Book Review - The F-Word

The F-Word, 2nd edition
Jesse Sheidlower, Ed.
Random House, 1999

The word fuck has so many meanings, and is so frequently used in English today as a noun, adjective, adverb, and exclamatory, as to be practically worthless as an accurate descriptive of anything. If it does one thing very well, its use does to relieve tension or stress from whatever causes a bother. While commonly thought of as an acronym it is not. Various acronyms are suggested, one being ‘forced unsolicited carnal knowledge,’ a legal term used in the 1500s, when a married couple needed the king’s permission to procreate. Another ‘kingly’ variant appeared in the 1970 May issue of Playboy.

As an acronym it was used on the medical records of British service men who reported as sick and found to have VD. It was short for ‘found under carnal knowledge.’ That notation appeared in the East Village Other on February 15, 1967.

The book has a long introduction - About the F-word. Acronyms were rare before the 1930s, and most today seem to be associated with written business documents or corporate names; most of which are hardly pronounceable as words. The book is loaded with a wide variety derived acronyms and definitions for A, B, D, E, F, G, H, J, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, U, W, and Z words. It is interesting to browse, and probably a must dictionary for anyone who writes.