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Interestingly, it was "Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition" when it first appeared in print back towards the end of World War 2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_slang_terms#F...

Not to be confused with "Foobar" which apparently originated at MIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foobar

TIL, an interesting footnote about "foo" there:

'During the United States v. Microsoft Corp. trial, evidence was presented that Microsoft had tried to use the Web Services Interoperability organization (WS-I) as a means to stifle competition, including e-mails in which top executives including Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer referred to the WS-I using the codename "foo".[13]'



What people would print and what soldiers would say in the 1940s were likely somewhat divergent.


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