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

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Here is the phrase "fuck your mother" without censorship used as an
insult in a transcript from a 1922 court case. The phrase is in
English, but it is a translation.

Court of Appeals of the State of New York
Jennie Trachtenberg against Bessie Trachtenberg and Max Trachtenberg
Case on Appeal
Court Date: February 6, 1922
Quote Page 48

https://www.google.com/books/edition/New_York_Court_of_Appeals_Records_and_Br/bowPM9yMofwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=fuck

[Begin excerpt]
By Mr Dickstein
Q. What did you understand it to be?
A. It is an insultment of a woman to use such a words. I could not
explain it in English. There is no such word in English. (Translated
by the interpreter.) "Fuck your mother."
[End excerpt]


On Tue, Apr 21, 2026 at 3:03 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Jesse Sheidlower also has this pertinent entry in "The F Word" (2024)
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> your mother! Especially Juvenile. (used as a derisive retort). [It is
> widely perceived that the phrase abbreviates go fuck your mother and
> is therefore especially provoking; it is also reminiscent of the
> “dozens,” a game of ritually exchanging insults.]
>
> [1891 in J. F. Dobie Rainbow in the Morning (1965) 172: Talk about one
> thing, talk about another; / But ef you talk about me, I’m gwain to
> talk about your mother.]
>
> [1929 E. Hemingway Letter (June 7) in Selected Letters (1981) 298: In
> a purely conversational way in a latin language in an argument one man
> says to another “Cogar su madre!”]
>
> 1937 C. Odets Golden Boy 243: [On telephone:] I’ll bring him right
> over … you can take my word—the kid’s a cock-eyed wonder … your mother
> too!
> [End excerpt]
>
> On Tue, Apr 21, 2026 at 2:50 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> >

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