# Mooning origins

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mooning-origins/227492>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 4, 2004, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mooning-origins/227492 "2004-02-04T15:18:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Martiju](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martiju)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mooning-origins/227492/1 "2004-02-04T15:18:26Z")

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This one has been bugging us at work for some time now. When and how did mooning start?

It seems that mooning can be done as an insult (recent reports of Aussies mooning a train full of dignitaries for example) or just as a prank (such as this safe site: [http://www.dirzilla.com/amtrak/amtrak-moon.html](http://www.dirzilla.com/amtrak/amtrak-moon.html)).

I can assume that showing the rear end would be even a medieval insult but I can’t find anything that even suggests an origin. Any ideas?

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mooning-origins/227492/2 "2004-02-05T04:13:56Z")

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I asked over at the American Dialect Society just now, and Jesse Sheidlower, for the Oxford English Dictionary(and a pretty smart guy) said that we only have record of it back to the 1960’s so far.

While I also feel that it SHOULD go back farther, so far no one has found evidence. But, have faith. I’ve been scooped by SDMB members on numerous occasions.

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**Author:** ![boofy\_bloke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@boofy\_bloke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boofy_bloke)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mooning-origins/227492/3 "2004-02-05T08:06:49Z")

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The NZ Maori have been mooning as an insult for hundreds of years.

It’s just a visual “Kiss my arse”.(remember Satan and his witches?).

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**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mooning-origins/227492/4 "2004-02-05T08:51:11Z")

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> [@Martiju](#):
>
> … or just as a prank (such as this safe site: [http://www.dirzilla.com/amtrak/amtrak-moon.html](http://www.dirzilla.com/amtrak/amtrak-moon.html)).

Sorry, but I see no prank there, just some seedy fly-by-night search engine trying to spam google.

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**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mooning-origins/227492/5 "2004-02-05T10:52:07Z")

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> [@boofy\_bloke](#):
>
> (remember Satan and his witches?).

No? What’s that about?

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**Author:** ![Martiju](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martiju)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mooning-origins/227492/6 "2004-02-05T14:03:32Z")

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> [@Eleusis](#):
>
> Sorry, but I see no prank there, just some seedy fly-by-night search engine trying to spam google.

My mistake sorry - this is the link I thought I was posting: [http://www.moonamtrak.org/](http://www.moonamtrak.org/)

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**Author:** ![Martiju](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martiju)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mooning-origins/227492/7 "2004-02-05T14:04:57Z")

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> [@boofy\_bloke](#):
>
> The NZ Maori have been mooning as an insult for hundreds of years.
> 
> It’s just a visual “Kiss my arse”.(remember Satan and his witches?).

Well that’s what I kind of assumed, but then you’d think it would be recorded way back in history…I was hoping that there’d be a reference in Pepys’ diaries or equivalent.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mooning-origins/227492/8 "2004-02-06T04:28:32Z")

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Of course, The Miller’s Tale, in Chaucer, has this arse hanging out the window…