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For many people, the word fuck is extremely vulgar, considered improper and taboo in all of its senses. Even so, various forms of the word, primarily in its nonliteral, slang senses, have increasingly crept into casual use, not only as spontaneous expletives of shock, horror, or anger, but also as verbal tics and common intensifiers, mere indices of annoyance or impatience or even pleasant surprise: Where are my fucking keys? What the fuck is taking so long? This is fucking awesome! Nevertheless, the term is best avoided altogether if you are not certain how your audience will receive it. The mass broadcast media have actually been forced by the threat of punitive fines to block audiences from hearing it, either by banning its use entirely or by bleeping all or part of the sound. Simply blocking out the vowel sound in the middle can defuse the offense of the “f-bomb.” Although its first known occurrence in writing dates from the late 1400s (disguised in a cipher at that), the word fuck was undoubtedly heard long before that, and it remains primarily a creature of the spoken language. Well into the 20th century, it was generally regarded as unprintable, and forms like f*** or f--k or some spelling distortion like frack or frig or fork or fug were typically substituted for it in writing. In speech, creative euphemisms abound, some born with each new generation. We now have eff and effing as well as f-word and f-bomb, all of which allow us to discuss the term without resorting to its actual use.