by elfin_odalisque
Very witty, very good.
I read somewhere many years ago that "fuck" was originally an Olde English word meaning "to plant." The proper usage would have been e.g. "to fuck a seed into the ground." This evolved into using the word to describe men planting their own seed, not into the ground.
Don't remember where I read it.
A very interesting amusing and informative article. Thank you for the diligence of your research and humuorous way with which you imparted your knowledge. Its good to read an intelligent and thoughtful article in literotica.
PS Now you've made ME horny! Thank you.
Quite amusing AND educational. I have always enjoyed semantics, but never experienced quite the equal of this piece. Bravo!
Amazing work! Just fantastic. I have the hardest time writing erotica that is for the 'common man'. -smiling- I just can't do it! Pussy, gaping maw, ... they just won't work for me. -laughing- This is almost a tribute to my difficulty with the crass and barbaric. Beautiful!
Like you, I am fascinated by words and their derivations. As a fellow Brit, I'm disappointed with your preference for 'ass' over 'arse', and I much prefer 'knickers' to 'panties' - which, like 'ass' and 'pussy', seems a wimpish word to my [male] ear. However, I wasn't aware of the provenance of 'knickers', imagining it the other way round - that Diedrich Knickerbocker was an invented name echoing the character's choice of clothing. So thank you for that.
Wasn't 'fuck' used a few times in 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', somewhat earlier than 'From Here To Eternity'? If it had been printed when Lawrence wrote it, instead of waiting for Penguin to take a chance, it would have won the race by many years.
Anyway, keep up the good work, and thanks for a lot of fun and pleasure.
"there were laws in the US and the UK banning its use in publication."
Name one!
" it was only with James Jones's 'From Here to Eternity' in 1950 that 'fuck' found its way into print"
Tell that to Chaucer!
Quack historiocal linguistics!
To 'anonymous in china' Fuck was specifically banned from print by the Obscene Publications Act 1857 (UK) and the Comstock Act 1873 (US). Chaucer and others used variants, such as fuccant and fukkit, and as I said, a thousand years ago the word was not so shocking.
Norman Mailer and Hemingway used words like 'fug' and 'muck' to convey the idea.
I did do my research and would have liked to correspond with you.
I wish I could give this a "6" on the 1 to 5 scale. Fun and feisty.
Over here, schoolboys (of all ages) still get the horn - rather than a hard-on. I've heard girl's say it too. BTW, reinforcing an earlier comment. I understood that "fuck" had a common root in Anglo Saxon with "furrow"; thus "ploughing rather" than "planting". My dictionary says otherwise but I want to believe it. Plough me!
Sent originally (in error) as anonymous feedback - the piece deserves to be puiblicly lauded, so here's the text of my anonymous feedback:-
Very nice, amusing, entertaining, and enlightening! I too enjoy word-play, like Spoonerisms (maybe not Spoonerisms, but something close - letter-swaps/sweater-lops, anyway) - such as fire truck/try a fuck.
I thought you may be interested to know I came across the term "cunt-splice" (I'm pretty sure that was the term), in one of the splendid novels of Patrick O'Brian (the Aubrey-Maturin series on the naval portion of the Napoleonic wars) - something to do with a particular thing seamen do with ropes, or so it appeared from the context. O'Brian has a reputation for historical accuracy, so the term may well be legitimate.
Thanks again for a most enjoyable essay.
NOw all of the neighborhood kids can get rid of their Collins or American Heritage and just pick up their copy of Odalisque! Great research -- and a good read. A well-deserved prize-winner.
I loved it, my only complaint is the lack of origing for "cum" I remember hearing is a high school religion class that it comes from a greek word through multiple translations. I'll see what I can find.
An absolutely fantastic article; enjoyable, informative and inspiring! And I agree, "cunt" over "sword-sheath" any day; women shouldn't be defined in terms of useful objects for male weaponry!
As a child of immigrants, I understand that the root of "fuck" is still in common usage in the Netherlands and elsewhere. A "fokker" is one who breeds animals, for specific traits, etc. It is pronounced with a short 'o' somewhere between the NA "pop" and "up".
Much of the etymology was well researched, and what's more important, well delivered. Thank you.
We couldn't ask for a better tour guide down the long road of euphemistic evolution!
We use "Cao!" to express the "Fuck"!
"Cao Ni Ma" means "fuck your mother".
Or in Guangdong and Guangxi, the southern part of China, the local people say "Diu(sounds like "Deal") to mean "fuck".
You have invented a new university course: Hot Etymology. Sign me up for seminars!
Story writers should take time to research this essay. Interesting look at the meaning of words.
Brilliant and interesting. Maybe a little too clever for your average reader. I suspect you are extra-intelligent in ways I could not explain to anyone that is not. Dont give up. 'They do not know what they are doing' to paraphrase a certain biblical character, on the verge of being murdered. Keep in touch. And dont spare the genius.
Again I lament that this system only allows 5*
Just to get slightly off the subject I had a raging (?) argument with a very ostentatious young man when I claimed to be much more 'gay' than him as I was laughing.
I love words, and it's always fun to know where they came from. This was an informative and enjoyable read.
Lovely rumination on origins and usage. In good writing there is often the dilemma between precision and poetry, in erotic writing the poetry should always win out (if not overwrought, when things become woefully ridiculous - 'tunnel of love' - spare me.) While some literotica writing is quite good (not a lot) I am surprised there are not more innovative attempts using the literary arts of metaphor. In describing erotically sensual events one runs into the same issues that those who write about other sense topics: the food and wine critics who come up with bizarre baroque terminology - the 'prismatic luminescence' school of description. Yet I yearn for more erotically experimental verbal utilisation than simple crude word usage.
thank you for this trip through the world of erotic words, i've come back to it a couple of times : not much at lit. makes me laugh that wholeheartedly ...
"embrasser Fanny" (= kiss Fanny), that's what a loser - or losing team - by 13 points to nil in a game of pétanque has to do and you'll find lots of pictures of Fannys (not fannies) on google images when you search there with these two French keywords. There is a very beautiful semi-relief of a Fanny in the room next to the bar at the grand café at Grasse. You can't miss it on the way to the loo, but you may not recognise it as the curtains may be closed - pink lacquered Fanny is in the wooden box some 40 cm wide and 50 cm high if i remember well, and fixed on the wall at just the right level for applying a kiss (mind you, that's reseved for losers) ... if you would like me to send you a picture, just le me have your mail