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The word "ass" (usually marked as "vulgar"; the one that means "buttocks," "butt," etc.) comes from Sanskrit, one would think, since the old Germanic version is not a stand-alone, but has its colleagues in Latin, Greek, and Armenian.

Anyway, the Germanic original is ars; the modern German arsch; the current British pronunciation (to the best of my knowledge) is "arse."

I would have continued to assume that "ass" is an Americanism had I not encountered the word "asshole" in one of Douglas Adams' installments of the "Hitchhiker Guide." Now Adams was, when it came to language, a British patriot. He pronounced schedule "shedyule," was steadfastly opposed to splitting infinitives, called trucks lorries (and, I suspect, avoided words such as "elevator" and "faucet" as hopelessly Gallic, favoring instead such absurdities as "lift" and "tap"), and so forth. (I happen to agree with him on the infinitives, but that's beside the point).

What gives? The vowel is altered; the consonant is gone. To what end? Why? How?

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Ricky
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  • The consonant wasn't a consonant except in rhotic dialects (unlike RP, which is non-rhotic). As for the vowels, they didn't shift much; just back to front, no other change; happens all the time. – John Lawler Nov 10 '15 at 03:15
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    @John Lawler: I've read somewhere that all dialects were rhotic until very recently (by historical standards, anyway). – Ricky Nov 10 '15 at 03:19
  • Must be true, then. – John Lawler Nov 10 '15 at 03:26
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    You never know. – Ricky Nov 10 '15 at 03:27
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    "Arse/ass" doesn't come from Sanskrit, it's even older than that. Are you reading an edition from a British or American publisher? The spelling may have been Americanized. – herisson Nov 10 '15 at 03:49
  • @sumelic: Neither. I mean, I'm reading neither of them at the moment. Now that you've suggested it, I'll have to take a look. – Ricky Nov 10 '15 at 05:18
  • loosely related: Did the English call a fruit “openærs” for 700 years? If nothing else, it has something on the etymology of openarse which I would guess is the forerunner of arsehole. – Mari-Lou A Nov 10 '15 at 07:40
  • I would still consider the 'correct' spelling 'arse' and 'arsehole.' (SE England) – Jascol Nov 10 '15 at 08:58
  • I think you accepted the answer too quickly, someone somewhere knows much more about the omission of the letter -r from words. I'm not saying the accepted answer is wrong, just... incomplete. And it didn't explain why an English author used an American term, unless the character who uttered it was American. – Mari-Lou A Nov 10 '15 at 09:12
  • @Mari-LouA: The character using the word is extra-terrestrial, in fact. In the audio version the word is "kneebiter," and when I asked about THAT, a whole bunch of Brits assured me that the original print version read "asshole." The print version that I have reads "asshole" as well, but I'm not sure whether it is, in fact, the original version, or a modified version, or what. – Ricky Nov 10 '15 at 09:39
  • Don't know why I didn't receive a ping. I found out that the Americans censored the term asshole, replaced it with kneebiter I nearly posted it as an answer then I thought it didn't answer your question. Here's the link https://books.google.it/books?id=cimXAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT71&lpg=PT71&dq=Hitchhiker+Guide+asshole&source=bl&ots=LBZUVcSGRP&sig=XPbT-GpEDTZ82NJ3hM5yh-IuBe4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDQQ6AEwBGoVChMIhbjyl6WFyQIV4w9yCh0XxgAP#v=onepage&q=Hitchhiker%20Guide%20asshole&f=false – Mari-Lou A Nov 10 '15 at 20:24

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From the Online Etymology Dictionary:

ass (n.2) slang for "backside," first attested 1860 in nautical slang, in popular use from 1930; chiefly U.S.; from dialectal variant pronunciation of arse (q.v.). The loss of -r- before -s- attested in several other words (such as burst/bust, curse/cuss, horse/hoss, barse/bass, garsh/gash). Indirect evidence of the change from arse to ass can be traced to 1785 (in euphemistic avoidance of ass "donkey" by polite speakers) and perhaps to Shakespeare, if Nick Bottom transformed into a donkey in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1594) is the word-play some think it is. Meaning "woman regarded as a sexual object" is from 1942. To have (one's) head up (one's) ass "not know what one is doing" is attested by 1969. Colloquial (one's) ass "one's self, one's person" attested by 1958.

It appears that the consonant was lost due to dialectal pronunciation of the word that eventually became popluar. Hope this helps!

jo99blackops
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