motherfucker

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Motherfucker is considered an offense and used as an insult in North American English and in other varieties of the English language. It is considered by many to be offensive and inappropriate. It has been suggested that the term was once used in a more literal sense, insinuating that a person has had sex with one's mother,^[1] but there is no evidence of this.^{[citation needed]} The first attested sense (from 1918) is "An obnoxious, despicable, or contemptible person; a very unpleasant person"^[2]; a moron, an idiot or backstabber.^[3][4] A study published in 2000 found that British people consider it second only to "cunt" in severity.^[4]

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.^[5] He later added it back, claiming that the bit's rhythm doesn't work without it.^[5]

Jim Dawson's comprehensive book on the subject, The Compleat Motherfucker: A History of the Mother of All Dirty Words, was published by Feral House in 2009.

Variants

Samuel L. Jackson (right) is known for using the phrase.

Like many well-used and widely-offensive terms, motherfucker has a large list of derivative terms. Motherhumper, motherfugger, mothersucker, motherlover, motherflower, motherfocus, and many more are sometimes used in polite company or to avoid censorship.^[1] The participle, motherfucking 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", such as "badass" or "slick", Motherfucker becomes more of a term of originality and masculinity. Examples include, One Badass Motherfucker, "You are one crazy Motherfucker" or "That Clint Eastwood is a hardcore Motherfucker" or "That Clint Eastwood is one bitchass motherfucker, I would fuck him up."

Literature

• The Compleat Motherfucker: A History of the Mother of All Dirty Words by Jim Dawson (Feral House, 2009; IBSN 781932 595413) is a history of the word in black culture and in American literature, film, comedy and music.

See also

• Fuck
• MILF (slang)
• Samuel L. Jackson

References