asshole
- 01 C2 Proficiency
a very unpleasant or dirty place.
a location or situation perceived as exceptionally undesirable, dirty, or poorly managed.
Simple“I hate this town; it is a total asshole of a place.”
In context“He complained that the remote outpost was the absolute asshole of the world, lacking even the most basic modern amenities or reliable communication.”
UsageOften used in the construction 'asshole of the world' or 'asshole of a [place]'.
Synonymsdumphellhole
“Chaka Khan had harsh words for the “assholes” at her then record company, Warner Bros, who she felt under-promoted 1992’s The Woman I Am, her first album in four years.”
Variant of earlier arsehole, from Middle English arshole, arcehoole, equivalent to ass + hole. Cognate with Norwegian rasshøl (“asshole”), Swedish arsle (“asshole”). Compare also German Arschloch (“asshole”). Attested from the 1370s, replacing earlier Old English earsþyrel (“anus”, literally “ass hole”). First recorded in Middle English, as ers hole (Glouc. Cath. Manuscript 19. No. I., dated 1379, cited after OED), ars-hole (Bodleian Ashmole MS. 1396, dated ca. 1400, ed. Robert Von Fleischhacker as Lanfrank's "Science of Cirurgie", EETS 102, 1894, cited after OED.) Slang figurative usage dates to the 20th century; it was used of an uninviting place (compare shithole) in the 1920s, and then of an anti-social or despicable person from at least the 1950s (Harvard Advocate 137, March 1954). It is also used appositionally (as in "You're an asshole moralist", T. Chamales, 1957).
From Scots ass, asse or ash + hole.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.