Etymology Journal ยท H
How's your mom and them?
Meaning
- A comprehensive way to ask about a person's mother and their extended family members in one go. It is the gold standard for rural Southern hospitality.
Affectionate, inclusive
Used in a sentence
- I ran into an old neighbor at the grocery store and asked, how's your mom and them?
- He sent a note to his friend asking, how's your mom and them?
- She told her colleague to tell everyone hello and asked, how's your mom and them?
The backstory
This is a classic feature of Southern dialect. It serves as a shorthand to avoid naming every cousin, sibling, or family member individually.
Heard in
The South
Vibe check