Re: USAGE: Dutch v or f (was: Grimm's Law)

daniel andreasson writes:
 >
 > Hmm. This is what Merriam-Webster says:
 >
 > Main Entry: fuck
 > Pronunciation: 'f&k
 > Function: verb
 > Etymology: akin to Dutch fokken to breed (cattle), Swedish dialect fokka
 > to copulate
 > Date: 1503
 > intransitive senses
 > 1 usually obscene : COPULATE -- sometimes used in the present participle
 > as a meaningless intensive
 > 2 usually vulgar : MESS 3 -- used with with
 > transitive senses
 > 1 usually obscene : to engage in coitus with -- sometimes used
 > interjectionally with an object (as a personal or reflexive pronoun) to
 > express anger, contempt, or disgust
 > 2 usually vulgar : to deal with unfairly or harshly : CHEAT, SCREW
 >
 > It was great fun that you could hear the word pronounced
 > as well. I was a bit unsure... :D
 >
 > Doesn't say anything about etymology though. I'd forgotten about
 > _fokka_. _Focka_ can mean 'fire, sack, dismiss' as well.

Here's the entry from the _New Oxford Dictionary of English_ (Sadly, I
don't have access to a copy of the complete Oxford).




_fuck_ (vulgar slang) |>_verb_ [with obj.] 1 have
  sexual intercourse with (someone).
  #[no obj.] (of two people) have sexual intercourse.
  2 damage or ruin something
|>_noun_ an act of sexual intercourse.
  #[with adj.] a sexual partner or a specified ability.
|>_exclamation_ used alone or as a noun (_the fuck_) or a
  verb in various phrases to express anger,
  annoyance, contempt, impatience, or surprise, or
  simply for emphasis.
-PHRASES _fuck all_ Brit. absolutely nothing.
-DERIVATIVES _fuckable_ adjective.
-ORIGIN early 16th cent.: of Germanic origin
  (compare Swedish dialact /focka/ and Dutch dialect
  /fokkelen/);  possibly from an Indo-European root
  meaning 'strike', shared by Latin /pugnus/ 'fist'.





Then there's a bit about how taboo it is, drawing attention to
euphamistic ways of referring to the word, but it's not that
interesting. My attempt at rendering the NODE's various symbols and
typefaces has messed up the formatting a little, but there you go.

Now, seeing as we're interested primarily in the etymology, let's see
what the _American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language_ has to
say, which has the added advantage of being online, so I won't have to
type it again.  Surprisingly, it's rather less thorough, (not a word
about Germanic, let alone Indo-European, but it does have some
interesting information on early English use:





fuck

VERB:
Inflected forms: fucked, fuck*ing, fucks



TRANSITIVE VERB:
 1. Vulgar Slang To have sexual intercourse with. 2. To take advantage
 of, betray, or cheat; victimize. 3. Used in the imperative as a signal
 of angry dismissal.


INTRANSITIVE VERB:
 1. To engage in sexual intercourse. 2. To act wastefully or
 foolishly. 3. To interfere; meddle. Often used with with.


NOUN:
 1. An act of sexual intercourse. 2. A partner in sexual
 intercourse. 3. A despised person. 4. Used as an intensive: What the
 fuck did you do that for?


INTERJECTION:
 Used to express extreme displeasure.


PHRASAL VERBS:
 fuck off 1. Used in the imperative as a signal of angry
 dismissal. 2. To spend time idly. 3. To masturbate. fuck over To treat
 unfairly; take advantage of. fuck up 1. To make a mistake; bungle
 something. 2. To act carelessly, foolishly, or incorrectly. 3. To
 cause to be intoxicated.


ETYMOLOGY:
 Middle English, attested in pseudo-Latin fuccant, (they) fuck,
 deciphered from gxddbov.


WORD HISTORY:
 The obscenity fuck 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 fuck 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 fuck wives of Ely [a town near Cambridge]."