Christmas Crossword, December 19 2024...
Crosswords4 mins ago
No best answer has yet been selected by spiff. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.While the origin is unknown, the word concerned is a chiefly British vulgar slang word, and has only been used from the mid 20th Centuary.
Well that's what all the online dictionaries say, so it has not been derived from any other language. Us Brits made it up, though it is the name of a mountain in the Bavarian Alps, close to the Austria border.
The earliest recorded use of the word is in Partridge's 'Dictionary of Forces' Slang', published in 1948. Another slang dictionary, however, suggests it was in use as far back as the 1870s, though no record seems to exist of such a usage.
If you click http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19961119 the link-page will offer further information on the word's possible origins, though these are - as Justpassing said - technically 'unknown'.