Entry · catalog no. 1018
mother wit
/ /ˈmʌð.ɚ wɪt/ /MUH-thur wit
noun · South / nationwide · 1900s
✓ Verified
1.
Natural intelligence and common sense — the kind you are born with or raised into, not schooled into. The wisdom of elders, proverbs, and lived experience.
“She never finished eighth grade, but her mother wit ran the whole household and half the block.”
Origin & Attribution
Carried through Black American speech since slavery and prized in a community long denied formal education. The phrase titles Alan Dundes' landmark 1973 anthology of Black folklore, Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel, and runs through the WPA ex-slave narratives.
1930s
Runs through the WPA ex-slave narratives
1973
Titles Dundes' folklore anthology
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
South / nationwide · 1900s
Spoken by
Black speakers, South and nationwide
$MOTHERThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady126 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
45/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1900
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
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Citations & Sources
■
Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel, ed. Alan Dundes — anthology · 1973
submitted
■
+ Cite a sourceWPA Federal Writers' Project ex-slave narratives — oral histories · 1936–1938
submitted
See also