What gives this word its POWER??

Question

Everybody hears the F word everyday. What gives this word power? I just don't get why we all giggle like teenagers, when it is used as an adjective, breath in when its used as a verb, get embarrassed if someone overhears us. What is the POWER?? I am even scared to write the whole word. Words should only have power when they are put together in a sentence. Please explain this...it is even in the dictionary. I find the word colorful, but not bad. Some of the nicest people I know use it. So can someone explain?

Answer 1

It's probably because of the origins of the word, a concept all sane Americans and other countries with a social taboo towards s*x. The word is thought to be traced to many countries, such as the middle dutch 'fokken' (to thrust, copulate with) and Norwegian 'fukka' (to copulate). When the sacred feminine and paganism began to be considered abhorent under christianity, the sexual rituals also became abhorent and, in continuation, s*x in general.

Answer 2

What gives anything power is the people using it.  

For example, military members give power to their chain of command by listening to them, by respecting them.  It can be taken away instantly.  They trust that the people are in control and will do them most good.  So, they in turn listen and give them control.

The same is present in using the word F#@$.  It is used by the good, the bad, the fortunate, and the lost.  If it were only used by the bad, it would lose its power.  It would become like child molestation.  Only done and said by the lunatics of society. Instead, as you said yourself, it is spoken by all, and is feared and revered by them also.  If I say cotton one thinks soft, if I say marble one thinks of smooth, if I say sandpaper one thinks of rough.  It is us and our trust in what we know that gives words its power.  Just as a Chinese person can speak all the bad words in the world and you not know what they mean you must understand it is not the word but the person saying it and more importantly the person trusting what it means that holds the power.