four letter word goes mainstream?

[Jonathan Townsend]

What four letter word - oft used - has just gotten a makeover and gone into public acceptable use?

Serious question for those who study memes, knots and the how people relate to language.

So what the frak happened and how can we make use of the process?

[mai-ling]

i blame HBO and cable stations the like.

duck.

[mai-ling]

In BG s3, they use the work 10x more than
in 1, 2.0 and 2.5.

It gets quite tiresome when every other word
spoken is frak.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Yes, that's the word in question and it's the mental transformation of the word/meme f*u$c&k into frak and its social reframe which I feel bears close examination.

Anchoring exercise, collapased anchor or just acting out under pretense? Felderkarb or just tween kibble?

[Richard Kaufman]

What about Frick and Frak?

[Jonathan Townsend]

Quick note to our beginners in conjuring: It's unusual to see a public discussion of the context and anchors associated with a word - even once removed. Art does well to learn from life.

[Jim Maloney]

What about Frick ...?

Now that one is used extensively on Scrubs.

-Jim

[Bill Duncan]

Fricking is a different sexual act. One the censors, who don't read Victorian English, seem to have missed.

[Richard Kaufman]

Bill, I am unable to locate a Victorian definition for "Fricking." Send me an e-mail to my personal address because you've got me curious.:)

[castawaydave]

The 1994 edition of the Compact O.E.D. at hand has "frickle: (1681) a basket for fruit that holds about a bushel", but no "frick".

"Frig"--a euphemism for you know what..."Frack" and "Frak" don't mean what you think...

To my surprise (never knew the O.E.D. is so, so...RIBALD...) there are LOTS of definitions for "f*ck"; with charming examples of early usage like this one from 1680: "Thus I was Rook'd of Twelve substantial F*cks". Hey: we've all been THERE!

[Jonathan Townsend]

culturally it's very close to "frag" from wartime references - but its use on tv may have given it enough time mainstream to settle. Now will it settle in?

[Richard Kaufman]

The wartime reference is "fug," coined by Norman Mailer because he couldn't write "f**k" in his famous first novel, "The Naked and the Dead" about World War II, published in 1948.

[Jonathan Townsend]

what did they call it when inexperienced CO's led their troops into unsafe battles often enough that some of the troops decided it was safer to let the officers go home early and honored?