mofo

[Page Stephens]

I may have put this up earlier but it involves a story from a friend of mine
who one time was driving up a street near where I lived and saw something
written on the wall of a store which read "(girl's name forgotten) is a
hoe."

It took him all the way driving back home to realize that the word hoe did
not refer to an agricultural implement.

In other words spelling is not one of the strong points of graffiti artists.

Page Stephens

----- Original Message -----
From: "Wilson Gray" <wilson.gray at RCN.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 2:04 AM
Subject: Re: mofo


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM>
> Subject:      Re: mofo
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Mar 25, 2005, at 12:26 AM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: mofo
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> --------
>>
>> 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
>>
>
> Doug, my friend, when I said that ''muhfuh" was pseudo-euphemistic
> pronunciation, I had in mind only my personal experience amongst that
> vanishingly-small portion of the colored population with whom I am or
> have been personally acquainted. Among them, it definitely is the case
> that any pronunciation other than "muthuhfuckuh" or "motherfucker"
> really is considered a pseudo-euphemism. That is to say, though the
> speaker hasn't actually said "motherfucker," hearers are fully aware
> that that's what he means. You wouldn't use this when talking to your
> parents, but you might use it with your wife or your girlfriend,
> perhaps saying "Pardon my French" or some such thing. And, of course,
> there's the age gap. By 1961, I had already spent several years in the
> Army. Furthermore, any two consecutive syllables or even two
> consecutive words, one beginning with "m" followed by one beginning
> with "f" can be interpreted as a coded form of "motherfucker." An
> example of this kind of coded form is the phrase, "my friend." ;-)
>
> -Wilson Gray