The Worrds "Shit" and "Fuck" - A Scholarly Treatise of their Uses and Etymoloty

[Rhondazvous]

A Brief Etymology
Urban legend has it that the word “shit” was a nautical acronym. Back in the day when manure was shipped low in the belly of wooden ships, moisture would get in and the process of fermentation would release methane gas. This is a highly flammable gas. All it took was some fool to go down there with a lantern or cigarette and blow the whole thing to smithereens. So to keep the manure dry, they would stamp it with the acronym S.H.I.T. (Ship High In Transit).

Thus the word “shit” came to be used for the end product of digestion. It is also used to describe nonsense, ex. “Don’t start that shit with me.”

Two urban legends claim to describe the etymology of the word “fuck.”
1. The word “fuck” owes its ontology to the Church. Then they used to hang people for engaging in sex outside of marriage, they would hang a sign over their bodies that read, “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.”
2. King Henry VIII engaged in royal pimpdom, would have the acronym F.U.C.K. tattooed on the necks of his girls. It stood for “Fornication Under Consent of the King.” When men saw that, they knew they had to pay the king.
Fuck is used in many ways.
1. An act of pure animal lust. Ex. Clinton: We didn’t have sex. We just fucked.
2. As a curse: ex. Fuck you.
3. A disdainful person. Ex. Fucking cops
4. A sorry state of affairs. Ex. This is really fucked up.
5. For emphasis. Ex. Get the fuck out of my face.
6. For comedy. A comedian doesn’t even have to be funny. All he has to do is get up on stage and say “Fuck” and the audience will be rolling.
My own personal relationship with the words shit and fuck began when I joined AF. Before AF, I was of the opinion that people used these words to hide a limited vocabulary. My boy Minimalist disabused me of this misconception. When I first came to AF Min cussed me out royally. I started to dismiss him as unintelligent but found that I could not. The man proved to be a genius. His posts impressed me and I began to appreciate him and he me. Soon I began to use the word and relished in the freedom of saying it and not giving a fuck. It’s a lovely word. But I felt it wasn’t strong enough to depict the disdain we felt for really stupid people. The honorable Cato agreed.
http://rhondadenisejohnson.com/Jam.mp3

[Homeless Nutter]

A Brief Etymology
Urban legend has it that the word “shit” was a nautical acronym. Back in the day when manure was shipped low in the belly of wooden ships, moisture would get in and the process of fermentation would release methane gas. This is a highly flammable gas. All it took was some fool to go down there with a lantern or cigarette and blow the whole thing to smithereens. So to keep the manure dry, they would stamp it with the acronym S.H.I.T. (Ship High In Transit).

Considering that the word "shit" has older forms, like "scite", or "scitte" the hypothesis, that it's an acronym is highly unlikely to be true.

Two urban legends claim to describe the etymology of the word “fuck.”
1. The word “fuck” owes its ontology to the Church. Then they used to hang people for engaging in sex outside of marriage, they would hang a sign over their bodies that read, “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.”
2. King Henry VIII engaged in royal pimpdom, would have the acronym F.U.C.K. tattooed on the necks of his girls. It stood for “Fornication Under Consent of the King.” When men saw that, they knew they had to pay the king.

Yeah, none of that is true either, I'm afraid. Which is usually the case with urban - or any other kind of - legends.
The actual etymology of "fuck" is not exactly clear, but as a general rule we can discount the idea, that acronyms had a major role in creating common words in the Middle Ages, or in fact as late as XIX century, because most people, who would use words like "shit" or "fuck" couldn't read.

[robvalue]

Ah, party pooper! I liked those stories

Two of my favourite words.

[Iroscato]

My personal favourite swear 'cunt' apparently shares the same root as the word 'queen' - cuna (or possibly quna, I forget).

So when I say 'The Queen is a cunt' I'm just being historically accurate :3

[TheRealJoeFish]

I forget if I posted this before:

http://www.medievalists.net/2015/09/10/t...iscovered/

"The earliest use of the F-word discovered"

An English historian has come across the word ‘fuck’ in a court case dating to the year 1310, making it the earliest known reference to the swear word.

Dr Paul Booth of Keele University spotted the name in ‘Roger Fuckebythenavele’ in the Chester county court plea rolls beginning on December 8, 1310. The man was being named three times part of a process to be outlawed, with the final mention coming on September 28, 1311.

Dr Booth believes that “this surname is presumably a nickname. I suggest it could either mean an actual attempt at copulation by an inexperienced youth, later reported by a rejected girlfriend, or an equivalent of the word ‘dimwit’ i.e. a man who might think that that was the correct way to go about it.”

[robvalue]

Didn't we have a guy who called himself Lord Fuckingsworth or something?

[Rhondazvous]

I forget if I posted this before:

http://www.medievalists.net/2015/09/10/t...iscovered/

"The earliest use of the F-word discovered"

"The F word?" New baby, ain't gone be no cussing on the sly. We're all over 21, so let's call a spade a spade and say FUCK.

[TheRealJoeFish]

I forget if I posted this before:

http://www.medievalists.net/2015/09/10/t...iscovered/

"The earliest use of the F-word discovered"

"The F word?" New baby, ain't gone be no cussing on the sly. We're all over 21, so let's call a spade a  spade and say FUCK.

Haha... just the title of the article! I try to work "fuck" into every article I write, even if it's not about the word fuck!*

*Not actually true

[Rhondazvous]

Didn't we have a guy who called himself Lord Fuckingsworth or something?

I do know one guy here who could easily be sworn in as Sir Fuckalot based on the posts he thinks I don't see or hopes I do see. I should write a novel with a main character named John Fuckington.

[Exian]

Cussing in Ohio is damn near dialect. If it wasn't for formal meetings where we have to clean it up and the like, I don't think we'd even recognize it as cussing.

ETA: Another use of fuck in the form "fucking" that I didn't see outlined is as a replacement for "Uhm" or "Uh". Ex. "That fuckiiiin' one guy, I forget his name." That gets used a whole bunch around here, and it takes a lot for me to not judge because it does sound pretty stupid. It's the drawn out "i" that sounds so dumb. Fuckiiiiin. Sounds lazy. But I just get used to it and find myself doing it sometimes.