mofo

[Douglas G. Wilson]

I used to hear something like "muh-fuh" for "motherf*cker" or
"motherf*cking" routinely at school around 1961. It wasn't QUITE /mVfV/,
maybe more like /mV at fV/ with just a trace of the second syllable of
"mother" remaining but with both the "th" sound (which was sometimes "d"
when fully pronounced) and the "k" sound entirely elided (except for maybe
a ghost of a glottal stop at the end). It may be that the young fellows
were putting on an exaggerated pronunciation as Wilson Gray suggests, but I
did not perceive it that way at the time, and it could not have been
euphemistic (but could have been a "tough guy" or "cool guy" affectation
maybe). I don't think I've heard this lately.

-- Doug Wilson