Why is the word “Fuck” so offensive to people? It means nothing. Of all of the swear words, shit and fuck are the most meaningless, and yet they are considered the most offensive.

“What the fuck?” What does that even mean?

I mean, I get it if I said ” Hey, I fucked your daughter last night!”, but in no way does saying something like “What the fuck” represent actual sex. “Where’s my fucking cell phone at,” also is meaningless.

It’s weird, because you could say “Where’s my freaking cell phone at” and nobody would bat an eye, and yet they are both equally meaningless and basically represent the same thing.

What is going on here?

45 comments

  1. Who fucking knows up in this fucking place

    Okay let me chill lol. Yeah, it’s just a word.

  2. It isn’t where I live (The UK), and if you said “freaking” you would get laughed at. Cunt is the only swearword left with any real stigma attached to it, and that’s only with certain people.

  3. The whole purpose of the invective is it’s intensity. If no one cares, then it loses all linguistic purpose.

  4. Everything is offensive nowadays, I’d be surprised if the word fuck wasn’t too

  5. It became so used that “fuck” became a general curse word. General curse words can be used in any circumstance regardless of meaning. You can call somrbody a moron regardless their mental state and speed thus showing that moron too lost its meaning. (I would have used ret*rd, but nothing would change).
    Genereal Curse words (all of them) lost their meaning to either radicalise or simply extentuate your madness in a literal form.

    Saying “Gosh darn it”

    Saying “God Damn it”

    And saying “Holy fucking shit”

    All of them express frustation but in different “forms” and different levels of frustation.

    Minor curse words that extentuate frustration, yet these are usually limited to children and their vocab.
    You’d hear “Oh Jeeez” a lot from a kid than an adult because using that minor form of frustration expression makes them belittled.

    While if a kid said “Fuck this shit” Would simply make people think that the children is simply overreaching.

    At least that is my understanding. You can research the history of cursewords and their changed

  6. The degree of vulgarity is inversely proportional to how often it’s used. If everyone says it and everyone doesn’t care, it becomes meaningless. The opposite is true.

  7. So, like you said, fuck means a man and woman fucking. The fact that you say it intending another meaning doesn’t change that. And the reason people use it as a swear word is probably because of the original meaning as well.

  8. It depends how you grew up, my family generally doesn’t swear but my brother curses all the time and it really bothers some of them. He doesn’t mean anything by it, he works in a fabrication shop and that’s just how his buddies talk. My dad hates it, he thinks it sets a terrible example for the younger family members. Young people seem to care less about stuff like swearing and tattoos, so it’s probably a generational thing too.

  10. I just think it’s poor language. It saddens me that many interesting words almost get forgotten because of this sort of language lazyness. “Fuck this shit”, “Fuck that”, “Fuck, that’s awesome”. I mean come on, that’s the cheapest and lowest level of language there is. That’s why I don’t like them and for the most part don’t use them.

  14. Consider this- no word is meaningful, language is an abstract constructed concept and “kuso yarou” or “cao ni ma” have no meaning unless you know the language.

    ​

    Fuck isn’t offensive until the language it’s within decided to consider it offensive, do you know that Chinese consider “I’m your grandfather/father” and “your mother’s” offensive if you use it on strangers, because of moral culture. Bizarre, but that’s how language works.

    It might have originated from something like “I fuck you” and got shortened into “fuck”, like how “OK” used to be “All Correct”

  16. They don’t know what the fuck they’re missing out on.

    kidding aside, it’s **vulgar**. Some may dislike it, some don’t mind. You also have to remember that at this age, people get offended by almost **everything** and that’s not your problem.

  17. Don’t know, people are idjits. I live in a country where saying fuck and using all kinds of vulgair words are fine.

    We just don’t care about the tone of the message but the content. (At least we used to, nowadays everyone is also a pussy in my country).

  18. It’s short, simple and you can put no end of intonation on it to change it’s meaning. It’s almost used as an exaggeration of the following word. Fuckkkk that’s cool (really cool). Fucking hell!! (really bad) etc. There’s a great sketch from Billy Connolly where he talks about the international connotations of it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaqsOL-Nv24&ab_channel=RainstormEnt) . He’s exactly right too, people don’t even need to understand English to know the meaning of it. Just the sound is enough.

  19. I’m not offended by it, but its overuse gets really annoying and adds an overly harsh quality to the discourse. There’s other words in the English language, after all.

  20. Where I’m from (the UK) casual swearing is a bonding activity. The UK still has a major class divide which is only getting wider, and commonly using a meaningless “fuck” or “shit” in casual conversation is a way of indicating to people that you’re not some stuck-up silver-spoon arsehole.

    I work in the public sector, and I was in a Teams meeting last week where a load of engineers were reviewing the work of a contractor company we’ve been having difficulties with. The engineer who’s been working with the contractor company in question the longest has been getting more and more frustrated over the last few months, and when asked by the higher-ups in this meeting to weigh in, she sighed and went “It’s all just a bit shit.”

    I had to mute myself because I cackled like a witch, but the vibe of the meeting instantly changed and became more comfortable. The other engineers were suddenly more willing to air their own grievances, and the higher-ups were suddenly more receptive and promised to liaise with their counterparts at the contractor company. It felt like everyone found the abandonment of corpospeak refreshing.

    So yeah, that’s a story about how swearing brings people together :’)

  21. It’s cultural. Some places it’s really offensive, some it’s not. Where it’s not offensive, there’s usually another word that is. It’s also usually dependent on how it’s used. There’s a big difference between “oh for fucks sake” and “I’m going to fuck you”.

  22. I think it depends where you are and how sensitive the people are.

    Here in Australia, no one will be phased by you using the word “fuck”.

  23. Because they’re limp wristed weenies THAT want to be offended by words.

    My nitwit nephew fancies himself as a budding producer of movies. His current problem is that his audience focus is so narrow, they flop miserably. His latest movie title in the works, I had to look up to find out what it meant. Why should I go to a movie, that I have to have a dictionary in my lap to figure out what the cast is saying.

    Want to sound smart? Or get your points across in a conversation? I’m so sorry that I’m not educated enough to understand what you are saying. Have you ever considered that people are ignoring you for that reason? I get that you’re smart. Grow a brain, figure out that its more important to talk TO people, rather than down to them.

  25. It’s all in how people are raised. I personally don’t think words carry a lot of weight and there’s nothing you could call me to offend me. However, given the way I was raised if you start chewing me out and I hear the word “fuck” come out of your mouth, I’m immediately 10 times more pissed off than I was 2 seconds ago. Any other time I couldn’t care less.

  26. Why is *any* word offensive to people????

    If you want a taste of how hypocritical people are, say the r-word just once around someone who swears like a sailor. They’ll call you ableist.

  27. History of the word fuck…. Man that was an excellent
    Video in the beginning of the Internet.

  29. Multiple meanings is not the same as meaningless. The reason fuck is offensive is we have generally agreed it is. The reason freaking is not offensive is because its whole purpose in those contexts is to be the less offensive version of fucking.

  30. In the words of philosopher Eric Cartman…

    “What’s the big damn deal? Fuck fuckity fuck…”

  31. Because sex is fun, it’s universal, and the F word brings the mostly private act of sex out in public.

  32. It all leads back to Victorian puritanism.

    Did you ever notice that slang terms for genitalia or body functions are all considered “foul language”, but slang terms for violence are not? Even words which are nominally considered proper English, like “pussy”, can become “foul language” once they become slang for genitalia. That kind of says everything you need to know about the nature of “foul language”.

  34. Depends on context:
    While having sex: “oh fuck! Yea”, “fuck no!!!”, “You are fucking amazing”, “for fucks sake”, etc. Can have different meaning.

  35. Discouraging someone saying Fuck in church or around kids is understandable.

    IMHO People that act offended are often trying to use Etiquette Rules to dominate you.

    They probably curse too when they are upset.

    If you say fuck 10 times in 10 minutes and it’s not a disaster situation, I feel a person has a limited vocabulary.

  37. Because “fuck” originally was slang for sexual intercourse. “We’re fucking each other”, “he fucked her good”, etc.

  38. Everything is “just a word” yet words have meanings and stigmas attached because actually “just a word” has meaning. “Fuck” is a vulgar term for sex. Sure, it’s become a sweat word, but that’s what it is at it’s root. “Shit” is just a slang word for manure or poop. Also has become a swear word, but still has a root. If I called my mom “an absolute fucking cunt” I come argue they’re just words. Relax. It’s all q social construct anyway. But words have meanings, roots and stigmas. That’s how communication works.

  40. It’s not meaningless. It has a meaning. That’s why we use it. The meaning is often used to empathize something. It can be used negatively or positively.

    Not sure where you’re thinking it doesnt mean anything

  41. I am from New Jersey (usa) and we use the word “fuck” every day. It’s a common occurrence.

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