The F-Word (17 page)

fork
verb

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

1954–60
H. Wentworth & S. B. Flexner
Dictionary of American Slang
:
Fork You
…Euphemism for
fuck you
.
1972
B. Rodgers
Queens’ Vernacular
88:
Camp
: “Fork you, Rose, we’re doing it
my
way!”
a
1990
B. Raspberry in A. Parfrey
Apocalypse Culture
(1990) (rev. ed.) 241: If you really thought white people are trying to force you to use these things [
sc.
drugs]—you don’t like white people, and you don’t want ’em to do it—fork them! Tell ’em to go to hell!
1997
A. Neiderman
Dark
251: “Go fork yourself,” he said. Maggie smiled with confusion.

fouled-up
adjective

Originally
Navy & U.S. Marine Corps
. confused, chaotic, or disorganized; (
broadly
) mistaken; (
also
) stupid or worthless. [Frequently regarded as a euphemism for
FUCKED UP
.]

1942
Time
(June 15): The Army has a laconic term for chronic befuddlement:
snafu
, situation normal; all fouled up.
1942
Leatherneck
(Nov.) 145:
Fouled Up
—mixed up, confused.
1942
Yank
(Nov. 11) 4: Navy [slang]…
Foul,
or
foul up
—Trouble or being in trouble or to get someone in trouble. Thus, if a sailor gets all fouled up with a skirt, he’s got babe trouble.
1943
Saturday Evening Post
(Mar. 20) 86: Those knuckle-heads are all fouled up.
1944
P. Kendall
Service Slang
23:
All fouled up
…messed up.
1945
in
California Folk Quarterly
V (1946) 390:
Fouled up like an ensign’s sea bag
is the commonest [U.S. Navy simile].
1940–46
McPeak
Navy Slang Manuscript
: You’re as fouled up as a man overboard in dry dock…as a mess-cook drawing small stores…as a marine at fire drill.
1947
J. C. Higgins
Railroaded
(film): Somebody’s all fouled up!
1948
W. Manone & P. Vandervoort
Trumpet on the Wing
157: Aw, I don’t want to go out to ol’ Cali-fouled up-ornia and mess with those square people out there.
1949
Grayson & Andrews
I Married a Communist
(film): We’re trying to get some sense into a fouled-up situation while there’s still time.
1956
M. M. Boatner
Military Customs & Traditions
125:
Fire Call
. A confused situation or formation. “All fouled up like a fire Call.”
1960
C. Simak
Worlds
43: It was all just this side of crazy, anyhow. No matter how fouled up it was, Steen seemed satisfied.
1964
H. Rhodes
Chosen Few
57: I’ve been in this fouled-up place for almost four years straight now and I don’t think I can or want to get used to it.
1967
W. Crawford
Gresham’s War
7 [refers to Korean War]: I called him Goat, for fouled-up like Hogan’s goat, which he was.
1968
W.C. Anderson
Gooney Bird
124: The whole thing is insanity. More fouled up than an Ethiopian fire drill.
1967–69
Foster & Stoddard
Pops
1: I’ve always wanted to write down what I know
about the times in New Orleans. Some of the books are fouled up on it and some of the guys weren’t telling the truth.
1977
R. S. Parker
Effective Decisions
2: Some cynics might say, “It’s all society’s fault. That’s the real reason our lives are all fouled up.”
1981
J. Ehrlichman
Witness to Power
21: Wooley earned a reputation for running the most fouled-up ticket and credential operation in modern Republican history.
1984
L. Fawcett & B. J. Greenwood
UFO Cover-Up
v. 76: Was it a fouled up administrative effort or was the Coast Guard suppressing information? Or was it both?
1992
R. Price
Blue Calhoun
28: In my fouled up head, I thought that would hurt her even worse.
1998
Total Football
(Aug.) 93/1: Colombia, the most fouled-up country in the footballing firmament, managed to forget its fear just enough to knock Tunisia out of the World Cup.
2000
B. Blech
Complete Idiot’s Guide to Learning Yiddish
19: That was truly making a
mishmash
, a real fouled-up state of things, of the word
mishmash
.
2006
P. Anthony
Stork Naked
154: Demon Xanth would lose, and Stymy would remain a hopelessly fouled-up low-echelon stork.

foul-up
noun

1
. Originally
Navy & U.S. Marine Corps
. a blunder leading to a state of confusion or inefficiency; (
also
) a state of confusion brought about by ineptitude or inefficiency; (
also
) a mechanical malfunction. [Frequently regarded as a euphemism for
FUCK-UP
, definition 1.]

1943
in R. Sherrod
Tarawa
82: Orders…never came because of the radio foul-up.
1944
Newsweek
(Feb. 7) 61:
Janfu
: Joint Army-Navy foul-up.
Jaafu
: Joint Anglo-American foul-up.
1945
J. Bryan
Carrier
139: There’s been a foul-up.
1958
J. Thompson
Getaway
(1994) vii. 80: Checkroom attendants were always losing things.… Nothing ever happened, naturally, to a two-dollar suitcase with a few bucks worth of clothes in it. But let the bag contain something hot—money or jewelry or narcotics, or part of a dismembered corpse—and sure as shootin’ there was a foul-up.
1958
A. Hailey & J. Castle
Runway Zero-Eight
109: There’s a foul-up on the phones in the press room.
1959
R. G. Fuller
Danger! Marines at Work
143: “That’s the history of the rock, doll,” she was told. “Always a foul-up somewhere.”
1971
M. Dibner
Trouble with Heroes
44: The foul-up was especially galling to this bunch because ten days earlier the landing had been smooth and undetected.
1986
F. Walton
Once They Were Eagles
8: There he ran into a bureaucratic foulup: he couldn’t get back into the Marine Corps.
1991
G. Burn
Alma Cogan
ix. 190: I had worked the script up over many weeks with my parents… (I had to get it right first time; there was no overdubbing; any foul-up was going to cost them money).
2000
J. Simpson
Mad World, My Masters
viii. 275: Receive an emollient letter from Alastair Campbell. Not an apology, certainly, but then I didn’t expect one: governments never apologize. But he’s sorry it happened, and I get the impression he feels it was all a foul-up from their side.
2006
A. J. Zerries
Lost Van Gogh
180: I never showed up at the school district office to sign the employment papers. A foul-up in the system delayed our benefits from the government.

2
. Especially
Military
. a bungler or misfit. [Frequently regarded as a euphemism for
FUCK-UP
, definition 2.]

1945
in M. Chennault
Up Sun!
136: I know what you foulups were up to.
1954–60
H. Wentworth & S. B. Flexner
Dictionary of American Slang: Foulup
…A person who makes frequent blunders.
1964
J. Pearl
Stockade
70: I should have known better than to trust that foul-up Larkin.
1965
S. Linakis
In Spring the War Ended
293: These foul-ups are kids mostly.
1966
P. Derrig
Pride of the Green Berets
144: Even if he is a short-timer we can’t afford even one foul-up in the outfit.
1978
H. Berry
Make the Kaiser Dance
361: The CO would have the dental officer make out a form saying that Lieutenant Foulup needed a lot of work on his teeth.
1987
D. da Cruz
Boot
49: You’re the worst bunch of foul-ups it’s ever been my misfortune to have inflicted on me.
1995
R. Didinger
Game Plans for Success
130: Hey, this guy is a foul-up. We can’t trust him.
2006
J. Lutz
Chill of Night
44: “She’s a foul-up?” “More a don’t-give-a-damn type. Mind of her own.”

foul up
verb

1
. Originally
Navy & U.S. Marine Corps
.
transitive
. to bring into confusion; mix up; confound; botch; ruin; in phrase:
foul up the detail
,
Military
. to bungle. [Frequently regarded as a euphemism for
FUCK UP
, definition 1.]

1942
(quotation at
FOULED-UP
).
1943
in R. R. Rea
Wings of Gold
(1987) 76: I fouled up a navigation quiz completely.
1944
F. Wakeman
Shore Leave
21: You know damn well she’s in Hartford, making those
Pratt-Whitney engines you foul up.
1946
S. Wilson
Voyage to Somewhere
108: They’ve just fouled up the mails. I don’t doubt she’s writing.
1949
A. I. Bezzerides
Thieves’ Market
198: She’s always fouling us up.
1949
“R. MacDonald”
Moving Target
82: I’m fouled up. Why should I foul you up?
1952
L. Uris
Battle Cry
132 [refers to WWII]: You guys have been fouling up field problems like a Chinese firedrill. Reisch & Breen
Niagara
(film): It’ll be all right if I don’t foul it up.
1953
H. G. Felsen
Street Rod
83: We’d clobber the first guy that fouled us up by racing or being reckless on the roads.
1955
J. McGovern
Fräulein
170: You’re in charge here, and I never try to foul you up.
1957
A. Myrer
Big War
150 [refers to WWII]: Somebody fouled up the detail, that’s for sure.
1958
W. B. Plageman
Steel Cocoon
55: A guy like that is a jinx. He could foul us all up. Don’t you see that?
Ibid.
165: He fouled it up!…We almost had it, just perfect, and he fouled it up!
1958
L. F. Cooley
Run for Home
343: The sonuvabitch nearly fouled up the whole detail.
1966
Rose
The Russians Are Coming!
(film): You’re gonna foul up the whole detail!
1966
J. Christopher
Little People
179: And you’re determined to foul it up if you can.
1971
N. Capaldi
Art of Deception
95: He might easily fit both categories and hence foul up the classification again.
1971
K. W. Keith
Long Line Rider
91: He put black pepper behin’ ’em to foul up the dogs.
1971
J. N. Rowe
Five Years to Freedom
402: My screwed-up additions to the map had done some good, even if they hadn’t fouled Charlie up completely.
1989
C. Stoll
Cuckoo’s Egg
275: By 11:30, I’d fouled up two programs—what had worked an hour ago wasn’t working now.
1996
K. Hafner & M. Lyon 181: To all but the initiated the scenarios book was fairly incomprehensible, and it was easy to foul up the system.
2001
J. Picoult
Salem Falls
292: As laboratory technician, Arthur Quince had enough trouble trying to keep afloat at Duncan Pharmaceuticals without investigators coming along to foul up the rhythm of his day.

2
. Originally
Navy & U.S. Marine Corps. intransitive
. to become confused, especially to blunder into or cause trouble; fail through confusion or ineptitude; go wrong or awry. [Frequently regarded as a euphemism for
FUCK UP
, definition 4.]

1944
New Yorker
(May 6) 26: Look how we fouled up on maneuvers.
1946
S. Wilson
Voyage to Somewhere
197: Pretty soon all the crew will know that to get a transfer, all they have to do is foul up.
1951
J. Kerouac
On the Road: The Original Scroll
(2007) 141: When Neal came out Justin
gave him one more chance. But Neal fouled up again.
1954
E. Hunter
Blackboard Jungle
27: They’d come to within a term of graduation, and they…didn’t want to get thrown out of school for fouling up at this late stage of the game.
1956
M. Wolff
Big Nickelodeon
243: You fouled up and the old man came and took the kid.
1958
in R. Schwitzgebel
Streetcorner Research
21: We want to know why kids foul up and why they do the other things they do.
1964
R. Newhafer
Last Tallyho
135: If anything fouls up, he wants to be there.
1965
S. Linakis
In Spring the War Ended
292: I don’t like to see a G.I. foul up.
1970
T. Thackrey
Thief
295: Only my tipsters had fouled up again.
1978
J. Lee
13th Hour
21: If anything can foul up, it will.
1972–79
T. Wolfe
Right Stuff
265: Please, dear God, don’t let me foul up.
1985
M. Atwood
Handmaid’s Tale
176: The system had fouled up before, but a few phone calls usually straightened it out.
1992
Spectator
(Dec. 19) 33/1: I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but I could see he was nervous. He fouled up several times, and each time he got more upset.
2004
I. Johansen
Blind Alley
320: You shouldn’t forget. You fouled up.… Maybe you’ll learn something from it.