Fucking, Austria

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Fucking (IPA: {{IPA|}}, SAMPA: , fooking) is a small settlement (population c. 150), part of the municipality of Tarsdorf, in the Innviertel region of western Upper Austria, located at {{coor dms|48|02|59|N|12|50|59|E|region:AT_type:city(150)}}, bordering Bavaria. It is near the city of Salzburg. The village is known to have existed as "Fucking" since at least 1070 and is named after a man from the 6th century called Focko. "Ing" is an old Germanic suffix meaning "people"; thus Fucking, in this case, means "place of Focko's people".

Related Topics:
IPA - SAMPA - Tarsdorf - Innviertel - Upper Austria - Bavaria - Salzburg - 1070 - 6th century - Focko

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The name, spelled identically to the gerund form of the English profanity "fuck", is often found amusing by Anglophones. In German the name has no obvious associations, amusing or otherwise, although many German speakers will be aware of the English word. The German cognate of "to fuck", regarded equally low as the English word (or possibly more obscene, as it is almost never used figuratively), is ficken.

Related Topics:
Gerund - English - Profanity - Fuck - Anglophone - German - Cognate

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The settlement's only significant feature is a traffic sign with its name on it beside which English-speaking tourists often stop to have their photograph taken. The sign is the most stolen street sign in Austria. A considerable portion of Fucking's budget is spent on replacing the stolen signs. In August 2005 the road signs were replaced with signs welded to steel and embedded in cement to make the signs harder to take.

Related Topics:
Traffic sign - Stolen street sign

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In 2004, the residents voted on changing the name (owing to the stolen signs and embarrassment over the name), but decided against doing so.

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