James_H
And I like to roam the land
- Joined
- May 18, 2002
- Messages
- 7,629
On another forum, I was reading a thread about the origins of the words Fuck, Shit and Cunt. Not being such a learned board as this all sorts of bizzarre explanations were given (rather than a direct link to wikipedia ). The most pervasive of these seems to be:
As for Shit:
I may be wrong in assuming that this is, well, a load of shit. But it's interesting, it takes on all the classic aspects of a legend.
'Fuck' was apparently from Fornicate Under the Command of the King'. Or some such thing....
my teacher told me it was Fornication Under Consent of the King
The story I was told involves puritan america,
Appartantly a punishment for adultery, or some such sex crime back in the day earned you a day in the stocks.
The letter F.U.C.K. stood for the phrase "For Unlawfull Carnal Knowladge"
That's what I heard.
Apparently, the word fuck was, at one point, an acronym. Forced Unwanted Carnal Knowledge. If, in the Middle Ages, you raped a woman, you'd have the word FUCK branded on you. Not the sort of trivia that you bring up in polite conversation, but interesting nonetheless
!! I find it quite alarming that people think the word is this new.I thought it was Found Using Carnal Knowledge, and there was a FUCK list during the colonisation of America. I think something to do with soldiers and native americans.
As for Shit:
Shit apparently comes from when they were shipping manure, it would have SHIT or Ship High In Transit stamped on the container. Could be true.
Yep. It expands when wet and would make ships explode if shipped below the waterline.
i'd also heard that was the case with shit. Apparently the manure would get moldy under the deck, or some such thing.
Shit, as said earlier, stood for Ship High In Transit. Manure was often transfered via ship over long distances. When stored below deck, the methane gas emmitted from the product would build up in large amounts in the confined areas. When sailors would go below deck they would take a lamp with them to see in the otherwise unlit cargo space. The open flame coming into contact with the concentrated methane caused the ships to explode.
And that, my friends, is the rest of the story.
I may be wrong in assuming that this is, well, a load of shit. But it's interesting, it takes on all the classic aspects of a legend.