THAT controversial Anglo Saxon word!!?

Question

Ok so most of us use the F word in some form or another - as an expletive, a term of sexual wanting, to tell someone to go away, etc. etc. No other word can be as many verbs, nouns and adverbs put together. Isn't it a shame it is reviled and has such a stigma against it. I'm certainly not an advocate of it's use by children and before the TV watershed time, so I'm no lentil eating happy hippy peace loving freemason, who says there should be absolutley no censorship (what I sometimes do with my partner behind my curtains would certainly get my bottom spanked by a judge - now that's another story!!) What my question is, is there another language that has a similar word with so many meanings? Just my linguistic curiosity - and if someone knows such a word, they can type it in the answer and it won't get the **** treatment cuz it'll be in a foreign language and the Yahoo obscene word recognition software won't recognise it. Clever that.

Answer 1

In Welsh...Ffwc....A fu*k
Ffwcio...to fu*k
Ffwcia'i o 'ma.......fu*c off.
Ga i dy ffwcio di?....Can I fu*k you?
Dim ffwc o beryg!...no fu*king way!

It sounds much better in Welsh too.Yahoo have n't sussed it...yet.

Answer 2

The f word is not Anglo Saxon. First recorded about 1503. There is no evidence that it is related to the German ficken, although both words mean to copulate. Used as a profanity since 1922.

I've already given the German word, which the Yahoo puritans accept, the French would be something like personne n'en sait FOUTRE rien, which can be translated as f u c k knows.

The reason bloody was frowned upon is because it is blasphemous - it is a contraction of by our Lady - but since we're all upright prots in England now, nobody seems to bother about the word anymore.

Answer 3

The way I heard it was it was Spanish-American War era derived from a popular song song by American Forces with the line ...."Green go the Rushes grow"...which was shortened by the onlookers to the Gringo....since these Gringos were at that time enemy to the people coining the phrase you may deduce your own degree of deroggation.This explanation offers no Mexican connection! I also believe the term N----- had a legitimate origin also in that the slave traders identified their captives as coming from the Niger River area of Africa....this did not make it moral, nor right just a handle that seemed to have lost any meaning since the captives I now see came from several parts of Africa some quite distant from the River. I wonder what reaction would result in applying the term to present day inhabitants of that region ? Lord knows those people have enough trouble without name calling !

Answer 4

Although we hear the f-word frequently in English, we could just as easily use something else with the same versatility. For example, look at the word 'blood' (which, incidentally, has also been historically stigmatized by some English speakers):

blood (n.)
bleed (v.)
bloody, bleeding (adj.), e.g., Get your bloody hands off me!
bloody, bleeding (adv.), e.g., He bloody well better do what I tell him!

Whether another language has a word like the f-word would depend on several things. First, its ability to use words as different parts of speech in general. Remember, English does this with non-taboo words as well:

I bumped my head.
Let's head to the bar.
Put your name in the header.

Also, that language would have to have taboo words, and members of the culture would have to be willing to flout those taboos. Unfortunately, I don't know enough languages to be able to provide you with an example.

Answer 5

There is nothing wrong with profanity. All words have a meaning. Some convey a stronger meaning than other. It is how you use it that really makes the word bad or good. It is all in the context.

One is mistakenly arrogant to think that people who use profanity are uneducated. That kind of thinking will not get you far in life. Contempt is noticeable and dangerous when someone smarter than you uses it against you, which will happen.

To answer your question: Yes, there are other languages that have profanity used in different contexts.

The U.S. english language is unique that it loosly follows that rules of grammar (sometimes we ignore them).

Answer 6

As already stated the f word is actually 15th Century Germanic in origin and wasn't actually used here until fairly recently. In many languages most words that have the same kind of impact (and often multiple meaning) are sacred or holy words or reference. There are several in German, French and Spanish that I can think of (unfortunately i can't spell them accurately), my ex spoke with a dialect from southern Germany and a lot of his swear words were based on religion - but then that part of the world is fairly catholic. Until probably the last 20 years these kind of words were also fairly offensive to many English speakers. I used to get told off for saying 'blimy' as it is a contraction of 'Lord blind me'!

Answer 7

I think swear words are in every culture.. certainly not anything to repeat here in English, if you can't be expressive without a swear word peppered through the conversation you need to do something about your conversational English!
But I do remember my guy coming back from southeast asia and he used to say 'pigdog' an awful lot ;-)

Answer 8

In Catalan, they use Mecàgum (= I sh1t on) in a whole variety of expressions, e.g.:
Mecàgum el cap de Déu = I sh1t on the head of God.
Mecàgum els collons del Pare Sant = I sh1t on the Pope's balls.

In Hausa (spoken in Nigeria etc.) they use "shege !" (literal meaning: 'bastard') as an expletive to express a whole range of feelings - surprise, annoyance, disbelief. It's vulgar, but not nearly as vulgar as the F-word is in English.

Incidentally, I use the F-word very sparingly, mainly because I find it ridiculous and childish to use as an expletive a word that refers to a pleasurable act.

Answer 9

The only place I would not eff and blind is at work, otherwise it can be a very expressive word, but you require some kind of sophistication to do it elegantly and not sound like a twaat.

Answer 10

**** in Italian is "fottere" and has a similar range of meanings, although not quite as many. I suspect it might be a similar situation in many other languages. Incidentally, isn't a hippy freemason a contradiction in terms? :-)

Answer 11

F u c k !

The word is totally overused.

Used in the wrong context and usually as a result of not knowing another word.
(In other words - uneducated).