ETYMOLOGY OF FUCK

                Actually, I've been made to understand that the
        complete etymology of ``fuck'' is not fully understood.  A
        former fellow philosophy major (who is now at Vanderbilt)
        told me that ``Fornication Under Carnal Knowledge'' was used
        in the twenties although I have also heard the ``For
        Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.''  This latter strikes me as
        being more bloody likely, not that both usages are not
        possible.

                The use of the term ``fucker'' is thought to have
        originated during the Renaissance and is related to the
        family name of an Austrian banking house, ``Fugger'', which
        has nearly the same pronunciation as ``fucker'' in Renaisance
        German.  (It should become clear that I am talking about
        the use of ``fucker'' as a perjorative noun, such as ``He is
        a real fucker,'' etc.)  According to A.G. Dickens in
        *Reformation and Society*,

                The indulgences castigated by Luther arose
                from the financial needs of that sybaritic
                prelate Albert of Brandenburg, who at the
                age of twenty-four was not content to travel
                about with this mistresses piquantly if
                tactfully clad in a male costume [the
                mistresses, that is].  Already Archbishop
                of Magdeburg and administrator of
                Halberstadt, he wished to accede to the
                archbishopric of Mainz, and agreed to pay
                [Pope] Leo X [a Medici] 21,000 ducats as
                entry-fee (38).

        It seems that to secure this money, Albert had to secure
        a *huge* loan from the Fugger, and in order to repay it,
        Albert began, with the aid of ``the oratorical extravagances''
        of Tetzel, began to engage in the large-scale sale of
        indulgences (the idea that people could buy their way
        out of pennance and, thus, into heaven), thus invoking
        the wrath of Martin Luther.  Luther, reacting to the
        incredible wealth and power of the great European banking
        houses, and especially their influence over church matters,
        called for ``a bridle on the Fugger and other such firms'' (64).
        This, I am told, was the first perjorative use of the term
        ``fucker''.  This usage, of course, may have nothing to do
        with our modern term ``fucker'' and the connection between it
        and ``fuck'' is not at all clear to me.

     The way I have heard it ...

  Back many, many years ago in England, the King had to give his permission
  for sex to occur in certain relationships:
      Fornication Under Consent of the King!