**** is an obscene English-language word,
which often refers to the act of ****** *******
but is also commonly used as an intensifier
or to denote disdain. Its origin is obscure
but is usually considered to be first
attested to around 1475, although it may
be considerably older. In modern usage,
the term **** and its derivatives
(such as ****** and *******) can be used
as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an interjection,
or an adverb. There are many common
phrases that employ the word, as well as
compounds that incorporate it, such as
*******, ******* and *******.

In 2015, Dr. Paul Booth claimed to have found
"(possibly) the earliest known use of the word '****'
that clearly has a ****** connotation":
in English court records of 1310–11,
a man local to Chester is referred to as
"Roger Fuckebythenavele", probably a nickname.
"Either this refers to an inexperienced
copulator, referring to someone trying
to have *** with the navel, or it's a rather
extravagant explanation for a ******,
someone so stupid they think this that
is the way to have ***," says Booth.
An earlier name, that of John le ******
recorded in 1278, has been the subject of debate,
but is thought by many philologists
to have had some separate and non-****** origin.
Otherwise, the usually accepted first known
occurrence of the word is found in code
in a poem in a mixture of Latin and
English composed in the 15th century.
The poem, which satirizes the Carmelite
friars of Cambridge, England, takes its title,
"Flen flyys", from the first words of its
opening line, Flen, flyys, and freris
("Fleas, flies, and friars"). The line that contains
**** reads Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov
xxkxzt pg ifmk. Deciphering the phrase
"gxddbou xxkxzt pg ifmk", here by replacing
each letter by the previous letter in alphabetical
order, as the English alphabet was then,
yields the macaronic non sunt in coeli,
quia fuccant vvivys of heli, which translated
means, "They are not in heaven, because
they **** the women of Ely". The phrase was
probably encoded because it accused monks
of breaking their vows of celibacy;
it is uncertain to what extent the word
**** was considered acceptable at the time.
The stem of fuccant is an English word used
as Latin: English medieval Latin has many
examples of writers using English words
when they did not know the Latin word:
"workmannus" is an example. In the
Middle English of this poem, the term wife
was still used generically for "woman".