arse

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ars, also ers,^[2][3] inherited from Old English ærs, also ears,^[4][5][3][6] from Proto-Germanic *arsaz;^[4][7][8][9] Etymonline writes the Germanic form *arsoz.^[10] It is cognate with Old Frisian ers, Old Saxon ars, Old High German ars (now German Arsch), Middle Dutch aers (now Dutch aars, also naars) and Old Norse ars, also rass by metathesis.^{[11][3][9][6]} The Germanic word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *órsos,^[7][4][12] which also gave Ancient Greek ὄρρος (órrhos, “rump, base of the spine”),^[11][3][10] earlier ὄρσος (órsos) in compounds.^[11] Klein, Etymonline and Partridge add Hittite arraš and words for "buttock" in Armenian and "tail" in Old Irish,^{[3][10][13][7]} though Kroonen finds the Old Irish one uncertain.^[9] The OED explains Middle English forms in e such as eres by lengthening of the vowel in Old English, and notes a form with the r lost, as in ass "buttocks".^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person's buttocks or backside, also the anus, occasionally an animal's rump: in early Old English, in the Cleopatra Glossary.^[11][14] Old English also called the medlar open-ærs.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins notes that arse was not a rude word at first and remained respectable until the 18th century;^[14] the OED records it written with asterisks or dashes from the 17th century.^[11] Johnson (1755) entered it plainly as "the buttocks, or hind part of an animal".^[15] Middle English had arse-winning, money earned by prostitution (late 14th century).^[10] From 1510 it also meant the bottom or rear of an object,^[11] and in the dialects it was used for the hinder part of anything, as in arse-board for the tail-board of a cart.^[16] Arse over head, head over heels, is recorded from about 1400,^[11][14] arse over tip and arse over tit by 1884 in Etymonline but only from the early 20th century in the Dictionary of Word Origins.^[10][14] To hang an arse, to hold back, dates from 1596 in the OED and the 1630s in Etymonline.^[11][10] The insult "a fool, a contemptible person" appears about 1785, in Blake;^[11] the senses "one's person" (1949), "nonsense" (1993, chiefly British) and the exclamation (1994) are recent.^[11] The spelling ass reflects a loss of r before s: Etymonline finds it in nautical slang by 1860 and in popular, chiefly American, use from 1930,^[10] and Ayto has one isolated British record from 1860 and dates the American spelling to the 1930s.^[7] The bird name wheatear is an alteration of a Middle English name meaning "white arse".^[7]

Timeline

• early Old English – the buttocks, in the Cleopatra Glossary.^[11]
• late 14th century – arse-winning, earnings of prostitution.^[10]
• c. 1400 – arse over head.^[11]
• 1510 – the bottom or rear of an object.^[11]
• 1596 – to hang an arse, to hold back.^[11]
• c. 1785 – a stupid or contemptible person.^[11]
• 1919 – verb, arse about, to fool about, in Joyce's Ulysses.^[11]
• 1951 – verb, arse up, to botch.^[11]
• 1968 – can't be arsed.^[11]
• 1993 – nonsense, rubbish.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly British, vulgar) The buttocks; the backside.^[17][11][6]
2. (vulgar) The anus.^[17][11][6]
3. (vulgar) A stupid or contemptible person; a fool.^[17][11]
4. (chiefly British, slang) Nonsense, rubbish.^[11]
5. (Australia, slang) Cheek, effrontery.^[17]
6. (nautical) The bottom end of a wooden pulley block.^[18]

Interjection

1. (chiefly British and Irish, slang) An exclamation of annoyance or frustration.^[11]

Verb

1. arse about or arse around: to fool about, to waste time.^[11][6]
2. arse up: to botch or mess up.^[11][6]
3. can't be arsed: to be unwilling to make the effort to do something.^[11][6]

Related words

• ass
• arsehole
• wheatear
• uro-

Usage notes

Collins labels it vulgar slang and gives ass as the American and Canadian form.^[17] The Dictionary of Word Origins stresses that this ass has nothing to do with ass the donkey, which goes back to Latin asinus.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster