What the Frak? Origins of the Sci Fi curse word
This morning, two of my friends, Ray and Jeff, showed up in my cube at work. Ray is my friend and former boss. Jeff is a life long friend and was the best man in my wedding.
They had been involved in an in depth discussion about Battlestar Galactica. They were debating if the term Frak was used in the Original series. Ray believed that Frak was used in the Original series but Jeff did not think it was. I did not remember the term being used in the original series. All three of us started investigating the origins of the curse word Frak!
After intense research called the “Internet” and “Wikipedia” and battlestarwiki””, We soon discovered the original series did use a replacement curse word. The original series used the term Frack instead of Frak.
According to battlestarwiki.org, “Frack is a Colonial expletive, roughly analagous to ‘shit’ or even the milder ‘rats’ or ‘darn’ of the Original Series.” The new re-imaged word of Frak is a pure replacement term for another “F” word and is used to describe sexual relationships and used as an Expletive.
This meant that both of my friends were correct on one level. Ray was spot on stating that Starbuck in the Original series did use the replacement curse word. It sounds just like the continually used malediction in the new BSG. But it is not quite the same word so my friend Jeff was also correct.
I love these geeky discussions with friends. These kinds of conversations pop up more than most people would imagine.
