arse

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   vulgar British term for the buttocks or a foolish person

   He slipped on the ice and landed flat on his arse.

Simplified etymology

Arse is inherited from Old English and was established before 1000. It is connected with old German and Scandinavian forms that were probably related to Greek orros, “rump” or “bottom,” and it did not become markedly vulgar until the 18th century. American ass began as a spelling variant of arse and is historically unrelated to ass meaning “donkey.”

From Old English ears ('buttocks, fundament'), from Proto-Germanic *arsaz, cognate with German Arsch and Greek órros ('rump').

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