A Not-So-Brief History of the F-Word

You know we love to drop the f-bomb here at Scanner. So it should come as no surprise that we're pretty excited about the fact that there's now an entire book devoted to it.

Here to educate you on its illustrious lineage—not to mention its present and future—is The F Word, a handsome, concise and erudite history of the term, written by Jesse Sheidlower, an editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.

After an entertaining forward written by F-word–loving comic Lewis Black, Mr. Sheidlower swiftly chronicles the F-word’s earliest appearances in various media, as well as its linguistic roots. From there, he offers an OED-style dictionary of the term and its myriad uses and adaptations, citing terms like “frisking,” “fiber,” “futz” and “motherloving”—not to mention scores of others we won’t print here (though handy for the next time you want to swear creatively). Except this one: “Mammy-jammed.” If you don’t know it, look it up. [Very Short List]

While we'd be even more impressed if the book were just called "Fuck," we understand that for publishing purposes, it had to undergo at least a little bit of editing.

Also, we looked-up "mammy jamming."