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The word asshole (in North American English) or arsehole (in all other major varieties of the English language) is a profanity used to describe the anus, and often used pejoratively (as a type of synecdoche) to refer to people.

History

The word arse in English derives from the Proto-Germanic (reconstructed) word *arsaz, from the Proto-Indo-European word *ors-, meaning "buttocks" or "backside".^[1] The combined form arsehole is first attested from 1500 in its literal use to refer to the anus. The word evolved from "arce-hoole" (circa 1400), as in Old English, the Latin word "anus" was glossed with earsðerl, literally "arse-thrill" (thrill being a noun with the original meaning of "hole" such as in nostril, meaning "nose hole").^[2]

The metaphorical use of the word to refer to the worst place in a region (e.g., "the arsehole of the world"), is first attested in print in 1865; the use to refer to a contemptible person is first attested in 1933.^[3]

In the ninth chapter of his 1945 autobiography, Black Boy, Richard Wright quotes a snippet of verse that uses the term: "All these white folks dressed so fine / Their ass-holes smell just like mine ...".

Its earliest known usage in newspaper as an insult was 1965.^[4] As with other vulgarities, these uses of the word may have been common in oral speech for some time before their first appearances in print. By the 1970s, Hustler magazine featured people they did not like as "Asshole of the Month."^[5]

In 1972, Jonathan Richman of Modern Lovers recorded his song "Pablo Picasso", which includes the line "Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole."^[6]

Until the early 1990s, the word was considered one of a number of words that could not be uttered on commercial television in the United States. Comedian Andrew Dice Clay caused a major shock when he uttered the word during a televised MTV awards show in 1989.^[7] However, there were PG-13 and R rated films in the 1980s that featured use of the word, such as the R-rated The Terminator (1984), the PG-13-rated National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), and the PG-rated Back to the Future (1985). By 1994, however, vulgarity had become more acceptable, and the word was featured in dialog on the long-running television series NYPD Blue, though it has yet to become anything close to commonplace on network TV. In some broadcast edits (such as the syndication airings of South Park), the word is partially bleeped out, as "assh—". A variant of the term, "ass clown", was coined and popularized by the 1999 comedy film Office Space.^[8]

Semantics

The word is mainly used as a vulgarity or a profanity, generally to describe people who are viewed as stupid, incompetent, unpleasant, or detestable.^[9] Moral philosopher Aaron James, in his 2012 book, Assholes: A Theory, gives a more precise meaning of the word, particularly to its connotation in the United States: A person, who is almost always male, who considers himself of much greater moral or social importance than everyone else; who allows himself to enjoy special advantages and does so systematically; who does this out of an entrenched sense of entitlement; and who is immunized by his sense of entitlement against the complaints of other people.^[10]^[11]^[12] He feels he is not to be questioned, and he is the one who is chiefly wronged.^[13]

This word or its literal translation is found in colloquial speech in a number of cultures besides English^[14] because it describes both an intimate part as well as an organ for defecation, both of which are considered to be taboo parts of the body in many societies.^[15]

The English word ass (meaning donkey, a cognate of its zoological name Equus asinus) may also be used as a term of contempt, referring to a silly or stupid person. In the United States (and, to a lesser extent, Canada), the words arse and ass have become synonymous.^{[citation needed]}

Political usage

In 2000, during a Labor Day event, then-candidate George W. Bush made an offhand remark to his running mate, Dick Cheney, that The New York Times reporter Adam Clymer was a "major league asshole." The gaffe was caught on microphone and led to a political advertisement chiding Bush for "using expletives... in front of a crowd of families," produced for Democratic opponent Al Gore.^[16]

In February 2004, American media reported that during a rally of supporters, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was reported to have called Bush "an asshole" for believing his aides in supporting a coup against Chávez in 2002.^[17] In September of the following year, Nightline host Ted Koppel said to Chavez on national television: "I'm going to perhaps shock you a little, but these are your words. You called President Bush an asshole,"—to which Chavez replied, "I've said various things about him. I don't know if I actually used that word."^[18]

In 2008, the Liberal Democrat MP for Leeds North West, Greg Mulholland was recorded describing health minister Ivan Lewis as an arsehole after Lewis refused to let him intervene in a Westminster Hall debate on hospice funding. He later publicly defended his comment.^[19]

References

^ Watkins, Calvert (2000). American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots (revised second ed.). Houghton Mifflin. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-395-98610-3.
^ "ass-hole (n.)". www.etymonline.com. Online Etynological Dictionary. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
^ Lighter, J. (1994). Historical Dictionary of American Slang. Random House.
^ Lerner, Michael (May 28, 1965). "A refreshing radicalism". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on December 6, 2008. Retrieved August 6, 2008.
^ "Out like Flynt". Time. April 9, 1979. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
^ Janovitz, Bill. Pablo Picasso at AllMusic
^ "MTV Video Music Awards". MTV.com. 1989. Archived from the original on 2011-07-11. Retrieved 2011-05-25.
^ "How Office Space Coined the Term Ass Clown". 20 February 2019. Archived from the original on 2020-10-26. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
^ "Asshole". Webster's Online Dictionary. Archived from the original on 20 October 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
^ Schager, Nick (October 31, 2020). "How America Became a Country Full of Assholes". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on July 30, 2021. Retrieved October 13, 2021.
^ James, Aaron (2012). Assholes: A Theory. New York: Random House. pp. 5, 27. ISBN 978-0-8041-7135-9.
^ Keohane, Joe (November 25, 2012). "Who's the A-hole? Field-testing a thesis". New York. Archived from the original on July 2, 2019. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
^ McLachlan, James M. (16 September 2015), McCraw, Benjamin W.; Arp, Robert (eds.), Philosophical Approaches to the Devil, Routledge, p. 44, ISBN 978-1-317-39222-4
^ "Asshole In Other Language Than English". Organisasi.Org Community And Library Online. Archived from the original on 15 August 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
^ Napoli, Donna Jo; Hoeksema, Jack. The grammatical versatility of taboo terms. Vol. 33. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^ "A 'major league asshole'". Salon.com. September 4, 2000. Archived from the original on December 12, 2009. Retrieved August 13, 2008.
^ "Chavez Calls Bush 'Asshole' as Foes Fight Troops". The Washington Post. February 29, 2004. Archived from the original on July 15, 2019. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
^ "Transcript: Hugo Chavez Interview". Nightline. September 16, 2005. Archived from the original on March 9, 2021. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
^ "MP defends himself over swearing". BBC. 1 February 2008. Archived from the original on 6 February 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2015.