Warning: this articles is not for prudes or the linguistically squeamish. It is a frank, fascinating look into the origins of some of our most common obscenities.
Have you heard where fuck comes from? For Use of Carnal Knowledge. No, um, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. No, wait, Fornication Under Consent of King. No, it’s…
…It’s Frankly Usage Crank “Knowledge,” Only For Fools. Or FUCK OFF for short.
Sorry to shit on your party trick – don’t worry, it won’t Ship High In Transit, because FUCK OFF – but no swearwords ever in English (or probably any other language) have been created from acronyms. This is for two reasons:
- Acronyms are intrinsically euphemistic. They are used to camouflage rude, offensive, or otherwise unendurable things (often just unendurably long).
- Acronyms have only really been used to generate words since the mid-20th century.
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Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher 