'mo = homo

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated Tue, 9 Mar 2004 06:29:23 -0800,  Ed Keer edkeer at YAHOO.COM>
comments:
>
>  I remember using 'mo at least in the early 90s. But it
>  was always used in the phrase 'big 'mo.' This was in
>  Philly, NJ, and NYC.

If I remember correctly, "big mo" was a catch-phrase of G. Herbert Walker
Bush in his unsuccessful race for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980.
 "Mo" (no preceding apostrophe) was short for "momentum", which, as it turned
out, GHWB did not have.

IN the very early 1980's I saw a movie on TV about a female tennis star whose
nickname was "Little Mo".  My recollection is that "Little Mo" was derived
from "Mighty Mo", the nickname for the battleship USS Missouri (launched in 1942
or 1943).

      - James A. Landau