The F-Word (47 page)

Read The F-Word Online

Authors: Jesse Sheidlower

fuck-your-buddy week
noun

Especially
Military
. a hypothetical period during which betrayal and exploitation of one’s friends is supposedly encouraged.
Jocular
. Also variants. Compare
BUDDY-FUCK
.

[
1952
Haines & Krims
One Minute to Zero
(film): John, this isn’t help-your-buddy week. We might need those guys again.]
1958
T. Berger
Crazy in Berlin
302: What is this, fuck-your-buddy week?
1960
D. MacCuish
Do Not Go Gentle
342 [refers to WWII]: National American custom of Screw Your Buddy Week.
1962
P. Crump
Burn, Killer, Burn
279: Don’t worry about it, weed.… This is Frig Your Buddy Week.
ca
1963
in H. Schwendinger & H. Schwendinger
Adolescent Subculture
296: It’s fuck your buddy week, fifty-two weeks of the year.… If you have a buddy kind and true, you fuck him before he fucks you.
a
1967
in M.W. Klein
Juvenile Gangs
98: It’s fuck your buddy week, fifty-two weeks of the year.
1971
Playboy
(Apr.) 182: That old Army expression, “Every week is fuck-your-buddy week!”
1973
W. Crawford
Gunship Commander
148: The whole army overreacted, filed charges against everybody in sight, good old fuck-your-brother week.
1980
W. Manchester
Goodbye Darkness
156 [refers to WWII]: The school’s shabbiest custom [was] known as “fuck-your-buddy night.” Every candidate was required to fill out a form rating his fellows.
1984
E. Partridge
Dictionary of Slang & Unconventional English
(ed. 8) 1323: What
is
this?—International Fuck-Your-Buddy Week?…Prob. adopted from the US forces in Korea, 1950–53.
1997
D. DeLillo
Underworld
690: Somebody says, “What’s this, fuck-your-buddy week?”
2004
R. Arellano
Don Dimaio of La Plata
180: You backstabbing spic! What is this, Fuck Your Buddy Week?

fuddle-duddle

Canadian.
a euphemism for
FUCK
in various senses and parts of speech. [After an incident in the House of Commons, when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, being criticized by the opposition, mouthed something claimed to have been “fuck off.” In an interview with CBC Television, he denied having mouthed “fuck off “ but acknowledged having moved his lips; when asked what he had been thinking when he did so, he responded “What is the nature of your thoughts, gentlemen, when you say ‘fuddle duddle’ or something like that?” Though the exact nature of his original words remains unclear, popular perception quickly arose that he did say “fuck” and then later claimed that he had only said “fuddle-duddle.”]

1971
Globe & Mail
(Toronto) (Feb. 17) 1: Mr. Trudeau, however, said he had not mouthed any vulgar words. “I would never say anything like that.” Pressed by reporters to reveal the words he had mouthed, the Prime Minister said they were “Fuddle-duddle.”
1979
Globe & Mail
(Toronto) (Nov. 22) 8/5: Pierre Trudeau is stepping down. His place in history will depend on where Quebec goes in future. I’m confident he will be ranked among the three greatest prime ministers, along with John A. Macdonald and Wilfrid Laurier. And fuddle-duddle to anyone who thinks otherwise.
1984
L. Rooke
Sing Me No Love Songs
289: “Oh fuddle-duddle,” exclaims Anne.
1986
R. Graham
One-Eyed Kings: Promise & Illusion in Canadian Politics
112: It outraged the premiers, angered Washington, sent London into a tizzy, and fuddle-duddled the opposition.
1991
Ottawa Citizen
(Dec. 25): When Brian Mulroney said—or did not say—fuddle-duddle in the Commons last week, he was—or was not—merely reflecting the mood of the times. There was very little Christmas cheer on Parliament Hill.
2001
Maclean’s
(June 18) 56/2: George was the first person to put the dreaded F-word into Canadian newspapers after P. Trudeau “claimed” he had just aimed “fuddle-duddle” at an opposition MP.

fug

(a written euphemism for
FUCK
in various senses and parts of speech; see
FUCK
for examples). [Associated chiefly with Norman Mailer, who was required by his publishers to use the euphemism in
The Naked and the Dead
(1948).]

fugly
noun
[blend of
FUCKING
+
ugly
]

Originally
Australian Military
. an extremely ugly person.

a
1970
in R. J. Rayward
More than Mere Bravo
(1989) 122:
Fugly
—an extremely ugly woman. A blending of “fucking” and “ugly” to describe the woman.
1993
B. Moore
Lexicon of Cadet Language
157/2: Seeing your fugly tonight, Bill?
2005
Cosmopolitan
(U.K. edition) (Aug.) 21/1: 33% of women have dated someone “as ugly as sin” because he made them laugh. Here’s to all the fuglies!

fugly
adjective

Originally
Students
. especially of a person: very ugly.

[
1962
in H.S. Thompson
Proud Highway
316: Get these dogs off me! These fucking ugly dogs!]
1980
E. Segal
Man, Woman, & Child
60: “In other words she’s fugly, right?” Bob smiled. “Don’t you think I could pick a winner, Bern?”
1984
Mason & Rheingold
Slanguage
:
Fugly,
adj.… fucking ugly.
1988
C. Eble
Campus Slang
(Fall) 4:
Fugly
—extremely ugly.
1989
P. Munro
U.C.L.A. Slang
41: She’s so fugly she makes my mother-in-law look cute.
1993
N.Y. man, age 23: This girl asked me out yesterday, but man, she was fugly.
1998
Personal letter to editor (Aug. 25):
Fugly
—I picked up the term from my college roomie, 1974–75.
2004
J. Weiner
Little Earthquakes
357: Do you realize I’m going to have to wear those fugly maternity clothes again?
2006
New York Magazine
(Sept. 4) 86/1: Well, what if the show was called
Ugly Betty
—and you were playing Betty? What if the other characters routinely deride you as “fugly”?

FUJIGMO
interjection Military.


f
uck
you
,
J
ack,
I g
ot
m
y
o
rders.”
Jocular
. Compare FUIGMO under FIGMO.

1950
Saturday Evening Post
(Aug. 5) 89: With him flew Lt. Col. “Pappy” Hatfield, in his famous bomber the “Fujigmo”—translation unprintable.
1953
in G. M. Valant
Vintage Aircraft Nose Art
295: FUJIGMO.
1980
D. J. Cragg
Lexicon Militaris
158:
FUJIGMO
.
F
uck Yo
u, J
ack,
I G
ot
M
y
O
rders.

futhermucker
noun
[intentional spoonerism]

=
MOTHERFUCKER
.
Jocular
.

1961
T. Joans
All of Ted Joans & No More
.
1965
Walnut Ridge, Ark., high school student: Every one of your Hoxie friends turns out to be a futhermucker, if you ask me.
1972
R. Wilson
Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words
171:
Mammy-jammer,… futher-mucker
.
1972–76
C. Durden
No Bugles, No Drums
41: Thanks, futhermucker.
1982
in G. Tate
Flyboy in the Buttermilk
21: Well, goddamn, these furthermuckers [
sic
] must not be bullshitting.
1998
G. Tate in
Village Voice
(N.Y.C.) (Mar. 10) 124: His peers are those lofty, low-rent, high-concept, swing-baiting furthermuckers [
sic
].

futz
noun

1
. a foolish or unpleasant fellow.

1935
Bedroom Companion
79: Some crusty old futz who has had too much drink starts off on this tangent.
1940
W. R. Burnett
High Sierra
35: He was an old phutz and a has-been.
1959–60
R. Bloch
Dead Beat
84: The old futz inside the loan office gave him a cold eye.
1984
B. Haskin
Byron Haskin
80: The screenplay was written by Sir Reginald Barclay, a puffy old futz who knew nothing about anything dramatic.
1996
M. Daheim
Auntie Mayhem
128: “Old futz,” muttered Renie. “How could you encourage him to launch his war stories?”

2
. (used as a euphemism for
the fuck
, under
FUCK
,
noun
).

1947
B. Schulberg
Harder They Fall
104: Nobody knows what the futz you’re talkin’ about.
1961
A. Maund
International
4: He promised me three years ago he would run Nick Sarpedon the futz out of the International.
1996
L. Niven
Ringworld Throne
318: What the futz was Bram expecting?

futz
verb

1
. [probably an alteration of Yiddish
arumfartsn
] to fool or play.—used with
around
or
with
. [Often regarded as a euphemism for
FUCK
,
verb
, definition 5, or
FUCK AROUND
.]

1929–30
J.T. Farrell
Young Lonigan
63: Studs kept futzing around until Helen Shires came out with her soccer ball.
1932
American Speech
VII (June) 335:
Phutz around
—to trifle; to interfere; “to horse around.”
1936
M. Levin
Old Bunch
64: There was a fellow that never wasted time. No fuzzy futzing around.
Ibid.
249: No more futzing around being a schoolboy.
1941
C. Brackett & “B. Wilder”
Ball of Fire
(film): Why do you think we’re futzin’ around with these?
1941
in A. Boucher
Werewolf
129: Futzing around with the occult.
1944
A. J. Liebling
Back to Paris
113: Have we really started, or are we still futzing around?
1948
I. Wolfert
Act of Love
158: What’s he futzing around for?
1949
H. Robbins
Dream Merchants
14: At least he didn’t say a word about my futsing around all those years.
1959–60
R. Bloch
Dead Beat
3: “Good crowd,” said Eddie, futzing around with his mustache.
1964–66
R. Stone
Hall of Mirrors
78: To…watch a room full of stooges futz with soap.
1968
P. Roth
Portnoy’s Complaint
263: I am nobody to futz around with.
1970
C. Harrison
No Score
55: You futz around in the darkroom all the time.
1973
A. Schiano & A. Burton
Solo
106: All that futzing around with bits of paper.
1984
USA Today
(Nov. 7) 3A: President Reagan…[suggested] it is time to “stop this futzing around.”
1998
New Yorker
(Oct. 5) [inside back cover] [advertisement]: Da Vinci didn’t mess with the Mona Lisa. Beethoven didn’t futz with his 5th Symphony.
1998
T. C. Wilson
Systems Librarian
88: In its most basic definition, “futzing” is playing around with a technology to get it to work as needed or to improve its operation—tweaking so to speak.
2000
Wired
(Jan.) 216/2: The Air Force report acknowledges the controversy inherent in futzing with Mother Nature.
2003
D. Gaines
Misfit’s Manifesto
xv. 331: But I got hold of myself and started futzing with the tape recorder.

2
. to treat with contempt.—used with
around
; =
FUCK AROUND
,
verb
, sense 3.

1966
B. Brunner
Face of Night
165: Futz me around a little more and find out.
1989
E. Segal
Doctors
138: “I bet you’ll be back with us by spring.” “Don’t futz me around. I’m gonna be here forever.”

futzer
noun

=
FUTZ
,
noun
, definition 1.

1938
H. Miller
Tropic of Capricorn
30: You poor old futzer, you, just wait.
2002
D. Reuter
Gaydar
119/1: This obsessive-compulsive futzer can be one mean “queen” bee, as he endlessly buzzes around his hive, picking up pollen and depositing it in its proper place.

futz off
verb

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