It's always the Vikings, innit. That was interesting, dundurn, I didn't know about the hnefatafl. Actually, "fist" in Swedish is still the word "n�ve".
I just had to test that, 'cos I couldn't believe I'd been bleeped - or rather that Rabbie Burns had been bleeped!! For further information f3ckless is a perfectly ordinary word where I come from, usually used to describe something without spirit, gumption or drive or useless in a practical sort of way - a bit like a a computer system that can;t distinguish between f3ck and ****!
J, at the point where I was born, when you stand on the coast looking northwards, there is nothing between you and the North Pole...eastwards, nothing much above six feet high between you and the Russian steppes, southwards, nothing until you hit Lowestoft. These factors tend to create a hardy, windswept breed.
But no, as you say, fist-lingo isn't the only one the natives understand! Some of us are quite cultured, actually. Cheers