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Variation of earlier arsehole, from Middle Englisharshole, arcehoole, equivalent to ass + hole. Cognate with Norwegianrasshøl(“asshole”), Swedisharsle(“asshole”). Compare also GermanArschloch(“asshole”). Attested from the 1370s, replacing earlier Old Englishearsþyrel(“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).
You oughta have better sense than to trust anyone with anything in this asshole place.
1979, Ronald Sukenick, Long Talking Bad Conditions Blues, →ISBN, page 83:
... but when he started bugging the bartender to shut the asshole TV off because he wanted to have a serious discussion...
Usage notes
Asshole is an American English form; the corresponding British English form is arsehole.
As a pejorative for persons, this term is less vulgar and intense than fucker or cunt. While not intrinsically gender-specific, it is primarily applied to men; gender-specific pejoratives such as bitch are often used for women. Speakers sometimes apply asshole to a woman when they wish to vulgarly disparage her without dragging misogyny into the equation.
(obsolete) The place for receiving the ashes under the grate in a fireplace.
References
John Jamieson, An etymological dictionary of the Scottish language: in which the words are explained in their different senses, authorized by the names of the writers by whom they are used, or the titles of the works in which they occur, and deduced from their originals, 1818
