Origin of the phrase “motherfucker”
The term is used so often these days that we have become desensitised to it. And you’d think that only men would use it or be called that, but women use it too. At times it’s even a compliment like: sexy muthafucka.
Anyway I don’t know why but the word just kept popping into my head today. You know what they say about idle hands being the instruments of the devil? Well, you can add idle minds to that saying. 
So naturally I googled for the true origins of this near ubiquitous phrase and found a fascinating read on Wikipedia. Besides the obvious meaning that one has committed the big taboo of incest, there’s also the theory of it being African-American in nature and the theory goes like this: back in the slavery days, it is very common for slave women to be raped by the slave owners. The children born out of these unions were taught not to call these rapists “father” but, you guessed it – “motherfucker”.
Which may sorta explain why the term is so prevalent in black music and comedy.
We learn something new everyday. 
More at the Wikipedia article and its accompanying discussion.
14 Responses to “Origin of the phrase “motherfucker””
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Really?!! Hmmm…
emiryo: apparently so.
lz
marcus marcus…
hmm…
Interesting. But damn, now all i keep hearing in my head is Prince crooning, “You sexy m*thaf*cker…”
damion: what!?
cherry: there’s also a hard house song a while back that goes, “How you do like this m*thaf*cking BASS!”
hmm…sounds logical….thanks for telling me the origin.. cheers!
I’ve heard the term is worse than slave owners not wanting their illicit black skinned offspring to call them “father”. Is there any truth to the notion that some slave owners forced large black sons to have sex with their mothers in order to create even larger inbred slaves? Everything awful happens at least once of course but I’ve been told this was a widespread practice.
I was told the term came from slave masters forcing male slaves to have sex with their mothers in front of the quarters as a punishment, and then the slave master would call the slave a motherfucker.
I was taught that it’s origin was the simple corruption of the word MALIFACTOR,and it means roughly the same thing.
GGG, 10nx for that, you let me use it freely now =)
“So naturally I googled for the true origins of this near ubiquitous phrase and found a fascinating read on Wikipedia. Besides the obvious meaning that one has committed the big taboo of incest, there’s also the theory of it being African-American in nature and the theory goes like this: back in the slavery days, it is very common for slave women to be raped by the slave owners. The children born out of these unions were taught not to call these rapists “father” but, you guessed it – “motherfucker”.”
I know bullshit when I smell it.
It’s easier to believe the theory that slaves had been forced to commit incest and then EVERYONE stigmatizing them, including other slaves. I can imagine the term gaining momentum AFTER liberation and where black folks had more freedom including freer speach. There is NO WAY that kids were taught that term. There would have been great fear of that getting to the masters and of great retribution for it. I agree that explanation is absolute B.S.
Here is another therory from the days of slavery. Often when male slaves were sold as children they could they could end up returning to the same plantation as adults and forced to breed with (unbeknownst to either party) their own mother.
A more likely reason might be that slaves observed their masters having sex with their own mothers and daugthers. Witness the southern white gene pool. Crime stats of incest per capita are a mirror of the red state voting block. I always felt that Tea Party meetings looked like a casting call for Delivence 2.