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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d,net.nlang
Subject: Re: Origin of that strongest of words
Message-ID: <1160@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Oct-84 15:48:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.1160
Posted: Tue Oct 23 15:48:31 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Oct-84 16:18:41 EDT
References: <17@mot.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 26

===============
It's possible origin as a corruption of the English "firk"
is not to be discounted. This was a very common word in the 
11th to 17th centuries.  Meanings of "firk" include "to press
hard", "to move sharply", "to stroke", "to stir up", "to move
about briskly". the OED gives "Your soberest jades are firkers
in corners"--Gayton, 1634. Partridges "Slang Today and Yesterday"
gives "given to caressing women" for "firking".  The loss of the 
"r" is analogous to the loss of the "r" in "arse".

                           alan filipski
===============
There is a Cheshire dialect word "to firkle" (spelling guessed),
which seems to relate to this.  It seems to mean search by stirring
around, or search erratically.  The context I heard it was on a
record by "Blaster Bates", an explosives expert, who was asked to
find unexploded dynamite in a coal pile.  He objected to firkling
around in the coal for it.

Perhaps, in context of this "debate", my contribution is
somewhat parectbatical.
-- 

Martin Taylor
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