asshole

Meaning

Noun

• The anus.
• A jerk; an inappropriately or objectionably mean, inconsiderate, contemptible, obnoxious, intrusive, stupid, and/or rude person.
• By extension, anything unpleasant or undesirable. Often used appositionally.
• A receptacle under a fire grate for collecting ashes.

Related

Similar words

• jerk
• dick

Origin

• Variation of earlier arsehole, from Middle English arshole, arcehoole, equivalent to ass + hole. Cognate with Norwegian rasshøl, Swedish arsle. Compare also German Arschloch. Attested from the 1370s, replacing earlier Old English earsþyrel.
• First recorded in Middle English, as ers hole (Glouc. Cath. Manuscript 19. No. I., dated 1379, cited after OED), ars-hole (Bodleian Ashmole MS. 1396, dated ca. 1400, ed. Robert Von Fleischhacker as Lanfrank's "Science of Cirurgie", EETS 102, 1894, cited after OED.)
• Slang figurative usage dates to the 20th century; it was used of an uninviting place (compare shithole) in the 1920s, and then of an anti-social or despicable person from at least the 1950s (Harvard Advocate 137, March 1954). It also used appositionally (as in "You're an asshole moralist", T. Chamales, ).
• From Scots ass, asse or ash + hole.