Fokkers and Messerschmitts

Now please do not fall for the title which is bound to enthuse aviation enthusiasts. This post is not about aeroplanes. The title is in fact a subterfuge to mask my reluctance to use the word fuck in the title itself.

Now any reasonably intelligent adult knows the meaning of this popular word, and sadly a large percentage of our teenage population too. Especially for us malayalees this is a word that has been popularized as part of thrilling vocabulary of our super human film actors, like Suresh Gopi and Mohan Lal.

Now the etymology of this word is rather complex and I give that job to my trusty sidekick, Senor Wikipedia. Disambiguating the word, the old faithful would also show you that unfortunate village in Austria and of course the protagonist from the title.

Now before I meander further let me get back to the premise of this post.

A short while ago, I read a lamentation by a friend of mine that she just heard her 11 year old brother using this in connection with some forgetfulness regarding his bike. The concerned elder sister was worrying about the state of the teenagers these days when I considered, did the kid know the meaning of this word when he used it or did he use it just as part of a generic swear vocabulary?

That took me back to my schooling days, an era when I was woefully immature and worldly unaware compared to my peers. The crash course in world awareness that I received in my immediate post schooling weeks was far away in an unseen distant future at the time of this flashback. This was the time when the word "Fuck" became popular in our school, at least to my perception. At every intervals, and even during classes when the teacher's attention is drawn to the misnamed black board, guys used to flash their middle finger at each other, and the recipients used to genuinely flinch as if this was some curse bestowed upon him by the rowdy flasher.

As a perennial idiot it took me a rather long time to figure out that this flashing of middle finger was equivalent to a swear, the number of hands involved showing the magnitude of implied swear. Of course the fact that this involved me being bestowed this tertius greeting innumerable times.

Those days I used to walk home from the bus stop with a good friend of mine, a more world wise and swear wise friend of mine. I must say rather a major part of my middle finger quota was received from this esteemed gent. As an extremely timid, innocent and extremely stupid kid I was afraid of using the middle finger. But this one day angry after around 73 middle finger flashes I finally took courage and showed him the finger.

Like Wild Bill Hickok drawing his trusty 1851 .36 Navys, three fingers curled upon themselves, leaving an erect thumb and middle finger and the hand was raised. The shock that was exhibited by my cunning friend however brought a massive remorse upon me. Habitual loser that I was I apologized to him, repeatedly. Finally after innumerable "how could you"s and "Sorry, sorry, sorry"s he finally told me that the gesture stood for the word "Fuck."

I was nonplussed. I had never heard of the word before and had no idea why that should have such grave connotations!

I asked him what is its meaning. This friend of mine, well knowledgeable though he was about my very many idiocies was goggling at me his mouth wide open and his eyes projecting outwards. A few more seconds and he would have been a case destined for an ophthalmologist.

The astonishment was replaced with a burst of wild laughter. Career etymologists please take note, this incident which happened in 1997-98 could be the first exhibition of "Roll On The Floor with Laughter".

The determined me, kept on the case and again asked him the meaning of the word. A few minutes later when his laughter subsided he told me he could not explain it to me, he has no idea how to explain it to me. Then he pleaded laughter induced stomach ache as an excuse and went home.

Perplexed and confused I went home and took out my trusted World Book Encyclopedia. The 24 volume leather bound encyclopedia had been my trusted adviser for years, solving almost all my doubts. However World Book was not helpful. I took out Oxford English Dictionary. The vaunted product of tall and shiny crania of the mossy English college was also unhelpful. Finally I took out DC Books Dictionary, a more earthy work of language. And there the meaning of the word was explained very concisely. However now that I understood the meaning of the word and the implied meaning of the swear word I was confused as to how it is a derogatory insult?

That is a confusion that has lasted in me till now. As a 24 year old virgin male, I would consider some one accusing me of having sex as rather a complement, not an insult. But I suppose some people would consider that as an insult, committed celebates, unmarried chaste women etc.

This is why I am bemused when a lot of people use this word as part of their daily vocabulary.

You dislike a person? Call him "Fuck You." Now is that not a positive statement? Expressing an intent of having sexual relations is obviously an expression of complement! How is that an insult?

When your vehicle refuses to start or a particularly nasty piece of work ruins your day, your exasperation calls upon you to state, "Fuck it." Now that is a biological impossibility!

All these millions of people all over the world who use this word, are they really aware of what they are really saying? Even people who are officially aware of its meaning, use it without comprehending it as a regular phrase of choice, then how can anyone blame innocent kids for using this phrase in order to look "cool" ?

It is all rather confusing for me, I wonder whether I would ever understand the implications of all those phrases we use this word with, I wonder whether I even want to know, :P