Is it true that F.uck derives from Fornication Under Consent of the King? According to History...?

Answer 1

The word actually originated among the English and French knights during the Middle Ages. The english had cut-off the middle finger of captured French archers. The French, when facing the English in Battle, yelled "pluck you" which was the initial derivative or taunt that we've come to know. Prior to battles, the combatants used to hurl slurs against each other, eg, showing their asses and front, hurling the severed heads of their dead comrades, and yes, the f-bomb. Now you know why people always say "excuse my French" when they use the f-bomb.

Answer 2

No. F.uck was a perfectly good Anglo-Saxon verb meaning "to have sex." When the Normans conquered England, French became the official language and Anglo-Saxon, used by the common folk, was considered to be vulgar.

Another perfectly good Anglo-Saxon word that fell into disuse for the same reason was "sh.it"

Answer 3

This has always fascinated the know-alls of false etymology, especially those who see acronyms everywhere.

Jesse Sheidlower, in "The F-Word", his examination of the word's origins and usage based on the researches of Jonathan Lighter, says that acronymic suggestions for its origin only began to appear in the 1960s, at about the time when the traditional taboos on printing it were beginning to decline. If you hunt about you will find quite a number, all variations on a theme:
The origin was in the 15th century, when a married couple
had to have permission from the king to procreate. Hence,
FORNICATION UNDER CONSENT OF THE KING.

During the time of the Puritans, a person imprisoned in the
stocks would have his or her crime displayed on the timbers.
Because space was tight, when adultery was involved they
used the acronym F.UCK, which represented the words FOR
UNLAWFUL CARNAL KNOWLEDGE.

It originated as a medical diagnostic notation relating to
soldiers in the British Army. When a soldier reported sick
and was found to have VD, the abbreviation was stamped
on his documents, short for FOUND UNDER CARNAL
KNOWLEDGE.

There are many variations, probably all nonsense. As is the
story that "f.uck" was commonly used in Chaucerian times in
the sense of "dibble". A farmer would use his thumb to f.uck or dibble the soil, to make a hole into which he then dropped a
seed. There is no evidence that the word was ever used in that sense.

"F.uck" is often classed as one of the archetypal Anglo-Saxon four-letter words, but it isn't Anglo-Saxon - it wasn't recorded
until the 15th century. The first appearance is in a poem dated sometime before 1500 that satirises the Carmelite friars of Cambridge. It includes the line "Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk". The code can be easily broken
to read "Non sunt in coeli, quia fuccant vvivys of heli". This translates as "They are not in heaven because they f.uck wives of Ely" . "Fuccant" looks like latin, but it's a humorous fake - f.uck is actually Germanic, related to Middle Dutch "Fokken", Norwegian "fukka" and Swedish "focka".

The word seems, from the beginning, to have been regarded
as unacceptable in polite company. It remained literally unprintable until the 1960s other than in privately circulated material, though it has been in regular use in speech. In 1948,
the publishers of Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead"
forced him to rewrite it as "fug", leading to the, probably apocryphal, story that Dorothy Parker remarked on meeting him, "So, you're the young man who can't spell f.uck?".

Answer 4

The root of the "F" word is, in fact, Flemish. It was a word used to describe the rhythmic beating of a bird's wings, and obvious connotations were drawn later as the language evolved through mixing with Angle and Saxon languages. Acronyms are a recent development in language and post date the first use of the "F" word by quite some time.

Answer 5

No, it's rubbish. Also the archers and v-sign thing.
**** - anglo-saxon word with indo-european roots. Scots poem on James IV 'he fukkid like a furious fornicatour'.
V-sign - true what my dad said when I asked him: 'haven't you heard of that opera songer, Ophelia C.unt?'

Answer 6

Both your story and the Plucking of the Yew story have floated around for ages.

From the Etymology Dictionary - http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=f&p=14 The earliest examples of the word otherwise are from Scottish, which suggests a Scandinavian origin, perhaps from a word akin to Norw. dial. fukka "copulate"

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Answer 7

No, it's an urban myth. the other interpretation is For Use of Carnal Knowledge.

Answer 8

I always understood that it was Anglo Saxon.

Answer 9

No, you are incorrect. It is an ancient anglo-saxon word (like so many, now improper words, for sex and sexual organs and other bodily functions)