The F-Word, Jesse Sheidlower’s book about the history of the word fuck.

About

The F-Word is a historical dictionary devoted to the word fuck, including all parts of speech, compounds, phrases, and certain euphemisms. A “historical dictionary” means that, like the Oxford English Dictionary, it illustrates every sense of every entry with quotations, from the earliest that can be found to a (relatively) recent example, showing exactly how the word has been used throughout history.

The book originally came out in 1995, with new editions published in 1999 and 2009. This new, fourth edition (2024) is not just a minor update but a comprehensive revision. The fourth edition includes over 2,500 new quotations; over 150 new entries; and over 150 antedatings—earlier examples of existing entries, improving our understanding of the word’s development. Major new discoveries push back the known history of fuck by almost 200 years.

Quotations are as recent as 2024, taken from a wide range of sources, both literary (traditionally published books, magazines, and newspapers) and nonliterary (rap songs, TV shows (The Wire, The Sopranos, and Succession are quoted dozens of times), 19th-century pornographic phonograph records, and internet sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Urban Dictionary, and Reddit).

The many new entries include, in general use, brainfuck; the MILF spinoff terms DILF and GILF; thank fuck; the group of expressions of the sort to give no fucks or zero fucks given; fuck around and find out (and its abbreviation FAFO); fuck bitch; fuck doll; the social game Fuck, Marry, Kill; fuckton; several new senses of fuck with including ‘to enjoy’; and trophy fuck.

New entries from literary figures include James Joyce’s fuckbird and Henry Miller’s concept of the Land of Fuck.

New initialisms or abbreviations, often associated with online communication, include AF ‘as fuck’; DTF ‘down to fuck’; FFS ‘for fuck’s sake’; FML ‘fuck my life’; LMFAO ‘laughing my fucking ass off’; and WTAF ‘what the actual fuck’.

Many antedatings represent significant improvements in our knowledge of the word’s history. The expression for fuck’s sake, previously first recorded in 1943, is now known from 1922; fucked ‘crazy’ has been improved from 1971 to 1951, fuckload from 1984 to 1970, headfuck ‘something that causes confusion’ from 1993 to 1976, ratfuck ‘a frenetic social event’ from 1979 to 1969. In particular, research into early erotica has resulted in a number of major antedatings. The noun ass-fuck, previously first found in 1940, is now recorded in 1874; dogfuck has been improved from 1980 to 1867, face-fuck from 1972 to 1899, fuckstick ‘the penis’ from 1973 to 1904, mouth fuck from 1954 to 1868, and tongue fuck from 1974 to 1902.

The 2,500 new quotations include an enormous range of prominent writers and public figures, in many genres. Some of the additions include Amy Schumer, Maria Dahvana Headley (from her award-winning translation of Beowulf), Jonathan Franzen, Mike Tyson, Thomas Wolfe, Charles Bukowski, Horace Walpole (yes, the 18th-century writer), the pop singer Lorde, William Vollman, James Ellroy, William Gibson, Marilyn Manson, Margaret Atwood, Joan Rivers, George Pellicanos, Dan Savage, Dave Eggers, N.K. Jemisin, Larry Kramer, John Waters, Nick Cave, David Foster Wallace, Rebecca Traister, Rachel Kushner, 50 Cent, Lauren Groff, Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, Sally Rooney, Tupac Shakur, Colson Whitehead, Charlamagne tha God, Anthony Doerr, Ottessa Moshfegh, Gary Shteyngart, Ocean Vuong, Marlon James, Ben Lerner, Amor Towles, Hank Green, Marc Maron, John Oliver, and Elon Musk.

Where to Buy

You can buy The F-Word in the usual places: Your favorite independent bookstore, the publisher, the main online retailers. Here are some options. Note that the listings at many of these places have errors and typos in them, which have not yet been corrected. Apologies.

Addenda et Corrigenda

(This section does not list all minor errors that have been discovered.)

p. xxxix, Introduction, quotation from Ulysses: Insert a period (.) after Tell him from me.

pp. 160–161, phrase entries fuck ’em and forget ’em and fuck ’em all but six [and save them for pallbearers]: switch entries, so they are in alphabetical order.

pp. 297–299, fuck with entries: The 1977 quotation from Edward Bunker at sense 2.a. belongs at the (current) sense 3.b. Move this quotation into place; renumber sense 3.b. to 3.a. (because it is now the earliest, chronologically) and move it into the correct place, and renumber sense 3.a. to 3.b.

p. 330, entry for guaranfuckingtee, definition: italicize infix.

p. 368, entry for motherfather, definition: cross-reference should be to motherfucker (without hyphen).

p. 369, entry for motherfouler, definition: cross-reference should be to motherfucker (without hyphen).

p. 442, entry for upgefucked, etymology: the German word is more usually spelled abgefuckt.

p. 449, entry for zipless fuck, 2021 quotation: For Pioritise read Prioritise.