$Fucking$ is a small settlement (population c. 150), part of the
municipality of Tarsdorf, in the Innviertel region of western Upper
Austria, located at, bordering Bavaria. It is near the city of
Salzburg. The village is known to have existed as Fucking¡ since at
least 1070 and is named after a man from the 6th century called
Focko. ¡°Ing¡± is an old Germanic suffix meaning people; thus
Fucking, in this case, means ¡°place of Focko¡s people
The name, spelled identically to the gerund form of the often-used
English profanityfuck,often found amusing by Anglophones. In German
the name has no obvious associations, amusing or otherwise,
although most German speakers are aware of the English word. The
German equivalent of ¡°to fuck, regarded as equally vulgar to the
English word, is ficken
The settlement¡¯s most famous feature is a traffic sign with its
name on it beside which English-speaking tourists often stop to
have their photograph taken. The sign is the most commonly stolen
street sign in Austria. Significant amounts of public funds are
spent on replacing the stolen signs. In August 2005 the road signs
were replaced with theft-proof signs welded to steel and secured in
concrete to make the signs harder to take.
On some photographs that can also be found through the Internet,
below the sign with the name "Fucking" there is another sign with
the words "Bitte - nicht so schnell!" on it. This sign is a German
warning for car drivers to drive slowly because of children (under
the text there is also a picture of two children). The humorous
point in this sign is that "Bitte ¡ª nicht so schnell!" means
"Please not so fast!" in English. Combined with the name of the
village, it sounds more amusing to people who speak German.
In 2004, owing to the stolen signs and embarrassment over the name,
a vote was held on changing the name, but the residents voted
against doing so.
