# Origins of "word to your mother" and "like ass" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 30, 2015, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-word-to-your-mother-and-like-ass/711313 "2015-01-30T05:52:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cardboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Cardboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardboard)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-word-to-your-mother-and-like-ass/711313/1 "2015-01-30T05:52:08Z")
I’m looking for information on the origin of two phrases. Did “word to your mother” start with Vanilla Ice, or was it around before then? And When did people start using the term “like ass” to describe things? Like “It tastes like ass” and “it smells like ass.” Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![CGav8r](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@CGav8r](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CGav8r)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-word-to-your-mother-and-like-ass/711313/2 "2015-01-30T13:46:25Z")
First time I heard “like ass”, was in the Spring of 1994-I remember someone saying it and laughing pretty hard. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-word-to-your-mother-and-like-ass/711313/3 "2015-01-30T14:55:14Z")
> [@CGav8r](#): > > First time I heard “like ass”, was in the Spring of 1994-I remember someone saying it and laughing pretty hard. Yep… I first heard it sometime toward the end of college or immediately afterward, which puts it in the 1994-1996 time frame. It didn’t really hit it big until about 5-7 years later (around 2000) though. IIRC “word to your mother” was some kind of phrase related to the late-80s/early-90s resurgence of black music and culture, and primarily spoken by black people. Vanilla Ice using it was just more proof of what a tool he was. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-word-to-your-mother-and-like-ass/711313/4 "2015-01-30T16:43:47Z")
I first heard “like ass” about four or five years ago, but I’m old and may be behind on these kinds of things. I have no idea what “word to your mother” is - never heard that one. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-word-to-your-mother-and-like-ass/711313/5 "2015-01-30T18:09:35Z")
From Urban Dictionary: > [@](#): > > An anachronistic corruption of the phrase “word to the mother”, which was a popular reference to Africa or “The Motherland” during the late 1980s Afrocentric movement. While the replacement of “the” with “your” effectively obliterated the term’s Afrocentric roots, it continued to be used in the same manner, that is, to express agreement. Alternatively, the “your” could take on sinister connotations, implying that speaker was sexually intimate with the listener’s mother, as in “say hi to your mom for me”, or, in keeping with the whack terminology, “props to your mom, she’s da bomb”. Finally, the phrase might mean nothing at all, and be used to ineptly feign street cred, in the style of Vanilla Ice. I’ll buy that. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-word-to-your-mother-and-like-ass/711313/6 "2015-01-31T04:14:02Z")
Cartman (of _South Park_) said that the city of San José, Costa Rica “Smells like ass” in the [early episode “Rainforest Shmainforest”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainforest_Shmainforest) in 1998. First time I remember hearing it… ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-word-to-your-mother-and-like-ass/711313/7 "2015-01-31T22:49:33Z")
I heard someone use the expression “like ass” in the summer of 1992.