The F-Word

What makes a historical dictionary or glossary special is that for every sense of every word, it includes not only a definition, but a selection of quotations showing how the word has been used over time. For each sense, the quotations range from the earliest example that can be found to one that is relatively recent. The senses are themselves arranged in chronological order. In this way, one can see how old a word or sense is, how it has been used, and how the word has developed over time. One can also read the quotations for pleasure or interest.

Here is an example of an entry, showing several different senses:

clusterfuck noun

1. an orgy.

    1965 East Village Other (Oct.) 2/3: As soon as they legalize “pornies” I’ll be the first producer to hit the neighborhood theatres with my now in progress epic film entitled “Mongolian Cluster Fuck!” 1967–68 N. von Hoffman We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us Against 182: Oh, those big cluster fucks! I can’t stand them. 1968 “A. D’Arcangelo” Homosexual Handbook 115: You may see many of the people at your “do” only at other “cluster fucks,” having nothing in common with them but a taste for orgies. 1969 G. D. Bartell Group Sex 134: One advantage of open versus closed swinging, according to most of our informants, is the possiblity of “three-on-one” or “gang bang” (sometimes called “clusterfuck”) activity. 1972 R.A. Wilson Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words 69: Cluster Fuck—Two men copulating simultaneously with the same woman. 1975 G. Legman No Laughing Matter 754: The cheap hippie “group-grope” and “cluster-fuck.” 1977 National Lampoon (Aug.) 50: Well, they’re usually pretty wrapped up in a cluster-fuck with the photo models. 1986 J. Ellroy Suicide Hill 699: I’m startin’ to feel like the bottom man in a Mongolian cluster fuck. 2001 J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand xxi. 115: Pete saw cartoons and FBI text. Hate and smut—a coon named Bayard Rustin—a queer cluster-fuck.

2. Military. a bungled or confused undertaking or situation; mess; (also) a disorganized group of individuals.

    1969 in B. E. Holley Vietnam (1993) 143: These are the screwups that the American public rarely hears about. They happen often enough over here that we have a term for them—“cluster-fuck”! 1974 New York City man, age 27: A clusterfuck was a big expression in [the N.Y. National Guard] in 1969. It meant any time people were standing around outside of a regular formation. They’d say, “What the hell is this clusterfuck?” “Break up this clusterfuck.” 1982 J. M. Del Vecchio 13th Valley 42: This place looks like a giant clusterfuck. Ibid. 137: We gonna get this clusterfuck up in the air? 1983 K. Miller Lurp Dog 222 [refers to Vietnam War]: Shame to piss up a clusterfuck target like this. 1985 D. Dye Run Between the Raindrops 42: The rest is up for grabs. This place is a cluster-fuck. 1986 J. Thacker Finally the Pawn 135 [refers to 1970]: What you’re going to have is an A number one clusterfuck. 1986 J. C. Stinson & J. Carabatsos Heartbreak Ridge 146: “What’s your assessment of this alert?”…“It’s a clusterfuck!…marines should be fighting, not…filling out request forms for equipment they should already have, Sir.” 1988 P. J. O’Rourke Holidays in Hell 218: “Mongolian Cluster Fuck” is the technical term journalists use for a preplanned, wholly scripted, news-free event. 1991 D. Simon Homicide 82: Allowing a herd of new recruits to graze through a crime scene had all the makings of what detectives and military men like to call a clusterfuck. 1999 C. Brookmyre One Fine Day in Middle of Night 136: This whole op is from page one of the cluster-fuck recipe book. 2006 New York Magazine (Apr. 17) 36/1: Says one bitter paparazzo: “The whole thing was a giant cluster-fuck, a total waste of time.”

3. Originally Military. a bungler; idiot.

    a1987 C. Bunch & A. Cole Reckoning for Kings 284 [refers to Vietnam War]: He’s a clusterfuck. 2006 A. Davies Goodbye Lemon ii. 115: That clusterfuck Musser gets sixty grand a year up and down a goddamn telephone pole. He didn’t get that job because he’s a supergenius either.