Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/11/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 07:08 AM 11/7/00 -0800, you wrote: >Owing to distance and the wind and the language barrier the French >thought the English were saying PLUCK YEW. The dimness of time, and >American vulgarism, has since wrought havoc with this historical >gesture. > >There is a web site somewhere that explains all this. And if you want the truth (although I like this story), you can refer to my friend Jesse's book, The F Word. Jesse's the North American editor for the OED, and he knows more about slang than any man alive -- he also edited the Random House Dictionary of Slang. The etymology of the word "F***" is truly fascinating. (He was in the Times a couple of weeks ago, explaining the difficulty he's having with the verb "to bitch slap." Seems it's hard to provide a precise definition, without using a simile: ie. "to hit someone as a pimp would his a prostitute." Similes are not permitted in lexicography.)