Talk:Motherfucker

Origins of motherfucker

The term "mother fucker" refers to a man who has sex with someone else's mother, specifically with a woman in some kind of tight spot (e.g., economically) who agrees to sex with that man only out of desperation. The woman doesn't really want to sleep with this man, and she isn't a prostitute in the professional sense, but this man presents an alternative to watching her children go hungry.

The term gained tremendous traction during WWII, originally amongst black American GIs, and was applied literally to American soldiers (black, white, or otherwise) in war-torn Europe who would trade food, money, or anything of value (cigarettes, chocolate, booze) for sex with desperately poor or starving French and German women. Many of these women were home-makers whose husbands had been conscripted away, killed, or imprisoned, leaving the women to support the couple's children alone. Many lacked trade skills, and the war damaged the local economies so badly that they had few, if any, alternatives.

So calling a man a "mother fucker" meant that he was A) taking advantage of poor and downtrodden people with no options, and B) incapable of seducing non-desperate women. Anyone with experience growing up in desperate poverty, or who saw his own parents humiliated by circumstances beyond his control, would probably consider that kind of behavior to be a pretty low thing.

In the last sixty or so years, the term has entered the popular slang as a term of derision ("That Richard Nixon is a real mother fucker, you know?"). More recently, it's been used as an indicator of extraordinary intensity, not necessarily in a derisive sense, but usually still carrying some implications of harshness ("I fell asleep out in my lawn chair, yesterday, and got a mother fucker of a sunburn.") or intimidating awesomeness ("That Shaft, he's one baaaad mother fucker.").

---

The preceding all sounds made up. Where are the citations?

---

It is all made up. The term and the concept date back into antiquity. See Leviticus 18:7 -- "Dude, don't fuck your mom."

Dr Dre invented Motherfuck?

Does anyone buy this? This is incredibly dubious and seems to scream the whole phenomenon of pop-culture co-opting reality. Just because he's the first one to rap it in a song as a verb hardly makes him the first person to use it, particularly when the construction already allows for the because of the adaptability of "fuck". Maybe Dre popularized it, but isn't it even more likely that Dre just picked it up from common usage of people around him? Maybe you can credit him with popularizing it, but I think that whole thing should be removed it doesn't get cites - Dre claiming to have invented it at the very, very least.

Motherfuck is a word of the people until proven otherwise. 68.100.128.43 (talk) 09:31, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

The word motherfucker was used by many people, many times, before Dre was born. Nietzsche 2 (talk) 01:30, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Indeed, Prince uttered that word to his Father in 'Purple Rain', circa 1984. That could well have been the first mainstream-filmed use of the word, although clearly it had been used in stand-up comedy before that. FungasUK (talk) 20:50, 20 February 2011 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.69.237.5 (talk)

Famous use in films

If Carlin's use of motherfucker is relevant enough to include in the article, why are "Yipee kay ay motherfucker!" from the Die Hard tetralogy and "...motherfucking snakes on a motherfucking plane" from Snakes on a Plane not relevant enough to be included? Nietzsche 2 (talk) 01:35, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

While you bring up a good point, Die Hard and Samuel Jackson films don't cause Supreme Court cases. backstabb 23:09, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

Indeed, there are numerous films in which the term was used. Why bother with a list of them? Surv1v4l1st ^{(Talk|Contribs)} 21:23, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Common

Motherfucker (sometimes spelled muthafucka or mutherfucker) is a common[citation needed] insult <- [leaving the house needed] @ whoever added that [citation] tag

Origin in American Slavery

This word originates from American slavery, and does not reference incest. It originally described a slave owner who raped his female slaves.

Drb9s (talk) 03:50, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

This term did not originate in WWII.. this term originated during the slavery era in the US

I have no idea who came up with the WWII origin, but I took an African history class, and I distinctly remember the textbook and the teacher saying this term originated during the slavery era in Unitedstater's history. The terms refers to a male, often muscular, that the slave-owners would pick to impregnate the women, so they would have strong offspring, and thus- "good" slaves. There is no nice way of saying it.

Are we posting the truth here, or are we going to gloss over the sadder, more morbid parts of Unitedstater's history?

When I find the textbook, I'll be back.

70.225.180.96 (talk) 05:55, 1 February 2010 (UTC)brainsaber@yahoo.com

Please check this page for conflict of information or sourcing.

Check the Origins Section , it says " its a term for someone who had sex with someones mother"

Now take a look at the section Variants, where it says "Usually"

I would propose this page for deletion since this page totally lacks any encyclopedic merit. But like its counterpart on articles about other swear words, someone is bound to come and clean it up.

The wording on this totally sucks and appears to have some from a site that deals with urbanology of wording. —Preceding unsigned comment added by JasonHockeyGuy (talk • contribs) 07:35, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Article should be flagged for clean up

This article doesn't read well at all. I am doubtful it meets Wikipedia standards. Oceanonwiki (talk) 22:14, 6 February 2010 (UTC)oceanonwiki

bad article

This article is horrible. The origins of the word are unsourced, and I believe wrong. The rest of it is filled with trivial nonsense. It should be deleted, or at least cleaned up.Mk5384 (talk) 10:14, 21 February 2010 (UTC) One more thing; could anyone tell me what was so bad about the edit by Ying Soon Cheong Desmond that it was permanently removed rather than reverted?Mk5384 (talk) 21:26, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

motherfucker

I would like to nominate this article to be partially merged with Fuck

I think we should close this article, and merge the following info into Fuck

"Like many widely used offensive terms, motherfucker has a large list of derivative terms. Motherhumper, motherfugger, mothersucker,motherlover, you motha, mofo, motherflower, and many more are sometimes used in polite company or to avoid censorship.[1] The participlemotherfucking is often used as an emphatic, in the same way as the less strong fucking. The verb to motherfuck has a wide variety of meanings, although it is less common.

Conversely, when paired with an adjective and/or the word "one", it becomes a term denoting such things as originality and masculinity.

Usually the word 'motherfucker' is used in place of an adjective in a sentence, such as: That trig problem was a real motherfucker. In this case, it was used in place of the word 'bitch'. It can sometimes be used in a variant of Fuck you, i.e., Motherfuck you.

Some other examples include:

Why did you touch me, motherfucker? Get in the motherfucking car.

Usually, the word does not mean someone has had sex with another person's mother. Instead it is understood as a swear word, most related to "fuck".""

Article's definition limited?

As I have always understood the word, its offensiveness comes from the assertion that a motherfucker is someone who has sex with his/her own mother. Its implication of incest and the visceral disgust having sex with your own mother arouses is why the term is just so offensive. I was unaware that this wasn't the normal meaning of the term. I can accept its historical origins as outlined in the article, but I think in contemporary use the definition I have given is the common meaning or at least a commonly held understanding of the term - yet this is ignored in the article. 121.73.7.84 (talk) 09:14, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

Find some sources to back up your assertions, and you are perfectly free to add your ideas to the article. 71.77.20.119 (talk) 15:12, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

Words can have different meanings and even different origins in different cultures. The article could even do with a link to Oedipus ! --195.137.93.171 (talk) 12:11, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

Adolf Hitler is a real mot­herfuc­ker, you know?

{{editsemiprotected}} "Adolf Hitler is a real mothe­rfuc­ker, you know?"

Please remove this arbitrary and entirely unnecessary example. --87.78.120.24 (talk) 00:19, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

I removed the entire section, it was unsourced, and I don't think it added anything to the article. If someone wants to restore any of it, please find sources and provide citations for the material to be restored. --Nuujinn (talk) 00:43, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Jesus Christ, you guys have the sense of humour of a potato, don't you? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.137.139.104 (talk) 21:48, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

Bad ass mother fucker

i added a brief mention of this phrase. this is a good place to mention that the acronym for this, bamf, is often used on WP as a type of vandalism, as the letters can look like a title or degree or other formal use, as in "Steve austin, PHD, BAMF". of course, this article needs better sourcing, etc, but i hope my addition will help people who look up BAMF in various forms.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 05:09, 7 March 2011 (UTC)