Strong LanguageDrumroll, please: The brand-new fourth edition of The F-Word, the definitive lexicon of the English language’s favorite and most notorious four-letter word, celebrates its publication by Oxford University Press this week. Edited by Jesse Sheidlower, who has shepherded the project since its inception in 1995, the new book is an impressive work of scholarship and an essential addition to the bookshelf of any serious swear-lover.
The first edition, published when Sheidlower was 27 and “one of lexicography’s bright young stars” (per the jacket copy), contained 232 pages. Nearly 30 years later, the new edition comprises 504 pages, more than 150 new entries, almost 150 antedatings (earlier appearances of a word or expression), and more than 2,500 new quotations.
Buy the book![Read our interview with Jesse Sheidlower]
What will you find in the new fourth edition? A lot more on fuck with, to take just one example. Fuck with didn’t appear at all in the book’s first edition; in the third edition Sheidlower provided only two senses for the term: “to meddle with (maliciously)” and “to tease (playfully).”
It now has six senses, starting with the nonlexicalized literal sense “to have sexual intercourse with,” which Sheidlower had previously omitted “because, well, it’s nonlexicalized, but this time I felt that people might complain about its absence.” You’ll also find the new sense 3, with three subsenses: “to associate with”; “to use; engage with”; and “to like; to appreciate.” Sheidlower comments: “I think these are interesting, and defining and dividing them up was interesting and challenging, and they go back a number of decades and there are a lot of good quotes from good people.” (Newly added senses are highlighted here, but not in the print edition, with a NEW glyph: 🆕.)
One of those quotes was discovered by Strong Language contributor Ben Zimmer. (Several other members of the Strong Language team assisted with the fourth edition: Jonathon Green, Mark Peters, Stan Carey.) Ben sent us this commentary on his fuck with contribution:
I found the 1994 interview with Q-Tip that Jesse used as the earliest cite for sense 3c (“to appreciate; to like or enjoy; to respect”). That same interview also supplies a cite for sense 3a (“to associate with [a person], esp. habitually”), though one could argue that it’s shading into 3c. Here’s the interview in question: “Bobbito’s Sound Check,” Vibe, Aug. 1994, p. 122 [Bobbito Garcia interviewing Q-Tip] B: I used to like this song. Q: Who was that? B: Modern English. Q: Sounds like Modern Bullshit. I can’t fuck with it. If it had some soul to it, I could. […] B: Not to put them in the same category, but how do you feel about working with the Beastie Boys? Q: You know why I could fuck with them? They don’t try to be black. They know they are white, trying to do this rap shit, and they’re fans of it.
And here, without further fucking around, is the new and improved entry for fuck with:
*
1.🆕 to have sexual intercourse with. [Not used as a set expression.]
ca1890 My Secret Life III. 147: Did they fuck with me for fun, for letch, or for money? 1945 Folk Poems & Ballads 122: About one in a thousand is nine inches, and is invariably rather painful than otherwise to women, excepting those…who like Semiramis, the Assyrian Queen, could fuck with a stallion. 1966 O. Lewis La Vida 100: He’s terribly jealous…. I was standing at the door talking with Arturo and Papo. Héctor said to me in a loud voice, “What! Are these two inviting you to go fuck with them?” 1967 R. Hazel White Anglo-Saxon Protestant in M. Foley & D. Burnett Best American Short Stories 120: When can you come home? I can’t wait to talk with you and fuck with you. When you kiss me I get all these crazy things going. 1978 L. Kramer Faggots 298: You may never fuck with me. I must be faithful to the memory of my own beloved. 1986 “Too $hort” Blow Job Betty (rap song): Ho fuck with me, she don’t get no rest. 2017 M. Hasbrouck Muriel Avenue Sluts 242: “I’ll play this for the police.”…. Carolyn’s father, Greta’s voice said, has been fucking with her since she was eleven. Did you hear me? Eleven. She’s been living in hell since she was eleven.
2.a. to trifle, toy, meddle, or interfere with, esp. maliciously; fool; play; [Both Chandler quotations are euphemistic; compare fuck around, sense 2 and frig, verb, sense 3.]
1938 R. Chandler Big Sleep ch. 26: Don’t fuss with me, little man. 1940 R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely 5: I’m feelin’ good…I wouldn’t want anybody to fuss with me. 1945 K. B. Clark & J. Barker Zoot Effect in Personality Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology (vol. 40, no. 2) (Apr.) 146: Yea, so it be/I leave this thought with thee/Do not attempt to fuck with me. (An expression of manifest defiance even though stated in characteristic humorous vein). 1946 in T. Shibutani Derelicts of Company K (1978) 391: The Boochies won’t fuck with him because they don’t want to catch shit. 1948 E. Hemingway in Selected Letters (1981) 644 [refers to ca1915]: I learned early to walk very dangerous so people would leave you alone; think the phrase in our part of the country was not fuck with you. Don’t fuck with me, Jack, you say in a toneless voice. 1953 M. Harris Southpaw 239: Do Not F— With Me. 1962 J. O. Killens Then We Heard the Thunder 221 [refers to WWII]: Why do you fuck with me so much, man? There are millions of other people in the Army. 1965 C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land 189: It was practically a twenty-four-hour-a-day job trying to get some money to get some stuff to keep the [heroin] habit from fucking with you. [Ibid.] If you fuck wit that rent money, I’m gon kill you. 1968 P. Tauber Sunshine Soldiers 169: No one fucks with chow. You eat when you’re supposed to. 1970 T. Thackrey Thief 209: Took the carburetor off and soaked it in solvent and put it back on. Fiddled and fucked with it. And finally it seemed to be okay again running good. 1971 M. Cole & S. Black Checking it Out 113: I…turn around and scream, “Don’t fuck with my mind!” [Ibid. 198] Stay the fuck away.… And if you think I’m fucking with you, try me. 1971 Playboy (June) 216: I don’t like anyone fucking with my head while I’m doing [a movie]. 1977 E. Bunker Animal Factory 46: “Tony tells me you’re good at law.” “I used to fuck with it. No more.” 1977 L. Jordan Hype 230: Them people are fuckin’ with us, man! 1990 L. Bing Do or Die 22: ’Cause he fucked with my food…took one of my French fries. 7 TV Guide (May 18) 48: 1991 “Don’t f— with the Babe!” is her boldface battle cry throughout her book. 1998 New Yorker (Mar. 16) 34: You don’t say no to the Mafia, you don’t challenge the Mafia, you generally don’t fuck with the Mafia. 2000 Z. Smith White Teeth ix. 232: But mainly their mission was to put the Invincible back in Indian, the Bad-aaaass back in Bengali, the P-Funk back in Pakistani. People had fucked with Rajik back in the days when he was into chess and wore V-necks. 2007 D. Johnson Tree of Smoke 287: Hanson’s…finger’s on the trigger. If it comes, the enemy will feel sincerely fucked with. 2020 M. D. Headley trans. Beowulf 21: Anyone who fucks with the Geats? Bro, they have to fuck with me.
b. to tease, or provoke, esp. in a playful way; to mess with.
1965 C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land 87: Floyd was a little crazy and just liked to fuck with people by talking a lot of nonsense for a long time. 1968 R. Gover JC Saves 100: Can’t rezist fuckin with him jes one more time. 1970 J. Joplin in D. Dalton Janis 26: David: Also, people are intimidated by you because you’re such a large figure. Janis: I lost a lot of weight. David: I’m talking about symbolically. Janis: I’m just fucking with you. 1981 C. Crowe Fast Times at Ridgemont High 92: They’re just fuckin’ with us! 1996 B. Mezrich Threshold 43: I think he was just fucking with me, pulling my leg. Because most of the stuff he told me I find pretty hard to believe. 2005 M. M. Frisby Wifebeater iii. 16: Do I know? You’re fucking with me right? He’s all you talk about. 2010 Kick Ass (film) (transcription): “Have you thought about what you might want for your birthday?” “Can I get a puppy?…A cuddly fluffy one. And a Bratz Moviestar Makeover Sasha. [beat] I’m just fucking with you, daddy.” 2017 JJ Strong Us Kids Know 47: He was probably just fucking with me…. He’s a weird guy. 2023 M. McGhee Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind 105: Is he fucking with her? She’s not sure. Is this a game to him?
3.a.🆕 Chiefly in African-American use: to associate with (a person), esp. habitually.
1981 E. Bunker Little Boy Blue (1997) ix. 84: It’s good you fuckin’ with me ’n Floyd ’n gettin’ schooled. 1989 “2 Live Crew” My Seven Bizzos (rap song): On Sunday there’s Connie, who fucks with Slick Ronnie. 1994 Vibe (Aug.) 122: B: Not to put them in the same category, but how do you feel about working with the Beastie Boys? Q [sc. Q-Tip, of A Tribe Called Quest]: You know why I could fuck with them? They don’t try to be black. They know they are white, trying to do this rap shit, and they’re fans of it. 1999 FEDS Magazine I. iv. 21/1: The hate, the fakeness, and niggers always fronting. Those ain’t the type of niggers I prefer to fuck with, but it’s business, so I don’t fuck with them too much. I stay away as much as I can and fuck with the few people who are real. 2000 W. Shaw Westsiders 181: “You finished that track you were working on with Budman?” “Hell, I ain’t fucking with Budman any more.” 2005 L. Lennox Crack Head 211: “I’m ready to do whatever is asked of me for the team.” “That’s why I fuck with you, Smurf.” 2012 M. Archer Trunk-Space You’re my peoples. I fuck with you heavy. I don’t even fuck with that nigga like that, but he is family. If you kill him, then I gotta go to the funeral. Note: sense unclear; perhaps shading into the ‘like’ sense 2013 “A$AP Rocky” Angles (rap song): If you a trill nigga, then fuck wit’ us. 2017 B. Alexander Glass House 218: Jason sensed that his best chance to cut a deal was to make the Mexicans sound as major league as he was trying to make himself…. “Those people I fuck with, they’re not little shit.” 2021 “Nardo Wick” Who Want Smoke? (rap song): We don’t fuck with jakes [sc. police].
b.🆕 Originally in African-American use: (of a thing) to deal with; to use; to partake of; to engage with.
1989 “Geto Boys” Talkin’ Loud Ain’t Saying Nothin (rap song): Say you’re scorin’ keys [sc. kilograms] when you’re fuckin’ with eighths. 1992 “Dr. Dre” Deep Cover (rap song): “Hit this motherfucker [sc. a crack pipe], G!” “No, naw, man, I can’t fuck with that.” 1998 “Ice Cube” Greed (rap song): Got twenties [sc. twenty-inch wheels] on my BM [sc. a BMW automobile], you still fuckin’ with a GM [sc. a General Motors automobile]. 2013 “Lorde” Tennis Court (pop. song): How can I fuck with the fun again, when I’m known? 2017 B. Alexander Glass House 218: “It ain’t no little shit!” he said of the Mexicans. “They fuck with dope, they fuck with ice.” 2017 “Charlamagne tha God” Black Privilege 173: The production value might not have been great…but the product was still good enough. People fucked with it and the episodes began to rack up respectable numbers on YouTube. 2023 Hysteria (podcast) (episode 238) (Feb. 23) (transcription): I see a green dessert, and when I was younger I would say pistachio or GTFO…. As I’ve gotten older, my palate has become more refined…. If it is key lime, I could even fuck with the key lime.
c.🆕 Originally in African-American use: to appreciate; to like or enjoy; to respect.
1994 Vibe (Aug.) 122: B: I used to like this song. Q [sc. Q-Tip, of A Tribe Called Quest]: Who was that? B: Modern English. Q: Sounds like Modern Bullshit. I can’t fuck with it. If it had some soul to it, I could. 2013 “Tyler, the Creator” in Rolling Stone (Apr. 11) 27/2: That was awesome. I fuck with Miley. I wish more people would like her. 2013 E. Huang Fresh off the Boat x. 158: “Yo, that article was powerful, man!”…“Respect! I’m glad you fuck with it.” 2016 OC Weekly (Dec. 9) 28/1: Unfortunately, if I say Orange County, I immediately get typecasted. So, I’m Like, “I’m from Santa Ana,” and it took a long time for people to be like, “Oh, I fuck with Santa Ana.” 2017 A. Thomas Hate U Give v. 79: Before Khalil, I planned to cold-shoulder Chris with a sting more powerful than a nineties R&B breakup song. But after Khalil I’m more like a Taylor Swift song. (No shade, I fucks with Tay-Tay, but she doesn’t serve like nineties R&B on the angry-girlfriend scale.) 2022 S. T. Conroe Fuccboi 71: I’d been working on a query for days and had homed in on three agents who seemed like they might fuck with it. Who represented authors I fucked with. [Ibid. 118] Sounded like he really didn’t fuck with me. Really hated me. Like personally.
https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2024/11/05/to-fuck-with-an-excerpt-from-the-f-word-fourth-edition/
