F

"The F word," we used to say.

I saw it first scrawled in graffiti on a wall in Chattanooga while we were out trick-or-treating.  When we came back, I asked the assembled  parents in Tuttie's living room, "What does f-u-c-k mean?" and nobody answered.  The adults looked at each other a bit nervously, as I recall.

Then I noticed years later, that the word with an "ing" at the end was being used as an adjective, but I couldn't bear to say it for a long, long time.

Parts of speech matter.

When Will was in 8th grade, he wanted me to stop dancing in the Volvo because the kids in the school bus ahead of us might see.  He was big that year on trying to maintain a reputation as 8th grade boys are, and a dancing mother didn't enhance the image he wanted to project.

He meant to use the F-word as an adjective (to shock me) but he used it as a verb--as in "Mom!  My friends are f****ing on the school bus!" He meant for the word to precede school bus, I'm pretty sure!

The F-word is a powerful adjective, I know now, and I use it every time it's called for--which I have to say is fairly often.  But I still have to pause before writing it, as you can see!