When you were young, you had your mouth washed out with soap for saying it.

As you approached those pubescent years, you felt so cool when it blurted from your mouth - even if you really didn’t understand what it meant or why it was so bad.

It can be used to describe something un-frickin’-believably good, but can also be used as a demeaning, vile insult.

You were taught never to use it because it was a naughty or dirty word. And for this piece, my editors won’t even let me use it.

What a frickin’ bunch of frickin’ jerks.

So I’ll have to use the not-as-creative substitute (one of many) - “frick.”

It describes something you can do to someone, can be used to describe the time (It’s nearly 4 frickin’ o’clock) or can be used in the middle of words (that’s un-frickin’-believable!) to emphasize meanings.

By simply hearing the word, it can inflict feelings of pain, pleasure, love or hate.

It is one of the most creative words in the English language, and people use it or think it on a daily or hourly basis - even if they don’t admit it.

Jesse Sheidlower recognized the importance and wide versatility of this expression when he compiled information for “The F Word,” a book devoted to the use and history of the infamous F-word.

Sheidlower, principle editor of the American branch of the American Oxford English Dictionary, said the idea for the book spawned from research from a project about slang words.

“We had much of the information already there, and the reason we felt this word was particularly interesting is for the same reason everyone else thinks it is interesting,” he said.

“This word has been in use for over 500 years in an extremely wide variety of explanations and phrases, whether humorous stories or anecdotes of famous people using it.”

Through researching the book, Sheidlower found some of the phrases went back as early as the 18th and 19th centuries and that the F-word wasn’t used to describe a sex-related act until relatively recently.

And despite what some may think, the word is not an acronym for “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” or “Fornication Under Consent of the King,” he said.

“Usage of the word in a figurative sense is by far a lot more common,” Sheidlower said. “People say that (frick) is a sexual word, but it’s used to express frustration or to curse people or even as an adjective filler.

“It’s comparatively rare to use it to actually refer to sex the overwhelmingly majority of the time.”

While there many different stories of how the word was born, some of the more believable stories include that the F- word comes from the Middle English word “fucken,” which means to strike, move quickly or penetrate.

Another possibility is that it comes from the German word “ficken,” which shares an almost identical definition with the Middle English word.

Yet another possibility is that the word derives from the Middle Dutch “fokken,” which means to strike or to copulate with.

In Richard Spears’ book “Slang and Euphemism,” he suggests that the word might have originated from the Latin word “pungo,” which means to prick.

But aside from its sexual connotations, the F-word can be used as an adverb (abso-frickin’-lutely), a verb (frick up), an adjective (frickable) or in a phrase (for frick’s sake).

But while the word warrants enough material to fill a book, there are plenty of other words just as important in the English language, Sheidlower said.

“Most words you can’t write an entire book about, but words like girl or run or set - those are important, too,” he said.

“It’s not just that I like this word or anything like that, the English language itself just regards it as important because of its ability to be used in such a large number of ways.”

And it is for that reason that no-preference freshman Erin Blacha has a numb reaction to hearing it. She said she doesn’t use the word when showing emotion and thinks hearing other people say it is a sign of ignorance.

“It’s used so often in so many different contexts now, it’s not even a big deal,” Blacha said.

Turfgrass management junior Sean Reehoorn said he uses the F-word, but he reserves it for particular occasions, such as telling stories with friends or “if I hurt myself.”

Reehoorn said the F-word is certainly not a word he would use in front of his mother or elders in general, and that its usage depends on the situation.

“It doesn’t really bother me. It’s just that we have this thing of making four-letter words special, and it’s just another word - no big deal,” he said.

But should commercial television use the word in prime-time viewing periods?

If the F-word is such a widely-used word and (almost) everyone uses it, than why shouldn’t it be broadcast on everyday television programs like “Friends” or “Seinfeld?”

Even Bono, the lead singer of U2, slipped and said the F-word while accepting a 1993 Grammy Award.

And on numerous episodes of the “Jerry Springer Show,” guests will have only one or two letters edited from their outbursts of “frick,” still leaving the rest of the word, which is obvious to any viewer.

Besides, wouldn’t it be funnier to hear George Costanza (Jason Alexander) blurt out the F-word when he gets frustrated? Or what about Ross from “Friends?”

But Reehoorn said he doesn’t think it would be the smartest idea to allow the word on popular television shows because it isn’t a word that people should encourage their children to use.

“If kids are going to learn it from anyone, they should probably learn it from their parents,” he said.

Frickin’ Daniel A. Julian can be freakin’ reached at julianda@msu.edu.