# Your mother wears army boots! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 29, 2007, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916 "2007-09-29T09:38:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/21 "2007-09-29T22:42:29Z")
A Monkey with a Gun writes: \> Hey! That’s one I am sure of. The sailors and the marines would socialize on the \> gundeck when they were in port. Sailors and marines being what they are, \> there were quite a few children conceived on the gundeck. Hence: “son of a \> gun”. \> \> Learned that one from Gunny on Mail Call. Almost certainly not: > **[Etymology of Son of a Gun](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cannon-father/)** > > The disputed etymology of 'son of a gun.' In general, etymologies given by sources with no training in etymology are quite likely to be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/22 "2007-09-29T22:56:55Z")
Are you saying Gunnery Sergeant Ermey LIED to me! That’s TREASON! I know you can’t believe everything you read, but it was on _television_. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/23 "2007-09-30T00:00:29Z")
Hey! WTF do you think this is, IMHO? Doesn’t anyone have a cite? I can’t believe there are 21 posts with no information yet. I’ll be back. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/24 "2007-09-30T00:43:04Z")
I had info, **samclem**. Well, I had a cite. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/25 "2007-09-30T01:10:25Z")
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow] I had info, **samclem**. Well, I had a cite. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. [/QUOTE] Yeah. I didn’t mean you. I meant not much useful info. The earliest I can find for the specific taunt “Your mother wears **combat** boots” is a 1965 newspaper story. That would indicate it might have originated in the prevous 10 or so years. The earliest I can find for "Your mother wears **Army** boots is 1963, indicating it was merely an offshoot of the insult. “Combat boot” only appears as a term in and about 1941, WWII. So the fact that that specific taunt only shows up in and around the 1950’s-1960’s isn’t strange. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/26 "2007-09-30T01:24:44Z")
I always just thought it meant yo’ mama was poor and clunky and wore boots, but, in thinking, the Army prostitute follower makes more sense in the Yo’ Mama insult tradition. So, did some basic searching, and nothing concrete. But, an interesting [aside](http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:Lj0h2ZlXQvsJ:www.askcandace.com/Lipstick.pdf+Army+boots+mother+origin&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=19&gl=us), from a nice report on “The Origin’s of Lipstick”: > [@](#): > > The Roman Empress Messalina (while her aged and doddering husband, the Emperor Claudius was away) once challenged the Guild to produce a”champion” in a contest to see who – true story, folks, one of my degrees in Ancient Roman History, and it reads just as saliciously in Latin – could “wearout” the most men in an evening. To the shock of Rome (and it took a LOT to shock Romans at this point) the Empress called for two couches (we wouldrecognize them more as beds or chaise lounges) to be brought and placed almost side by side (Messalina did not want any accusations of cheating) and with a witness, she and the prostitute Sylla there proceeded to the contest. (The historian Graves has the prostitute’s name as Sylla and **has her crying “Her insides must be made of old Army boots!”** at Messalina, but Graves, while a historian, often wrote apocryphally in some of his tales touching the RomanEmperors, noteably Claudius, though they were artfully weaved around actual events.) Messalina won. The contest was said to have lasted “the whole ofone day and night. My bolding, and, again, it’s an aside, but that article was interesting in it’s presentation of an accepted prostitute class. Really seems to me that explaination will have a better historical footprint in the origin of the term, in light of **Bosda’s** “wears Roman Sandal’s” entry. I hope someone can find better info. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/27 "2007-09-30T01:47:28Z")
[QUOTE=samclem] Hey! WTF do you think this is, IMHO? Doesn’t anyone have a cite? I can’t believe there are 21 posts with no information yet. I’ll be back. [/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > The earliest I can find for the specific taunt “Your mother wears combat boots” is a 1965 newspaper story. That would indicate it might have originated in the previous 10 or so years. > > The earliest I can find for “Your mother wears Army boots” is 1963, indicating it was merely an offshoot of the insult. > > “Combat boot” only appears as a term in and about 1941, WWII. So the fact that that specific taunt only shows up in and around the 1950’s-1960’s isn’t strange. And that helped us with the meaning of the insult how? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/28 "2007-09-30T02:00:37Z")
Searching around awhile under different google combos, and some tenuous leads, usually academic and not easily available to my limited ability. So, this would be a great question for Cecil, or a select minion, to answer, requiring a few calls to them Ivory Tower experts. It has all the great elements for a SD column: Mamas, insults, sex workers, military, um, needs, fashionable footwear questions, and, most important, Warner Bros. cartoon reference. Really like to know the nitty gritty here. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/29 "2007-09-30T02:28:10Z")
Does anyone have a specific citation showing that it was used in a cartoon? (A _specific_ citation, not “oh, I remember seeing sometime or other”.) It appears that since it didn’t appear in print before 1963, it probably arose in the 1950’s or 1960’s.) The interesting thing is that we have a slew of different meanings for it. It could mean that your mother is poor or a prostitute or a lesbian or a slut or crude. That’s quite a range. Clearly it’s an insult, but there doesn’t seem to be any agreement on what it means. This is sounding more and more like “the whole nine yards.” It’s well known, but it only appeared in print in the 1960’s, and there’s a lot of contradictory stories as to its origin. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/30 "2007-09-30T02:48:35Z")
I’m curious if the insult ever appeared anywhere prior to a Warner Brother’s cartoon. If it did originate with Warner Brother’s then Cecil or someone’s probably going to have to track down a living relative who _might_ remember what the original joke was, assuming the Warner Brother’s guys didn’t simply think it sounded funny. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/31 "2007-09-30T03:17:34Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] I’m curious if the insult ever appeared anywhere prior to a Warner Brother’s cartoon. If it did originate with Warner Brother’s then Cecil or someone’s probably going to have to track down a living relative who _might_ remember what the original joke was, assuming the Warner Brother’s guys didn’t simply think it sounded funny. [/QUOTE] Don’t think at all it originated with Warner Bros writers, but that they were damn smart folks who worked with the time they lived in, much more constrained than current oeuvre, and got the creativity in when they could. What would be interesting is to go back to the living left of them and see how they so wonderfully gave us all the good juice we need despite the censorship of their time. I benefitted as a kid from their very sweet code talking. We have such enormous freedom now, in media, but creative folks in mid- last-century had to be very constrained. Their minds were not. Imagine that. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/32 "2007-09-30T03:50:03Z")
[QUOTE=samclem] The earliest I can find for the specific taunt “Your mother wears **combat** boots” is a 1965 newspaper story. That would indicate it might have originated in the prevous 10 or so years. [/quote] I also found a 1965 reference, in an academic journal, no less! The article is Millicent Ayoub and Stephen Barnett, “Ritualized Verbal Insult in White High School Culture ,” _Journal of American Folklore_, vol. 78, no. 310 (October 1965), pp. 337-344. The authors studied “middle and upper class whites in a prosperous southwestern Ohio town,” choosing the sophomore class at the local high school. Here’s what they said about “Mother-Sounds”: > [@](#): > > These revile her by implying a masculine image or by indicting her for sexual promiscuity. Masculine image Mother-Sounds are the “Your mother wears combat boots” variety. These sounds are frequent among younger children (grades 5 to 8) and serve as entrance to sexual Mother-Sounds which require high school sophistication: > > Your mother smokes corn silks. > > Your mother uses Barbasol. > > You mother smells like garlic salt. The fact that the authors used “Your mother wears combat boots” as the example here suggests that the term was common enough for it to be a part of most readers’ consciousness. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/33 "2007-09-30T03:56:30Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Same here, I always understood it to mean “your mom’s a big butch lesbo,” since army boots are kind of a butch thing to wear. [/QUOTE] That was always my understanding, too. Nothing about prostitution. Don’t know if it predates Warner, though. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/34 "2007-09-30T04:13:18Z")
levdrakon writes: \> I’m curious if the insult ever appeared anywhere prior to a Warner Brother’s \> cartoon. I still want to hear a citation of a specific Warner Brother’s cartoon. ---
**Author:** ![A.R.Cane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/35 "2007-09-30T05:02:01Z")
_your mother wears army boots_ is a US exclamatory c.p. – at first, i.e. during WW2, very derisive, then jocularly derisive. An occ[asional] var[iant]: _your sister wears army shoes_, of which Norris M. Davidson, 1969, has written. ‘I dimly remember having heard some nineteen or twenty years ago. It must be a catch phrase, as it makes no sense.’ R[obert] C[laiborne], 1978, comments, ‘like _your fadder’s mustache_, (to which it was a frequent counter), usually spoken with a heavy Brooklyn accent, approximating _ya mudda weahs ahmy boots!_’; and A[nthony] B[rown], 1979, adds the variants _shoes_ for _boots_; _your mother drives a tank_ or _eats K rations_ or _works in a dime store_ or _ah, yer mother wears cotton drawers_ (the _ah_ may precede the other forms also). ‘All derisive, of course; there are many other variants’. From _A Dictionary of Catch Phrases, Second Edition_ (1985) by Eric Partridge & Paul Beale ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/36 "2007-09-30T08:50:10Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] I still want to hear a citation of a specific Warner Brother’s cartoon. [/QUOTE] I can’t give a specific cite, but I have a vivid memory of Bugs Bunny saying it at least once or twice circa WWII. ---
**Author:** ![A.R.Cane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/37 "2007-09-30T09:01:16Z")
I ran across references to both Bugs and Daffy using the line. Daffy was supposed to have said it to Porky Pig in a skit where Daffy was playing the Pied Piper to Porky’s Mayor of Hamelin, but the specific cite wasn’t given. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/38 "2007-09-30T11:41:10Z")
As far as I can figure out, that description doesn’t match any Warner Brothers cartoon. There’s a 1939 cartoon called “Pied Piper Porky” in which Porky Pig is the Pied Piper, but Daffy Duck isn’t in it. There’s a 1961 cartoon called “The Pied Piper of Guadalupe” which is even less like the cartoon you describe. Does anyone have a specific citation for this phrase from a Warner Brothers cartoon? Even the slang dictionary definition quoted isn’t really a citation. It was published in 1985, and it quotes someone in 1969 saying that he vaguely remembers it being said around 1949 or 1950. On Googling, I find various people claiming that it was said by Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck, but no one gives an exact citation. Some of these people remember it being spoken with a Brooklyn accent. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/39 "2007-09-30T12:20:53Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] On Googling, I find various people claiming that it was said by Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck, but no one gives an exact citation. Some of these people remember it being spoken with a Brooklyn accent. [/QUOTE] Yes, yes, so do I! “Ahhh, ya muddah wears ahmy boots.” I remember it clearly. Bugs was not always Warner, isn’t that right? There was Merry Melodies and Loony Tunes. Which one belonged to Warner and during which time period? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916/40 "2007-09-30T14:31:07Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] Yes, yes, so do I! “Ahhh, ya muddah wears ahmy boots.” I remember it clearly. Bugs was not always Warner, isn’t that right? There was Merry Melodies and Loony Tunes. Which one belonged to Warner and during which time period? [/QUOTE] > **[Merrie Melodies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrie_Melodies)** > > Merrie Melodies is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the Looney Tunes franchise and featured many of the same characters. Originally produced from 1931 to 1969 during the Golden Age of American animation, Merrie Melodies was revived in 1979 with new shorts being sporadically released until 1997. Merrie Melodies originally placed emphasis on one-shot color films in comparison to the black-and-white Looney Tunes films. After Bugs B M... > [@](#): > > Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969. The series was produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions until 1944, when Schlesinger sold his studio to the Warners. The newly renamed Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. continued producing the series until 1968. > **[Looney Tunes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looney_Tunes)** > > Looney Tunes is an American media franchise owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series Merrie Melodies, produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons during the golden age of American animation. Following a revival in the late 1970s, new shorts were released theatrically as recently as 2014. The two series introduced a large cast of characters, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer F Loo... > [@](#): > > Looney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theatres from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series, and is both Warner Bros. Animation’s first animated theatrical series and the second longest continuous animated series in any medium. Note spelling. Both were always associated with Warners, even if Warners didn’t always own them outright. The first cartoon with the character using the name Bugs Bunny was _A Wild Hare_ in 1940. The two series were more or less interchangeable, but Bugs eventualy became associated with Merrie Melodies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mother-wears-army-boots/420916.md?page=3)