There are a number of interesting and humorous myths and urban legends about where it came from, but the truth is that it crept, fully formed, into the English language from Dutch or Low German around the 15th century (it’s impossible to say precisely when because so little documentary evidence exists, probably due to the fact that the word was so taboo throughout its early history that people were afraid to write it down). The American Heritage Dictionary says its first known occurrence in English literature was in the satirical poem “Flen, Flyss” (c.1500), where it was not only disguised as a Latin word but encrypted – gxddbov – which has been deciphered as fuccant, pseudo-Latin for “they ****.”

Hope this helps.

There are several theories about that, but the most commonly referred to is that it is an acronym for the phrase:

For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge

A phrase they would post when someone had been caught engaging in relations outside marriage. Most generally the person would be in stockades for having committed this sin.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the exact origins of the word are unknown. It was first used as a verb in the 1500’s and as a noun in the 1600’s.

The following is from the Oxford English Dictionary. What comes first is the etymology or history of the word in brackets. E = English, ME = Middle English G=German. Then follows the first definition, followed by the first known written usage and some famous usages throughout history.

I hope this is helpful.

[Early mod.E ****, ***, answering to a ME. type *fuken (wk. vb.) not found; ulterior etym. unknown. Synonymous G. ficken cannot be shown to be related.]

For centuries, and still by the great majority, regarded as a taboo-word; until recent times not often recorded in print but frequent in coarse speech.

1. intr. To copulate. trans. (Rarely used with female subject.) To copulate with; to have sexual connection with.

a1503 DUNBAR Poems lxxv. 13 “Be his feiris he wald haue fukkit.”

1535 LYNDESAY Satyre 1363 “Bischops..may **** thair fill and be vnmaryit.”

1535-36 Answer to Kingis Flyting 49 “Ay fukkand lyke ane furious Fornicatour.”

1598 FLORIO Worlde of Wordes 137/1 “Fottere, to iape, to sard, to fucke, to swive, to occupy.”

c1650 in Hales & Furnivall Percy’s Folio MS. (1867) 90 “Which made him to haue a mighty mind To clipp, kisse, & to ffuck.”

1680 ROCHESTER Poems on Several Occasions (1950) 14 “Much Wine had past with grave discourse, Of who ***** who, and who does worse.”

c1684 Sodom II. 30 “Hee ***** to please his will, but I for need.”

1707 ‘MADAM B[RAN]LE’ Fifteen Plagues of Maidenhead 4 “But I poor Virgin never shall be F.”

a1750 A. ROBERTSON Poems (1750) 256 “But she gave proof that she could fk.”

c1800 BURNS Merry Muses (1911) 71 “You can fk where’er you please.”

c1863 PHILO CUNNUS Festival of Passions II. 54 “That female nation who being encamped near their enemies were ******, during a truce, by the hostile party.”

1869 ROSSETTI Let. 15 Sept. (1965) II. 743 “If Byron fd his sister he fd her and there an end.”

c1888-94 My Secret Life IV. 64 “Then a dread came over me. I had ****** a common street nymph.”

1922 JOYCE Ulysses 765 “His wife is ****** yes and damn well ****** too.”

1928 D. H. LAWRENCE Lady Chatterley iv. 44 “Fellows with swaying waists ******* little jazz girls.”

1967 D. WRIGHT tr. R. Queneau’s Between Blue & Blue v. 48 ‘Well, Lamélie,’ says Cidrolin, ‘while you’re waiting to get married, do you want to be entertained or educated?’ ‘No, Dad, what I want to do is to ****.’

1971 Ink 19 Oct. 15/3, “I don’t want to **** anyone, and I don’t want to be ****** either.”

It’s a very long story, but it started when the Egyptians (I think) developed the alphabet.

It is my understanding that it came from the abbreviation of a criminal statute in Britain

Forced

Understanding of

Carnal

Knowledge

I could be wrong, but that is the story I was told many years ago.

from the Ozborns

It’s supposed to mean “for unlawful carnal knowledge”. Don’t know if that’s true, though.

That’s what they use to call having sex.

NEPAL