Earliest Version of "Motherf*cker / Motherf*cking"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Fred's "mammy-" version connects up with 20th C. BVE exx. of
"mammy-jamming."

JL

On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 10:31 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Despite Thomas Lowry's later scholarly misdeed, I see no serious reason to
> discount the "1865-66" ex. of "motherf*cking" that I posted on Dec. 3,
> 2009.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 10:00 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Earliest Version of "Motherf*cker / Motherf*cking"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> (I use * in this message to try to avoid its being blocked by people's
>> e-ma=
>> il systems.)
>>
>> The earliest version of "motherf*cker" or "motherf*cking" in OED is from
>> an=
>>  1889 Texas judicial opinion, contributed by me (if you look at my
>> Wikipedi=
>> a biography, you would think this kind of thing is the main focus of my
>> res=
>> earches).  I have now found an earlier citation, again from those
>> colorful =
>> late-19th-century Texas courts:
>>
>> 1888 _Texas Court of Appeals Reports_ 25: 426 ff. (Lexis)  J. H. Battle
>> tes=
>> tified, for the State, that a very short while before the killing of
>> Crisma=
>> n, Herbert Matthewson opened a conversation with Crisman about the shot
>> tha=
>> t was understood to have been fired at Crisman a few nights before.
>> Matthew=
>> son soon left, and witness took a seat on the bench at the edge of the
>> side=
>> walk in front of Crisman's store. Crisman stepped to the edge of the
>> sidewa=
>> lk and placed his foot on the bench and entered into a conversation with
>> wi=
>> tness. Within a few minutes Taylor Ridge came along and asked Crisman to
>> sh=
>> ow him how near the would be assassin of a few nights before came to
>> "getti=
>> ng his meat." Crisman replied that he did not then have on the coat
>> through=
>>  which the bullet passed. Crisman then remarked that the man who fired
>> that=
>>  shot at him was a cowardly son of a bitch and would not dare to face
>> him. =
>> Ridge passed on up the street, and Crisman again remarked that whoever
>> fire=
>> d that shot at him was a "mammy f -- g son of a bitch."
>>
>> I will look the case up in the printed book and post a more precise
>> citatio=
>> n.
>>
>> Fred Shapiro
>> Editor
>> YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS (Yale University Press)
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
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