"Fuck" is an interesting word, linguistically speaking. It has the virtues of brevity, adaptability, expressiveness, and is understood universally. It has a huge number of synonyms, ranging from coy euphemisms to acceptable jocular equivalents to coarse vulgarities.

Oddly, it has very few polite equivalents. Strictly speaking, no single English word in current use bears the same primary meaning. It may be thought that "copulate" is an exact synonym for the verb to fuck, but "copulate" has a broader meaning: "to couple, conjoin, link together; to become conjoined or united." In its sexual meaning, it is primarily confined to zoology.

In order to refer to the activity that "fuck" describes, it is necessary to engage in circumlocution or periphrasis. Thus we get "make love to," "sleep with," "engage in sexual relations with," and the like.

It was not always so. "Fuck" is recorded as being used in more-or-less respectable literature as early as 1500, and it is found in Florio's Italian-English dictionary (1598). "Fuck” appears in Nathaniel Bailey's dictionary (1730), but not in Johnson (1755).

Although the following words all describe the same thing, they have won acceptance, if not in the salon, at least in the outer-rooms of polite society: "play mothers and fathers," "go upstairs," "make babies," "get one's jollies," "play hide the sausage," "get into one's pants," "have a tumble." And then there are the earthier monosyllabic inventions: "stuff," "screw," "pork," "poke," "bang," "bonk," "root," "hump." Note that these can be used both as verb and noun. Interestingly, it is easy to see that some of these synonyms are more acceptable than others, but all are more accepted than "fuck." Generally, the more humorous the construction, the more acceptable it is.

Looked at solely as a lexical unit, "fuck" is a very good, sturdy, versatile, and descriptive word. If our social masters could reconcile themselves to the idea that sex is a legitimate part of human existence and is here to stay, it may be that "fuck" will eventually be accepted in polite use.

- Julian Burnside, vocabula.com

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