"F" Word Origins

frugivorous

Origin

From Latin frūx (“fruit”) + -vorous.

fruit

Latin

From Old French fruit, "produce," from Latin fructus, "enjoyment, produce, profit" — related to fruor, "to enjoy the benefit of."

fruitcake

Origin · 1687

A compound of fruit and cake, first recorded around 1687; the "crazy person" sense (as in "nutty as a fruitcake") appeared much later, in the 1950s.

fruitful

Middle English

From Middle English fruitefull, built from fruit plus -ful, "full of."

fruition

Latin

From Latin fruitiō, "enjoyment" — reshaped in English to look like fruit + -ion, tying it to the idea of a plan "bearing fruit."

fruitless

Middle English

From Middle English fruytles, built from fruit plus -less, "without."

fruity

Origin

Formed from fruit plus the adjective ending -y.

frum

Origin

Borrowed from Yiddish פֿרום (frum, “pious”). Related to German fromm and Dutch vroom.

frump

Origin

Probably a contraction of late Middle English frumpylle (“wrinkle”), from Middle Dutch verrompelen, originally equivalent to for- + rump + -le.

frustrate

Latin

From Latin frūstrō, "to deceive, disappoint," via Middle English frustraten.

frustrated

Latin

The past participle of "frustrate," which came into English in the fifteenth century from Latin "frustrat-," the past-participial stem of "frustrari" (to disappoint or deceive), itself from "frustra," meaning "in vain."

frustrating

Origin

From frustrate plus the ending -ing.

frustration

Latin

From Latin frūstrātiō, "disappointment," related to frūstrā, "in vain."

fry

Latin

From Old French frire, from Latin frīgō, "to roast or fry."

fryer

Origin

From fry plus the agent suffix -er, "one who or thing that fries."

fs

English

An abbreviation of for sure, spread through texting and online chat.

FSB

Russian

From Russian ФСБ (FSB), initialism of Федеральная Служба Безопасности (Federalʹnaja Služba Bezopasnosti, “Federal Security Service”).

FTM

English

An initialism of female to male.

FTP

English

An initialism of file transfer protocol, one of the earliest internet standards, in use since the early 1970s.

FTW

English

An initialism of the phrase for the win, which comes from gaming and quiz-show language for a move or answer that secures victory.

fu

Origin

From fuck + you.

fuark

Origin

A humorous or dialectical corruption of the word fuck.

Fuchs

German

From German Fuchs, meaning "fox" — related to English fox.

fuchsia

German · 1501

Named after the German botanist Leonhart Fuchs (1501–1566), whom the plant genus honors.

fuck

Old English · 1500

Of Germanic origin, from a root related to Old English *fuccian; in continuous documented use in English since at least the 16th century, with much older suggestive spellings in medieval records.

fucker

Origin

From fuck plus the agent suffix -er.

fuckface

Origin

A compound of fuck and face, used as a dysphemistic insult.

fuckhead

Origin

A compound of fuck and head, modeled on the similar insult dickhead.

fucking

Origin · 1900

The -ing form of fuck, used since the early 20th century as a general-purpose intensifier.

fuckup

Origin

A noun formed from the phrasal verb fuck up.

fuckwit

Origin

A compound of fuck and wit.

Fudd

Origin

From Elmer Fudd, the bumbling hunter character in Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes cartoons.

fuddle

Origin

Compare Dutch vod (“soft”), German dialect fuddeln (“to swindle”).

fudge

Origin

Probably a variant of fadge, "to fit together," which likely inspired the sense of "faking a fit" or "making do."

fuego

Spanish

From Spanish fuego 'fire', which comes from Latin focus 'hearth'. The slang sense mirrors the English use of fire to mean excellent.

Fuehrer

German

From German Führer, "leader," related to English "to fare" (to travel or get along).

fuel

Latin

From Old French fouaille, "firewood," from Latin focus, "hearth" — the same root that gave English focus.

Fuentes

Spanish

From Spanish fuentes, "springs" or "fountains."

fugacious

Origin

Borrowed from Latin fugācius (whence -acious), comparative of fugāciter (“evasively, fleetingly”), from fugāx (“transitory, fleeting”), from fugiō (“to flee”).

fugazi

French

Origin unknown; a number of possibilities have been suggested: * One theory is that it is a corruption of French fougasse (“type of land mine”); flame fougasses were used extensively in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. * Less plausibly, it might be from English fugacious (“fleeting”) or cognates such as Italian fugace (“fleeting”). * It has also been suggested that it could be an acronym of “fucked up, got ambushed, zipped in [a body bag]”, but this is more likely a backronym, not the origin (compare FUBAR).

fugitive

Latin

From Latin fugitīvus, related to fugiō, "to flee."

fugly

Origin

Blend of fucking + ugly.

fugu

Origin

Borrowed from Japanese 河豚(ふぐ) (fugu, “blowfish”).

fugue

Latin

From Italian fuga, "flight," from Latin fugiō, "to flee" — the musical sense comes from one melodic line seeming to "flee" ahead of the others.

Fuhrer

German

From German Führer, meaning "leader" or "guide."

fuji

Origin

Named after Mount Fuji, Japan's tallest and most famous mountain.

Fujii

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese 藤井 (Fujii).

Fujimoto

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese 藤本 (Fujimoto).