(January 6, 2017 at 10:20 am)Emjay Wrote: though I do wonder if it started out as 'ass' and morphed into 'arse' because of how it was pronounced in some quarters (by posh people such as yourself, Your Highness).
No.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=arse
Quote:arse (n.)
"buttocks," Old English ærs "tail, rump," from Proto-Germanic *arsoz (source also of Old Saxon, Old High German, Old Norse ars, Middle Dutch ærs, German Arsch "buttock"), from PIE root *ors- "buttock, backside" (source also of Greek orros "tail, rump, base of the spine," Hittite arrash, Armenian or "buttock," Old Irish err "tail"). Middle English had arse-winning "money obtained by prostitution" (late 14c.).
Love that phrase, arse-winning. Why don't we hear that anymore?
Incidentally, I snipped for clarity the best bit that carried over in pasting: "Look up arse at Dictionary.com"
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
