sign using the word fuck on Tax March Day, April 15, 2017 in Washington,

D.C. U.S.
Fuck is an English-language profanity which often refers to the act of sexual
intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain.
While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested to around
1475.[1] In modern usage, the term fuck and its derivatives (such
as fucker and fucking) are used as a noun, a verb, an adjective,
an interjection or an adverb. There are many common phrases that employ the
word as well as compounds that incorporate it, such as motherfucker and fuck
off.

Offensiveness
It is unclear whether the word has always been considered a pejorative or, if
not, when it first came to be used to describe (often in an extremely angry,
hostile, or belligerent ma

nner) unpleasant circumstances or people in an intentionally offensive way,

such as in the term motherfucker, one of its more common usages in some
parts of the English-speaking world. Some English-speaking countries cens

or it on television and radio. Andrea Millwood Hargrave's 2000 study of the

attitudes of the British public found that fuck was considered the third-most-
severe profanity, and its derivative motherfucker second. Cunt was considered
the most severe.[2]

Nevertheless, the word has increasingly become less of a pejorative and more
publicly acceptable, an example of the "dysphemism treadmill" or semantic
drift known as melioration, wherein former pejoratives become inoffensive and
commonplace.[3][4] Because of its increasing usage in the public forum, in 2005
the word was included for the first time as one of three vulgarities in The
Canadian Press's Canadian Press Caps and Spelling guide. Journalists were
advised to refrain from censoring the word but use it sparingly and only when its
inclusion was essential to the story.[5] According to linguist Pamela Hobbs,
"notwithstanding its increasing public use, enduring cultural models that inform
our beliefs about the nature of sexuality and sexual acts preserve its status as a
vile utterance that continues to inspire moral outrage." Hobbs considers users
rather than usage of the word and sub-divides users into "non-users", for whom
"the word belongs to a set of taboo words, the very utterance of which
constitutes an affront, and any use of the word, regardless of its form (verb,