Motherfucker

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Motherfucker (also existing in contracted forms e.g. mofo, mudafucka, ma fucker, or shortened to just "mother") is a common insult and profanity in American English and in other varieties of the English language. The term, widely viewed as an obscenity, enjoys a widespread usage through varying connotations[citation needed].

It can be used (Each of the following are quotes from various films):

  • As an explicit profanity: "Yippie Kai Yay mother fucker"
  • As a noun: "You one crazy motherfucker!"
  • As an insult: "Cheese it!, Fuckin' motherfucker!"
  • As an adjective of dislike: "I've had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!"
  • As a synonym of 'very': "I am motherfucking happy right now!"
  • As a verb: In the Dr. Dre song featuring Eminem, "Forgot About Dre", the lyric runs as follows: "Who you think brought you the oldies/ Eazy Es, Ice Cubes, and D.O.C.s/ The Snoop D-O-double-Gs / and the group that said motherfuck the police?"


In the 1960s and 1970s, the initials M.F. became a common, less explicit substitute for the term[citation needed].

It is also another way to say bitch, meaning a "difficult situation". For example: "This physics problem is a real motherfucker."

On the other hand, common is the usage "(positive or negative adjective) as a motherfucker," but not "(adjective) as a bitch."[citation needed] This adjective can be positive or negative, e.g., "broke/rich as a motherfucker," but is usually adverse, "It's cold as a motherfucker out there."

Despite these use variations, the word's literal meaning is a pejorative: denoting that the subject engages in sexual intercourse with his or her mother. Because of this, it is most commonly used as a personal insult. Its literal meaning has diminished, however, and the word is commonly used as a general insult to describe a person with poor character rather than a true accusation of incest.

Many consider "Motherfucker" to be one of the most offensive profanities in the English language. A study published in 2000 found that British people consider it second only to "cunt" in severity[1].

[edit] Origins

The literal meaning of this word is "one who engages in sexual intercourse with his mother", accusing him of committing an act of incest. It could also mean "one who engages in sexual intercourse with someone else's mother, a friend's mother, or a girlfriend's mother". It can be used as a taunt or crude insult, as in sleeping with another person's mother. It can also be used to call someone a mama's boy. Since the meaning is so offensive, this word is mostly used during crude arguments.

Douglas Botting claims[2] the term originated among black GIs in occupied Germany, referring to someone sleeping with a German war widow; i.e., getting sex he didn't deserve so she could feed her children.

[edit] Use in popular culture

The term is frequently used in pop culture, appearing over 200 times each in the films Menace II Society, GoodFellas, and Pulp Fiction.[citation needed] It was also used as an abbreviation of "Mattitude Follower" by professional wrestler Matt Hardy during his V1 gimmick with Shannon Moore.

The term has been used in the Portuguese show O Homem que Mordeu o Cão, where it's applied to a character (one of the first roles played by the famous comedian Ricardo Araújo Pereira) named Bad Boy MC Crazy Motherfucker, a black man who is beaten up by the people in his neighborhood for being a sissy. That character's original name is Cláudio Miguel, but he says that the people kicked him when he introduced himself, so he changed it to Bad Boy MC Crazy Motherfucker ("Bad Boy so that people don't mess with me; MC, the letters popped into my head; and Crazy Motherfucker because it sounds nice.")

The word appears in George Carlin's Seven Words You Can't Say On Television. In one HBO special, he comments that at one point, someone asked him to remove it, since, as a derivative of the word "fuck," it constituted a duplication[3]. He has since added it back, claiming that the bit's rhythm doesn't work without it[3].

[edit] Other uses

There is a cocktail named "Adios Motherfucker".

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hargrave, Andrea Millwood (2000). Delete Expletives? London: Advertising Standards Authority, British Broadcasting Corporation, Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission.
  2. ^ in: From the Ruins of the Reich (1985, Meridien, p. 146)
  3. ^ a b Carlin, George. On Location: George Carlin at Phoenix [DVD]. HBO Home Video.
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