wrap this mother up
Anatoly Vorobey
by Queen Latifah, says this just as she's about to lead into the
last part of the final dance: "It's time to wrap this mother up!"
I see this use of 'mother' occasionally, and I don't think I have
a good handle on it. The only meaning listed in the OED (or the
Merriam-Webster) that seems to fit is "Ellipt. for mother-fucker.
U.S. slang". I can see where this works in a phrase like
"You're one bad mother". But in the quote above, it doesn't even
refer to a person. And the movie is quite mild throughout; using
a thinly disguised "motherfucker" seems out of place.
I guess my question is: when you read the sentence above or hear it
in the movie, do you understand "mother" as clearly standing in for
"motherfucker"? Or do you think it's a different sense, and in that
case how would you define it?
"Mother" or "this mother" are hopeless to search for, but googling
"this mother up" brings up many examples of the same kind
of usage: "crank/tear/kick this mother up", referring to things
like volume, parties, computers and just about anything else. Does
"mother" also stand clearly for "motherfucker" in these examples, too?
Thanks in advance,
Anatoly.
annily
Without seeing the actual movie, I would think that all of these
examples are short for "mother-fucker".
--
Long-time resident of Adelaide, South Australia,
which probably influences my opinions.
Marius Hancu
> In the movie "Hairspray" (2007), the character Maybelle, played
> by Queen Latifah, says this just as she's about to lead into the
> last part of the final dance: "It's time to wrap this mother up!"
Not in this version of the script, it seems:
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/h/hairspray-script-transcript-john-waters.html
It may have been improvised by Queen L:-)
Marius Hancu
Anatoly Vorobey
> On Jul 1, 8:09 pm, Anatoly Vorobey <avoro...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> In the movie "Hairspray" (2007), the character Maybelle, played
>> by Queen Latifah, says this just as she's about to lead into the
>> last part of the final dance: "It's time to wrap this mother up!"
>
> Not in this version of the script, it seems:
> http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/h/hairspray-script-transcript-john-waters.html
Yeah, that does look incomplete. Here's a Youtube link to the final dance
(in terrible video quality), just a few seconds before she says the phrase:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxCi0wUkmrI#t=8m12s
Anatoly
Evan Kirshenbaum
Yeah, especially in "this/that mother [up/down]" it's pretty clearly
short for "motherfucker" and can be applied to pretty much anything,
but it has non of the force of the full phrase, at least when not
applied to people.
I would have thought it was older than that, but the earliest I can
uncover is "Burn that mother down" from the song "Disco Inferno" (by
the Trammps) from the 1976 movie _Saturday Night Fever_. (The OED has
it as short for "motherfucker" going back to 1955, but all of the
quotations before 1987 (possibly 1973) refer to people.)
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |Sometimes I think the surest sign
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |that intelligent life exists
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(650)857-7572
Frank ess
I lived in a semi-rural setting in the late 1940s-early 1950s. A
family down the street a hundred yards had an eldest son named Raúl.
He was about 18, and very much the macho kid in the house. His friends
would come to pick him up and would shout as they arrived:
"Rah-OOOOLLL you muthah", which was his signal to come out and join
them, and was not interperable an any way other than " ...
muthahfuckah".
Had to be 1951 or 1952. I had a big crush on one of his two sisters,
younger by one and two years, and a year and two older than I was. It
was the other sister who liked me, so nothing happened.
--
Frank ess
Steve Hayes
wrote:
>"Mother" or "this mother" are hopeless to search for, but googling
>"this mother up" brings up many examples of the same kind
>of usage: "crank/tear/kick this mother up", referring to things
>like volume, parties, computers and just about anything else. Does
>"mother" also stand clearly for "motherfucker" in these examples, too?
Some Americans seem to say "puppy" in similar circumstances. Perhaps it is the
mother of the puppy and therefore a bitch.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
Peter Brooks
>
> "motherfucker"?
>
I've always thought that 'motherfucker' is a most peculiar insult as
it is usually a synonym for 'father'.
To refer to incest, it should be own-mother-fucker or similar.
Some people simply don't think out their insults properly.
John O'Flaherty
<avor...@gmail.com> wrote:
It comes from "motherfucker", but in current use it has none of the
force of that word. It's about as mild as saying that someone "sucks"
- the original meaning isn't evoked.
--
John
Evan Kirshenbaum
> Evan Kirshenbaum wrote:
>> I would have thought it was older than that, but the earliest I can
>> uncover is "Burn that mother down" from the song "Disco Inferno" (by
>> the Trammps) from the 1976 movie _Saturday Night Fever_. (The OED
>> has it as short for "motherfucker" going back to 1955, but all of
>> the quotations before 1987 (possibly 1973) refer to people.)
>
> I lived in a semi-rural setting in the late 1940s-early 1950s. A
> family down the street a hundred yards had an eldest son named
> Raúl. He was about 18, and very much the macho kid in the house. His
> friends would come to pick him up and would shout as they arrived:
> "Rah-OOOOLLL you muthah", which was his signal to come out and join
> them, and was not interperable an any way other than "
> ... muthahfuckah".
>
> Had to be 1951 or 1952. I had a big crush on one of his two sisters,
> younger by one and two years, and a year and two older than I was. It
> was the other sister who liked me, so nothing happened.
Yeah, but that's using it to refer to a person, which the OED cites to
1955 (and I'm sure is even older than 1951). It's the use referring
to an inanimate object that seems to be more recent.
I hadn't thought to look for other spellings, though. As "muthah", I
can push it back a couple of years to 1974:
Watch for this new LP "For Sweet People From Sweet Charles" It's
a Mutha!!
ad, _Jet, 8/1/1974
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |The reason that we don't have
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |"bear-proof" garbage cans in the
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |park is that there is a significant
|overlap in intelligence between the
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| Yosemite Park Ranger
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/
Evan Kirshenbaum
> On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:09:52 -0500, Anatoly Vorobey <avor...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>"Mother" or "this mother" are hopeless to search for, but googling
>>"this mother up" brings up many examples of the same kind
>>of usage: "crank/tear/kick this mother up", referring to things
>>like volume, parties, computers and just about anything else. Does
>>"mother" also stand clearly for "motherfucker" in these examples, too?
>
>
> Some Americans seem to say "puppy" in similar circumstances. Perhaps
> it is the mother of the puppy and therefore a bitch.
I think it goes the other way. It's mother is a bitch, so that it
therefore is a son of a bitch, another phrase that can be used
generically (and in a non-deprecating way) to refer to an inanimate
object. There seem to be a number of these:
mother
motherfucker
fucker
son of a bitch
puppy
bad boy
sucker
baby
(Of course, while "fucker" and "motherfucker" aren't necessarily
deprecating used this way, they're still considered unacceptable in a
lot of situations.)
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |Voting in the House of
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |Representatives is done by means of a
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |little plastic card with a magnetic
|strip on the back--like a VISA card,
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(650)857-7572 |*no*, spending limit.
| P.J. O'Rourke
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/
Mark Brader
> I hadn't thought to look for other spellings, though. As "muthah", I
> can push it back a couple of years to 1974:
>
> Watch for this new LP "For Sweet People From Sweet Charles" It's
> a Mutha!!
Come again?
--
Mark Brader And now write us
Toronto A devious quasipoem!
m...@vex.net --Richard Heathfield
Pat Durkin
"Anatoly Vorobey" <avor...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:056dnR7youTNs7DR...@giganews.com...
I think the tendency for people to personify their possessions,
especially men and their machines, but other things as well, means
that affectionate obscenities may be applied to many things.
The cleanest personalization might be "baby". Nowadays on numerous
cooking shows on TV, I hear "bad boy" used to the point of causing me
to turn to another channel. Fad talk is just so tiresome. (On those
shows, the chefs may be referring to a sandwich, a steak, a
salad...anything that is process. M-F would be used in real life, but
the chefs are aware of the power of TV producers and audience
approval.) Another expression that gripes my guts[gets my goat] is
"good to go". Ugh!
Long ago I knew a fellow who censored himself by saying
"motor-scooter" instead of "mother-fucker". Of course, he was from
Texas, and almost always prefixed his expression with
"Mexican"(messicun). In line with Evan's research, this last was a
'50s usage, and referred to people. However, I think the obscenities
equally have referred to machines. Men used to kick cars, dogs,
trees...anything could be personified. The tendency to write them
down in formal or fictional presentation came a bit later in the
Century.
Peter Moylan
A number of insults have this problem. For example, it's offensive to
call someone a cunt, but it's a compliment if you tell the same woman
she has acute angina.
--
Peter Moylan, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. http://www.pmoylan.org
For an e-mail address, see my web page.
Reinhold {Rey} Aman
>
> ... it's offensive to call someone a cunt, but it's a compliment
> if you tell the same woman she has acute angina.
>
--
~~~ Reinhold {Rey} Aman ~~~
Steve Hayes
>I lived in a semi-rural setting in the late 1940s-early 1950s. A
>family down the street a hundred yards had an eldest son named Ra�l.
>He was about 18, and very much the macho kid in the house. His friends
>would come to pick him up and would shout as they arrived:
>"Rah-OOOOLLL you muthah", which was his signal to come out and join
>them, and was not interperable an any way other than " ...
>muthahfuckah".
Ah, that explains it.
I have somethmes seen "muthah" written and wondered what on earth it meant.
It couldn't have been eye dialect because I've never heard anyone pronouncing
mother as "mootha" as in "sooth".
So what is the reason for that particulatr misspelling?
In a comic a read as a child one child yelled "Mothaw!" and likewise, I have
never heard anyone call their mother "moth ore" before.
Marius Hancu
"mother" at p. 1324 of this dictionary:
http://tinyurl.com/24vshag
Marius Hancu
Pat Durkin
"Marius Hancu" <marius...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:52fac794-ed85-4666...@x27g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...
Ah, yes. Seems quite comprehensive, and I see "motor-scooter" is
included. Quite a good source, but I don't notice date ranges for
eras of use.
Thank you.
Evan Kirshenbaum
> On Thu, 1 Jul 2010 21:26:31 -0700, "Frank ess" <fr...@fshe2fs.com> wrote:
>
>
>>I lived in a semi-rural setting in the late 1940s-early 1950s. A
>>family down the street a hundred yards had an eldest son named Ra�l.
>>He was about 18, and very much the macho kid in the house. His
>>friends would come to pick him up and would shout as they arrived:
>>"Rah-OOOOLLL you muthah", which was his signal to come out and join
>>them, and was not interperable an any way other than " ...
>>muthahfuckah".
>
> Ah, that explains it.
>
> I have somethmes seen "muthah" written and wondered what on earth it
> meant.
>
> It couldn't have been eye dialect because I've never heard anyone
> pronouncing mother as "mootha" as in "sooth".
I don't follow. If someone writing eye dialect wanted to convey that
pronunciation, presumably they would have spelled it the way you did.
An American will most likely read the "u" in "muthah" as the one in
"mutt" or "mud" or "muck" or "mug" or "mum".
> So what is the reason for that particulatr misspelling?
It's marking the word (and probably the speaker) as non-rhotic.
Having made the second syllable "ah" (or "a" or "uh"), since it isn't
rhotic "er", the first syllable changes, because "mothah" would likely
be read as having the first syllable like "moth", which would be wrong
(whether you pronounce it with /O/ or /A/).
> In a comic a read as a child one child yelled "Mothaw!" and
> likewise, I have never heard anyone call their mother "moth ore"
> before.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |The General Theorem of Usenet
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |Information: If you really want to
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |know the definitive answer, post
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|wrong you are.
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ | Eric The Read
Steve Hayes
wrote:
>Steve Hayes <haye...@telkomsa.net> writes:
>
>> On Thu, 1 Jul 2010 21:26:31 -0700, "Frank ess" <fr...@fshe2fs.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I lived in a semi-rural setting in the late 1940s-early 1950s. A
>>>family down the street a hundred yards had an eldest son named Raúl.
>>>He was about 18, and very much the macho kid in the house. His
>>>friends would come to pick him up and would shout as they arrived:
>>>"Rah-OOOOLLL you muthah", which was his signal to come out and join
>>>them, and was not interperable an any way other than " ...
>>>muthahfuckah".
>>
>> Ah, that explains it.
>>
>> I have somethmes seen "muthah" written and wondered what on earth it
>> meant.
>>
>> It couldn't have been eye dialect because I've never heard anyone
>> pronouncing mother as "mootha" as in "sooth".
>
>I don't follow. If someone writing eye dialect wanted to convey that
>pronunciation, presumably they would have spelled it the way you did.
>An American will most likely read the "u" in "muthah" as the one in
>"mutt" or "mud" or "muck" or "mug" or "mum".
I have seen "mutha" in print, but never associated it with "mother".
I thought it might be an obscure allusion American politician of that or a
similar name, but I didn't know enough about American politics to see the
connection.
>> So what is the reason for that particulatr misspelling?
>
>It's marking the word (and probably the speaker) as non-rhotic.
>Having made the second syllable "ah" (or "a" or "uh"), since it isn't
>rhotic "er", the first syllable changes, because "mothah" would likely
>be read as having the first syllable like "moth", which would be wrong
>(whether you pronounce it with /O/ or /A/).
>
>> In a comic a read as a child one child yelled "Mothaw!" and
>> likewise, I have never heard anyone call their mother "moth ore"
>> before.
Hmmm.
R H Draney
I never realized that's where the "motor scooter" came from in the song "Alley
Oop"....r
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and cannot be used without express written permission
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Peter Duncanson (BrE)
<marius...@gmail.com> wrote:
>See:
>
>"mother" at p. 1324 of this dictionary:
>http://tinyurl.com/24vshag
>
<smile> That link to "mother-fucker" and other mothers appropriately
includes the character sequence "shag".
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
Anatoly Vorobey
That's... really comprehensive. Thank you!
With many thanks also to all others who answered,
Anatoly.
Pat Durkin
"R H Draney" <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote in message
news:i0mq0...@drn.newsguy.com...
> Pat Durkin filted:
>>
>>
>>"Marius Hancu" <marius...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>news:52fac794-ed85-4666...@x27g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...
>>> See:
>>>
>>> "mother" at p. 1324 of this dictionary:
>>> http://tinyurl.com/24vshag
>>
>>
>>Ah, yes. Seems quite comprehensive, and I see "motor-scooter" is
>>included. Quite a good source, but I don't notice date ranges for
>>eras of use.
>>
>>Thank you.
>
> I never realized that's where the "motor scooter" came from in the
> song "Alley
> Oop"....r
>
>
record didn't know that, either. But I never heard the lyrics well
enough to understand that that was what they were saying.
As I said, (well I didn't mention the '50s, did I?) I heard the usage
from a non-R & B source.
Peter Brooks
wrote:
> Peter Brooks wrote:
> > On Jul 2, 2:09 am, Anatoly Vorobey <avoro...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> "motherfucker"?
>
> > I've always thought that 'motherfucker' is a most peculiar insult as
> > it is usually a synonym for 'father'.
>
> > To refer to incest, it should be own-mother-fucker or similar.
>
> > Some people simply don't think out their insults properly.
>
> A number of insults have this problem. For example, it's offensive to
> call someone a cunt, but it's a compliment if you tell the same woman
> she has acute angina.
>
notes: 'c 1230 in Ekwall Street-Names of City of London (1954) 165
Gropecuntelane.'. I believe that a number of English towns and cities
had similarly apt names for passages which have since been changed. I
don't think that the change in name has simply reflected the change in
use of the thoroughfare, but has been a result of the gentrification
that has involved the tabooing of short, expressive Middle English
words.