FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Short answers. Each links to the page with the long one.
- Is fuck an acronym?
- No. "Fornication Under Consent of the King", "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" and similar stories are 20th-century inventions. The word is recorded from 1310, long before English formed words from initials. It is a Germanic word with cousins in Dutch, German and the Scandinavian languages. More →
- Is fuck an Anglo-Saxon word?
- Probably not in the strict sense. It does not appear in any Old English text. It is Germanic, but may have been borrowed from Dutch, Low German or Norse during the Middle Ages, or may simply have gone unwritten. The Oxford English Dictionary lists the origin as uncertain. More →
- What is the earliest recorded use of fuck?
- A man called Roger Fuckebythenavele, named in the Chester county court rolls in 1310 and 1311. The earliest use as a word rather than a name is in the poem Flen flyys, written in cipher around 1475. More →
- What does fuck actually mean?
- Literally, to have sexual intercourse. In practice its main modern uses are figurative: to ruin (fucked), to fail (fuck up), to meddle (fuck with), to dismiss (fuck off), and as a general intensifier (fucking) or exclamation (fuck!). More →
- Is it illegal to say fuck in the UK?
- Not in itself. Swearing can be an offence under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 if it is abusive and likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to someone who hears it, and in 2011 the High Court held that police officers are unlikely to be distressed by it. Swearing at people in the street can still lead to arrest. Broadcasting it before 9pm breaches the Ofcom code. More →
- Who first said fuck on television?
- In Britain, the critic Kenneth Tynan on the BBC late-night programme BBC-3 on 13 November 1965. He said he doubted there were "any rational people to whom the word fuck would be particularly diabolical, revolting or totally forbidden". More →
- When did fuck enter the dictionary?
- It was in Florio's Italian-English dictionary of 1598 and Bailey's English dictionary of 1721, then vanished from respectable dictionaries for about 250 years. The American Heritage Dictionary included it in 1969 and the Oxford English Dictionary in its 1972 Supplement. More →
- Why does swearing help with pain?
- Research at Keele University found people could keep a hand in ice-cold water for longer, and reported less pain, while repeating a swear word. Swearing appears to trigger a mild stress response that dampens pain. Made-up words do not work; the taboo is what matters. More →
- Is feck the same word as fuck?
- Not originally. Feck is an Irish and Scots word with older senses of to steal and to throw, but in modern Hiberno-English it works as a milder stand-in for fuck, which is why Father Ted could use it freely at teatime. More →
- How many times can a PG-13 film say fuck?
- Under the US MPA guidelines, once, as long as it is not used sexually. A second use normally pushes the film to R unless the ratings board votes otherwise. In the UK the BBFC allows infrequent strong language at 12A and frequent strong language at 15. More →
- Which film uses fuck the most?
- By most counts the 2014 Canadian comedy Swearnet: The Movie, with over 900 uses, followed by the 2005 documentary Fuck. Among mainstream films The Wolf of Wall Street and Uncut Gems are usually put at between 500 and 600 each. Counts vary by method. More →
- What is the rule for abso-fucking-lutely?
- The expletive goes immediately before the syllable with the main stress, and only if at least one whole foot of the word comes before it. Abso-fucking-lutely works; ab-fucking-solutely does not. The linguist John McCarthy described the rule in 1982. More →
- Is this a porn site?
- No. It is a reference site about a word: its etymology, history, grammar, psychology, cultural history and legal status. There is no adult content here, only adult language. More →
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