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

[Jonathan Lighter]

HDAS 1 has further info. Garson's antedatings are valuable.

BTW, several pre-1920 exx. of "son of a bitch" are in contexts where the
recipient, before getting violent, says something like, "You can't talk
about my mother like that!"

JL

On Tue, Apr 21, 2026 at 3:34 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

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


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