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

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The OED has pertinent citations for "dozens" starting in 1911. The
1914 citation below mentions "disgusted with the burlesquing of our
good women". Hence, references to mothers may have occurred at that
time.

[Begin OED excerpt]
dozens noun
U.S. slang (originally and chiefly in African American usage).
Chiefly with the. A verbal contest or game in which two people
exchange insults, typically about each other's intelligence,
appearance, or family members (esp. their mothers). Cf. joning n.
Recorded earliest in to put (slip, etc.) (a person) in the dozens at
Phrases P.2. Also frequently in to play the dozens at Phrases P.1.
Also occasionally in singular form dozen, mainly in phrases (cf. Phrases P.2).
[End OED excerpt]

[Begin OED excerpt]
P.1. to play the dozens: to engage in a verbal contest or game in
which two people exchange insults, typically about each other's
intelligence, appearance, or family members (esp. their mothers). Cf.
signify v. 6, sound v.1 I.3d.

1914 We are tired of hearing a performer 'Play the Dozens'. We are
disgusted with the burlesquing of our good women.
Freeman (Indianapolis) 21 November 6/3
[End OED excerpt]

[Begin OED excerpt]
P.2. to put (slip, etc.) (a person) in the dozens and variants: to
engage (a person) in a verbal contest or game in which insults are
exchanged, esp. by making offensive remarks or rude jokes about the
person's intelligence, appearance, or family members (esp. their
mother). Also: to subject (a person) to verbal abuse.

1911 A couple of negro boys were arrested yesterday afternoon by
Officer Skeens and carried before Sergeant Pearce for ‘scrapping’...
The boys got into their trouble through the passing of insults to one
another, and one said that the other ‘slipped him one in the dozens'.
Greensboro (North Carolina) Daily News 6 December 5/3
[End OED excerpt]

On Wed, Mar 18, 2026 at 7:46 PM Shapiro, Fred
<00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> The "your mama" formula of "dozen game" insults is used in Richard Wright's short story "Big Boy Leaves Home," published in 1936 in the anthology The New Caravan.  The relevant line in Wright's story is "Yo mama don wear no drawers."
>
> According to Elijah Wald's book The Dozens: A History of Rap's Mama, the line "Your mama's out on the street doin' I don't know which" occurs in a song by Speckled Red titled "The Dirty Dozen No. 2."  Wald cites this to Brunswick 7151, 1930.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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