ass
/ɑːs/ noun, adjective, particle
Also a form of arse
Forms asses
- noun Any of several species of horse-like animals, especially Equus asinus, the domesticated of which are used as beasts of burden.
- noun (now often vulgar from conflation with etymology 2, noun sense 1) A stupid or inconsiderate person. “That new kid left the cap off the syrup bottle again! What an ass.”
- noun (printing, slang, obsolete) A compositor.
- noun (countable and uncountable) The buttocks.
- noun (countable and uncountable) The anus.
- noun (synecdochic, uncountable) Sex; a person to have sex with; with vulgar emphasis on their corporeality (their body) over their personhood. “I'm going to go down to the bar and try to get me some ass.”
- noun (uncountable) Used in similes to express something bad or unpleasant. “I feel like ass today.”
- noun (synecdochic, countable) A person; the self; (reflexively) oneself or one's person, chiefly their body. “Get your lazy ass out of bed!”
- noun (by extension) One's personal safety, or figuratively one's job, prospects, etc. “Mess up one more time and it's your ass on the line.”
- adjective (vulgar, slang, Canada, US) Of low quality; bad.
- particle Synonym of -ass (used to intensify an adjective). “That was one big ass fish!”
Synonyms
fool idiot jerk asswipe assbag assbreath assbucket asschunk asscunt assface assfag assfaggot assfuck assfucker asshat asshead asshole assmonkey assmouth assmunch buttocks nates arse butt backside bum buns can fundament hindquarters
Etymology
From Middle English asse, from Old English assa, back-formed from assen (“she-ass”), from Celtic (compare Old Irish asan, Old Cornish asen), from Latin asinus. Displaced Old English esol, from Proto-West Germanic *asil, also a loanword from the same Latin word. Sense “stupid person” from the animal's reputation for stubbornness, going back to antiquity (compare Latin asinus (“slow-witted person”)).
Variant of arse; used chiefly in North America. Ultimately from Middle English ars, ers, from Old English ærs, ears, from Proto-West Germanic *ars, from Proto-Germanic *arsaz (compare Old High German ars (German Arsch), Old Norse ars, Old Frisian ers), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁órsos (compare Ancient Greek ὄρρος (órrhos)).
Contrary to the widespread belief of this being a euphemism, it arose as a pronunciation spelling (of the older form arse still used in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc.) that shows the assimilation of /ɹ/ before coronal consonants (especially /s/), a phenomenon that has been present in nonstandard speech from the Middle English period onwards; this is distinct from the later phenomenon of non-rhoticity as /ɹ/ was lost before it could modify the preceding vowel. Other instances of this phenomenon (some of which retained both spellings with different meanings) include cuss from curse, gash from garsh, bass (“fish”) from barse, bust from burst, passel from parcel; see :Category:English terms with assimilation of historic /ɹ/ for a more extensive list.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A quadruped of the genus Equus (E. asinus), smaller than the horse, and having a peculiarly harsh bray and long ears. The tame or domestic ass is patient, slow, and sure-footed, and has become the type of obstinacy and stupidity. There are several species of wild asses which are swift-footed.
- noun A dull, heavy, stupid fellow; a dolt. Shak. Asses' Bridge. Etym: [L. pons asinorum.] The fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid, "The angles at the base of an isosceles triangle are equal to one another." [Sportive] "A schoolboy, stammering out his Asses' Bridge." F. Harrison.
Etymology [OE. asse, AS. assa; akin to Icel. asni, W. asen, asyn, L. asinus, dim. aselus, Gr. esol, OHG. esil, G. esel, Goth. asilus, Dan. æsel, Lith. asilas, Bohem. osel, Pol. osiel. The word is prob. of Semitic origin; cf. Heb. ath she ass. Cf. Ease.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “ass”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details