How long has the f-word been in use as an abusive term?

Question

When was the f-word 'invented'? Who invented it? Has it always had the derogatory meaning that it does today. Is it a recent invention?

Answer 1

Wikipedia has this:

It is unclear whether the word has always been considered vulgar, and if not, when it first came to be used to describe (often in an extremely angry, hostile or belligerent manner) unpleasant circumstances or people in an intentionally offensive way [...]

And:

The Oxford English Dictionary states that the ultimate etymology is uncertain, but that the word is "probably cognate" with a number of native Germanic words with meanings involving striking, rubbing, and having sex.

Etymonline offers further insight:

until recently a difficult word to trace, in part because it was taboo to the editors of the original Oxford English Dictionary when the "F" volume was compiled, 1893-97. Written form only attested from early 16c. Oxford English Dictionary 2nd edition cites 1503, in the form fukkit; earliest appearance of current spelling is 1535 -- "Bischops ... may fuck thair fill and be vnmaryit" [Sir David Lyndesay, "Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits"], but presumably it is a much more ancient word than that, simply one that wasn't written in the kind of texts that have survived from Old English and Middle English.

[...]

Verbal phrase fuck up "to ruin, spoil, destroy" first attested c.1916. [...] Fuck off attested from 1929; as a command to depart, by 1944. Flying fuck originally meant "have sex on horseback" and is first attested c.1800 in broadside ballad "New Feats of Horsemanship." For the unkillable urban legend that this word is an acronym of some sort (a fiction traceable on the Internet to 1995 but probably predating that) see here, and also here. [...] Agent noun fucker attested from 1590s in literal sense; by 1893 as a term of abuse (or admiration).

Answer 2

As per the origin of the word, the NOAD reports that:

ORIGIN early 16th cent.: of Germanic origin (compare Swedish dialect focka and Dutch dialect fokkelen); possibly from an Indo-European root meaning strike, shared by Latin pugnus (fist).

Answer 3

I found interesting information on The Origin of the F-Word

Netlore Archive: In which we are told with a straight face that the word 'fuck' originated as the acronym of 'Fornication Under Consent of the King,' 'Fornication Under Command of the King,' 'For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge,' or some variation thereof.

Description: Folk etymology Circulating since: The 1960s Status: False

I am guessing in 1960, its pejorative meaning got some traction

Answer 4

My childhood experience is that a number of American swearwords found their earliest (American) use in World War II, by soldiers under wartime pressures. They then brought these words home and introduced them to their children, members of the so-called "Baby Boom."