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Interesting theory



BensGrandad

New member
Jul 13, 2003
72,015
Haywards Heath
Was in a pub this evening and an Irish man was taking the piss out of us English because nobody knew where the word f*** came from. His theory: In the 18/19th century the English landowners sent what we now call bailiffs in to collect their taxes from the workers of the land in Scotland and if they arrived at their house and the couple were making love the bailiffs were unable to collect the taxes so they nailed a notice to the outside of the building stating they couldnt collect the taxes For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge hence the first letters f u c k and according to him this is still the law now. A bailff can not serve a distress warrant if a couple are making love.

I thought it quite an amusing theory.
 




Fixtures

New member
Aug 12, 2007
267
Was in a pub this evening and an Irish man was taking the piss out of us English because nobody knew where the word f*** came from. His theory: In the 18/19th century the English landowners sent what we now call bailiffs in to collect their taxes from the workers of the land in Scotland and if they arrived at their house and the couple were making love the bailiffs were unable to collect the taxes so they nailed a notice to the outside of the building stating they couldnt collect the taxes For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge hence the first letters f u c k and according to him this is still the law now. A bailff can not serve a distress warrant if a couple are making love.

I thought it quite an amusing theory.

If true it puts Geoffrey Chaucer way ahead of his time.
 


Brovion

In my defence, I was left unsupervised.
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2003
20,157
There's so many of those stories about the origins of f.u.c.k, s.h.i.t, g.a.y., etc. - and they're all bollocks. It's an example of a 'backronym' (as opposed to an acronym) where the word exists and people try and work out what it stand for.
 


beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius
Jul 21, 2003
36,299
its germanic/anglo saxon.
 








Brovion

In my defence, I was left unsupervised.
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2003
20,157
I would guess most working people in 17th/18th century Britain would look at the letters F.U.C.K and ask "What the f*** do those squiggles mean?"
 










tedebear

Legal Alien
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
17,299
In my computer
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]."

Courtesy of Dictionary.com
 




seagullsovergrimsby

#cpfctinpotclub
Aug 21, 2005
44,058
Crap Town
Was in a pub this evening and an Irish man was taking the piss out of us English because nobody knew where the word f*** came from. His theory: In the 18/19th century the English landowners sent what we now call bailiffs in to collect their taxes from the workers of the land in Scotland and if they arrived at their house and the couple were making love the bailiffs were unable to collect the taxes so they nailed a notice to the outside of the building stating they couldnt collect the taxes For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge hence the first letters f u c k and according to him this is still the law now. A bailff can not serve a distress warrant if a couple are making love.

I thought it quite an amusing theory.
A similar theory exists about when the infamous Mr Canning went to buy some T shirts from French Connection. After a few bevvies he got to the shop only to find it closed. Peering through the window he could see two of the shop workers at it behind the counter. So , as a conscientious civil servant he wrote the letters F C U K on the door. Later on , this daubing became a multi million marketing ploy by French Connection
 




crodonilson

He/Him
Jan 17, 2005
14,111
Lyme Regis
There's so many of those stories about the origins of f.u.c.k, s.h.i.t, g.a.y., etc. - and they're all bollocks. It's an example of a 'backronym' (as opposed to an acronym) where the word exists and people try and work out what it stand for.

Are you telling me gay doesn't really stand for 'good as you'??

:bigwave:
 






Brovion

In my defence, I was left unsupervised.
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2003
20,157
Are you telling me gay doesn't really stand for 'good as you'??

:bigwave:
Sorry to disappoint you! The apparent catalyst was the song 'Green Carnation' from the 1929 Noel Coward musical 'Bitter Sweet' but there are other, earlier, claims all stemming from the word's sexualised connotation of being a bit, well, daring. It's generally accepted that the 1938 film 'Bringing up Baby' was the first to use the word 'Gay' to mean homosexual and by 1963 the term was well-known enough to be used by Albert Ellis in his book 'The Intelligent woman's guide to Man-hunting'.
 


Buzzer

Languidly Clinical
Oct 1, 2006
26,121
Sorry to disappoint you! The apparent catalyst was the song 'Green Carnation' from the 1929 Noel Coward musical 'Bitter Sweet' but there are other, earlier, claims all stemming from the word's sexualised connotation of being a bit, well, daring. It's generally accepted that the 1938 film 'Bringing up Baby' was the first to use the word 'Gay' to mean homosexual and by 1963 the term was well-known enough to be used by Albert Ellis in his book 'The Intelligent woman's guide to Man-hunting'.

what about 'benny bender'?

It was in common parlance at Durrington Middle School around 1979, I know that much.
 


Superphil

Dismember
Jul 7, 2003
25,839
In a pile of football shirts
I was told that the word derived from the blasphemous "For Christs Sake" which,if you say it out loud, starts with a clear "f***". As using Blasphemy at the time was a serious issue, the term "f***" became synonymous with an offensive expletive. I don't know why it became associated with a word for having sex.
 


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