The F-Word (16 page)

Read The F-Word Online

Authors: Jesse Sheidlower

flying
adjective

In phrases:

flying fuck
, a damn; the least bit.—usually used in negative, with
give
. Also in euphemistic variants.

[
a
1850
(see quotation at
fuck
,
noun,
definition 1a).
1946–51
J. Jones
From Here to Eternity
[refers to 1941]: I don’t give a flyin’ fuck.
1953
. Brossard
Bold Saboteurs
30: They did not give a flying hoot.
1956
H. Ellison
Deadly Streets
190: Tony didn’t give a flying damn.
1967
in H. Ellison
Sex Misspelled
154: I…don’t give a flying
shit
what time you were behind your desk.
1973
R. M. Brown
Rubyfruit Jungle
67: I don’t give a flying fuck what you do.
1974
V. C. Strasburger
Rounding Third & Heading Home
12: Who gives a flying fuck, Junior?
1980
P. Conroy
Lords of Discipline
297: He wouldn’t have given a flying crap about this city.
1984
W. D. Ehrhart
Marking Time
19: Most…weren’t worth a flying fuck.
1985
K. Finkelman
Head Office
(film): He doesn’t give a flying shit about Stead-man’s position.
1992
M. Crichton
Rising Sun
227: Older people don’t give a flying fuck, John.
1995
E. White
Skinned Alive
9: He didn’t give a flying fuck about the Crowd.
1997
A. Proulx in
New Yorker
(Oct. 13) 79: And I don’t give a flyin fuck.
2005
M. H. Smith
Delicious
xi. 152: He didn’t give a flying fuck about the Bellagio’s water fountain.

[go] take a flying fuck
, get away! go to hell! Also in euphemistic and elaborated variants, especially
take a flying fuck at a rolling donut
.

1926
L. H. Nason
Chevrons
73 [refers to 1918]: Me, I’d tell ’em to take a flyin’ fling at the moon.
1929–30
J. Dos Passos
42nd Parallel
271: I hadn’t the nerve/to…tell/them all to go take a flying/Rimbaud/at the moon.
1932
Miller & Burnett
Scarface
(film): “They said you could take a
flyin’—” “That’s enough of that!”
1934
W. Saroyan in J. North
New Masses
(1969) 93: I didn’t obey my mother or my teachers and I told the whole world to take a flying you-know-what.
1935
J. Conroy
World to Win
64: Go take a flyin’ jump at a gallopin’ goose for all o’ me.
1936
S. Kingsley
Dead End
706: Well, go take a flyin’ jump at ta moon!
1938
J. O’Hara in
Selected Letters
140: I say go take a flying fuck at a galloping r—ster.
1939
B. Appel
Power-House
165: If this’s the
Hamilton Dectective Agency
it can take a flyin’ trip to the moon.
1941
C. Brackett & B. Wilder
Ball of Fire
(film): Tell the D.A. to take a flyin’ jump for himself.
1944
B. Stiles
Serenade to the Big Bird
105: You can take a flying one at a rolling one.
1949
A. I. Bezzerides
Thieves’ Market
122: He can go take a flying frig at himself.
1949
R. Pirosh
Battleground
(film) [refers to WWII]: Tell him to take a flyin’ leap at a rollin’ doughnut.
1952
C. Himes
Stone
238: How would you like to take a flying frig at yourself?
1961
J. Brosnan
Pennant Race
48: Brosnan, you take a flying leap at my —.
1962
J. O. Killens
Then We Heard the Thunder
415: And you and your colored problems can take a flying frig at the moon.
1966
“T. Pendleton”
Iron Orchard
40: You take a flyin’ bite at my ass!
1968
G. Swarthout
Loveland
169: “Go take a flying jump at a rolling doughnut!” I hollered.
1968
K. Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse-Five
147 [ref. to WWII]: Go take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut.… Go take a flying fuck at the moon.
1971
L. Cameron
First Blood
119: Why don’t you go take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut?
1972
R. A. Wilson
Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words
107: Take a flying Philadelphia fuck in [
sic
] a rolling doughnut.
1972
Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In
(NBC-TV): I told him to go take a flying leap.
1977
M. Torres in R. P. Rettig et al.
Manny
iv. 115/2: Why don’t you take a flying fuck at Mickey Mouse?
1979
J. Hurling
Boomers
13: I…just told him to take a flyin’ fuck at a rollin’ doughnut.
1979
W. P. McGivern
Soldiers of ’44
185 [refers to WWII]: Why don’t you take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut?
1966–80
J. McAleer & B. Dickson
Unit Pride
117: Go take a flyin’ fuck at a rollin’ doughnut.
Ibid.
408: You go take a flyin’ fuck at the moon.
1983
S. King
Christine
296: Tell him to take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut.
1985
J. Briskin
Too Much Too Soon
264: Tell ’em to go take a flying fuck.
1988
D. DeLillo
Libra
93: Take a flying fuck at the moon.
1995
A. J. Holt
Watch Me
204: I told the Narc to take a flying fuck at himself.
ca
1999
F. Darabont
Green Mile
(film script) 99: No salesmen in the middle of the night!… Tell them to take a flying fuck.
2005
M. H. Smith
Delicious
219: He struggled to repress his burning desire to tell this fat Samoan asshole to take a flying fuck at a rolling donut. Instead, he held up his hands.

FNG
noun
[
f
ucking
n
ew
g
uy]

Especially
Military
. a person who is a newly arrived member, especially of a combat unit. [Most quotations refer to the Vietnam War.]

1966
N.Y. Times Magazine
(Oct. 30) 104: F.N.G. designates a “foolish new guy.”
1966
E. Shepard
Doom Pussy
217: Major Nails says several FNGs believe it.
1972
T. O’Brien
Combat Zone
73: Look, FNG, I don’t want to scare you.
1980
M. Baker
Nam
54: Who the hell was I? This rather quiet, slightly older FNG.
1983
L. Van Devanter & C. Morgan
Home Before Morning
80: “And what’s an FNG?” “What else?…A Fucking New Guy.”
1983
J. Groen & D. Groen
Huey
7: Rather than look like FNGs, fucking new guys, including officers, suffered their anxieties quietly.
1985
J. McDonough
Platoon Leader
65: Despite…his disdain for new guys (“FNGs” he would mutter under his breath),…he was the most respected member of the platoon.
1995
Newsweek
(May 8) 8:
FNG
: F—ing New Guy; the latest crew hire.
2000
A. Bourdain
Kitchen Confidential
226: Externs from culinary school, working for free as a “learning experience”—which by itself translates to “lots of work and no money”—are quickly tagged as
FNG
(Fucking New Guy), or
Mel
for
mal carne
(bad meat).
2004
Observer
(Apr. 18) 21: More than half the girls don’t last a day. New staff are referred to as FNGs—Fucking New Guys—until they sort themselves out.

FO
noun & verb

Especially
Military
. =
FUCK-OFF
,
noun & verb
.

1945
American Speech
(Dec.) 262:
F.O.,
to avoid work.
1948
N.Y. Folklore Quarterly
(Spring) 20.
1957
E. Brown
Locust Fire
14a [refers to WWII]: I’m an R.O., you F.O.
1974
V. C. Strasburger
Rounding Third & Heading Home
132: F.O., Carter.
1983
J. Groen & D. Groen
Huey
98: “Just CA for a few months and then FO.” Cover your ass and then fuck off.
1988
O. Clark
Diaries
(1998) p. lxxvi, Nikki Waymouth flaunting her mammories—“Well, that’s it, you can all F.O. now.”

FOAD
interjection
[see
FUCK OFF
verb
definition 1]


Fuck O
ff
A
nd
D
ie.”

1987
“Broken Bones” (title of rock album): F.O.A.D.
1993
IMHO - HELP!
on Usenet newsgroup alt.business.multi-level (Dec. 4), citing
The BBS_USER Unofficial Acronym List v1.9
: FOAD - F *** Off And
Die.
2004
AutoWeek
(Nov. 8) 32: Public sentiment that so far is running 10-to-1 opposed, judging by public comment on NHTSA’s website.… Another comment was more succinct: “FOAD.”
2005
The Sun
(London) (June 21) (Nexis): Shocked Niall Farrell was appalled to receive the four-letter tirade—contained in the acronym FOAD—which was first spotted by his 15-year-old daughter Mairead.

force-fuck
verb

Especially
Politics
. to rape. Also figurative.

1972
B. Rodgers
Queens’ Vernacular
90:
Force-fuck
…to rape a man’s anus.
1976
T. Teal trans.
Suzanne Brogger’s Deliver Us from Love
122: All the women who copulate to keep peace in the house are the victims of rape. All our grandmothers who just “let it happen” were essentially force-fucked all their lives.
1987
Nation
(May 30) 722: MacKinnon’s bluster is stunning.… Since women are presumed “force-fucked,” sexuality is presented in the light of Marx’s theory of work.
1992
P. Hamill in
Playboy
(Jan. 1993) 138: According to Dworkin, all women are “force-fucked,” either directly through the crime of rape or by the male power of mass media, by male economic power or by the male version of the law.

forget
verb

Originally
Black English
. to hell with; damn;
FUCK
,
verb
, definition 4a.

1969
Elementary English
XLVI 495: F’get you, honky!
1983
Reader’s Digest Success with Words
85: Black English…
forget it
= “emphatic phrase expressing negation, denial, refutation.”
1980–89
J. E. Cheshire
Home Boy
105: Forget you, shit-for-brains.
1990
Simpsons
(Fox-TV): Forget you, pal! Thanks for nothin’!
1995
(see quotation at
FUCK-YOU MONEY
).
1997
M. Groening et al.
The Simpsons: Complete Guide
117/1:
Krusty
. Now boys, ah, the network has a problem with some of your lyrics. Would you mind changing them for the show?
Anthony
. Forget you, clown.
2003
Gazette
(Montreal) (Feb. 20) A4/3: I thought, “(Forget) this, I’d rather be written about than doing the writing.”

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