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

[Jonathan Lighter]

When I was in junior high ca1960, it was understood that "Your mother!" was
euphemistic for a slightly longer phrase beginning with "Go."

JL

On Tue, Apr 21, 2026 at 7:07 AM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org