# POLL: Does the term "MoFo" mean anything to you?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 28, 2002, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994 "2002-08-28T21:43:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@scotth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotth)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2002, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/1 "2002-08-28T21:43:40Z")
While attending a conference, one of the speakers was from a legal firm by the name of Morrison & Foerster LLP.
This is a large international legal firm appearently.
All of their handout, slides, cards, etc brand the firm as “MoFo”. In fact, their webite is [www.mofo.com](http://www.mofo.com) .
They honestly appear to be oblivious to the fact that at least some people would consider that an **extremely** poor marketing decision.
So, I was wondering if maybe I am in a small minority of poeple that this has a meaning for this term already in my head. I have a hard time believing this is true though. I suspect that at least 50% of the American population under 40 years old would get this alternate connotation.
I can just imagine going into court and being asked who was representing me and saying, “Its this mofo attorney right here…”
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### Author:  [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2002, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/2 "2002-08-28T21:47:30Z")
Heh. Yes, it means something to me. I would expect [mofo.com](http://mofo.com) to be a porn site.
My sister was initially going to call her company STD Resources (or some such). I pointed out to her why STD was not a good choice.
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### Author:  [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2002, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/3 "2002-08-28T21:47:52Z")
I don’t know, it could be considered a selling point. “Our lawyers are real mofos!”
Truth in advertising, anyway.😉
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### Author:  [@scotth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotth)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2002, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/4 "2002-08-28T21:54:42Z")
Anybody not know what it means?
Any of those under 40 and live in the U.S.?
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### Author:  [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2002, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/5 "2002-08-28T22:12:35Z")
of **course** it means something to me. It was a fond nickname given to me by the ladies who lived in the correction center that I ran back in the day. They assured me it was short for “Most Fond”
😃
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### Author:  [@scotth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotth)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2002, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/6 "2002-08-28T22:20:56Z")
I wonder if any browser filtering software would filter them as potential porn/adult content?
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### Author:  [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2002, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/7 "2002-08-28T23:13:26Z")
Another vote for knowing what MoFo might be short for.
I can’t believe they would refer to themselves like that.
Unless, of course, it was something akin to “We’re the most efficient mofos around!”
What a hoot. I’d have been snickering all the way through.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2002, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/8 "2002-08-28T23:25:33Z")
I have no idea what it actually means, however I gather from the context that it is not a complement.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2002, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/9 "2002-08-28T23:26:18Z")
I’m 47, well the other side of hip, and I know what a mofo is (so to speak). I know lawyers in their early 50s who know what a mofo is. There’s no excuse for them not knowing what a mofo is – thus, they obviously think this is funny.
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### Author:  [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2002, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/10 "2002-08-28T23:30:04Z")
( **Mangetout** in case you’re being serious, it’s a shortened slang version of “Mother f\*\*\*er” )
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### Author:  [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2002, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/11 "2002-08-28T23:38:55Z")
Darlings, they’re from San Francisco originally, and they know _exactly_ what they’re doing. I’ve interviewed in their NYC office (many years ago - they didn’t bite, and they were probably dead right in their decision) and have friends who’ve worked there. Anyone who professes ignorance (or offence) is either new or from a firm they’ve acquired, who probably isn’t too happy about the acquisition.
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### Author:  [@False\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/False_God)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2002, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/12 "2002-08-29T00:04:44Z")
I used to have a friennd who worked for them, and they’re deeply tounge in cheek about this.
As an aside, one of the departments I helped set up at a investment bank I used to work for was Training and Acquisitions.
Yep, I was the T&A manager.
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### Author:  [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2002, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/13 "2002-08-29T01:02:04Z")
I don’t know about the under 40 part. IIRC, the MoFos were one of the biker gangs that coalesced into the Hell’s Angels in California back in the 1940s. I used to hear quite a bit when I was a teenager in the 1960s.
Along the same lines, there was for many years in my business a successful company named after the two partners, Tony Sanchez and Brian O’Brien. They were more than happy to be known as SOB; in fact they had a big stained glass SOB in their reception area. They’ve split up now and Tony Sanchez is running for Governor of my state.
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### Author:  [@Cosmopolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cosmopolitan)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2002, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/14 "2002-08-29T02:59:56Z")
Well, it IS a law firm, yes? “Mofo” seems one of the most appropriate terms for an employee. 😉
I truly cannot stop giggling…Those crazy mofos.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2002, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/15 "2002-08-29T08:07:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by wring \*
> **(Mangetout in case you’re being serious, it’s a shortened slang version of "Mother f**_er" ) \*\*
But that doesn’t make any sense!!! 😕
[sup](none of the letters that you obscured with asterisks was an ‘o’)[sup]
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2002, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/16 "2002-08-29T10:48:16Z")
Hey Mange, you’re British right? Or am I thinking of a user with a similar name? Cuz all y’all got some pretty weird ways of playing with words on that side of the pond, too. Maybe you don’t spell 'em all funny like, but you say things like “wooster” for “Worcester” and “norritch” for “Norwich,” “redding” for “Reading,” which make even less sense, and don’t even get me started on words like “derby.” 🙂
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2002, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/17 "2002-08-29T11:37:42Z")
Oh sure! (I have just come back from holiday in a little Norfolk [sub](incidentally pronounced ‘Norfuk’)[/sub] town by the name of Wymondham - the pronunciation of this place name? ‘Windam’)
There’s nothing uniquely British about this[sub](‘Connecticut’, ‘Tooele’(Utah))[/sub] although maybe we do have a profusion of them over here; I chalk it up to the language and culture having had more time to get messed about.
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2002, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/18 "2002-08-29T12:21:37Z")
Reminds me of Penn and Teller’s show… They had a bit with “MoFo, the Psychic Gorilla.”
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### Author:  [@scotth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotth)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2002, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/19 "2002-08-29T12:39:39Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by False\_God \*
> \*\*I used to have a friennd who worked for them, and they’re deeply tounge in cheek about this.
>
> As an aside, one of the departments I helped set up at a investment bank I used to work for was Training and Acquisitions.
> Yep, I was the T&A manager. \*\*
By the people that were met from this outfit, one would think they had no idea. It would be somehow more comforting to think it was a joke and they did know what it meant and went with it anyway.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2002, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-the-term-mofo-mean-anything-to-you/125994/20 "2002-08-29T12:42:15Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mangetout \*
> **…Norfolk [sub](incidentally pronounced ‘Norfuk’)[/sub]…**
Actually, may I correct that to “Norf-'k” ? (or “Naarf-'k” to (some of)the locals.
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