Asshole

{{short description|English insult describing the anus, usually used to refer to people}}

{{Infobox profanity

| name = Asshole {{noitalics|or}} arsehole

| etymology = Compound of ass or arse and hole

| lit = Anus

| fig = A stupid, incompetent, unpleasant, or detestable person

}}

The word asshole (in North American English) or arsehole (in all other major varieties of the English language) is a vulgarism 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".{{cite book |last=Watkins |first=Calvert |title=American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots |year=2000 |edition=revised second |isbn=978-0-395-98610-3 |page=60|publisher=Houghton Mifflin }} 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").{{cite web |title=ass-hole (n.) |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/ass-hole |website=www.etymonline.com |publisher=Online Etynological Dictionary |access-date=24 October 2023}}

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.{{cite book |last=Lighter |first= J. |year=1994 |title=Historical Dictionary of American Slang |url=https://archive.org/details/randomhousehisto01ligh |url-access=registration |publisher=Random House}}

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.{{cite news |last=Lerner |first=Michael |date=May 28, 1965 |title=A refreshing radicalism |work=The Harvard Crimson |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=493455 |access-date=August 6, 2008 |archive-date=December 6, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206022052/http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=493455 |url-status=live }} 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."{{cite magazine |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,920228,00.html |date=April 9, 1979 |title=Out like Flynt |magazine=Time |access-date=May 8, 2020 |archive-date=February 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224124819/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,920228,00.html |url-status=live }}

In 1972, Jonathan Richman of Modern Lovers recorded his song "Pablo Picasso", which includes the line "Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole."{{AllMusic |class=song |id=mt0011846843 |tab=Overview |label=Pablo Picasso |first=Bill |last=Janovitz }}

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.{{cite web |year=1989 |title=MTV Video Music Awards |work=MTV.com |url=http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/1989/ |access-date=2011-05-25 |archive-date=2011-07-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711215428/http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/1989/ |url-status=dead }} 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.{{Cite web |url=https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2467219/how-office-space-coined-the-term-ass-clown |title=How Office Space Coined the Term Ass Clown |date=20 February 2019 |access-date=2020-10-21 |archive-date=2020-10-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026032751/https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2467219/how-office-space-coined-the-term-ass-clown |url-status=live }}

Semantics

The word is mainly used as a vulgarity, generally to describe people who are viewed as stupid, incompetent, unpleasant, or detestable.{{cite web |title=Asshole |publisher=Webster's Online Dictionary |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/asshole |access-date=30 May 2011 |archive-date=20 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111020093952/http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/asshole |url-status=live }} 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. Such behavior like this can easily drive a wedge between this type of person and any people this person has working or familial relationships with, and can cause romantic relationships, and even marriages, to deteriorate. Any attempt to correct this type of person's actions usually results in a defensive response from this type of person. This type of person will usually deny that they are the way they are and blame other people for any fallouts resulting from their entitled behavior, including major rifts in working and family relationships.{{cite web | last=Schager | first=Nick | title=How America Became a Country Full of Assholes | website=The Daily Beast | date=October 31, 2020 | url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-america-became-a-country-full-of-assholes | access-date=October 13, 2021 | archive-date=July 30, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210730004015/https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-america-became-a-country-full-of-assholes | url-status=live }}{{cite book |last=James |first=Aaron |year=2012 |title=Assholes: A Theory |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8041-7135-9|pages=5, 27}}{{cite web |last=Keohane |first=Joe |date=November 25, 2012 |title=Who's the A-hole? Field-testing a thesis |work=New York |url=http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/aaron-james-assholes-2012-12/ |access-date=February 17, 2016 |archive-date=July 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190702022745/http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/aaron-james-assholes-2012-12/ |url-status=live }} He feels he is not to be questioned, and he is the one who is chiefly wronged.{{citation |last=McLachlan |first=James M. |editor1-last=McCraw |editor1-first=Benjamin W. |editor2-last=Arp |editor2-first=Robert |title=Philosophical Approaches to the Devil |date=16 September 2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-39222-4 |page=44}}

This word or its literal translation is found in colloquial speech in a number of cultures besides English{{cite web |title=Asshole In Other Language Than English |work=Organisasi.Org Community And Library Online |url=http://en.organisasi.org/translation/asshole-in-other-languages |access-date=30 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110815164026/http://en.organisasi.org/translation/asshole-in-other-languages |archive-date=15 August 2011 |url-status=dead }} 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.{{cite book |last1=Napoli |first1=Donna Jo |last2=Hoeksema |first2=Jack |title=The grammatical versatility of taboo terms |work=Studies in Linguistics |volume=33}}

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.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

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.{{cite news |date=September 4, 2000 |title=A 'major league asshole' |work=Salon.com |url=http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/09/04/cuss_word/ |access-date=August 13, 2008 |archive-date=December 12, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091212095214/http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/09/04/cuss_word/ |url-status=live }}

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.{{cite news |date=February 29, 2004 |title=Chavez Calls Bush 'Asshole' as Foes Fight Troops |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17578-2004Feb29.html |access-date=August 24, 2017 |archive-date=July 15, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190715202736/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17578-2004Feb29.html |url-status=live }} 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."{{cite web |date=September 16, 2005 |title=Transcript: Hugo Chavez Interview |work=Nightline |url=https://abcnews.go.com/print?id=1134098 |access-date=June 27, 2020 |archive-date=March 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309004127/https://abcnews.go.com/print?id=1134098 |url-status=live }}

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.{{cite news |date=1 February 2008 |title=MP defends himself over swearing |work=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7221750.stm |access-date=14 May 2015 |archive-date=6 February 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080206192057/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7221750.stm |url-status=live }}

Asshole

History

Semantics

Political usage

See also

References

Further reading