FAFO:
But with all due respect to the society’s distinguished crew of linguists, I’d say it was a college writing center from Sioux Falls, S.D., that nailed the word of the year with its choice: FAFO. In case you don’t already know, FAFO is an acronym for “eff around and find out.” It’s a cheeky way to tell people that if they play with fire, they might get burned — or to announce they already have been. The Sioux Falls gang put a positive spin on FAFO, citing it as representing the “gumption” of their fellow students “when encountering a novel challenge” and noting that the Urban Dictionary calls the phrase an “exclamation of confidence.” It is that — but it’s also a whole lot more. [“Why the scary, funny, profane ‘FAFO’ was 2022’s word of the year,” Amanda Katz, WaPo]
Yep, I cheaped out, not once, but twice: taking someone else’s word of the day, and going with an acronym. It can be a long, hard slog from acronym to actual word, and it’s not as a sexy as the onomatopoeia route, the portmanteau path, or even the rhyming Cockney slang path, but it’s a way to get on the map.
And I’m not a fan, as the literal meaning doesn’t appear to include the obvious risk to reputation and even person. It doesn’t have that ringing sense of a word that the President will be using in one hundred years, does it?
But, hey, it’ll probably get there.
