Motherfucker

Motherfucker (sometimes abbreviated as mofo, mf, or mf'er) is an English-language vulgarism. While it is usually considered highly offensive, it is rarely used in the literal sense of one who engages in sexual activity with another person's mother, or his or her own mother. Rather, it refers to a mean, despicable, or vicious person, or any particularly difficult or frustrating situation. Alternatively, it can be a term of admiration, for instance in the jazz community.

Like many widely used offensive terms, motherfucker has a large list of minced oaths. Motherhumper, motherfugger, mother f'er, mothersucker, mothertrucker, motherlover, mofo, fothermucker, motherflower, motherkisser and many more are sometimes used in polite company or to avoid censorship. The participle motherfucking is often used as an emphatic, in the same way as the less strong fucking. The verb to motherfuck also exists, although it is less common. Conversely, when paired with an adjective, it can become a term denoting such things as originality and masculinity, as in the related phrase "bad ass mother fucker". Use of the term as a compliment is frequent in the jazz community, for example when Miles Davis addressed his future percussionist Mino Cinelu: "Miles...grabbed his arm and said, 'You're a motherfucker.' Cinelu thanked Miles for the compliment."

The word dates back at least to the late 19th century, with a Texas court in 1889 recording a defendant being called a "God damned mother-fucking, bastardly son-of-a-bitch" and in 1917 a black U.S. soldier called his draft board "You low-down Mother Fuckers..." in a letter.

In literature, Norman Mailer, in his 1948 novel The Naked and the Dead uses it occasionally, disguised as motherfugger, and used it in full in his 1967 novel Why Are We in Vietnam?. In Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five the word is used by one of the soldiers in the story – leading to the novel being often challenged in libraries and schools. Vonnegut joked in a speech, published in the collection Fates Worse Than Death, that "Ever since that word was published, way back in 1969, children have been attempting to have intercourse with their mothers. When it will stop no one knows."

...
Wikipedia