FUBAR
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007) |
 |
Look up FUBAR in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
FUBAR is an acronym that commonly means "fucked up beyond all repair," "fucked up beyond all recognition," or any of a number of similar constructions. It originated in the United States armed forces, but its usage has spread to colloquial use.
Contents |
[edit] Variations
[edit] Etymology and history
Electronics engineers report that SNAFU and FUBAR were used before World War II by repairmen sent out to repair phone booths. They had to report the situation at arrival to the scene, often on a very bad line, so they developed these acronyms to make themselves understood.[1][unreliable source?]
The Oxford English Dictionary currently lists Yank, the Army Weekly magazine (1944, 7 Jan. p. 8) as its earliest citation: "The FUBAR Squadron...FUBAR? It means 'Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition.'"
In the 1944 U.S. Army animated short The Three Brothers (directed by Friz Freleng),[2] a character named Fubar is a brother of Private Snafu (Situation Normal, All Fucked Up)[3] and Tarfu (Things Are Really Fucked Up, or Totally and Royally Fucked Up).
In 1980 FUBAR also appears in an apparent example of geek humor, as the acronym for the Failed UniBus Address Register in the Digital Equipment Corporation VAX-11/780 Unibus adapter (DW780).[4]
The 1989 movie Tango and Cash re-popularised the phrase FUBAR. It was used by one of the lead characters (Kurt Russell's Gabriel Cash) on several occasions. The phrase was also used in the 1990 film Air America by the character of Babo just before an impending plane crash, in the 1998 Steven Spielberg's World War II movie Saving Private Ryan by Tom Hanks character and in 2007 British movie 28 Weeks Later, heard on a USA military radio conversation.
[edit] Related military acronyms
There are a number of slang military acronyms that are related to FUBAR. A somewhat standard group includes:
- AMF - Adios Mother Fucker
- AMFYOYO - Adios Mother Fucker, You're On Your Own (from urbandictionary.com: "Informal medical acronym used to describe belligerent patients who argue and refuse treatment.")
- AMFOTDYOYO - Adios Mother Fucker, Out The Door, You're On Your Own (from urbandictionary.com: "Similar to, but more complete than AMF YOYO")
- BOHICA - Bend Over Here It Comes Again
- BOHIC - Bend Over Here It Comes
- DILLIGAS - Do I Look Like I Give A Shit
- DILLIGAF - Do I Look Like I Give A Fuck
- DILLIGAFF - Do I Look Like I Give A Flying Fuck
- FIDO - Fuck It-Drive On
- FISHDO (FISHiDO) - Fuck It, Shit Happens - Drive On
- FIFI - Fuck It-Fly It
- FIGMO - Fuck It, Got My Orders
- FIIGO - Fuck It, I've Got Orders
- FNG - Fucking New Guy (used for all new people in a squad.)
- FUBAB - Fucked Up Beyond All Belief
- FUBB - Fucked Up Beyond Belief
- FUBISO - Fuck You Buddy, I'm Shipping Out
- FUBU - Fucked Up Beyond Understanding
- FUGAZI - Fucked Up, Got Ambushed, Zipped In
- FUMTU - Fucked Up More Than Usual
- HNIC - Head Nigger in Charge
- HMFIC - Head Mother Fucker in Charge
- JAFO - Just Another Fucking Observer (guy who sits in the back of the vehicle)
- JANFU - Joint Army-Navy Fuck Up
- KMACYOYO - Kiss My Ass Colonel, You're On Your Own
- LJFL - Lovely, Just Fucking Lovely
- LLMF - Lost Like a Mother Fucker
- SNAFU - Situation Normal: All Fucked Up
- SNAFUBAR - Situation Normal: All Fucked Up Beyond All Repair/Recognition/Reason
- SOL - Shit Out of Luck
- FUUSAB - Fucked Up Until Space And Beyond
- REMF - Rear Echelon Mother Fucker
- SRDH - Shit Rolls Down Hill
- SSDD - Same Shit, Different Day
- SUSFU - Situation Unchanged, Still Fucked Up
- TARFU - Things Are Really Fucked Up, or Totally and Royally Fucked Up
- TAUFU - Totally And Utterly Fucked Up
- IHELP - I've had enough of life pill.
- NFG - No Fucking Good (Non-Functioning Gear)
- WTF - What the Fuck? - Spoke using the military phonetic alphabet as "whiskey, tango, foxtrot", often used as a rhetorical question.
- WTFO - What the Fuck? OVER. - Spoken using military phonetic alphabet over the radio, or other communications system, as "whiskey, tango, foxtrot, OVER", a statement of disbelief, or as a rhetorical question expecting a response. Often used by Air Force personnel.
Similar constructs from the radio phonetic alphabet include:
- Charlie Foxtrot - C and F, meaning Cluster Fuck
- Delta India Delta - D I D, meaning Dick In the Dirt (dead)
- Tango Uniform - T U, or Tits Up (dead or wounded)
- Tango Bravo - T and B meaning TaliBan
- Foxtrot Oscar - F O, meaning Fuck Off
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "The Health Science Institute", [1]
- ^ "The Three Brothers Friz Freleng (motion picture)". Library of Congress. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200025794/default.html. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
- ^ Pietro Shakarian. "Situation Normal All Fucked Up:A History of Private Snafu". goldenagecartoons.com. http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/miscelooneyous/snafu/. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
- ^ "VAX Hardware Handbook," page 373. Digital Equipment Corporation, 1980.
