FUBAR (Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition)
“FUBAR” is a World War II term that means “Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.” The actual term was probably “Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition.”
“The latest Army superlative, however, is ‘fubar.’ It means: ‘Fouled up beyond all recognition’” was printed in the Honolulu (HI) Advertiser on November 24, 1943. ” FUBAR, which is short for ‘Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition’” was printed in the San Francisco (CA) Chronicle on December 24, 1943.
Smokey Stover, a newspaper comic strip by Bill Holman that ran from 1935 to 1972, often used the term “foo.” “‘Foobar’—fouled up beyond all recognition” was printed in The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT) on March 6, 1944. “Foobar” was later used in computer programming.
Other World War II acronyms include JANFU (Joint Army Navy Foul-Up) and SNAFU (Situation Normal—All Fouled Up).
Wikipedia: List of military slang terms
FUBAR
FUBAR (Fucked/Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition/Any Repair/All Reason), like SNAFU and SUSFU, dates from World War II. The Oxford English Dictionary lists Yank, the Army Weekly magazine (1944, 7 Jan. p. 8) as its earliest citation: “The FUBAR squadron. ‥ FUBAR? It means ‘Fucked/Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.”
Wikipedia: Foobar
The terms foobar (/ˈfuːbɑːr/), or foo and others are used as metasyntactic variables and placeholder names in computer programming or computer-related documentation. They have been used to name entities such as variables, functions, and commands whose exact identity is unimportant and serve only to demonstrate a concept.
History and Etymology
The etymology of foo is obscure. Its use in connection with bar is generally traced to the World War II military slang FUBAR, later bowdlerised to foobar. The word foo on its own was used earlier. Between about 1930 and 1952 it appeared in the comic Smokey Stover by Bill Holman, who stated that he used the word due to having seen it on the bottom of a jade Chinese figurine in Chinatown, San Francisco, purportedly signifying “good luck”. This may be related to the Chinese word fu (”福”, sometimes transliterated foo), which can mean happiness or blessing.
(Oxford English Dictionary)
fubar, adj.
Origin: Formed within English, as an acronym. Etymon: English fouledfucked)
Etymology: Acronym < the initial letters of
fouled (or fucked) up beyond all recognition. Compare snafu phr., adj., and n.
U.S. (orig. Military slang).
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Bungled, ruined, messed up. Also: extremely intoxicated.
Often used as a euphemism for fucked up (see fucked-up adj.).
1944 Yank 7 Jan. 8/1 The FUBAR Squadron… FUBAR? It means ‘Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition’.
24 November 1943, Honolulu (HI) Advertiser, “Honolulu War Diary” by Laselle Gilman, pg. 16, col. 2:
Item: “Snafu” and related words meaning roughly “utter confusion” are common terms in wartime Hawaii and even many civilians are now familiar with them. The latest Army superlative, however, is “fubar.” It means: “Fouled up beyond all recognition.”
24 December 1943, San Francisco (CA) Chronicle, “San Francisco” by Robert O’Brien, pg. 11, col. 2:
A NEW ONE: Inasmuch as this column seems to have devoted itself to the armed forces, we might as well conclude it with what we understand to be the latest addition to the “SNAFU” department of servicemen’s jargon.
As you probably know, SNAFU, in its printable version, stands for ‘Situation Normal—All Fouled Up.” Then there’s TARFU, which means, “Things Really Fouled Up,” and FUBAR, which is short for “Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.” Now some one has come up with JANFU, than which, apparently, nothing could be worse. It means “Joint Army-Navy Foul-Up.”
19 January 1944, Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer, “Washington Background” by Inquirer Washington Bureau Staff, pg. 16, col. 2:
Some months ago, we explained the meaning of the coined word which gained currency in the Navy—“snafu”—“situation normal all fouled up.”
Now, we learn that the Army and the Navy have new words for situations that go beyond that. There is, for example, “fubar,” which means “fouled up beyond all recognition.” Also “janfu,” which means “joint Army and Navy foul up,” and “jaafu,” which means “joint Anglo-American foul-up.”
7 February 1944, Newsweek (New York, NY), pg. 61, col. 3:
State of the Language
Recent additions to the ever-changing lexicon of the armed services:
Fubar: fouled up beyond all recognition.
Janfu: Joint Army-Navy foul-up.
Jaafu: Joint Anglo-American foul-up.
6 March 1944, The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT), pg. 8, col. 4:
British Sailors End
Ship Chase in Jail
Two British sailors, ensconced in Salt Lake county jail, think their situation is definitely “foobar”—fouled up beyond all recognition.
30 June 1944, The Times-Recorder (Zanesville, OH), “Beefs And Tips From Seven Seas,” pg. 3B, cols. 5-6:
A new “FU” has been added to the “fouled up” dictionary. The original was SNAFU which meant “Situation Normal: All Fouled Up.” Then came TARFU: “Things Are Really Fouled Up,” and FUBAR “Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.” It took the Aleutian theater to ad JANFU: “Joint Army-Navy Foul Up.” When an American task force joined a British force recently a signaller flashed BUSFU: “British-U. S. Foul Up.”
Urban Dictionary
fubar
F.U.B.A.R. is an acronym for:
1. F*cked up beyond all reason.
2. F*cked up beyond all recognition.
3. F*cked up beyond all repair.
See fuck
All usage derived from the military.
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by Jack. December 08, 2003
IMDb (The Internet Movie Database)
F.U.B.A.R. (2014)
Horror | 28 February 2014 (USA)
A team of mercenaries bite off more then they can chew when they vow to revenge their fallen comrades.
Director: Johnathan Robert Hart
Writer: Johnathan Robert Hart
Stars: Dax Spanogle, Johnathan Robert Hart, Sophie Ni | See full cast & crew »