Eh-hum # 221
Talk about unusual names for places.
First read about this little village in Austria in another blog, and I had to check it further in the Internet. And then I got my answer in an article about (excuse me) Fucking, Austria in Wikipedia. And its 100+ residents are not happy with the recent happenings wherein English speaking tourists would steal the traffic sign by the entrance of the town. Here's an example:
What's the F---ing joke?
First read about this little village in Austria in another blog, and I had to check it further in the Internet. And then I got my answer in an article about (excuse me) Fucking, Austria in Wikipedia. And its 100+ residents are not happy with the recent happenings wherein English speaking tourists would steal the traffic sign by the entrance of the town. Here's an example:
What's the F---ing joke?
September 3, 2005
The 104 inhabitants of F---ing, Austria are tired of pesky tourists - and they're fighting back, writes Toby Harnden.
For those travelling to it across the border from Germany, it is a long way further on from Petting - where some people prefer to stop for a while rather than going all the way. It might appropriately be twinned with the Amish town of Intercourse, Pennsylvania. Or perhaps with Condom, France. Or Climax, Colorado.
The 104 inhabitants of F---ing, Austria are tired of pesky tourists - and they're fighting back, writes Toby Harnden.
For those travelling to it across the border from Germany, it is a long way further on from Petting - where some people prefer to stop for a while rather than going all the way. It might appropriately be twinned with the Amish town of Intercourse, Pennsylvania. Or perhaps with Condom, France. Or Climax, Colorado.
In the world of crosswords, cryptically the name of the village, which begins with F, has seven letters and is not for those under 16, could be: "Monarch follows soccer team, you hear."
A quick crossword clue might ask you, po-faced, for the gerund form of the English profanity that refers to the principal act leading to procreation.
An etymologist would know that its verb was derived from the Latin futuere and the Old German ficken, meaning "to strike or penetrate". The lexicographer can trace its first recorded use to John Florio's A World of Words, a 1598 dictionary.
D. H. Lawrence used it in Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1928, but it was 32 years before it could be published legally. The playwright Kenneth Tynan was the first one to utter it on television four decades ago.
But for the conservative inhabitants of a settlement called F---ing in rural Upper Austria near Salzburg that comprises just 32 houses (population: 104), the English meaning of their village's name is just one giant headache.
One night, tourists stole all four road signs on its approaches. Since records began, there has been no crime there - apart from the perennial theft of what officials call "street furniture".
Now the authorities are fighting back. The signs have been set in concrete bases and Kommandant Schmidtberger, the local police chief, hints at clandestine operations to combat what he calls "foreign criminals" disturbing the alpine order. (Read the rest of the article here.)
Ergo, it does not matter if the name rhymes with "looking". Hmmm, if these tourists know how to speak Filipino, then this town in Albay is in trouble. Hehehe.
An etymologist would know that its verb was derived from the Latin futuere and the Old German ficken, meaning "to strike or penetrate". The lexicographer can trace its first recorded use to John Florio's A World of Words, a 1598 dictionary.
D. H. Lawrence used it in Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1928, but it was 32 years before it could be published legally. The playwright Kenneth Tynan was the first one to utter it on television four decades ago.
But for the conservative inhabitants of a settlement called F---ing in rural Upper Austria near Salzburg that comprises just 32 houses (population: 104), the English meaning of their village's name is just one giant headache.
One night, tourists stole all four road signs on its approaches. Since records began, there has been no crime there - apart from the perennial theft of what officials call "street furniture".
Now the authorities are fighting back. The signs have been set in concrete bases and Kommandant Schmidtberger, the local police chief, hints at clandestine operations to combat what he calls "foreign criminals" disturbing the alpine order. (Read the rest of the article here.)
Ergo, it does not matter if the name rhymes with "looking". Hmmm, if these tourists know how to speak Filipino, then this town in Albay is in trouble. Hehehe.
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