ass

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a donkey, or a foolish or stupid person

   The stubborn old ass refused to budge from the path.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Ass has two unrelated histories. The American word for the buttocks began as a spelling variant of arse, while ass meaning “donkey” is inherited from Old English and ultimately goes back to Latin asinus; the latter is also related to easel and asinine.

From Old English assa ('he-ass'), probably borrowed via Celtic from Latin asinus ('ass, donkey'), itself perhaps from an Anatolian or Near Eastern source.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary