Just reading through the ˇJournalista! weblog and I came across a word I’ve seen before in US-based publications / sites:
“This little exchange took place on the internet, so it should go without saying that the clusterfuck had yet to begin. Enter one Franklin Harris….”
What exactly does clusterfuck mean? The context implies a load of people rushing in to make a lot of noise and try and beat each other up, so perhaps it’s a combination of “cluster bomb” and “fuck someone up”. But what intrigues me is whether it actually has anything to do with real fucking? How does one clusterfuck? Is it an orgy?
Post-colonial cousins, please do inform…
Here’s one definition which is interesting but annoyingly starts: “Without going into the origins of the term and also without going into some of its sexual definitions, clusterfuck is… “.
That’s exactly the part I want!!!
There are 94,000 results on Google… Somewhere there must be a decent definition…
The word is used in its non-sexual context, as in “multiple fuck-up”. I am sure the term has its origins in the cluster bombs used in the Gulf War.
Your post-colonial Dad!
I have always understood it to be somewhat like FUBAR but on a wider scale and involving more people. I have never heard or seen it used to actually describe a sexual act.
Dave
Ah, FUBAR! As student geologists over 30 years ago we used to describe horribly distorted metamorphic rocks as FUBARITE! Used to drive our petrologist lecturer crazy (her name was Miss Wisden and she was related to the original cricketer’s almanac family).
oh god no – have you never heard of a Mongolian Clusterfuck? it sounds gruesome – too gruesome a sexual act for me to describe on a family website… let’s just say you wouldn’t want your daughter to fall into the hands of a Mongolian Hoard with a penchant for clusterfucking….
oh god no – have you never heard of a Mongolian Clusterfuck? it sounds gruesome – too gruesome a sexual act for me to describe on a family website… let’s just say you wouldn’t want your daughter to fall into the hands of a Mongolian Hoard with a penchant for clusterfucking
a clusterfuck is any operation with too many leaders leading too many people at cross purposes and laboring under the illusion that there is a unified purpose and a brilliant plan. It might as well be a bunch of people bumping into each other and trying to fuck as if in an orgy but they are just too confused by the brilliance of their leaders (also confused) I think it was originally a military slang term but it can be honestly applied to corporate america (now that’s a redundancy if there ever was one!)
The term clusterfuck, and even Mongolian clusterfuck, probably long predates the ’60′s.
I’m with wayne johnson abt military roots. If I had to guess, I would relate it to SNAFU (situation normal: all fucked up), and guess that it was first applied to events in which milling groups of clueless people were randomly applying (possibly army manual) rules without thinking; result: lots of people being screwed over. Think Catch 22. Mongolian is clearly intended to be an intensifier (yes, I am a linguist), and means that it is a big Mother piece of idiocy. I would guess.
Clusterfuck: too many clueless officers/managers each trying to implement their own plan without any regard to what the others are doing. Guaranteed to end up FUBAR. Referred to in some quarters as a Charlie Foxtrot situation.
Imagine a convention of Pointy Haired Bosses from the Dilbert cartoons trying to manage a team of experienced furniture removals men.
Now that I know where it comes from …
CF seems to favor disposing of uninformed people, as well as large groups. The first instance merely demands assurance that a number of people will be at the wrong place at the wrong time. The second instance requires that at least one member of a group “trust in” information not accessible to the rest of the group, which is sometimes self obtained.
God bless you too…
So, whats the difference between a clusterfuck and an orgy?