Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Fucking, Austria

You can imagine how much this sign gets stolen.

2 comments:

wildmary said...

Despite having a population of only 104, the village has become famous for its name in the English-speaking world. Its road signs are a popular visitor attraction, and were often stolen by souvenir-hunting tourists until 2005, when they were modified to be theft-resistant.

wildmary said...

The settlement was founded in the 6th century by Focko, a Bavarian nobleman. The ending, "ing" is an old Germanic suffix indicating the people belonging to the root word to which it is attached, such as in the English word earthling; thus Fucking means "(place of) Focko’s people. The modern spelling Fucking is pronounced with the vowel oo as in book.