arse

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See also: ARSE

English

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Wikipedia

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English ars, ers, from Old English ærs, ears, from Proto-West Germanic *ars, from Proto-Germanic *arsaz (compare Dutch aars and German Arsch), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃érsos (“backside, buttocks”) (according to Julius Pokorny and Carl Darling Buck).

Pronunciation

Noun

arse (plural arses)

  1. (current in South Africa, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, dated in New England, now vulgar) The buttocks or more specifically, the anus.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:buttocks, Thesaurus:anus
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “iij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XII:
      & thenne he rode after the bore / & thenne syre laūcelot was ware where the bore set his ars to a tree by an hermytage / Thenne sir launcelot ranne atte bore with his spere / & ther with the bore torned hym nemly
    • 2011, James Smart, The Guardian, 12 March:
      As the novel progresses, he is shot in the hand with his own gun, shot in the arse with someone else's and lacerated by a prosthetic weed trimmer.
    • 2020 September 9, Jason Chamberlain, “The growing likelihood of a 'different type of railway'”, in Rail, page 45:
      Or to put it in the more colourful language of our Prime Minister: "The secret to improving rail transport, in my view, is you need to find the right arse to kick." Unfortunately, since the abolition of the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) in 2005, the DfT has ostensibly been in direct control of railway policy setting, and this has meant that the only arse the government has been able to kick is its own.
  2. (chiefly Britain, derogatory slang) A stupid, mean or despicable person.
    • 2007, Martin Harrison, The Judgement of Paris, p.282:
      “You're an arse,” Ellen said. ¶ “Please? You must like something about me …?” ¶ “I do. You're an arse. I just told you that. I feel comfy with you, because you're such an arse.”
    • 2007, L. A. Wilson, The Silurian: Book One: The Fox and the Bear, p.103:
      He looked at me, was just about to call me an arse, when I told him, “You throw it too hard. Try and think of the javelin hitting the target before you throw it. Let it all go through your mind first, see it, feel it, then throw it.” ¶ “Good advice, you arse,” he said and tried again.
    • 2011, Joe Abercrombie, The Heroes, unnumbered page:
      Felnigg. What a suppurating arse. Look at him. Arse.

Quotations

Derived terms

Terms derived from arse (noun)

Descendants

  • Sranan Tongo: lasi

Translations

arse — see ass

Verb

arse (third-person singular simple present arses, present participle arsing, simple past and past participle arsed)

  1. (slang, intransitive) To be silly, act stupid or mess around.
    Stop arsing around!
    • 1985, Sam McAughtry, McAughtry's War, page 10,
      He was university material, just arsing about as a rigger, arsing about, killing time with bohunks like me […] .
    • 2005, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, page 291,
      Pi, upset, roars, "Quit arsing around there and get cracking," and a dozen heads turn their way.
    • 2011, Jaine Fenn, Bringer of Light, unnumbered page,
      He was half-expecting a call from the lingua, telling him to stop arsing around, but his com stayed silent, so it looked like a certain amount of arsing around was allowed.

Derived terms

Anagrams

Italian

Adjective

arse f pl

  1. feminine plural of arso

Verb

arse

  1. third-person singular indicative past historic of ardere

Participle

arse

  1. feminine plural of the past participle of ardere

Anagrams

Latin

Pronunciation

Participle

arse

  1. vocative masculine singular of arsus

Old Irish

Etymology

Univerbation of airi (“for the sake of it; therefore”) +‎ se (“this”)

Pronunciation

Adverb

arse

  1. therefore, for this/that reason
    Synonym: airi
    • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 12a22
      Ní nád ṁbed arse di chorp, act atá de.
      Not that it might not be therefore of (the) body, but (rather) it is of it

Portuguese

Alternative forms

Noun

arse f (plural arses)

  1. (poetry, music) arsis (the stronger part of a measure or foot)

Romanian

Pronunciation

Adjective

arse

  1. genitive/dative feminine singular of ars
  2. nominative/accusative feminine/neuter plural of ars
  3. genitive/dative feminine/neuter plural of ars

Verb

arse

  1. third-person singular simple perfect indicative of arde
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