Authors: Jesse Sheidlower
2
. (used to emphasize the positive qualities of a following noun).
1954
in D. Wepman et al.
The Life
(1976) 42: I love him madly, he’s my motherfucking man.
1961
R. Gover
$100 Misunderstanding
95: Tee vee man talkin up a mothahfuggin storm!
1973
J. Flaherty
Fogarty & Co.
157: What a motherfucking man he was, Shamus!
1978
R. Andrews
Appalachee Red
(1987) 254: From Carolina to Alabama to Mississippi back to Alabama to here, home sweet motherfucking home!
a
1990
in M. Costello & D. F. Wallace
Signifying Rappers
79: I shoulda kicked your ass/My-motherfuckin-self.
1991
C. E. Faupel
Shooting Dope
75: Hey man, let’s go get us some good motherfucking dope.
2000
Village Voice
(Jan. 18)107/2: Damn girl! Look at that motherfucking ass! Whatup baby! You see that ass on her? Talk about stopping traffic.
2003
“Zoe Trope”
Please Don’t Kill the Freshman
76: My beautiful fantastic motherfucking cocksucking brilliant queer.
mothergrabber
noun
(a partial euphemism for)
MOTHERFUCKER
.
1963
in J. Blake
Joint
357: You set me up, mother-grabber.
1966
I. Reed
Pall-Bearers
34: Goofy mother-grabber!
1968
H. Sackler
Great White Hope
I. 46: Ellie. (
With Negro inflection.
) You slimy two-bit no-dick mothergrabber.
1994
A. D. Foster in
Impossible Places
(2002) 101: You lazy good-for-nuthin’ orbitin’ mothergrabber!
mother-grabbing
adjective
(a partial euphemism for)
MOTHERFUCKING
.
1953–58
J. C. Holmes
Horn
68: Those mother-grabbin’
slacks…
were full of
seeds!
1961
J. Jones
Thin Red Line
60: He’s a jerkoff. A goddam mother-grabbing jerkoff.
1961
T. Williams
Night of the Iguana
in
Three by Tennessee
(1976) 95: Oh, my God, the money. They haven’t paid the mother-grabbin’ bill.
1962
R. Serling
New Stories
67: Are you out of your mothergrab-bing mind?
1971
Playboy
(Mar.) 92: “Out of your mother-grabbing mind,” Joanne said.
1990
M. Newton
Blood Sport
134: “Life’s hard,” Flynn said. “Ain’t that the mother-grabbin’ truth?”
motherhumper
noun
(a partial euphemism for)
MOTHERFUCKER
.
[
1959
A. Anderson
Lover Man
52: There’s a
bad
mother-hubber/Down the road a way.]
1963
T. Doulis
Path for our Valor
81: Death, I think, you mother-humper.
1967
D. Ford
Incident at Muc Wa
133: “C’mon, you mother-humpers!” Ski yelled at his Raiders.
1970
J. Grissim
Country Music
281: Anybody that can follow me is a motha-humper. And they ain’t many that can do it.… I’m a violent motha-humper today. Don’t nobody fool with me or
I’ll kill!
1972
National Lampoon
(Sept.) 6: There are fourteen
fuck you’s,
nine
cocksucker’s,
and six
mother-humper’s
left over.
1986
J. C. Stinson & J. Carabatsos
Heartbreak Ridge
77: Let’s smoke this motherhumper’s ass.
2000
L. Brown
Fay
423: He was toting one motherhumper of a buzz.
2001
J. Ellroy
Cold Six Thousand
lxxiv. 395: By my lights, he’s a mean motherhumper. Probably gargles with antifreeze and flosses with razor blades.
2006
Men’s Health
(July/Aug.) 118/1: “I’ll mess him up so bad he’ll have to eat through a straw!… I’ll sue the motherhumper!” says the chairman, although maybe not with those exact words.
mother-humping
adjective
(a partial euphemism for)
MOTHERFUCKING
.
1949
D. Alman
World Full of Strangers
54: I’ll fatigue you, you mother-humpin’ little bastard!
1961
R. Gover
$100 Misunderstanding
19: He kin hardly git his mothahhumpin hands roun that wad!
1963
T. Doulis
Path for our Valor
80: Why, that no-good, sneaky, mother-humpin’ rebel.
1964
H. Rhodes
Chosen Few
99 [refers to
ca
1950]: That mother-humpin’ fuckoff wanted
satisfaction!
1964
in R. Gover
Trilogy
215: Right inta this mothah-humpin lounge.
1968
W. Crawford
Gresham’s War
197: Motherhumping
cowards.
1969
C. Brown
Life & Loves of Mr. Jiveass Nigger
20: Like, it’s none of their motherhumping business, right?
1970
D. Quammen
To Walk the Line
86: I thought we been fittin’ to make it to a gray jam, not do a suicide mission with some mother-humping cage-case.
1986
J. C. Stinson & J. Carabatsos
Heartbreak Ridge
163: Friggin’ motherhumpin’ Highway.
1990
J. E. Wideman
Philadelphia Fire
122: This mother-humping play can’t end no oder way.
1998
B. Bova
Moonwar
391: We got a damned good chance of still being out here and getting fried to a crisp by the mother-humpin’ nuke.
2000
P. Kerr
Mañana Mañana
(2003) 114: “Mother-humpin’ faggot!” a raucous voice behind me shouted out.
mothering
adjective & adverb
(a partial euphemism for)
MOTHERFUCKING
.
1951
J. Blake
Letter
(June 21) in
Joint
(1972) 21: He said if the motherin’ screw ever caught up to us, he’d wish he hadn’t.
1956
N. Algren
A Walk on the Wild Side
160: His whole life he ain’t worked one single mothering day!
1957
E. Brown
Locust Fire
95 [refers to 1944]: No more mothering flying. Well, hucklety buck. I don’t give a one.
1959
W. Miller
Cool World
15: Why shitman them Colts is the same motheren piece they was usen at Cussers Last Stan.
Ibid.
37: Them headbreakers. Motheren headbreakers.
1959
in H. Ellison
Sex Misspelled
103: You try my mutherin’ patience.
1961
R. Russell
Sound
31: You’re too motherin’ much, man.
1962
V. Riccio & B. Slocum
All the Way Down
43: We’ll show these mothern bastards.
1963–64
K. Kesey
Sometimes a Great Notion
210: I feel…pretty motherin’ good.
1965
P. Matthiessen
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
37: Them poor mothering Indians.
1966–67
W. Stevens
Gunner
56: They got some motherin big idea.
1968
Saturday Evening Post
(Sept. 16) 27: I hope you have four motherin’ flat tires.
ca
1969
D. Rabe
Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
26: You ain’t no motherin’ exception to that whistle!
1975
Black World
(June) 75: Not that motherin day.
1994
J. Barth
Once upon Time
100: We are one hundred percent spent, but we seem actually to have weathered this mothering storm.
2005
J. MacGregor
Sunday Money
xii. 310: But then the misery index was high all the way around this weekend, hot and humid as gumbo.… On Sunday six cars with Hendrick engines blew up in that mothering funk.
mother-jumper
noun
(a partial euphemism for)
MOTHERFUCKER
.
1949
H. Ellson
Tomboy
5: It was that no good mother-jumper that owns the store.
1952
H. Ellson
Golden Spike
22: What mother-jumpers you been listening to?
Ibid.
40: Let’s kill that mother-jumper!
1955
H. Ellson
Rock
121: I hit for the candy store then, mad as a mother-jumper.
1957
L. Margulies
Young Punks
43: But this motherjumper is a white stud.
1963–64
K. Kesey
Sometimes a Great Notion
334: I thought…the mother-jumper wasn’t even gonna.
1965
A. Borowik
Lions 3, Christians 0
155: Yessir, you motherjumper, you’ll be laughing outa the other side of your mouth when the cops come for you.
1966
R. Fariña
Been Down So Long
120: You old benevolent motherjumper, I love you! [
1966–67
P. Thomas
Down These Mean Streets
91: I hate all you white motherjumps.]
1970
W. C. Woods
Killing Zone
88: He used to be a sad mother jumper.
1977
J. Wylie
Homestead Grays
242: He was as quick as a motherjumper.
1977
M. Butler & D. Shryack
Gauntlet
130: All right, you mother-jumpers.
1988
R. McKnight
Moustapha’s Eclipse
15: I really don’t believe this motherjumper works.
2003
D. Hamill
Sins of Two Fathers
358: I’ll kill him.… I’m washing dishes for a mother jumper who knocked up my kid sister! I’ll kill him!
mother-jumping
adjective
(a partial euphemism for)
MOTHERFUCKING
.
1942
K. Fearing
Clark Gifford’s Body
215: You mother-jumping cockroach. I’ll cut the heart out of your breast and eat it with my bare hands.
1952
H. Ellson
Golden Spike
19: You mother-jumping thief!
1961
R. Gover
$100 Misunderstanding
35: He sit up like a mothah jumpin jack-in-a-box.
1962
P. Crump
Burn, Killer, Burn
163: You’re a mother-jumping coward.
1963–64
K. Kesey
Sometimes a Great Notion
209: And good motherjumpin’ riddance.
1969
in E. G. Romm
Open Conspiracy
138: Fucking sonofabitch Fascist mother jumping cops!
1980
E. McDowell
To Keep Our Honor Clean
156: Sanders, you seem to think you’re running this mother-jumping platoon, only it’s about time you learned differently.
1983
M. S. Bell
Washington Square Ensemble
155: The dealer calls me a motherjumping guinea.
1992
B. Gifford
Night People
96: That wife of his made him too mother-jumpin’
certain
, and that’s no good.
2001
R. Green & M. Burgess
To Save Us All from Satan’s Power
in
Sopranos
(HBO-TV) (Apr. 29): It’s a great mother-jumping lyric, Jan.
motherlover
noun
(a partial euphemism for)
MOTHERFUCKER
.
1950
L. Brown
Iron City
69: And as for
that
mother-lover—.
1954
E. Hunter
Runaway Black
18: You broke the mother-lover.
1955
R. Graziano & R. Barber
Somebody Up There Likes Me
215: “Stand straight, you little mother-lover,” he says.
1963
L. Cameron
Black Camp
63 [refers to WWII]: On your
feet
, motherlover!
1996
G. Phillips
Perdition, U.S.A.
75: All you motherlovers drop to the ground on your knees. Now.
2001
M. Azerrad
Our Band Could be Your Life
xii. 445: Mudhoney are geeky motherlovers, all matchstick arms and legs and horn-rimmed glasses and small bottoms and boyish fun.
motherloving
adjective
(a partial euphemism for)
MOTHERFUCKING
.
1951
“W. Williams”
Enemy
149: Oh, those foggers. Those mother-loving foggers.
1954
B. Schulberg
On the Waterfront
308: You’re a cheap, lousy, dirty, stinkin’, mother-lovin’ bastard.
1955
J. Klaas
Maybe I’m Dead
36: The dirty mother-loving bastards.
1955
“E. Hunter”
Jungle Kids
103: He didn’t get out of that mother-lovin’ cellar.
1957
Laurents & Sondheim
West Side Story
145: On the whole! Ever—! Mother—! Lovin’—! Street!
1959
G. Morrill
Dark Sea Running
88: Don’t be so mother-lovin’ nosy.
1962
J. O. Killens
Then We Heard the Thunder
16: That’s a smooth mother-loving curve you throwing.
1968
J. D. Spooner
Three Cheers for War in General
53: We got ourselves a mother lovin’ home.
1972
N.Y. Times
(Feb. 6) 19: His one indulgence: a St. Bernard weighing 260 mother-lovin’ pounds.
1975
Atlantic
(May) 43: I’m the Paul mother-lovin Bunyan of the Interstate system.
1983
W. Prochnau
Trinity’s Child
154: He switched to the intercom and radioed downstairs: “Keep your mother-lovin’ eyes peeled down there.”
1991
Creem
(Apr.–May) 108/1: Some mother-loving hi-fi crankatron that will make strong men weak with envy.
2000
New York Magazine
(Dec. 18) 18: Has John Simon gone off the mother-loving deep end? Making theatergoing plans based on his reviews has always been akin to asking your crazy uncle Abe for hygiene tips, but Simon has outdone himself in his review of
Comic Potential
.
2003
T. Carson
Gilligan’s Wake
74: At ease, down boy, and hello sailor, which oughta cover pretty much every mother-lovin’ one of you.