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I've seen mention of this word a few time. In English it is clear how certain words became swear words; f..., sh.. and damn all have very strong meanings in their literal sense; the former two being vulgar references to bodily functions and the last having to do with Hell.
How in the world did "他妈的" become a swearing? "His mother's...!" doesn't seem like swearing to me.
Another theory is: '他妈的' is the omission of 'a verb that meaning f**k' + '他妈的'.
I believe this is true, because sometimes you can still hear the full version (please forgive me): 操他妈的, 干他妈的, 日他妈的, etc.
One version is that: in the old times (about the Warring States Period), people said something like “你妈是贱人” ("your mom is a bitch") as a swear word. But this being a whole sentence made it difficult to insert into other sentences to express the emotion.
Thus, after a long time, "your" became "his" and "is a bitch" went missing, making it "他妈的". As a result, just as the word "f...", it's very convenient to put into another sentence like "你他妈的干啥？", which can be translated to "what the f... are you doing?".
You can check it out in this site if you can understand Chinese: “他妈的” 作为脏话的起源是什么？
Another version which I have heard (and many would have as well) and is line with many popular variations in dialects, is that it is simply a contraction of his mother's (private parts). Omission of the latter is done either out of laziness or an attempt to make it sound less rude.
I believe the full version is fxck（肏、日、干、嬲，etc.）+他妈的+屄（cxnt）.
