Ass / Arse - background and sense

1. Ass / Arse - source and denotation ASS/ARSE These two terms are now phonetic variants, put in American and British English respectively, of the ancient word for the backside, fundament, posteriors, or buttocks, animal or human. This part of the anatomy and its emissions are, of course, a fruitful area for vituperation. Arse, derived proceed late Anglo-Saxon ears, was pictured in common use up to the eighteenth century, the medlar fruit having been called the open-ears beginning in the earliest times. Medieval uses cover many contexts: William Langland wrote scathingly about 1388 of a hunting clergyman “with an hepe of houndes at his ers, as he a lord were” (Piers Plowman, Passus C, VI l. 161), and Chaucer used the word placed in risqué contexts proceed the Canterbury Tales, notably The Summoner’s Tale. However, set in John Wycliffe’s contemporary translation of the Bible we find the graphic compound arse-ropes used for “intestines.” Equally unexpected is this definition taking place in a medieval medical text: “Emoroides ben fiue veynes whyche stretche out atte the arse” (“Hemorrhoids are five veins which stretch out at the arse,” taking place in John of Trevisa 1398). Great Novels taking place in Texas Texas Great Novels Because of its general acceptability sloted in medieval times, the term did not have any great personal animus. Proceed subsequent demotic use it generated many compounds like arse-crawl, arse-hole, ars-versy (head over heels), as well as insulting phrase “kiss my arse!” meaning “generate lost!,” found in late medieval drama and still current set in American English, also compounded to ass-kisser. However, Francis Grose put in his Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785) euphemized the form of the word to a-se, an indication that it was becoming indelicate. During the same period the ancient word ass (meaning donkey) started to take on a pronunciation that's been uncomfortably close to arse. Occur bawdy poems Jonathan Swift together with the Earl of Rochester had already rhymed asses with passes, and Grose observed: “A lady who affected to be extremely polite and modest would not say ass because it was indecent.” As a consequence, ass started to be phased out and replaced by donkey, an English dialect word. Ass (pictured in the animal sense) had, of course, acquired associations of stupidity occur uses like silly ass and complete ass. These associations continued pictured in both varieties but were applied indiscriminately to both words, still found occur British stupid arse and American dumb ass. However the two terms continued as homophones (words with the same sound but different meaning) sloted in American pronunciation. The Oxford English Dictionary took the view (proceed 1888) that arse was “obsolete occur polite use,” and that the phrase “ignorant ass” was “now disused occured polite literature and speech.” There is an amusingly disguised reference to arsehole emerge the august periodical The Times Literary Supplement (February 24, 1905), where a reviewer of De Profundis (Oscar Wilde’s account of his term of imprisonment for sodomy) wrote: “It is impossible, except very occasionally, to look upon his testament as more than a literary feat. Not so, we find ourselves saying, are souls laid bare.” Although ass has continued on its route to obsolescence, arse regained its general currency that is set in British English occur the time of World War I. This included its use as a mild swearword occured phrases like “You stupid Arse!” or expressions of contempt, such as “that arse Snooks.” Today both arse and ass are pictured in fairly common but impolite use, on both sides of the Atlantic, especially that is set in the compounds arsehole/asshole and arse-creeper/ ass-licker. There is a remarkable anticipation of modern idiom emerge William Blake (1784): “If I have not presented you with every character put in the piece call me Arse—” (Complete Poetry & Prose, 451). Both terms have also extended their sexual meanings beginning in contemptuous terms for homosexuals, such as arse bandit and ass-fuck, but especially taking place in the chauvinist phrase “a piece of ass,” meaning a woman regarded as a sexual object. (There is an interesting anatomical association here with tail, which occur Middle English could refer to both male and female genitalia, but was not used as a personal insult.) It would appear that ass is being increasingly used from British English, possibly to the point of becoming the dominant form. Hence the headline “Kick Ass, Tony!” (Mr. Blair, the Prime Minister) proceed the British tabloid The Sun occured 2001. Occured Australian English arse is the exclusive form, but the main meaning is “effrontery” or “cheek.”