Linguistic Query, Obscenity Edition

[gnomi]

**Warning! Obscenity Ahead!**

Last night, mabfan and I were sitting at home watching "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," and something said (though I cannot recall what, to be honest) prompted mabfan to ask, "When did the clipped version of 'what the fuck?' to 'the fuck?' become so popular?"

I poked around a bit, but (a) I couldn't immediately put my hands on my copy of The F Word by Jesse Sheidlower and (b) I think the book's publication date predates the popularity of this clipping.

So, I ask you all... can you at all date the popularity of this clipped version?

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

For those who are surprised to hear that I used the f-word, you should note that it was as part of a technical discussion of linguistics. :-)

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Also, is that profanity, or scatology?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

It's obscenity. I've edited the post. :-)

[jesshartley.livejournal.com]

That's very strange.

I've always thought of "What the..." as a way to express confusion, disbelief, etc. without resorting to the inevitably profane ending (the variety of which includes, but is not limited to "fuck").

So shortening it to "... the fuck?" seems... intentionally crude... I mean, if you know you're going to be saying it, why not just say it? Cutting out the first word just shows that you've intentionally chosen the common phrase and are trying to be cool/cute by shortening it.

[byrne.livejournal.com]

Sometime last summer.

:D

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

:-P

[xochitl42.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'd say Byrne isnt' that far from the truth; I've only started noticing it withing the past 6-9 months. I'm trying to figure out under what circumstances I first heard it--in other words, is it a hip-hop-ism, is it a comedian's catch-phrase--how did it break trhough the collective consciousness?

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

I've actually been hearing it for several years now, so it's older than that.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

I think it's used in an issue of Powers - perhaps when Deena punches Christian to see if he has powers. If I was at home I could get you the issue number and the publishing date. Sadly, I am at work.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Even more sadly, I have misremembered the exchange in question. Christian says, "Ow! What the FUCK, Deena?" when she kicks him in the chest. Issue #3.

[kuroshii.livejournal.com]

i've taken it to actually be "...the fuck?" which implies the question/phrase starts out inside one's head. so it's as if you're not asking it per se, but putting a thought balloon above your own head.

::shrug::

[farwing.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree. It's as if the "What" part is assumed.

[sdelmonte]

I think that "...the Hell?" may have cropped up on Buffy. It sures feels Whedonian.

[moneypenny.livejournal.com]

Earliest usage I'm aware of is Denis Leary's "Lock and Load" routine, from 1997. I appropriated it a few years later and went through a phase of using it early in college. I hadn't noticed that the rest of the world was taking it up, too.

[perpet.livejournal.com]

It's been in my vocabulary as the abbreviated version for as long as I can remember. I can't actually recall ever saying, "What the fuck". I would say I most likely learned it [as I did most of my other swear words] from the variety of police officers that have populated my house. And if not them, then most certainly my father; who can come up with more ways to say 'fuck' than anyone else I know.

You've not lived until your father, while aware of the impressionable teenage girls having a sleepover in the next room, has referred to a snitch as a "cockfucking cocksucking fucker". Comedy gold, that.

[samcdermott65.livejournal.com]

I haven't noticed this shortened version. I usually use it in it's entirety when exclaiming by disbelief.

[madfilkentist]

I've never heard the abbreviated version; or if I had, I just assumed I had missed the "what."