footle: [19] Footling appears to have originated as a euphemistic equivalent to fucking. It probably comes from a dialectal footer ‘mess about, fuck around’, which may well have been acquired from French foutre ‘copulate with’, a descendant of Latin futuere ‘copulate with’ (whose origin is not known).
footle (v.)
"to trifle," 1892, from dialectal footer "to trifle," footy "mean, paltry" (1752), perhaps from French se foutre "to care nothing," from Old French futer "to copulate with," from Latin futuere "have sex," originally "to strike, thrust" (see confute). But OED derives the English dialect words from foughty (c. 1600), from Dutch vochtig or Danish fugtig "damp, musty;" related to fog (n.).
