[Ads-l] More on "Your Mother" (Not in OED)

[Shapiro, Fred]

Of course, in later usage "your mother" often takes the variant form "yo' mama."

Fred Shapiro


________________________________
From: Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2026 7:06 AM
To: American Dialect Society <ads-l at listserv.uga.edu>
Subject: "Your Mother" (Not in OED)

The phrase "your mother" is a key component of the "dozens game" that is so important in African American culture.  Elijah Wald, who has written a marvelous book titled "The Dozens," has found "your mother" in a 1902 New Orleans newspaper.  This newspaper item does not use the term "dozen," but it is by a long shot the earliest evidence related to the dozens game.  (The earliest known citation for the term "dozen" was found by me from a 1910 newspaper.)  Ben Yagoda has brought Wald's discovery to the attention of this list.  I am sending the 1902 citation to the OED and the Oxford Dictionary of African American English for them to consider including in their respective dictionaries.

your mother (Not in OED)

1902 Times-Democrat (New Orleans) 23 June 2 (Newspapers.com)  About 2 o'clock this morning George Hall was stabbed in the lower part of the abdomen and very seriously wounded by Baptiste Cherrie.  The assault was committed in Theo Lalas' negro barroom at the corner of Franklin and Custom-house streets.  Hall was talking to a woman when Cherrie entered.  Hall made some remark, to which Cherrie replied: "What did you say."  "I said your mother," rejoined Hall.  Cherrie immediately drew his knife and stabbed Hall.

Fred Shapiro



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