Green’s Dictionary of Slang

moer n.

[Du. moder, mother]

1. (S.Afr.) the buttocks.

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[SA]A. Fugard Boesman and Lena Act I: It was too early in the morning to have your life kicked in its moer again. Sitting there in the dust with the pieces . . . Kaalgat! That’s what it felt like!
[SA]Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 9 Jan. 🌐 I think the most popular of these words would be ‘kak’ en ‘moer’.

2. a synon. for hell in phrs. like to hell and gone, hell of a.

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[SA]B. Simon Hey, Listen ... in Gray Market Plays (1986) 113: I’ll fucken kick you down moer and gone that’s what I’ll do.
[SA]P. Slabolepszy Sat. Night at the Palace (1985) 17: Jussis. I’m going to have one moer of a hangover tomorrow.
[SA]B. Simon ‘Outers’ Born in the RSA (1997) 79: He throws his kierie at me and I get the moer in – a kierie like that can kill you.
[SA]A. Lovejoy Acid Alex 156: I was really moer-in with Caveman and tore straight into him.
[SA]M. Orford Like Clockwork 177: This poor girl got one moer of a klap on the head. [Ibid.] 224: There had been one moer of a geodoente about who gets what and why.

In exclamations

jou moer! (also moer! sy moer! your moer!) [fig. ‘your mother’s womb’]

a term of obscene abuse .

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[UK]C.A. Smith letter in Partridge DU 444: moer! [...] ‘A word used only in the worst of company’.
[UK]K. Mackenzie Dragon to Kill 127: ‘Jou moer!’ Jan hissed.
[SA]D. Muller Whitey 83: ‘Hello, Whitey darling’ she said. [...] He caught the remark passed by her companion: ‘Sy moer, forrkin’; witgat’.
[SA]M.J. Mtsaka Not His Pride I i: Throw in a few words like ‘jou gat’ ‘jou moer’ and so on.
[SA]A. Dangor ‘Waiting for Leila’ Waiting for Leila (2001) 13: Leila! Leila your moer!
[SA]M.V. Mzamane Children of Soweto 38: ‘Bliksem . . . Moer!’ continued to be heard above the Chairperson’s voice calling for order.
[SA]I. Mahomed Cheaper Than Roses in Perkins (1998) 64: Jou blerrie moer, man! First we were not too white ... now we’re not too black.
[SA]J.M. Coetzee Boyhood (1998) 77: If they passed each other in the street one day, would Eddie, despite all his drinking and dagga-smoking [...] recognize him and stop and shout ‘Jou moer!’.
[SA]Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 9 Jan. 🌐 He let out a sharp ‘Hella!’ and without missing a beat she replied ‘Hella se moer!’.