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FUBAR is an acronym meaning "fucked up beyond all/any recognition", or one of many variations (see below). It is attested in the United States Army and other military settings.
Variations
For purposes of euphemism, "fucked" is sometimes replaced with "fouled".
Depending on situation or habit, "all recognition" can be replaced with "any repair", "any redemption", "all reality", "all repair", or "all reason". Once the concept is understood, the specific words are irrelevant.
Etymology
Electronics engineers say 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.
"Foo" appeared in a 1938 Warner Bros. Daffy Duck cartoon and the comic strip Smokey Stover, and bar was a popular English word long before that. FUBAR may have been influenced by the German word furchtbar, meaning terrible. It is pronounced with a soft cht, and probably made the transition during World War II.Network Working Group. RFC 3092 - Etymology of "Foo". 1 April 2001. despite April Fool's Day release, appears to contain reasonable information.
It is also possible that foobar is a phonological interpretation of the first letters of the Runic alphabet. Like Qwerty and Abcde, this expression might have attracted various computer programmers. In a museum at Aarhus, a large wooden bar with the runic enscription f u þ a r, where fu is pronounced like foo. However, the letter þ is actually pronounced like an unvoiced th, not a b (hence the name Futhark for the Runic alphabet).
Related usage
One of the most popular hacker/demo groups on the Commodore 64 scene in the mid 1980s was FBR—"Fucked Beyond Repair". "The Fubar Suit" (1997) is also the title of a science fiction short story by Stephen Baxter.
Movies
- In the 1944 U.S. Army animated short The Three Brothers (directed by Friz Freleng), a character named Fubar is a brother of Private Snafu and Tarfu.
- The term was used in the movies Tango and Cash (1989) and Saving Private Ryan (1998).
- _The_Movie is also the title of a 2002 Canadian mockumentary.
Computer Games
- Outcast by Infogrames (1999), quote by lead character Cutter Slade:
"That puts this mission just south of FUBAR!"
- Opposing Force by Gearbox and Valve Corporation (1999), quote from fellow Marines:
"This mission is way beyond FUBAR!"
- "Quake 4" by ID Software (2005), quote by Lt. Voss:
"This situation is looking seriously FUBAR-ED!"
- Combat Evolved by Bungie Studios (2001), quote by Sergeant Johnson upon death of the player:
"We are FUBAR!"
Related acronyms
There are a number of slang army acronyms that are related to FUBAR. A somewhat standard group in no particular order is:
- SNAFU - Situation Normal: All Fucked Up
- TARFU - Things Are Really Fucked Up
- FUBAR - Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition
- JANFU - Joint Army/Navy Fuck-Up
Others include the following:
- SAPFU - Surpasses All Previous Fuck Ups
- SUSFU - Situation Unchanged, Still Fucked Up
- FUMTU - Fucked Up More Than Usual
- FUBB - Fucked Up Beyond Belief
- TOFU - Things Ordinary: Fucked Up
- GFU - General Fuck Up
- SAMFU - Self Adjusting Military Fuck Up
- TUIFU - The Ultimate In Fuck Ups
- FUGAZI - Fucked Up, Got Ambushed, Zipped In; Refers to out-of-control situation such as a chaotic jungle warfare combat environment
- FUNDY - Fucked Up, Not Dead Yet; on British medical charts"The Origins and Common Usage of British Swear-Words". Web Article BBC, 2002.
- JAAFU or JAAFFU - Joint Army-Air Force Fuck-Up; the use of JANFU combined with a radical increase in joint-forces operations since 1989, has led to the rare but increasing use of JAAFU/JAAFFU
- FUBER - FUcked Beyond Economic Repair
See also
- List of U.S. Army acronyms and expressions
- foobar, a derivative placeholder used in programs
References
External links
"FUBAR"