ass

• You feeling all right? You look like ass.
• Dude, these burritos are ass.
• They've paved that field? That is so ass!
• I hate that like on the hottest days I don't want to wear too many clothes but then I go into work and it's ass cold under the air conditioning vent right over my desk.

This is about the contemporary¹ meaning of "ass" in the US and other places.

Have you ever noticed how things related to sex are considered "dirty" by many, which makes people guiltily reluctant to call a spade a spade, and that this leads to the creation of a plethora of synonyms? Don't take my word for it, look at Velocity's list of synonyms for masturbation! Granted, that word just seems to have parameters of sexiness, guilt and sneaky underhandedness (pun only partly intended) that make it a winner in terms of synonym word list size. But you get the idea.

One of the runners-up in this category is the word for the nates². Here's the list of synonyms I'm aware of:

• arse
• ass
• back³
• backside
• behind⁴
• booty⁵
• bottom
• bum⁶
• bumper
• buns
• butt
• buttocks
• can
• derriere
• duff
• end
• fanny⁷
• fundament
• gluteus
• gluteus maximus
• hiney
• nates
• permanent vertical smile
• posterior
• rear
• rear bumper
• rear end
• rump
• seat
• tush

Just as a curiosity: one German synonym, used especially with children, is "Popo". I think this sounds kind of cute. People who consider themselves too dainty to utter this word may say things like "Setz dich auf deine vier Buchstaben!" – "Sit on your four letters!". In more adult circles, "Popo" is often abbreviated to "Po".

Another anal linguist tells me that: "in Mandarin Chinese, ass is 'pigu'; pi = bottom or fart and gu = groin area. It's pronounced 'pee-gwu'."

That's all I can think of, off the top of my head. If you know of more, I urge you to /msg me so I can extend the list.

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Footnotes

1. 9 out of 10 men who have tried riding donkeys... prefer women.
2. Out of the list, the most objective and scientific-sounding synonym I have come across
3. as in, "Baby's got back!"
4. Gay motto: "Never leave your friends behind!"
5. as in, "Shake your booty!"
6. British usage
7. North American usage

Ass (#), n. [OE. asse, AS. assa; akin to Icel. asni, W. asen, asyn, L. asinus, dim. aselus, Gr. ; also to AS. esol, OHG. esil, G. esel, Goth. asilus, Dan. aesel, Lith. asilas, Bohem. osel, Pol. osiel. The word is prob. of Semitic origin; cf. Heb. athn she ass. Cf. Ease.]

1. Zool.

A quadruped of the genus Equus (E. asinus), smaller than the horse, and having a peculiarly harsh bray and long ears. The tame or domestic ass is patient, slow, and sure-footed, and has become the type of obstinacy and stupidity. There are several species of wild asses which are swift-footed.

2.

A dull, heavy, stupid fellow; a dolt.

Shak.

Asses' Bridge. [L. pons asinorum.] The fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid, "The angles at the base of an isosceles triangle are equal to one another." [Sportive] "A schoolboy, stammering out his Asses' Bridge." F. Harrison. -- To make an ass of one's self, to do or say something very foolish or absurd.

© Webster 1913.