adjective "Christian"

[Wilson Gray]

On May 19, 2005, at 4:32 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: adjective "Christian"
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>
> On Thu, 19 May 2005 00:52:15 -0500, Rex W. Stocklin
> <stocklin at EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
>
>> At 4:48 AM -0700 5/17/05, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>
>>> What's "bofos" ?  The Firesign Theatre LP was "I Think We're All
>>> BOZOS on This Bus" (1971).
>>
>> buttfuckers, a play on the Firesigner's most choice work.
>>
>> I have  no etymology, but we used to use it WAY back as early as
>> 1974, when I was a frosh at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Also
>> there's this:
>>
>> <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bofo&r=f>
>
> Hmm... the similar "bufu" dates to 1982 (in HDAS, also Jesse
> Sheidlower's
> "Revising _The F-Word_" <http://www.verbatimmag.com/f_word.pdf>).
> "Bofo"
> would seem to be influenced by "mofo", recently discussed here.  So was
> "bofo" pronounced like "buh-fuh" at Rose-Hulman, by any chance?  (I'm
> guessing not, since the play on "bozo(s)" wouldn't work in that case.)
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>

FWIW, my friend didn't and doesn't know the term, "mofo." I know it, of
course, but it's always struck me as too lame to be used, either "in
olden days," as we used to say, back in the day, or nowadays, when even
pre-teen girls are familiar with and know how to use, e.g. the porn
term, MILF. However, I have been heard to use "muh-fukkuh" as a
facetious euphemism, upon occasion.

-Wilson