Expletive deletedIt has been taboo for more than 500 years. But from fcuk to Four Weddings and a Funeral, the f-word has become so commonplace it now seems acceptable in everyday conversation. Is it no longer obscene? And if it isn't, what is? Jonathan Margolis investigates
Thursday November 21, 2002
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,844116,00.html(snip)
"Why did fuck lose its sting? Has its diminution left us bereft of a useful, powerful expletive? If it has, is language the poorer for its emasculation? And is there an unspoken agenda that it is still rude when the speaker is working class? Or if it is used in a work of art, such as this year's Gilbert and George exhibition, The Dirty Words Pictures, 1977?"
(snip)
"As well as liberalisation for its own sake, the fact has also dawned that, linguistically, fuck is a very flexible and interesting word. According to an internet wit called Nick Lohr, who has an audiovisual tribute to fuck at www.fuck.addr.com/news/word/larry.html, we would all do well to use the word more in our speech. It is, he contends, "the one magical word which just by its sound can describe pain, pleasure, hate and love - fuck falls into many grammatical categories, as a transitive verb, for instance: 'John fucked Shirley.' As an intransitive verb: 'Shirley fucks.' It's meaning is not always sexual; it can be used as an adjective, such as 'John is doing all the fucking work'; as part of an adverb: 'Shirley talks too fucking much'; as an adverb enhancing an adjective: 'Shirley is fucking beautiful'; as a noun: 'I don't give a fuck'; as part of a word: 'abso-fucking-lutely' or 'in-fucking-credible'; and as almost every word in the sentence: 'Fuck the fucking fuckers.'"
- more . . .
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,844116,00.html