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Origin of "F" word
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What is the real origin of the "F" word?
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Copied from Googles on-line dictionary.
Word History: The obscenity F is a very old word and has been considered shocking from the first, though it is seen in print much more often now than in the past. Its first known occurrence, in code because of its unacceptability, is in a poem composed in a mixture of Latin and English sometime before 1500. The poem, which satirizes the Carmelite friars of Cambridge, England, takes its title, �Flen flyys,� from the first words of its opening line, �Flen, flyys, and freris,� that is, �fleas, flies, and friars.� The line that contains F reads �Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk.� The Latin words �Non sunt in coeli, quia,� mean �they [the friars] are not in heaven, since.� The code �gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk� is easily broken by simply substituting the preceding letter in the alphabet, keeping in mind differences in the alphabet and in spelling between then and now: I was then used for both I and j; v was used for both u and v; and vv was used for w. This yields �fvccant [a fake Latin form] vvivys of heli.� The whole thus reads in translation: �They are not in heaven because they F wives of Ely [a town near Cambridge].�
Word History: The obscenity F is a very old word and has been considered shocking from the first, though it is seen in print much more often now than in the past. Its first known occurrence, in code because of its unacceptability, is in a poem composed in a mixture of Latin and English sometime before 1500. The poem, which satirizes the Carmelite friars of Cambridge, England, takes its title, �Flen flyys,� from the first words of its opening line, �Flen, flyys, and freris,� that is, �fleas, flies, and friars.� The line that contains F reads �Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk.� The Latin words �Non sunt in coeli, quia,� mean �they [the friars] are not in heaven, since.� The code �gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk� is easily broken by simply substituting the preceding letter in the alphabet, keeping in mind differences in the alphabet and in spelling between then and now: I was then used for both I and j; v was used for both u and v; and vv was used for w. This yields �fvccant [a fake Latin form] vvivys of heli.� The whole thus reads in translation: �They are not in heaven because they F wives of Ely [a town near Cambridge].�
Snopes, as usual, dispels the acronym myth:
http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/****.htm
If the answerbank censors the last word in the link, you know what it is.
The earliest-recorded direct written use of the word in English was in a poem by the Scottish writer, Dunbar, in 1503. There were earlier coy 'hints' about the word hidden away in written material, as described by Wraith above.
Some people claim it came from the German word 'ficken', meaning 'to strike' or 'to copulate with'. However, the Oxford English Dictionary - the etymology 'bible' - can see no reason to suppose there ever was any such direct connection and simply claims the etymology is unknown. It seems likely, however, that both words, the English and the German, may have had a common root in the ancient Germanic language. The one thing you can take as a certainty is that it is not based on any acronym involving fornication!
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