[Ads-l] Insult: Your mother wears army boots (Your mother, Yo momma)

[Jonathan Lighter]

When I was in seventh grade at a boys' private school in NYC, the most
common insults were "spazz," "retard,' and "motherfucker."

Less common but not at all rare were ad-hoc "your mother!" flings. Typical:

A: Today's Friday. I'll watch _TheTwilight Zone_ tonight.

B: Yaw *mutha* watches The Twilight Zone_!

A: Fuck you, retard!

B:  Hah hah hah hah hah hah hah !

"Yuh mutha!" was also used alone to mean "Quite the contrary!" or "Drop
dead!"

The appropriate pronunciation was always "Yuh mutha!"  That seemed to
differentiate it from anybody's actual mother, which was pronounced
normally, i.e., as more or less rhotic.

Hardly anyone took offense at any of this. Well, not more than once.

JL

On Tue, Mar 24, 2026 at 8:32 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <
00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >  As I heard it ca1962, it was "combat boots."
>
> I also heard "Your mother wears combat boots" in the late 1960s.
> That's why I decided to post about it. I heard the phrase "Yo Momma"
> as a comical pseudo-insult in the 1980s.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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