Etymology

asshole

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Today it means: The anus. Full definition →

English hole ← Middle English hole ← Old English hol
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asshole · noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₁órs-o-s
  2. Proto-Germanic*arsaz
  3. Proto-West Germanic*ars
  4. Old Englishears
  5. Middle Englishars
  6. Englishass
  7. Proto-Germanic*hulaz
  8. Proto-Germanic*hulą
  9. Proto-West Germanic*hol
  10. Old Englishhol
  11. Middle Englishhole
  12. Englishhole
  13. English todayasshole

Variant of earlier arsehole, from Middle English arshole, arcehoole, equivalent to ass + hole. Cognate with Norwegian rasshøl (“asshole”), Swedish arsle (“asshole”). Compare also German Arschloch (“asshole”). Attested from the 1370s, replacing earlier Old English earsþyrel (“anus”, literally “ass hole”). 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 is also used appositionally (as in "You're an asshole moralist", T. Chamales, 1957).

asshole · noun2

  1. Scots · derived fromass
  2. English todayasshole

From Scots ass, asse or ash + hole.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.