Uncle DaveO: I never believed those acronym stories were true, but I see how my post could have been read that way. I meant merely to pass one such story one along, just in contrast to the other one. I think you're correct in that making up acronyms is a chracteristically modern practice.

As an American, I grew up hearing "fuck you, "get fucked," "fuckface," etc., etc., but NEVER encountered the expression "fuck off" until visiting Canada (Toronto) as a college kid in the mid-60s. I know it's a longstanding expression popular in the UK and Ireland as well as in Canada, but I believe its use in the US is recent and still relatively exotic.