WA Brief history of f-ing and blinding
Jim Carroll

From Eric Partridge's edition of 'A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue' by Captain Francis Grose   

TO F—K. To copulate. [Banned by OD and EDD. Used by Lyndsay ca. 1540, and occurring in Florio's definition offottere: "To jape; to sarde, to fucke; to swive; to occupy." One of the last occasions on which it appeared in print, in the ordinary way of publication, was in Burns. As early as 1728, Bailey de¬fines it asfeminam subagitare, and it would seem to have acquired a bad odour ca. 1690.F.—It is extremely doubtful if the efforts of James Joyce in Ulysses and D.H, Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's Lover have done anything to restore the term to its former place as a language-word, i.e. neither slang nor dialect. B & P.—From Greek phuteuo, L. futuere, Fr. foutre, the medial c coming from a Teutonic root. Sir Richard Burton, in his Arabian Nights, attempted a Gallic twist: futter.—The synonyms (on the basis of F) are numerous in accredited literature exclusive of slang, euphemism, and conventionalism. Of the transitive verbs, the following writers are operatively responsible for these numbers of different synonyms:—Lyndsay, 3; Shake¬speare, 9 Florio, 3; Fletcher, 7; Urquhart,4; Durfey,3; Field¬ing, 2; Burns, 1 . Of the intransitive synonyms:—Shakespeare, 5; Marston, 3; Herrick, 2; Urquhart, 12; Rochester, 1; Durfey, 6; Burns, 6; Whitman, 1.-—The vivid expressiveness and the vigorous ingenuity of these synonyms bear witness to the fertility of English and to the enthusiastic English participa¬tion in the universal fascination of the creative act. The word was very much used by the British Soldier in 1914-1918 (see the Introduction in B & P), when free currency was also given to the adjective formed by the addition of ing and to f—ker; this latter, in the mouths of the fouler-spoken, meant little more than chap, fellow, and the decent substituted mucker; mucking was less frequent.]

Last magnificent word to Burns – From Merrie Muses of Caledonia 1800

WAD YE DO THAT?
TUNE : John Anderson, my jo
From MMC. Original of Burns's song "Lass, when your mither is frae hame" (Ald 1839, n, 156).

Gudewife, when your gudeman's frae hame,
Might I but be sae bauld,
As come to your bed-chamber,
When winter nights are cauld;
As come to your bed-chamber,
When nights are cauld and wat.
And lie in your gudeman's stead,
Wad ye do that?

Young man, an ye should be so kind,
When our gudeman's frae hame.
As come to my bed-chamber,
Where I am laid my lane;
And lie in our gudeman's stead,
I will tell you what,
He f—s me five times ilka night.
Wad ye do that?