eff

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: ĕf, IPA^(key): /ɛf/
• Rhymes: -ɛf
• Homophone: f

Etymology 1

A spelling of the letter f (also spelled ef), the initial letter of the vulgar term fuck. Compare pee.

Verb

eff (third-person singular simple present effs, present participle effing, simple past and past participle effed)

1. (euphemistic, slang) Fuck (the taboo swear word, but not in the sense "to copulate")

   Eff off!

   And he kept saying, "Effing this, effing that."

Synonyms

• feck, frak, frig, funk

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Back-formation from ineffable

Verb

eff (third-person singular simple present effs, present participle effing, simple past and past participle effed)

1. To put into words; to express.
   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

     […] and perhaps also because what we know partakes in no small measure of the nature of what has so happily been called the unutterable or ineffable, so that any attempt to utter or eff it is doomed to fail, doomed, doomed to fail.

   • 2001, Paul West, Master Class: Scenes from a Fiction Workshop, page 57:

     They, no more than we, found it hard to eff the ineffable, but they, you see, needed to console themselves more.

   • 2018, Wesley J. Wildman, Effing the Ineffable: Existential Mumblings at the Limits of Language, page 83:

     It is another way of effing the ineffable, one with potentially serious practical effects.

   • 2020, Tim Vivian, Other Voices, Other Rooms: Poems, page 100:

     Douglas Adams (1952–2001), author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, puts it memorably: “Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.”

Usage notes

This verb is unlikely to be understood without priming the listener by using the word ineffable in the same paragraph.

Etymology 3

Noun

eff (plural effs)

1. Alternative spelling of ef; the name of the Latin-script letter F.
   • a. 1746 (date written), Jonathan Swift, “On the Irish Club”, in Thomas Sheridan and John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, , new edition, volume VIII, London: J Johnson, , published 1801, →OCLC, page 78:

     Why against printers all this noise? This summoning of blackguard boys? Why so sagacious in your guesses? Your effs, and tees, and arrs, and eſſes? Take my advice; to make you safe, I know a shorter way be half.

   • 1969, Michael Feld, The Sabbatical Year, London: Alan Ross Ltd, page 301:

     ‘Eff. You. En,’ said Mr Banstead. ‘Fun! […]’

   • 2019, Amy Einsohn, Marilyn Schwartz, “ Abbreviations”, in The Copyeditor’s Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications, 4th edition, University of California Press, →ISBN, part 2 (Editorial Style), page 242:

     A or an? When an indefinite article precedes an acronym or initialism, the choice between a and an follows from the pronunciation: / a FAQ file (“fack”; but “an FAQ file” with the alternate pronunciation “eff-ay-cue”) / an FTC commissioner (“eff-tee-cee”)

   • 2019, Anand Ranganathan, Chitra Subramaniam, The Rat Eater, Bloomsbury India, →ISBN:

     ‘S-S-C…sitting on a tree…eff-you-cee-kay-i-en-ji.’

Derived terms

• effell
• eff why eye

Estonian

Noun

eff (genitive , partitive )

1. The name of the Latin-script letter F.

Faroese

Noun

eff n (genitive singular efs, plural eff)

1. The name of the Latin-script letter F.

Declension

See also

• (Latin-script letter names) bókstavur; a / fyrra a, á, be, de, edd, e, eff, ge, há, i / fyrra i, í / fyrra í, jodd, ká, ell, emm, enn, o, ó, pe, err, ess, te, u, ú, ve, seinna i, seinna í, seinna a, ø

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛfː

Noun

eff

1. The name of the Latin-script letter F.

Declension

See also

• (Latin-script letter names) betű; a, á, bé, cé, csé, dé, dzé, dzsé, e, é, eff, gé, gyé, há, i, í, jé, ká, ell, ellipszilon / elly / ejj, emm, enn, enny, o, ó, ö, ő, pé, kú, err, ess, essz, té, tyé, u, ú, ü, ű, vé, dupla vé / vevé, iksz, ipszilon, zé, zsé. (See also: Latin script letters.)

Further reading

• eff , redirecting to (1): f and (2): f in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛfː/
• Rhymes: -ɛfː

Noun

eff n (genitive singular effs, nominative plural eff)

1. The name of the Latin-script letter F.

Declension

Võro

Noun

eff (genitive , partitive )

1. The name of the Latin-script letter F.

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.