Arse - a history. Is it the oldest swear word still standing?
We reckon Arse doesn't get the credit it deserves. A simple 'Arse' is one of our best selling sweary greetings cards.
It's blunt, it's cheerful, it's a classic and it's also one of the least offensive rude words in our whole vocabulary.
Arse is also one of the oldest swear words.
So where did it come from? And how did such an ancient word end up so relaxed about itself?
What is the history of the swear word 'Arse'?
Arse is genuinely ancient. It goes all the way back to Old English ærs or ears, meaning simply 'buttocks' or the hind part of a person or animal.
It was recorded in England before the year 1150. It's a proper Germanic word too, with close cousins in Dutch aars and German Arsch, all tracing back to a reconstructed Proto-Germanic root, and further back still to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'backside' or 'tail'.
For centuries, the word Arse carried no shame at all. It was simply the anatomical term, used as plainly as 'hand' or 'foot'. Medieval English even had a whole family of everyday arse-compounds: your intestines were your 'arse-ropes', your rectum was your 'arse-gut', and whatever was used as toilet paper at the time went by the charming name 'arse-wisp'.
The American spelling, 'ass', came later. Sometime after Middle English, some speakers dropped the 'r' sound in their pronunciation of arse, giving us 'ass'. The same process, roughly, that turned 'curse' into 'cuss'.
Confusingly, this collided with an entirely unrelated word, 'ass' meaning donkey, which comes from the Latin asinus. Two completely separate words, one accidental spelling collision, and centuries of jokes about stubborn animals and stubborn backsides getting mixed up.
When did 'Arse' become a swear word?
Slowly, and only mildly, is the honest answer.
By the 1600s, phrases like 'to hang the arse' (meaning to be late, or to hang back reluctantly) were already common.
As English became more prudish through the 18th and 19th centuries, arse gradually picked up its rude edge, but it never became one of the truly heavy-hitting curse words. Ofcom, the UK's broadcasting regulator, still rates it as one of the milder swear words in the modern lexicon.
Its everyday usefulness has only grown. 'I can't be arsed' (too lazy to bother), 'to arse about' (to mess around), 'he's got the arse ache' (he's annoyed with something or someone) and 'a pain in the arse' (a troublesome person) have all become so embedded in ordinary British speech that they barely register as swearing at all.
Is 'Arse' the world's most versatile swear word?
We think it might be.
While we're firmly of the opinion that 'Bollocks' is the UK's most hardworking curse word, arse (or its American cousin, ass) may well be the most versatile internationally.
It works as an insult ('you arse'), as a description of laziness ('arsed'), as a verb ('arse about'), as an exclamation of frustration ('arse!'), and even as a term of self-deprecation ('I made a right arse of myself').
It also travels well. From British 'arse' to American 'ass' to countless regional variations across the English-speaking world, this one word with it's two spellings covers more emotional ground than almost any other rude word we've written about or used in our sweary greetings cards.
Is it ok to use 'Arse' as a swear word?
Handle it with the same care as any curse word.
Read the room and know your audience. But of all the swear words on our list, this is the one you're least likely to get seriously told off for.
We hope this article and others we have written helps you understand why swearing isn't necessarily a bad thing, the evolution of language and why words matter.
More from the Damn Fine Greetings team about words and linguistics
Bollocks - a history. Is it the hardest working swear word in use today?
Bellend - a history. The youngest in the swear word family?
The psychology of swearing as an act of love. Is swearing a sign that you actually care about people??
Why do British people swear so much more than Canadians (and many other countries)?
What are the origins of swear words / curse words? And why are some words taboo?
Lost for words - what to write in a greetings card when you don't know what to say