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ass

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Appendix:Variations of "ass"

Translingual

Etymology

Clipping of English Assumbo.

Symbol

ass

  1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Ipulo.

See also

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

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”)).

Noun

ass (plural asses)

  1. Any of several species of horse-like animals, especially Equus asinus, the domesticated of which are used as beasts of burden.
    Hypernyms: equine < equid < mammal < animal < creature, critter
    Hyponyms: donkey (loosely synonymous), onager, wild ass
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 16:20:
      And Iesse tooke an asse laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by Dauid his sonne vnto Saul.
    • 1650, Thomas Browne, “Of the Same [i.e., the Blacknesse of Negroes]”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 6th book, page 282:
      Thus the Aſſe having a peculiar mark of a croſſe made by a black liſt down his back, and another athwart, or at right angles down his ſhoulders; common opinion aſcribes this figure unto a peculiar ſignation; ſince that beaſt had the honour to bear our Saviour on his back.
    • 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Two. The First of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 51:
      […] suddenly a man, in foreign garments: wonderfully real and distinct to look at: stood outside the window, with an axe stuck in his belt, and leading an ass laden with wood by the bridle.
    • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 49:
      Pliny the Elder states that, to increase sexual potency, the right testis of an ass should be worn in a bracelet.
    • 1972, Parliament of the United Kingdom, “Part I, section 20(3)”, in Road Traffic Act 1972‎, page 14:
      In this section "animal" means any horse, cattle, ass, mule, sheep, pig, goat or dog.
  2. (often vulgar through confusion with other word) A stupid or jerky (inconsiderate, etc) person.
    Near-synonyms: fool, idiot, jerk, asswipe; see also Thesaurus:jerk
    That new kid left the cap off the syrup bottle again! What an ass.
    He is such an ass for leaving the house door open.
  3. (printing, slang, obsolete) A compositor.
    • [1841, William Savage, Dictionary of the Art of Printing‎, page 24:
      Sometimes by way of joke, and sometimes by way of irritation, compositors are called Asses by the pressmen.]
Derived terms
Translations
See also

Etymology 2

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)).

Etymological notes

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.

Noun

ass (countable and uncountable, plural asses) (vulgar, slang, US)

  2. (countable and uncountable) The buttocks.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:buttocks
  3. (countable and uncountable) The anus.
    • 1962 [1959], William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, New York: Grove Press, page 81:
      Train compartment: two sick young junkies on their way to Lexington tear their pants down in convulsions of lust. One of them soaps his cock and works it up the other's ass with a corkscrew motion.
    • 1997 Matt Stone & Trey Parker, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe," South Park, Season 1, Episode 1 (aired August 13, 1997), Spoken by Eric Cartman (Trey Parker)
      That does it! Now listen! Why is it that everything today has involved things either going in or coming out of my ass? I’m sick of it! It’s completely immature!
  4. (synecdochically, uncountable) Sex; a person to have sex with; with vulgar emphasis on their corporeality (their body) over their personhood.
    Synonyms: poontang, poon, punani, pussy, tail, tang; see also Thesaurus:copulation
    I'm going to go down to the bar and try to get me some ass.
    piece of ass
    • 1971, Joni Mitchell, “Blue”, in Blue:
      Acid, booze, and ass / Needles, guns, and grass
  5. (uncountable) Used in similes to express something bad or unpleasant.
    I feel like ass today. ― I am feeling very bad today.
    This room smells like ass. ― This room smells very bad.
    What a load of ass. ― What a bunch of lies/nonsense/disappointment.
  7. (synecdochically, countable) A person; the self; (reflexively) oneself or one's person, chiefly their body. By extension, one's personal safety, or figuratively one's job, prospects, etc.
    Coordinate terms: face; hide
    Get your lazy ass out of bed!
    We risk our asses out there every day.
    I'ma get medieval on your ass! (idiomatic sense "on you" (compare go crazy on you), not literally and specifically "on your buttocks")
    Mess up one more time and it's your ass (i.e. you're fired)
    • 2025 November 18, Brandon Drenon, quoting Clay Higgins, “The only 'no' vote on releasing Epstein files”, in BBC‎:
      "All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th," Higgins wrote.
Usage notes
  • When used synecdochically to refer to a (whole) person, it adds a tone of anger or disapproval to the whole sentence:
    • "he has trouble getting his ass up in the morning" is much stronger and more negative than "he has trouble getting up in the morning".
  • The disapproval may not be of the person so referred to:
    • "And who do you think has to clean this mess up? My ass does!" (Does not indicate disapproval of the speaker themselves, but rather of the people who made the mess.)
      • (A hint of jaded self-perception may be perceived: "I realize how they see me!")
  • Such usage is usually considered vulgar and is thus usually confined to casual/informal registers; its use in formal contexts is mildly offensive.

Its semantic essence is impersonalization (even of oneself), whereby a chief body part synecdochically represents the whole self, with a connotation emphasizing the person's corporeality over their personhood (from that viewpoint, compare also watch his hide, show his face, what's-his-face, meatbag, or crackhead).

Alternative forms
  • @$$ (censored spelling)
Derived terms
Terms derived from ass (buttocks, vulgar)
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adjective

ass (not comparable)

  1. (vulgar, slang, Canada, US) Of low quality; bad.
    • 2019 February 5, Alex Miller, “Former Texas A&M QB Nick Starkel breaks down old Twitter beef with Tate Martell”, in Dallas Morning News‎:
      On a recent episode of "The Justin Dunning Podcast," Starkel shared his thoughts on Martell, a former Ohio State quarterback, saying "he's ass my dude" in reference to Starkel.
    • 2021 February 21, Thomas Carannante, “Patriots: Cam Newton getting disrespected by a teenager is everything that’s wrong with society”, in Fansided‎:
      For some reason, the teenager thought it’d be a good idea to criticize Newton and say he's "ass" and that he’s "about to be poor" because he's a free agent.
    • 2021 October 28, Josh Weinfuss, “What we learned about Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray by watching him on Twitch”, in ESPN‎:
      "You're so ass," Murray says to another player.

Particle

ass

  1. Synonym of -ass (used to intensify an adjective).
    That was one big ass fish!
    That's an expensive ass car!

Further reading

  • Archibald A. Hill (1940), “Early Loss of [r] before Dentals”, in PMLA, volume 55, number 2, →DOI, pages 308-359
  • L. Sprague de Camp (1971), “Arse and ass”, in Journal of the International Phonetic Association, volume 1, number 2, →DOI, pages 79–80
  • L. A. Hill and S. S. Eustac (1972), “On Arse and Ass”, in Journal of the International Phonetic Association, volume 2, number 2, pages 79–80

Anagrams

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German

Verb

ass

  1. Switzerland and Liechtenstein standard spelling of aß

Latgalian

Etymology 1

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *aśís. Cognates include Latvian ass and Lithuanian ašis.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈasʲsʲ]
  • Hyphenation: ass

Noun

ass f (diminutive aseite)

  1. axle
Declension
More information singular, plural ...

1) dialectal

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈass]
  • Hyphenation: ass

Participle

ass (feminine asūte, masculine plural asūts, feminine plural asūts)

  1. present oblique participle of byut

References

  • M. Bukšs; J. Placinskis (1973), Latgaļu volūdas gramatika un pareizraksteibas vōrdneica, Latgaļu izdevnīceiba, page 131
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Latvian

Luxembourgish

Manx

Middle English

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Nynorsk

Old Irish

Swedish

Tarifit

Tashelhit

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