ass

• enPR: ăs, IPA^(key): /æs/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æs

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”)).

ass (plural asses)

Somali wild ass

1. Any of several species of horse-like animals, especially Equus asinus, the domesticated of which are used as beasts of burden.

   Synonym: donkey

   • 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.

   • 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 mildly vulgar through confusion with other word) A stupid person.

   Synonyms: fool, idiot

   That new kid left the cap off the syrup bottle again! What an ass.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 264:

     Oh Vengeance! / Who? What an Aſſe am I?

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     I had sprung to my feet. I was speaking, and yet I had prepared no words. Tarp Henry, my companion, was plucking at my skirts and I heard him whispering, "Sit down, Malone! Don't make a public ass of yourself."

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.]

• (beast of burden): donkey, onager, wild ass

• asinine

• Appendix:Animals
• Appendix:English collective nouns

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 *h₃érsos (compare Ancient Greek ὄρρος (órrhos)).

ass (not comparable)

1. (vulgar, slang) 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.

ass (countable and uncountable, plural asses)

1. (vulgar, slang, countable and uncountable) The buttocks.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:buttocks

2. (vulgar, slang, 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!

3. (vulgar, slang, 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 (lyrics and music), “Blue”, in Blue:

     Acid, booze, and ass / Needles, guns, and grass

4. (vulgar, slang, 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 bunch of ass. ― What a bunch of lies/nonsense/disappointment.

5. (vulgar, slang, 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")

• 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).

• Its declined forms function pronominally in syntax, which is to say (regarding part of speech), they are pronouns:
  • my ass = I, me, myself
  • your ass = you, you, yourself
  • his ass = he, him, himself
  • her ass = she, her, herself
  • your asses = y'all, y'all, yourselves
  • their asses = they, them, themselves

ass

1. Synonym of -ass (“used to intensify an adjective”)

   That was one big ass fish!

   That's an expensive ass car!

• 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

• SAS, SSA, Sas

ass

1. Switzerland and Liechtenstein standard spelling of aß.

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

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

ass f (diminutive aseite)

1. axle

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

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

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

1. present oblique participle of byut

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

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *aśís, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱs-. Originally an i/n-stem, it became an i-stem in Baltic.[1]

• IPA^(key): [as]

ass f (6th declension)

1. axle (pin or spindle around which something, e.g. a wheel, rotates)

   ratu ass ― axletree

   vagona ass ― wagon axle

   motocikla pakaļējā riteņa ass ― motorcycle rear wheel axle

2. (mathematics) axis (a line with certain important properties)

   simetrijas, rotācijas ass ― axis of symmetry, of rotation

   zemes griešanās ass ― the Earth's rotation axis

   koordinātu asis ― coordinate axes

   abscisu, ordinātu ass ― x-, y-axis

From the same source as ass (“axle”), originally a unit of measurement corresponding to the length of a person's outstretched arms (compare Russian са́жень (sáženʹ, “old unit of measurement; length of outstretched arms”).[1]

• IPA^(key): [as]

ass f (6th declension)

1. old unit of length in the Russian system, equivalent to approximately 2.13 meters

   jūras ass ― fathom (unit of length in the English system, approximately 1.83 meters)

2. old unit of volume for measuring wood, equivalent to approximately 2-4 cubic meters

   divas asis malkas ― two axes (=4-8m³) of wood

From earlier *asus, from Proto-Baltic *ašus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp, pointed, edgy”). With an extra suffix *-ro, the same stem also yielded Proto-Balto-Slavic *aśras (“sharp”), whence Latvian dialectal asrs, as well as the Lithuanian cognate aštrùs, dialectal ašrùs. From this stem, there are also Latvian reflexes with ak rather than as (e.g., akmens (“stone”), akots (“awn”)), possibly a result of Proto-Indo-European dialectal variation. In Latvian, former u-stem adjectives like *asus were assimilated into other classes; *asus gave rise to both an o-stem and a yo-stem variant which later on became independent words, ass and ašs, with different semantic nuances (compare also, e.g., plats and plašs, or dobs and dobjš). Other cognates include Old Church Slavonic остръ (ostrŭ), Russian о́стрый (óstryj), Belarusian во́стры (vóstry), Ukrainian о́стрий (óstryj), го́стрий (hóstryj), Bulgarian о́стър (óstǎr), Czech ostrý, Polish ostry, Proto-Germanic *agjō (Old High German ecka, egga (“corner, edge, point, peak, blade”), German Ecke, Sanskrit अश्रिः (áśriḥ, “corner, edge, blade”), Ancient Greek ἀκή (akḗ, “point, tip”), ἄκρος (ákros, “sharp, pointed”), Latin ācer (“sharp”), aciēs (“sharpness, blade”).[1]

• IPA^(key): [as]

ass (definite asais, comparative asāks, superlative visasākais, adverb asi)

1. sharp (such that it (blade, tool) can easily cut or pierce)

   ass nazis, zāģis, cirvis ― sharp knife, saw, ax

   ass īlens, ilknis ― sharp awl, fang

   asa adata ― sharp needle

   asi ragi, ilkņi ― sharp horns, fangs

2. pointed (having a narrow tip)

   asas kalnu galotnes ― sharp mountain tops

   ass zīmulis ― sharp pencil

3. angular, not rounded (of body parts; also of writing, drawing)

   asi elkoņi ― sharp elbows

   asi vaigu kauli ― sharp cheekbones

   asas burtu formas rokrakstā ― sharp letter forms in handwriting

4. (of plants) sharp (having little thorns or thorn-like growths, or having a sharp edge, capable of stinging)

   ass dadzis, paeglis, grīslis ― sharp thistle, juniper, sedge

   asa zāle, nātre ― sharp leaf, nettle

5. (of fabric, skin, etc.) coarse, rough

   asa sejas āda ― coarse, rough facial skin

   ass linu dvielis ― towel (made) of coarse linen

6. sharp, pungent, hot (which irritates the senses, creating a strong feeling or reaction)

   asa mērce ― spicy, hot (lit. sharp) sauce

   asa dūmu smaka ― pungent smell of smoke

   ass ož pēc hlora ― sharp smell of chlorine

   ass vējš ― sharp wind

   asas sāpes ― sharp pain

   ass klepus ― sharp (painful) cough

7. harsh (voice, sound); sharp, biting, unsparing, fierce

   asā balss ― harsh voice

   runāt asā tonī ― to speak in a harsh tone (of voice)

   ass sarkasms ― sharp, biting sarcasm

   ass pārmetumi ― sharp, harsh criticism

   asa ķilda ― fierce quarrel

   asa mēle ― sharp tongue (= caustic, sarcastic)

8. sharp, well-defined, clearly marked

   asas kontūras ― sharp contour, profile

   asi sejas vaibsti ― sharp facial features

   zīmēt asām līnijām ― to draw with sharp, well-defined lines

9. (about problems, questions) clear, acute, of immediate importance

   asa problēma ― a clear, acute problem

10. sharp (very well developed, very accurate)

    asa redze ― sharp vision

    ass prāts ― sharp mind

    asa uztvere ― sharp perception, acumen

• (of "sharp"): skaudrs
• (of "coarse", "harsh"): raupjš, rupjš, negluds, skarbs

• (antonym(s) of “of "sharp"”): truls, neass
• (antonym(s) of “of "coarse", "harsh"”): gluds, maigs, mīksts

• asums

ass

1. is (third-person singular present of sinn)

From Old Irish ass, masculine and neuter singular form of a (“out of, from”), from Proto-Celtic *exs, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵʰs (“from”). Compare Irish as.

ass

1. out

ass

1. out of

• ass y cheer
• ass y hene

ass

1. first-person plural of ec

   out of him/it

• assyn (emphatic)

ass

1. Alternative form of asshe (“burnt matter”)

• Ass (alternative capitalization)

ass m (definite singular assen, indefinite plural asser, definite plural assene)

1. (informal, greater Oslo area) A sound that marks the end of a sentence, and which otherwise doesn't mean anything.
   • 2016 November 23, Urd Vindenes, “«Språk er rart, ass»”, in Språknerderiet‎, retrieved 16 October 2023:

     Språk er rart, ass

     Linguistics are weird, yo

2. (music) A-flat

• Ass (alternative capitalization)

ass m (definite singular assen, indefinite plural assar, definite plural assane)

1. (music) A-flat

• as
• es

• IPA^(key): /as/

ass

1. third-person singular masculine of a

ass n

1. (music) A-flat
2. an insured letter; abbreviation of assurerad (försändelse).

   Coordinate term: rek (“registered”)

• s.a.s., sas

• as

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

ass m (Tifinagh spelling ⴰⵙⵙ, plural ussan)

1. day

   Synonym: nnhar

2. daytime

   Synonym: aziř

• assa (“today”)