lordmongrove
Justified & Ancient
- Joined
- May 30, 2009
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It has been around for centuries, I think.Was the phrase as "popular" in 1789?
Could that have been her rendering of a foreign or obsolete expression?Many years ago I was staying at a country house and got talking to one of the family. She claimed there was a ghost in one of the stables and you could hear it shouting.
"What does it shout?" I asked.
"Cuntyhair."
I almost hurt myself laughing but they all swore they'd heard it.
The word 'fuck' certainly has (especially in its original meaning, to beat or batter, hence the 'windfucker' kestrel which hovers by beating its wings against the wind) but I dunno about that actual phrase.It has been around for centuries, I think.
Could that have been her rendering of a foreign or obsolete expression?
As feeble example, in French Comment allez-vous? means 'How are you?' which might sound like 'Cuntyhair'.
(Mind you, a member of a family living in a country house with stables should know enough French to get it right. )
Just a thought.
*nods* Bit o'rough. We all need it now and then.It was many moons ago.
Although I do remember the lady in question being rather fond of me which always sets alarm bells ringing given I look like a rejected model for shopkeeper in a medieval fantasy video game.
We're all a bit of rough to someone.*nods* Bit o'rough. We all need it now and then.
(First time I heard that expression was when my older sister called one of my boyfriends that. She was spot-on. )
Trying to check on the actual phrase.The word 'fuck' certainly has (especially in its original meaning, to beat or batter, hence the 'windfucker' kestrel which hovers by beating its wings against the wind) but I dunno about that actual phrase.
A little off-topic here: in Hollywood's Silent Era there were sometimes complaints about the bad language on screen.Merriam Webster gives first known use as 1929
Fuck was in use in Anglo Saxon times.Was the phrase as "popular" in 1789?
A little off-topic here: in Hollywood's Silent Era there were sometimes complaints about the bad language on screen.
As there was no actual script or dialogue, actors would ad-lib to give the appearance of it.
While the words they were supposed to be saying were displayed in captions, what they actually said was sometimes uncouth.
Brawling characters would not be inviting their opponents to kindly unhand them. Lip-readers could tell.
So one has to wonder, what exactly were those ruffians saying? Could it have included the odd early 'Fuck off!'?
How do you know though? Eh? EH?In the old silent musicals the cast often sand off key.
I'm glad it was, as we would never have been born.Fuck was in use in Anglo Saxon times.
Good god, lady, where did you learn to speak French?!!?As feeble example, in French Comment allez-vous? means 'How are you?' which might sound like 'Cuntyhair'.
The word 'fuck' certainly has (especially in its original meaning, to beat or batter, hence the 'windfucker' kestrel which hovers by beating its wings against the wind) but I dunno about that actual phrase.
Chronology and phonology rule out Shipley's attempt to derive it from Middle English firk "to press hard, beat." The unkillable urban legend that this word is an acronym of some sort (a fiction traceable on the internet to 1995 but probably predating that), and the "pluck yew" fable, are results of ingenious trifling (also see here). The Old English verb for "have sexual intercourse with" was hæman, from ham "dwelling, home," with a sense of "take home, co-habit." French foutre and Italian fottere seem to resemble the English word but are unrelated, descending rather from Latin futuere, which perhaps is from PIE root *bhau- "to strike," extended via a figurative use "from the sexual application of violent action" [Shipley; compare the sexual slang use of bang, etc.].
Haha, busted! I was deciding between two phrases and had to go off to do something, and when I came back I thought I'd chosen one when it was the other.Good god, lady, where did you learn to speak French?!!?
This morning on R4 in the usual bird feature before Today starts at 6am there was mention of the windbeater falcon.Not according to this site:
https://www.etymonline.com/word/fuck
Same page cites it as of Middle rather than Old, English. It's "sounds" like it could be Anglo-Saxon but it is just a simple phoneme ultimately.
It's a fucking great word either way.
It’s Biblical. ‘Go forth and multiply.’It’s actually the use of the phrase. If ”fuck” was just a fairly usual word for fornication or otherwise when did it get the ”off” added? 1929 does seem very late.
Ghost in the house I grew up in swore like a trooper. And when it wasn't swearing it was being abusive. Two people visiting were woke up in the night by it standing at a no longer existing front door, hammering the door down and shrieking abuse (it was an elderly man). Nobody down the street later remarked on seeing or hearing a thing and it was the kind of place where if someone had been stood in the street screaming abuse at 2AM - everyone would have been on their doorsteps in minutes. House full of people and everyone else slept right through the kerfuffle. These guests were in bedrooms one on the first storey, the other on the second...
Ah no, I think Anne Lister in her journals mentions a few F words being flung at her by the homophobes, and once some people in the street shouted "Does your cock stand?" at her. This was either Regency era or early Victorian.I was led to believe that, back in the olden days (ie, any time before I was born), most expletives were religious in origin. So people may have said 'God's blood!' or some such, rather than used bodily functions.
Yep, I just checked in the definitive Anglo Saxon dictionary - nothing that could even evolve into "feck" is there. Surprising. Haeman seems to be the verb. (That would be pronounced "haman" as in "ham"). Nothing I can see that could morph into the c word either.Not according to this site:
https://www.etymonline.com/word/fuck
Same page cites it as of Middle rather than Old, English. It's "sounds" like it could be Anglo-Saxon but it is just a simple phoneme ultimately.
It's a fucking great word either way.