The F-Word (36 page)

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Authors: Jesse Sheidlower

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2
. a person, especially a man, who is despicable, wretched, formidable, etc.; bastard; (
broadly
) a person; fellow.

a
1890–93
J. S. Farmer & W. E. Henley
Slang & Its Analogues
III 80:
Fucker
…a term of endearment, admiration, derision, etc.
1918
in
Englische Studien
LX (1926) 277: We had a sergeant-major/Who never saw a Hun,/And when the Huns came over/You could see the fucker run.
1914–21
J. Joyce
Ulysses
600 [refers to 1904]: I’ll wring the bastard fucker’s bleeding blasted fucking windpipe!
1926
Englische Studien
LX 279 [refers to WWI]: The noun
fucker
…the very old term of derision, as well as pity (cp. “that poor blighter!”)…was used in the sense of “bloke,” “rotter,” “blighter,” or “bastard,” a word which decorated the speech of overseas men and Americans.
1927
Immortalia
159: The dirty old fucker.
1929
F. Manning
Middle Parts of Fortune
146 [refers to WWI]: Laugh, you silly fuckers!
Ibid.
150: I’d rather kill some other fucker first.
Ibid.
208: If any o’ us poor fuckers did it, we’d be for th’ electric chair.
1945
in T. Shibutani
Derelicts of Company K
197: Them fuckers piss me off.
1945
in D. Levin
From Battlefield
52: Hey, you old fucker!…How long you been out here?
1949
V. Van Praag
Day Without End
168: Make your shots count!…Kill the lousy stinking fuckers!
1959
G. Morrill
Dark Sea Running
11: We carry high-octane gas that burns. If I catch any of you fuckers smoking forward of the messroom doors, I’ll crack your nobs.
1960
G. Sire
Deathmakers
43: You’re a mean fucker, Chico.
1961
L. McMurtry
Horseman, Pass By
142: “I used to ride them bulls when I was a young fucker,” he said.
1961–64
D. Barthelme
Come Back, Dr. Caligari
43: Oh that poor fucker Eric.
1965–70
J. Carroll in
Paris Review
(No. 50) 107: Her mother [was a] dumb, New Jersey, housewife fucker.
1969–71
R. Kahn
Boys of Summer
96: Gonna get them fuckers.… Teach them fuckers to mess with me.
1972
B. Hannah
Geronimo Rex
96: Monroe, you dopey fucker.
1975
S. Brownmiller
Against Our Will
364: I hate that fucker more today than I did when it happened to me.
1981
A. A. Gilliland
Revolution
from Rosinante
117: The fucker is going to set himself up as
king
.
1989
M. Norman
These Good Men
115: I love my son; I love that little fucker.
1992
G. Wolff
Day at Beach
127: Only thing to keep the fuckers out.
2003
A. Swofford
Jarhead
175: The Vietnam War was not an official war either, but a perpetually escalating conflict with many poor, dead, sad fuckers.

3
. an annoying or hateful thing, task, situation, etc.; (
broadly
) a thing, esp. if striking or remarkable.

1945
in T. Shibutani
Derelicts of Company K
155: I don’t think I could walk a mile with this fucker on.
1948
N. Mailer
Naked & Dead
10 [refers to WWII]: Let’s stop shuffling the fuggers and start playing.
1958
T. Berger
Crazy in Berlin
186: If you are that close to the end, you can put the fucker aside for fifteen minutes and write me a letter to the wife.
1961
C. Bukowski
Letter
(June 22) in C. Bukowski & S. Martinelli
Beerspit Night & Cursing: Letters
(2001) 245: For a short letter this has turned out to be a fucker.
1968
A. Myrer
Eagle
695: And the fucker better work, I’m telling you!
1973
Penthouse
(May) 62: Oh my God, I’ve got to come back tomorrow and do this fucker again.
1976
in S. Mack
Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies
(unpaged): Sixteen out of 178 of us got in! It’s a
fucker
isn’t it!
1980
W. Kotzwinkle
Jack in the Box
156: She’ll burn up the competition.… It’s one fucker of an engine.
1980
in
Penthouse
(Jan. 1981) 173: He wanted me to wear this schoolgirl rig and shoes—and shine the fuckers first.
1981–85
S. King
It
30: Just give me the fucker.
1987
W. D. Blankenship
Blood Stripe
68: Took me five years to earn that fucker.
1992
G. Wolff
Day at Beach
180: You fucking get the fucker up, Dad.
2000
D. Eggers
Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
435: You slash away with that fucker [
sc.
a frisbee], it’s such a violent act, throwing that white thing, you’re first cradling it to your breast and then then you whip that fucker as hard as you possibly can while keeping it level, keeping it straight.
2008
A. Davies
Mine All Mine
149: “It’s just the brass. It ejected funny.” “Brass?” “The shell.” “Fucker is hot.”

fuckerware party
noun
[
FUCK
+ (
Tupp
)
erware party
]

Especially
Homosexuals
. a gathering of women for the group use or purchase of sexual toys.

1983
G. Davis
Romance
63: The nicest women on the Peninsula get together for what they themselves have labelled Fuckerware parties, where
a representative comes equipped with Benoit balls, edible underwear, all manner of lubricious devices for sale.
1985
Hustler
(Nov.): She joins Erica Boyer, Beverly Bliss and Barbie Dahl in a “fuckerware” party. As the girls try on lingerie and sample lotions, body paints and sex toys, the party breaks out in a rash of dueling dildos.
1986
Playboy
(Nov.) 25: The authors attend a fundamentalist sex seminar…, a fuckerware party and other events.
1990
S. Bright
Susie Sexpert’s Lesbian Sex World
47: How many of you have attended a home sex toy presentation with a group of friends? They’re called fuckerware parties in the business.
1998
T. Dalzell
Slang of Sin
177:
Fuckerware party
…a women’s party where sex toys are displayed and sold.

fuckery
noun
[
FUCKER
+
-y
; or
FUCK
+ treach
ery
]

1
. a brothel.

1902
J. S. Farmer & W. E. Henley
Dictionary of Slang & Its Analogues
V. 12/2:
Nanny-shop
…a brothel…
English synonyms
…fuckery.
1966
B. Miller (book title)
Devotions Written in a Fuckery
.
a
1973
in R. S. Silverberg
New Dimensions
III. 138: Well, OK: one time in a regular seaport fuckery, Marseilles I think, I got a deaf-mute ginch. It was—restful, sort of; you don’t have to talk.
1978
H. Mathews trans. J. Cordelier
The Life: Memoirs of a French Hooker
163: You’re sure you haven’t come to the wrong fuckery?
1994
U. K. LeGuin
Matter of Seggri
in
Birthday of the World & Other Stories
(2002) 51: Chochi had a favorite man at their local fuckery to whom she went now and then for pleasure.
2008
H. Kureishi
Something to Tell You
107: But inside the fuckery it was warm and friendly. Everyone said hello.… “There were people on dog’s leads, and lying in baths to be urinated on, others facedown in a sling.”

2
. sexual activity;
FUCKING
.

1961
J. Ashmead
Mountain & the Feather
132: By definition, homosexuals did not speak endlessly and monotonously of the drab arts of fuckery.
1966
A. Wainhouse trans. Marquis de Sade
120 Days of Sodom
405: As always partisan to thigh-fuckery, the Duc, obliged as he was to abstain from the capital practice, impaled Zelmire in this style.
1974
New Society
XXIX. 170: Although she assesses herself a unique phoenix of fuckery, Ms Lovelace does only what any accomplished whore is expected to do in a society where the profession of prostitution demands specific sexual
virtuosities.
1978
A. Carter
Sadeian Woman
62: A tragic resonance to illicit fuckery is as silly as a straightforward denial that it exists.
1982
J. A. Atkins
Sex in Literature
IV. 310: He enjoys old-fashioned cunt-fuckery more than anything else and describes it with immense gusto.
1982
J. Machlis
Lisa’s Boy
201: They came together for what his friend Sidney called pure fuckery, and that goal seemed best served by their not becoming too deeply involved with each other.
2004
J. H. Kunstler
Maggie Darling
48: An upward-reaching fugue of fuckery that culminated with Maggie bowed backward in a near headstand and Kenneth yogically arched above, as though he were copulating with a wheelbarrow, and then they collapsed in a heap on the floor.

3
. despicable behavior; (
also
) treachery.

1978
S. King
Stand
461: That was an act of pure human fuckery.
1993
T. Olson
At Sea
70: No vigilante, high seas pirate fuckery is going down while I’m around here!
1994
Village Voice
(Nov. 1) 69: Taking on the genre’s most seismic vocalist was arrogant fuckery to begin with.
1998
C. Channer
Waiting in Vain
vii. 184: He’d even asked her to marry him… and she’d said no. Said some fuckery like, Only if we’re allowed to see other people.
2006
A. Winehouse
Me & Mr. Jones
(pop. song): What kind of fuckery is this?
2007
D. Moskowitz
Words & Music of Bob Marley
122: The omitted word could have been “fuckery,” which was Jamaican patois for wrong or unfair actions.

fuckface
noun

an ugly or contemptible person.—usually used abusively in direct address.

1945
in
Verbatim
(Autumn, 1989) 6:
Fxxxface
…1. A fool, a joker, one not held in high regard or likable.… 2. Greeting, form of address, semi-humorously or strongly contemptuous.
1961
J. Jones
Thin Red Line
39 [refers to WWII]: All right, fuckface! Where’s that fucking platoon roster…?
1967
W. Crawford
Gresham’s War
139: Hey, frickface.
1968
J.P. Miller
Race for Home
294 [refers to 1930s]: “Tell what happened to ’im, fuckface,” Dawg said.
1968
W. Mares
Marine Machine
5: You come down here with this blade to cut me, fuckface?
Try it!
1971
T. Mayer
Weary Falcon
126: I tried giving it to the fuck faces whole, but then they sell it.
1983
W. Walker
Dime to Dance
55: Why don’t you mind your own business,
fuckface?
1985
R. Meltzer
Rock-Crit Blood ’n’ Guts (Part 1)
in
Whore Just Like Rest
(2000) 9: The first thing he says is “Get me some tea.” Get your own tea, fuckface!
1991
N. Baker
U & I
vii. 120: That dirty little fuckface!
1993
S. Turow
Pleading Guilty
IV. xiv. 217: Who am I looking for, fuckface?
1999
T. Parker et al.
South Park
(film script) 27:
Phillip
. I did, Terrance, I learned that you are a boner biting dick fart fuck face!
2004
J. Meno
Hairstyles of Damned
142: “Do I look like a dude to you, you fuckface?” she asked.
Fuckface?
I thought to myself. Who even uses the word “fuckface”?

fuckfaced
adjective

1
. having an ugly or miserable face; despicable. [The 1940 quotation is euphemistic.]

1940
E. Hemingway
For Whom the Bell Tolls
369: Muck my grandfather and muck this whole treacherous muck-faced mucking country.
1973
W. Crawford
Gunship Commander
24: You fuckfaced animal. Either do something with that or put it away.
1991
M. Olden
Kisaeng
265: He…held the cigarette lighter to the guard’s nose. “You fuckfaced twerp. Go feebleminded with me and I’ll roast you.”
1995
L. Uris
Redemption
15: What would you give for another stupid paddy like me to come off the ship and bail you out, you fuck-faced monster?
2001
B. Denton
Dealing
vi. 155: He wrote a letter to his cell mate’s girlfriend in Fairlea calling Marcia a “fuck-faced dog who gave me up.”

2
. Tired; bleary-eyed; (also) appearing like someone who has recently engaged in copulation.

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