The F Word

If you know me, you’re probably surprised that my favorite word is fuck. It is also many other people’s favorite word. Whenever I utter fuck — dropped like a stone off my tongue, slithered slowly slickly through the air, barked sharply at an unsuspecting situation- I feel like as if some of the pressure has been lifted off of my mind and exuded through my mouth. In fact, in an episode of Mythbusters, it was tested and shown that saying a swear word alleviates pain more than saying a minced word; for instance, saying frick as a euphemism for fuck. Apart from the cursory meaning that this word carries, I also admire the balanced orthography that forms its shape.

To me, fuck is simultaneously a beautiful and ugly word. My eyes first beheld an ugly word, without even considering its meaning, with too many open curves in “fuc” contrasting with the angles of “k”. There is no satisfactory ending when the buildup of softness ends with a hard “ck”. But as I used the word more frequently, I grew to love seeing it and my mouth began to anticipate forming the round beginning and snapping shut at the end. The word fuck is actually aesthetically balanced, with two tall letters at each end and two almost closed circles for the letters in the middle. Contrary to my past belief, saying the word fuck is very satisfying, enabled by the gratifying hard “k” sound that terminates a deep “fuh” sound.

For all of its various uses, the word fuck has simple, universal (or American) meanings, polar good or bad. As a verb, it can coarsely mean to have sex or emphatically mean to ruin something. Tied to its verbal definitions, the noun fuck can be a time you did the dirty or a person who is incompetent. Like most curse words, fuck has grown to be used as a compliment or an insult. A fucker can be someone admired for an amazing feat or a troublemaker. The only thing that the word doesn’t do is to calm. As an adjective, fucking amplifies any description. If you want to make sure that your message is heard emphatically, using the word fuck works in moderation.

I don’t usually say the word fuck, because society thinks “swear words” are rude and uncultured. I am not one for zero censorship, because words do have power, the power that we give to language by determining its meaning as a consensus and by following this rule. And like most things, the word fuck loses its intensity if we use it too often. But as I let this taboo term slip out, I experience the same magic as anyone that has said it before — the intense situation that calls for it, whether anger, happiness, or awe.