fuck

I. vb

1.

to have sex with. The most commonly used 'four-letter' word, used intransitively ('let's fuck') and transitively ('he fucked her/him'); now also used of women ('she fucked him/her'). Surprisingly, the age and origins of this word are obscure. It may not be Anglo-Saxon as is often sup-posed (it was not recorded in writing until the 16th century) and does not occur in Chaucer and Shakespeare, but may have been borrowed from Norse (fukkar in Norwegian, fockar in Swedish). Wherever and whenever the word entered English, it is undoubtedly related to a pattern of words in Indo-European languages which give, among many others, the Latin pungere (meaning to prick), the German ficken (meaning to fuck or strike) and the French foutre (meaning to fuck). The common semantic feature of these words is that they all contain the meanings strike, push or prick. Fuck has always been a taboo word in all English-speaking countries and is still omitted from broadcasts and generally as-terisked if written in the press. In the late 20th century the verb often had the more specialised sense of 'habitually copulate' or 'be sexually willing' as in 'does she fuck?'

2.

to make a mess of, destroy. A 1980s shortening of fuck up with slightly more emphatic or drastic connotations.

They fucked the experiment totally.

3.

to damn or disregard

► 'Fuck art, let's dance!' (T-shirt slogan of the 1970s)

II. n

a.

an act of sexual intercourse. The noun postdates the verb by at least three hundred years.

b.

a person when evaluated as a sexual partner

a good fuck/an easy fuck

c.

a person, especially when viewed as a fool, victim, villain, etc.

The poor dumb fuck didn't have a chance.