5 ms·

> The only word for it is a f∗∗∗ up of major proportions. Everyone was f-ing and blinding when they realised what had happened. It's certainly more fuck up tha

• pcrh 13y ago
  "f-ing" and "blinding" means cursing and swearing. The "f" being obvious and "blinding" is a substitute for "bloody".
  • dcminter 13y ago
    Actually I believe "blinding" is for "blimey", a (rather dated) contraction of "blind me." If that seems a little odd then you have to recall that blasphemy was once stronger than biological cussing. I'm told that the reason for some of the stranger grammatical usage of "fuck" in swearing is down to its substitution for religious words (e.g. "fuck you" for "damn you.") The chapter on swearing in Bill Bryson's "The Mother Tongue" is interesting and very amusing.
    • pcrh 13y ago
      "Blimey" does seem more likely. The urban dictionary has it as a contraction of "God blind me", which is presumably what you meant by your reference to blasphemy.
      • timthorn 13y ago
        Hence "cor blimey"
    • icebraining 13y ago
      There's also Stephen Burgen's Your Mother's Tongue, which is a whole book dedicated to European invective (in different languages). It's fun to see how the history of each culture shapes how people swear. For Edam example, it's much more common in Catholic countries to swear by blaspheming in a very strong and direct way.
• chris_wot 13y ago
  Exactly what part of Australia do you live in? F-ing is a very common phrase here.
  • deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  • dangrossman 13y ago
    Is "everyone was f-ing" a very common phrase for swearing, or for engaging in intercourse? I assume hyp0 was asking about the unfamiliar regional idiom and has heard the phrase "f-ing" before. He's been on the internet for more than a day after all.
    • chris_wot 13y ago
      You're missing the point. I'm also an Australian, I'm curious which parts of Australia don't know this.
  • vacri 13y ago
    'Fucking' is, but softening it to 'effing' isn't, and 'blinding' is archaic, mostly used as an intensifying word rather than on it's own ('he was in a blinding hurry'). More likely to use 'bloody'.
    • chris_wot 13y ago
      I hear it all the time. I live in Sydney.
      • vacri 13y ago
        Weird, I've never really heard it except in the context of someone trying to sanitise their language, such as when kids are around. Then again, there are some weird regionalisms out there. I once met a pair of sandgropers that said "type of" where other people would say "sort of". They were siblings, so it may have even been family-specific. Haven't heard it elsewhere.
• sphericalgames 13y ago
  Not sure if the mistake on the writer part or but f-ing and blinding is commonly written as effing and blinding. http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/effing+and+blinding http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/effing+and+blinding Apparently the link states (British & Australian informal). Added: if you search for "f-ing and blinding" in Google you'll get did you mean effing and blinding?