you just fucking stand there, doing nothing?
1993
New Yorker
(Jan. 11) 78: I’m getting out of here, you fucking crazy.
1998
B. Elton
Blast from Past
ii. 15: You can’t just fucking use me—talk to me at the office and refuse to speak when I call.
2004
J. Meno
Hairstyles of
Damned
113: I mean, he fucking told that girl Laura that she is his “ideal woman.” Can you even believe that shit?

-fucking-
infix

(used for emphasis in the middle of a word or set phrase). See also
ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY, FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC, GUARANFUCKINGTEE
.

1921
Notes & Queries
(Nov. 19) 415 [refers to WWI]: Words were split up to admit [
fucking
]: “absolutely” became “abso—lutely,” and Armentières became Armen—teers.” “Bloody”…quite lapsed as being too polite and inexpressive.
1939
(quotation at fucked duck).
1945
in
Verbatim
(Autumn, 1989) 5: Twenty-fxxxing-four faces to feed. Blame it on your anti-fxxx’n-aircraft units, mate.
1952
in M. Russ
Last Parallel
13: Reveille goes tomorrow at four o’fuckin’ clock.
1957
J. Kerouac
Letter
(Oct. 1) in
Selected Letters 1957–69
(1999) 66: Bottles of Old Granddad, big articles in Sat. Review, in World Telly, everyfuckingwhere, everybody mad, Brooklyn College wanted me to lecture to eager students and big geek questions to answer.
1962
E. Sagarin
Anatomy of Dirty Words
148: Irrefuckinsponsible, imfuckinpossible, unfuckinconscious,… unfuckinsociable.
1965
C. Brown
Manchild in the Promised Land
86: I wondered if he thought he was Jesus or some fucking body like that.
1966
R. Fariña
Been Down So Long
84: He gets himself infuckingvolved.
1968
W. Mares
Marine Machine
xii: Outfucking-standing, Private Smith!
1968
R. Gover
JC
158: That’s the ee-fuckin-
end
of it.
1971
Playboy
(Mar.) 189: Unfucking-believable!
1971
W. Sonzski
Punch Goes the Judy
19: Tele-
fucking
-phone for you.
1972
D. Pearce
Pier Head Jump
6: It’s un-fuckin-believable sometimes.
Ibid.
156: Six o’fuckin’ clock.
1973
McA. Layne
How Audie Murphy Died in Vietnam
(unpaged): Do me one more favor, Private. Dis-a-fuckin-pear!
1975
C.W. Smith
Country Music
230: How po-fucking-etic!
1978
R. Price
Ladies’ Man
128: Go away. Go afuckin’way.
1985
in
Maledicta
8 (1984–85) 244: Of all the cocksucking, cuntlicking, asshole ideas I’ve ever heard of, this is the most unfuckingbelievable.
1998
T. Junod in
Esquire
(Nov.) 136: Holy shit! It’s Mister Fucking Rodgers!
2002
B. James
Middleman
i. 11: If ever Corbett incorporated himself he would call the company No Man’s Fucking Land.
2004
D. Barry in J. Williams
Wales, Half Welsh
200: Very calmly, she said, “Where is she, then? If you know.” “I don’t know.… She’s still back home. or in Timbuc-fucking-too, as far as I care.”
2008
A. Davies
Mine All Mine
111: You’re such a clownus. They don’t speak Flemish in Netherfuckingland.

fucking A
noun

the least bit.

1966
S. Stevens
Go Down Dead
203: Youth workers. Shit on them. They don’t know fucking A about us.

fucking-A
adverb, adjective, interjection
, &
infix
[
FUCKING
+
a
(origin unknown; perhaps taken from a phrase such as
“you’re fucking A-number-one right!
”)]

1.a
. Especially
Military
. yes, indeed; absolutely (correct); especially in phrase:
[you’re] fucking-A
, occasionally with elaborations, especially
fucking-A [well] told
.

1948
N. Mailer
Naked & Dead
21 [refers to WWII]: “You’re fuggin ay,” Gallegher snorted.
1961
J. Jones
Thin Red Line
137 [refers to WWII]: “No, I never.” “You fucking A you never.”
1961
J. Peacock
Valhalla
181 [refers to 1953]: Fucking A.
1967
M. Crowley
Boys in the Band
827: Fuckin’ A, Mac.
1967
D. Brelis
Face of South Vietnam
29: “It can’t be the same kid.” “You’re fuckin’ A, it’s the same fuckin’ kid.”
1969
J. Briley
Traitors
273: You’re fucking A I had to work.
1969
G. Sidney
For the Love of Dying
146: Fuckingeigh.
1970
D. Wakefield
Going All the Way
42 [refers to
ca
1950s]: Fuckin-A John Do.
1970
J. Bouton
Ball Four
vii. 389: We also talked about the expressions we used in high school.… If somebody said, “Are you taking Louise to the dance,” you had to say, “Fuckin’ ay I am.”
1970
D. Ponicsan
Last Detail
171: Fucking-ay-John Ditty-Bag-well-told I don’t.
1970
W. C. Woods
Killing Zone
143: Fuckin-A-well-told.
Ibid.
Fuckin-A-number-one-well-told.
1975
M. Larsen
Runner
38: Your fucking A told he is.
Ibid.
“Fucking A told,” Antonino agreed.
1982
H. Berry
Semper Fi, Mac
192 [refers to WWII]: “Hey, Bull, you going on liberty?” “Fuckin’ A doodle de doo.”
1985
J. Dillinger
Adrenaline
199: “You were traumatized.” “You’re fuckin’ A we were traumatized.”
1978
W. B. McCloskey Jr.
Highliners
(1980) Epilog 385: “You’d take me back?” “You’re fuckin’ A!… Need airfare?”
1985
N. Kazan
At Close Range
(film): “Looks like a nice gun.” “Fucking-A-plus it’s a nice gun.”
1988
S. Rushdie
Satanic Verses
(1998) 245: Her sister nodded assent: “Crucial. Fucking A.”

b
. (used to express astonishment, dismay, or recognition).

1979
C. Hiler
Monkey Mountain
[refers to 1972] 103: “Three pair and…the deuce of spades.”…“Fuckin’ A!”
1980
J. Carroll
Land of Laughs
168: Fuck-ing
A
!…The guy who walked around the world!
1988
C. Eble
Campus Slang
4:
Fuckin’ A
—exclamation, either positive or negative. “What? A Quiz today?…Fuckin’ A!”
1992
Vanity Fair
(July) 130: Fookin’ A, she looks good.
1997
New Yorker
(Aug. 18) 51: I jumped out of my chair. Fucking A! I love football!
1997
L. Yablonsky
Story of Junk
253: Mary’s no junkie, just a mule, and now she’s stoned. Fucking A.
2001
S. King
Dreamcatcher
ii. 85: He lost his rifle, too. A brand-new Remington .30-.30, fuckin A, you won’t never see that again.

c
. splendid.

1986
J. C. Stinson & J. Carabatsos
Heartbreak Ridge
29: The night had gone from fucking-A to all-fucked-up in record time.
1986
R. Chapman
New Dictionary of American Slang
: We won? Fucking a!
1987
W. Pelfrey & J. Carabatsos
Hamburger Hill
51 [refers to Vietnam War]: The ham’s fucking A, Ma.

2.a
. Especially
Military
. (used as an intensifier); =
FUCKING
; god-damned. [The 1955 quotation is euphemistic.]

1955
J. Sack
Here to Shimbashi
18: “That was a mighty freaking-A loud sneeze,” declared the sergeant major.
1968
E. Bullins
In the Wine Time
389: That’s right…that’s fucken “A” right.
1986
L. Heinemann
Paco’s Story
20: Guys with their chests squashed flat from fuckin’-A booby-trapped bombs.
1987
B. Raskin
Hot Flashes
87: “That was too-fucking-A-much,” Joanne says tersely.
1998
Schizo
(#3) [inside front cover]: I can see you cum and cum…and finally DIE, all at the same fuckin-A time!
2003
N.Y. Magazine
(May 5) 32/2: “We’re the fucking-A greatest,” he told employees, and then, shirtless, rolled onto his desk and did twenty push-ups.
2003
M. Lewis
Moneyball
ix. 193: This is the time to make a fucking A trade.

b
.
FUCKING WELL
; very well; very; absolutely.

1960
G. Sire
Deathmakers
211 [refers to WWII]: You can fucking-aye say that again.
Ibid.
262: You fucking-aye have spoken, Captain.
1968
N. C. Heard
Howard Street
72: You fuckin’-A-right!
1970
Evergreen Review
(Apr.) 66: You know fucking-A I deserve it, Krim, now where is
it going to be published?
1970
P. Appleman
In the Twelfth Year of the War
89: You hear, I do not fuckin’-aye
intend
it!
1972
D. Ponicsan
Cinderella Liberty
8: No one knew who first got carried away…and wound up with the melodious inventive “Fuckin’ aye John Ditty Bag,” but since then any number of sailors have gilded the lily and produced things like, “Fuckin’ well told aye John Ditty Bag I be go to hell on a forklift!”
1973
B. Hirschfeld
Generation of Victors
38: Now that is fucking-A important.
1973
“J. Godey”
Pelham
151: He fucking-aye-right
better
be.
1976
C. R. Anderson
Grunts
78 [refers to 1969]: You know fucking A well you can’t ask the man no dumbass question like that.
1978
L. K. Truscott
Dress Gray
443: You could fuckin’-A say that again.
1981
W. T. Hathaway
World of Hurt
209: You’re my fuckin’-A favorite ridge-runner.
a
1982
H. Berry
Semper Fi, Mac
192:
Fuckin’ A told
or
Fuckin’ A right
were everyday expressions [in the Marine Corps during WWII].
1985
R. Frede
Nurses
237: I am fucking-A
ripped!
1985
D. Bodey
F.N.G.
4: Marines. Fuckin’-A filthy.
1998
R. B. Parker
Trouble in Paradise
80: We’re just going to fucking-A find that out, aren’t we, my little chickadee?
a
1999
D. F. Wallace
Signifying Nothing
in
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
(1999) 78: I know, for fucking-“A” sure, my father was not going to say anything to her about it.