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Is “Ass” the Most Complicated Word in English?

pudding.cool

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Re: Is “Ass” the Most Complicated Word in English?

#41

Post by mercer »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #26

When I lived in Germany, I explained to someone (in German) that ass means both arse and donkey and they cracked up. Shrek: "I've got to save my ass" -- meaning his donkey (named Donkey), but Fiona interprets that differently from his intended meaning. Also, I would interpret piece of ass as sex object , not beautiful. It's about just being used for sex. A less ugly use of the expression is roughly "looking for no-st…

Interesting. As a bilingual/fluent but not native English speaker 'piece of ass' always contained at least an element of beauty. not necessarily, but usually.

Re: Is “Ass” the Most Complicated Word in English?

#42

Post by vidarh »

ryanmercer wrote: post #3

I would think "dude" would be more confusing. - "Dude" = cool - "Dude" = come on man, really? - "Dude!" = WTF man, I should punch you in the face - "Dude!" = holy crap, I just got that girl's number! - "Dude?" = who's there, is there a killer in my house? - "Dude?" = no shit, for real? - "Dude!?" = why'd you sleep with my sister?! - "Dude" = hey Steve - "Dude." = not cool bro - "Dude!!!" = you're not gonna believe th…

Many words or expressions basically get used as a proxy to carry intonation that has these meanings.

E.g most of the examples above fall in a small set of categories of expressing excitement, incredulity etc. where the carrying word is of less importance. E.g. you can express "cool" or incredulity with "dude", "mate", "fuck", "bro", "awesome", "neat", "man", and I'm sure many others by just layering the same intonation on them; not all intonations will "work" or carry the same meaning on the same set of words (e.g. expressing anger works fine with "fuck" or "bro" or "dude", but not really with "awesome" or "neat" unless you want to give off really confusing mixed emotions) or to the same groups of people, though, so it's certainly somewhat mediated by the meanings of the underlying word, but often surprisingly little.

There certainly are words that are more malleable that way, and words like dude and fuck are high on the list, perhaps because they as standalone expressions carry very little specific meaning in the word itself that can interfere with the intonation and expressed emotional content.

Re: Is “Ass” the Most Complicated Word in English?

#43

Post by ubermonkey »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #26

When I lived in Germany, I explained to someone (in German) that ass means both arse and donkey and they cracked up. Shrek: "I've got to save my ass" -- meaning his donkey (named Donkey), but Fiona interprets that differently from his intended meaning. Also, I would interpret piece of ass as sex object , not beautiful. It's about just being used for sex. A less ugly use of the expression is roughly "looking for no-st…

"I would interpret piece of ass as sex object, not beautiful."

Which would, well, ruin his landing. It works because it's close.

Re: Is “Ass” the Most Complicated Word in English?

#44

Post by vidarh »

ryanmercer wrote: post #17
senorjazz wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that north American wide or just certain groups in certain states though?

Bud Light had a commercial some years back where it's just them using 'dude' a bunch of different ways https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyMSSe7cOvA I've also seen it used in stand up several times and I feel like at least one film.

> and I feel like at least one film.

"Dude, Where's My Car?"

Half the dialogue (ok, I'm probably exaggerating a little bit) is the word "dude". Often repeated many times in different intonations.

Re: Is “Ass” the Most Complicated Word in English?

#45

Post by ubermonkey »

mercer wrote: post #41
DoreenMichele wrote: post #26

When I lived in Germany, I explained to someone (in German) that ass means both arse and donkey and they cracked up. Shrek: "I've got to save my ass" -- meaning his donkey (named Donkey), but Fiona interprets that differently from his intended meaning. Also, I would interpret piece of ass as sex object , not beautiful. It's about just being used for sex. A less ugly use of the expression is roughly "looking for no-st…

Interesting. As a bilingual/fluent but not native English speaker 'piece of ass' always contained at least an element of beauty. not necessarily, but usually.

I'm a native speaker of American English. Ismo is not wrong. Referring to someone as a "piece of ass" is probably disrespectful or crude, but it absolutely means "holy crap is that person insanely attractive."

Re: Is “Ass” the Most Complicated Word in English?

#48

Post by grepthisab »

umvi wrote: post #38
wil421 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If everyone else is using the word in a new way then who is wrong? The small minority or the masses who are evolving a language?

Well, "history is written by the victors", I suppose, but that doesn't make the masses who are "evolving" the language "right". Unless you think it's "right" for the ignorant to redefine words like "literally" and "nonplussed" to mean the exact opposite of their original meanings or to make "could of" a valid grammatical construct.

I really used to think like this. I thought there was a "proper" way to use words and evolution of language by the "uneducated masses" was a bad thing and they were "ignorant" for not sticking with dictionary definitions. I was insufferable.

Re: Is “Ass” the Most Complicated Word in English?

#49

Post by DoreenMichele »

mercer wrote: post #41
DoreenMichele wrote: post #26

When I lived in Germany, I explained to someone (in German) that ass means both arse and donkey and they cracked up. Shrek: "I've got to save my ass" -- meaning his donkey (named Donkey), but Fiona interprets that differently from his intended meaning. Also, I would interpret piece of ass as sex object , not beautiful. It's about just being used for sex. A less ugly use of the expression is roughly "looking for no-st…

Interesting. As a bilingual/fluent but not native English speaker 'piece of ass' always contained at least an element of beauty. not necessarily, but usually.

Yes, sex objects are typically superficially attractive.

Unless you have some weird fetish, you probably aren't looking for ugly people you barely know to use in bed and discard like they don't matter.

The difference being no one wanders through a garden or museum saying "Those flowers are a piece of ass!" or "That painting is a piece of ass!" to mean "These completely nonsexual objects are amazingly beautiful."

Beautiful women get treated as nothing but sex objects. That doesn't mean euphemisms for "I'd hit that!" are equally synonyms for "That's got incredible visual appeal."

Try explaining to your boss that a website layout is good design in part because "It's a piece of ass!" and see how well that goes.

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