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From: steiny@scc.UUCP (Don Steiny)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Origins of the "F word" as a folk myth.
Message-ID: <180@scc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 8-Oct-84 01:54:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: scc.180
Posted: Mon Oct  8 01:54:41 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Oct-84 05:39:54 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Personetics, Inc. - Santa Cruz, Calif.
Lines: 46

***
	There were complaints about continuing this discussion
in net.jokes.d where it originated so ..

	I was just telling my wife about some of the etomologies
for "fuck" - "for unlawful carnal knowledge" is the one I remember.
She said it stood for "fornication under command of the king".
It hit me that these acronyms must constitute some sort of 
folk myth.   When I first saw one of the acronyms, I thought
it was silly.   My wife said she heard it on the schoolyard
and accepted it as fact all these years.   

	There is a book called "Language and Lore of School 
Children" by the Opies that points out that children have an active mythology
that has origins far back.  For instance, "eninie, meenie,
mini, moe"  is "one", "two", "three", "four" in Tocharan, a
now dead Indo-European Langauge.  The darling ryhme:

	Ring around the rosie
	Pockets full of Posies.
	Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

Is a reference to the bubonic plauge.  The plauge caused red circles to
appear on the skin. Posies were considered a charm to ward off the
plauge, and victims were burned to ashes.

	Apparently this "fuck" as an acronym thing is an oral tradation.
It is probably like the "poodle in the microwave" story, alligators
in the sewers, or other strange stories ... urban myths.  It is nice
to know that there is an oral tradition alive and flurishing in
our technological society.

Don Steiny - Personetics @ (408) 425-0382
109 Torrey Pine Terr.
Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060
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-- 
scc!steiny
Don Steiny - Personetics @ (408) 425-0382
109 Torrey Pine Terr.
Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060
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