Exactly 25 years ago, the blockbuster teen comedy “American Pie” launched the term “MILF” into the stratosphere — that is, Mom I’d Like to F*ck. Jennifer Coolidge, who played Stifler’s Mom, is perhaps still the most famous MILF in America. But… where did that term really come from? Jess and Susie uncover the MILF’s true origin story and how it was shaped by the most raunchy teen sex comedy of our time.

FOR MORE: 

• Review: The Road to Manhood, Paved in Raunchy Jokes and Pie (NYT, 1999)
• American Pie at 20: The Notorious Pie Scene from Every Angle (NYT, 2019) 
• Don’t Use This Acronym: MILF in the OED (blog post by Laurel Sutton)
• At the Super Bowl of Linguistics, May the Best Word Win (by Jessica, NYT, reporting from the annual linguistics convention in 2015)