Desmadre
26 December 2009
In a culture where mothers — whether biological or divine — assume a central role in one’s thinking, “desmadre” (“mommy-less”) is the perfect word for describing situations out of control and beyond one’s ability… and a lot politer than “totally fucked”.
Anyway, while I wasn’t going to post much over the holiday anyway, now I have an excuse. My computer — which is still under warranty — is “desmadre”… literally. The mother board was bad and is being replaced.
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mexfiles.net 
Rich,
You gave a very interesting definition of “desmadre”. I have never heard it used to mean “mommy-less”. There is a verb, “desmadrar” which means to separate livestock from their offspring when it is time to wean them but I don’t think “desmadre” comes from the same root. Desmadre is more synonymous with SNAFU. Remember that one? 🙂