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Funny enough, he mentions the same things the article does, especially the end of it.
I have loved this word since I first heard it. I assumed it evolved out of the common expressions: "get your head out of your ass" or "he's got his head up his ass". To me, this evokes an image of wearing one's ass as a hat. I love the ridiculousness of picturing that.
> the etymological note we have describes the linking of ass and hat as “seemingly nonsensical” What? It's obviously a reference to having your head up your ass, thus turning your ass into a hat.
I have loved this word since I first heard it. I assumed it evolved out of the common expressions: "get your head out of your ass" or "he's got his head up his ass". To me, this evokes an image of wearing one's ass as a hat. I love the ridiculousness of picturing that.
Yeah, it made its way into my quiver by hanging around slashdot for years.
Dear asshat, you're being an asshat. I deleted your asshat comment. Please stop the asshattery. Love, jessamin
This non-letter was set to music by her Metafilter co-moderator cortex: https://music.metafilter.com/480/Please-Stop-The-Asshattery
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, as noted in the article, asshead has a few hundred years on asshat...
Words also lose notability and are removed from the dictionary all the time. Literally the inverse argument for adding "asshat".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A minor issue with that reasoning is that it doesn't explain why you might use the word asshat to refer to a person who is wearing an asshat. Asshatter would make a bit more sense, akin to brownnoser. On the other hand, I guess words like fatass have this same problem of equating the person with something the person possesses.
Whether you’re talking about The Crown as the queen, The Whitehouse as the executive branch, or the pen being mightier than the sword, metonymy is a common linguistic device that uses a part as a metaphor for the whole.
What a great word, thanks for sharing!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Words also lose notability and are removed from the dictionary all the time. Literally the inverse argument for adding "asshat".
Words are usually just removed from print editions to manage space. Otherwise they are just marked as obsolete or archaic.
I have loved this word since I first heard it. I assumed it evolved out of the common expressions: "get your head out of your ass" or "he's got his head up his ass". To me, this evokes an image of wearing one's ass as a hat. I love the ridiculousness of picturing that.
Yeah, it made its way into my quiver by hanging around slashdot for years.