Ichthyology

Ichthyology (pronounced ik-thee-ol-uh-jee)

(1) In zoology, the scientific study of fishes.

(2) The study of the history, cultural & economic importance of fishes.

1640–1650: A compound word, the construction being ichthyo- + -logy.  Ichthyo- and ichthy- were from the Ancient Greek ἰχθύς (ikhthús) (fish), possibly from the primitive Indo-European dhghu and there may be a relationship with the Old Armenian ձուկն (jukn) & the Lithuanian žuvis and the suffix –logy was derived from the Ancient Greek λογία (logos) (to study).  The English -logy suffix originates with loanwords from the Greek, usually via Latin and French, where the -λογία is an integral part of the word loaned whereas the French -logie is a continuation of the Latin -logia, ultimately from Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía).  Within English, the suffix has long been productive, especially to form names of sciences or departments of study, analogous to names of disciplines loaned from the Latin, such as astrology from astrologia or geology from geologia. Original compositions of terms with no precedent in Greek or Latin become common by the early nineteenth century, sometimes imitating French or German templates; insectology (1766) after the French insectologie & terminology (1801) after the German terminologie.  By the twentieth century, English creations with no Greek or Latin origin (undergroundology (1820), hatology (1837) were frequent, sometimes in conjunction with –ism words.  Ichthyology is a noun, related forms include ichthyologic & ichthyological (adjectives), ichthyologically is an adverb; the noun plural is ichthyologists.

The noun piscatology was an irregular (and jocular) formation dating from 1857, the construct being the Latin piscatus, past participle of piscārī (to fish), present active infinitive of piscor, from piscis, from the Proto-Italic piskis, from the primitive Indo-European peysḱ-, the cognates including the Old Irish íasc, the Gothic fisks and the Old English fisċ + -olgy.  The word piscatology has been used to mean “the study of fish” (and thus a synonym of ichthyology)) but not by scientists and the irregular form is now more correctly casually applied to fishing and those who fish.  In the 1990s, the idea behind the construction of piscatology begat piscetarian and pescetarian (a person who consumes no animal flesh with the exception of fish or other seafood), by analogy with “vegetarian”.  The plural of fish is an illustration of the inconsistency of English.  As the plural form, “fish” & “fishes” are often (and harmlessly) used interchangeably but in zoology, there is a distinction, fish (1) the noun singular & (2) the plural when referring to multiple individuals from a single species while fishes is the noun plural used to describe different species or species groups.  The differentiation is thus similar to that between people and peoples yet different from the use adopted when speaking of sheep and, although opinion is divided on which is misleading (the depictions vary), those born under the zodiac sign Pisces are referred to variously as both fish & fishes.

Reeling one in: Lindsay Lohan and Hofit Golan (b 1985) fishing off Sardinia, July 2016.  They would be considered piscatologists (those who catch fish) rather than ichthyologists (those who study fish) although there are humorless purists who insist there's no such word as piscatologist.  The modern convention would be "fishers" or "fisherpersons".

In zoology, the modern conventions of taxonomy mean fishes are precisely categorized but the English word “fish” for centuries was used to describe a much wider range of species (although one discerning observer in the fifteenth century did concoct fishes bestiales (water animals other than fishes), presumably on the basis fishes proper should be limited to something like “a vertebrate which has gills and fins adapting it for living in the water”.  As still familiar names like starfish, jellyfish, shellfish & cuttlefish attest, just about any fully aquatic animal (including mammals like dolphins & whales) was thought some sort of fish and attempts by zoologists to rectify things (such as suggesting the starfish should retroactively be named sea star) have made little impact.  The difficulty with such a project is that historically, some fish were also misleadingly named.  The name seahorse (also as sea horse & sea-horse) encompasses dozens of small fish in the genus Hippocampus, from the Ancient Greek hippókampos (ἱππόκαμπος), the construct being híppos (ἵππος) (horse) + kámpos (κάμπος) (sea monster or sea animal).  To be consistent, these engaging creatures would presumably have to be named horsefish (risking confusion with one of Donald Trump’s alleged former associates) or something else less appealing than seahorse and that’s unlikely to attract much support.

Fish was from the Middle English fisch, from Old English fisċ (fish), from the Proto-West Germanic fisk, from the Proto-Germanic fiskaz (fish) and was related to the West Frisian fisk, the Dutch vis, the German Fisch, the Danish, Norwegian & Swedish fisk and the Icelandic fiskur.  The word was linked with both the Latin piscis and the Old Irish īasc although the actual root remains unknown.  Some have constructed the primitive Indo-European roots pisk & peysk- because of evidence gleaned from the Italic, Celtic, and Germanic but it remains speculative and one etymologist maintains that (on phonetic grounds), it may be a north-western Europe substratum word .  The verb fish (to harvest creatures living in water) was from the Old English fiscian ("to try to catch fish) was cognate with the Old Norse fiska, the Old High German fiscon, the German fischen and the Gothic fiskon and was directly from the noun; the related forms were fished & fishing.

Lindsay Lohan with catch.  To avoid cancellation, she posted on Instagram: “Bonding with nature. I let my little friend swim away after.”

In astronomy and (the then respectable) astrology, the constellation Pisces was so described from the late-fourteenth century.  From the mid eighteenth century, “fish” (with modifiers) came to be applied to people in a usually derogatory sense, a shift from the earlier use when it had been positive in the sense of someone being a good (romantic) “catch”.  The original figurative sense was of a “fish out of water” (person in an unfamiliar and awkward situation (usually social)) recorded in the 1610s and in the same vein the phrase “a fisshe out of the see” was noted in the mid-fifteenth century.  To “drink like a fish” was from 1744 and was applied to those over-fond of strong drink while “having other fish to fry” (other things demanding more immediate attention) dates from the 1650s.  In optics, the fish-eye lens was first sold in 1961, fish-and-chips became a staple of English cuisine in the 1870s and fish-fingers were first sold (in frozen form) from 1962, the earlier fish-cake known since the 1910s and especially popular during wartime rationing.

The phrase “plenty more fish in the sea” was a re-assuring line for those whose love was unrequited and like “cold fish” & “queer fish” (both alluding to qualities detected in those with some degree of social ineptitude) was a coining from the early twentieth century.  Usually applied to other soldiers, “queer fish” was a favourite of Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke (1883–1963; Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) 1941-1946), a perhaps unexpected choice for one of Britain’s more renowned ornithologists.  Why Sir Henry Channon (1897–1958) gained the nickname "Chips" is uncertain but it’s popularly attributed to a photograph taken of him standing on the stairs while at Oxford, next to a Mr Fysch.  Channon’s (almost) un-redacted diaries (1918-1957 (with gaps)), published in three volumes between 2021-2023 revealed him at his best and worst and are an indispensable companion while reading anything about mid-twentieth century British politics.

Memorable cars named after fish.

1964 Plymouth Barracuda (left), 1968 Plymouth Barracuda convertible (centre) and 1971 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda (right).

Introduced in 1964 17 days before the Ford Mustang, in the narrow technical sense the, Plymouth Barracuda was the first “pony car” but it didn’t capture the imagination or achieve anything like the Mustang’s success which is why the segment picked up an equine rather than an ichthyological nickname.  The early Barracuda (1964-1966) was created by grafting a fastback rear-end on to the compact Valiant and while ungainly when compared to the charismatic Mustang, is remembered for being fitted with what was at the time the largest (and heaviest) piece of rear glass ever to appear on an automobile.  The second series (1967-1969) featured Italianeque lines and deserved to be more successful but the pony car ecosystem had been become congested with Mercury, Chevrolet, Pontiac and even AMC also with purpose-built entrants so what was still a “modified Valiant” remained something of an also-ran although some truly awesome versions were built.  The third generation (1970-1974 and this time accompanied by the substantially similar Dodge Challenger) is by many regarded still as the best-looking of all the pony cars and was a curious mixture of sound basic engineering and penny-pinching although what accounted for its commercial failure was the conjunction of rising insurance rates, various government regulations and changing tastes.  Though its life was ended early in as sea of red ink, as a used car the rarest and most desirable of the third series Barracudas (actually sold as ‘Cudas) have sold at auction for several million dollars.

1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray coupe (left) and 1971 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray ZR2 convertible.

The Sting Ray name was introduced with the debut of the second generation (C2) Chevrolet Corvette in 1963, the first time a coupé was included as a companion to the convertible.  The 1963 coupé was notable for its “split” rear window, at the time a matter of controversy within the corporation and the “anti-split” faction prevailed because the idea lasted only the one season, a single piece of glass appearing for 1964.  The “splitists” did however, in a sense, have the last laugh because the 1963 coupés are now highly sought and command a premium, becoming one of the few exceptions to the “when the roof comes down the price goes up” rule, joining a handful of machines like the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, certain air-cooled Porsches and the MGA Twin-Cam.  The C2 Corvette lasted only four years and it would have been a season less had not problems with the aerodynamics of the C3 delayed its introduction and when the C3 appeared as a 1968 model, the bifurcated Sting Ray name was “corrected” to “Stingray”, the standard spelling in ichthyology for the various large, venomous rays, of the orders Rajiformes and Myliobatiformes.  The C3 Corvette had another connection with fish in that the styling closely followed the Mako Shark II concept car, displayed in the GM (General Motors) Futurama Pavilion at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair.  The Stingray name continued to be applied until 1976, by which time the Corvette was a much-diminished machine (though remaining popular) and it wasn’t until the C7 appeared in 2014 it returned.

1970 Opel Manta with Mantafahrer and his blonde Friseurinnen-Freundin.

The first generation Opel Manta was built by GM’s European operation between 1970-1975 and used the highly profitable model applied to create machines like Ford’s Mustang and Capri (1968-1986): drape a sexy body over the platform of a more prosaic, mass-market family car.  The design was not ambitious and was at the time called “derivative” but it was well-executed and provided GM with an import of a desirable size to offer in the US market where it proved a success until the price was rendered uncompetitive by the strengthening of the Deutschmark against the US dollar after Washington DC’s various inflationary adventures in the 1960s, Richard Nixon’s (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) sundering of the currency’s linkage with gold and the first oil shock on 1973; the Opel marquee was retired from the US market in 1975.  As a machine the Manta is something of a footnote in the history of German manufacturing but is remembered because of the Mantawitze (Manta jokes), all based on the character of the stereotypical Mantafahrer (Manta driver), said to be working class, poorly educated, unintelligent, macho and most interested in his football team, his Manta and his blonde girlfriend who is a hairdresser.  The idea was the Manta appealed to the Mantafahrer because it was “sporty” (albeit not especially fast) yet cheap enough to be afforded by those without the funds to buy a BMW or Porsche.  Interestingly, a similar profile may have been able to be attached to drivers of Ford Capris but there seems never to been a genre of “Capri humor”.

1970 Monteverdi Hai 450 SS.

When in 1970 the Swiss boutique manufacturer Monteverdi displayed the Hai (German for “shark”), one journalist acknowledged the stunning speed but noted the lack of practicality, storage space judged to be adequate for a “topless bikini” (a numokini or unikini in the modern parlance).  Peter Monteverdi (1934–1998) claimed the Hai was “a pre-production prototype” and listed it in his catalogue at a then hefty US$27,000 (more even than the coach-built two-door versions of the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow and while they would have attracted a very different buyer-profile, the comparison was indicative of market relativities).  The consensus is Peter Monteverdi never intended series-production because the Hai was really just an impractical show-piece built to generate publicity (and in that it succeeded) though four eventually were made with only the first fitted with the charismatic 7.0 litre (426 cubic inch) Chrysler Street Hemi V8.  The other three, two of which were built shortly before Mr Monteverdi's death, used the less powerful but also less cantankerous 7.2 litre (440 cubic inch) unit.  As a footnote for trivia buffs, although it's accepted orthodoxy "the factory never installed air conditioning (A/C) in Street Hemi-equipped cars", Monteverdi did fit A/C to the first Hai so the true truism should read "No Chrysler factory ever..."

1965 Rambler Marlin (left), 1966 AMC Marlin (centre) and 1967 AMC Marlin (right).

Had one not had one’s blindfold removed before taking the wheel, one’s first experience of driving the 1965 Rambler Marlin would likely have been positive because the two-door (somewhere between what was in size (in US terms) between a “compact” and “intermediate”) was in most ways at least as good as the competition and superior in certain aspects, notably the build quality.  The critical issue with the Marlin was not the engineering on the on-road dynamics but the appearance, the fastback grafted onto a structure much larger than the two-seat coupés to which the lines are most suited.  The Marlin recalled the vaguely “humpbackish” look of the big fastback sedan of the 1940s and that was a trend which faded from use for a reason.  It was however practical in that it provided a way to combine a fastback with rear compartment with adequate headroom and even those not especially tall who sat in the back seat of the 1975 Chevrolet Monza can attest to what happens to one’s head in cars where style has been allowed to prevail.  What the Marlin’s designers did was the only way adequate headroom can be provided rear-seat passengers but, as the rather unhappy 2+2 version of the Jaguar E-Type illustrated, it does compromise the look.  In 1966 AMC (American Motors Corporation) ceased to use the “Rambler” name for the Marlin, part of the phase out of the marquee which would be retired from the US market by 1970 although it was retained in Australia until 1976 and Mexico until 1983.  The 1967 Marlin was released with the same styling motifs but used instead on AMC’s well-regarded, full-size platform and the consensus was it was better looking but the already modest sales dropped further and the model was dropped with year’s end and not replaced.

Collage

Collage (pronounced kuh-lahzh or koh-lahzh)

(1) The technique, most associated with visual abstract art, of composing a work of art by pasting on a single surface various materials not normally associated with one another, as newspaper clippings, parts of photographs, theater tickets, and fragments of an envelope.

(2) A work of art produced by this technique.

(3) An assemblage or occurrence of diverse elements or fragments in (1) and unlikely or unexpected juxtaposition or (2) a coherent result.

(4) In film, a series of seemingly unrelated scenes or images or shifts from one scene or image to another suddenly and without transition.

(5) Any work created by combining unrelated (or at least definably different) styles; in literature, a combination of styles within the one work; in music a combinations of genres.

1915–1920: From the French collage, the construct being coll(er) (paste, glue) + -age.  Coller was from the Ancient Greek κόλλα (kólla) (glue) of uncertain origin but may ultimately be from the primitive Indo-European kol- and cognates included the Russian кле́й (kléj) and the Middle Dutch helen. The –age suffix was from the Middle French -age, from Old French -age, from the Latin –āticum (influential in words like rivage and voyage) which was used to form nouns or collective nouns in the sense of "action or state of being (a) X, result of Xing" or (more rarely), "action related to X".  Although the historical suffix has had many applications (eg family relationships or locations), it’s now almost wholly restricted to the sense of "action of Xing", and many terms now have little to no connection with the most common uses something especially notable in forms descended from actual Latin words such as fromage and voyage.  Collage & Collagist are nouns, collaged & collaging are verbs (used with object); the noun plural is collages.

Of the accidental & intentional

It not certain exactly when collage was first used in the sense its modern meaning.  It's sometimes credited to English painter and critic, Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) who used the term in a 1919 publication but that’s contested given the word had appeared earlier though there’s some doubt whether that was in reference to the mechanical technique or the final product.  What became known as collage certainly long pre-dates 1919; papier collé was used by both Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) and Georges Braque (1882–1963) early in the century and artists, authors & painters had for centuries been producing work from disparate components.  In the digital age, the somewhat misleadingly named software eCollage (and many others) allowed collages to be created on screen although, technically, these programs were as often used to render photomontage as collage.  The opportunistically named iCollage is an image-assembly app for iOS.

A montage of Che Guevara collages.  The difference between collage and montage is that while a collage weaves together things of difference to create a unified whole, a montage uses complete things of some similarity to create something visually coherent although, with some modern artists, coherence can prove elusive.

Colleges by Giuseppe Arcimboldi; Left to right: Four Seasons in One Head, oil on canvas, (circa 1590), Fire, oil on wood, (1566), Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor painted as Vertumnus, Roman god of the seasons, oil on canvas, (circa 1591), The Librarian, oil on canvas, (1566) & Summer, oil on canvas, (1563).

In Western portraiture, the collage is not a recent form.  Although also a conventional court painter of portraits and sacred art, Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldi (1527–1593) was noted for his portraits rendered as collages, the heads fashioned from objects such as vegetables, fruits, flowers & fish.  Very much the modern art of his day, his fanciful work seems to have been well received and critics have linked his work to the tradition of Mannerism.  Examples of collage have been found which pre-date Antiquity and the idea of assembling some representation of something from whatever items fall to hand is thought likely to have been one of the earliest forms of human artistic expression. 

Colleges by Jason Mecier; Left to right: Sigmund Freud, Frida Kahlo, Barack Obama, Lindsay Lohan & Donald Trump.

Los Angeles based pop artist Jason Mecier (b 1968) operates in a particular niche of the collage world, his mosaic portraits fabricated from unconventional materials, sometimes thematic (Sigmund Freud rendered in pills) and most famously, trash.  Perhaps surprisingly, Mr Mecier seems never to have fashioned a likeness of crooked Hillary Clinton; even when working with trash, presumably one has to draw the line somewhere.

Aroint

Aroint (pronounced uh-roint)

Begone (as imperative verb) (obsolete).

1595–1605: Of uncertain origin, it survives in English as a curiosity in the lexicon of the obscure, only because it was used by Shakespeare (as an imperative) and the etymology has thus over the centuries been subject to much conjecture, none ever escorted by enough evidence to impress the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) which has never budged from origin unknown.  There are many words which, however neglected, are not entirely forgotten only because they were used by Shakespeare, aroint appearing in both Macbeth and King Lear.  Aroint, arointed and arointing are verbs; the noun arointment is non-standard but, if used, the noun plural is arointments.

“Aroint thee, witch!” the rump-fed runnion cries!”
 (Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 3)

“And aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!”
 (King Lear, Act 3, Scene 4)

In the right circumstances, a useful word still:  Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021 and since 2025) and crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013) in the third of the debates during the 2016 US presidential election, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 9 October 2016.

For the debates, crooked Hillary Clinton’s campaign team themed her in patriotic red, white and blue pantsuits, red for the first, blue for the second and white for the third; whether that sequence was random or deliberate isn’t known and what Mr Trump wore was neither noticed nor commented upon.  Of course, were crooked Hillary to be asked, she'd claim the photograph above was taken during the first debate or the second, not because there's anything to be gained but because that's just what she does and students given a "compare and contrast" assignment about "habitual vs pathological liars" will find her pattern of behavior a useful case-study.  

The origin of aroint has long intrigued scholars of Shakespeare.  One nineteenth century theory linked it to a regional dialectical use in Cheshire where rynt, roynt & runt were recorded, milkmaids saying the phrase “rynt thee” to a cow, the beasts so used to the sound that swiftly they moved from her path.  In 1674, some sixty years after Macbeth and King Lear were first performed, “rynt you” appeared in a provincial dictionary without further elucidation but the speculation continued.  English philologist John Horne Tooke (1736-1812) cited ronger, rogner & royner, claiming “from whence also aroynt”, all meaning a “separation or discontinuity of the skin or flesh by a gnawing, eating forward, malady”, offering a comparison with the Italian rogna (scabies, mange) and ronyon in Macbeth.  Other early candidates for the etymon are the French arry–avant (away there, ho!), éreinte–toi (break thy back or reins (used as an imprecation)), the Latin dii te averruncent (may the devils take thee) and the Italian arranca (the imperative of arrancare (plod along, trudge)).  Perhaps most obviously, many have mentioned aroint being an expected phonetic variant of anoint or acquiring in some contexts the figurative sense “thrash”, convincing to some because it hints at the common account of witches who were said to perform their supernatural acts by means of unguents.  There was also English diarist and prolific antiquary Thomas Hearne (1678–1735) who in his Ectypa Varia ad Historiam Britannicam (Selected Illustrated History of Britain (1737)) included an illustration of a devil, driving the damned while chanting “Out, out Arongt.”  Arongt resembles aroint and the sense is close but that’s never been enough to satisfy the etymologists.

Threatened with arointment.

In 2018, while operating the Lohan Beach House in Rhodes, Greece, Lindsay Lohan threatened to aroint two employees, their transgressive behavior being photographed wearing two different styles of shoes, one in nude heels, the other in blocky white platforms.  They were otherwise matching in cream robes but not content, Lindsay Lohan posted "Wear the same shoes please.  Or you’re fired."  Shoes were a serious matter at the Lohan Beach House.

One favourite theory of origin is the Rowan tree.  As early as 1784, it was suggested aroint has something to do with rauntree, one of several variants of “rowan tree”, an alleged virtue of which, mentioned in myth and folklore from Ancient Greece to Scandinavia, was its ability to deter witches, protecting people and cattle from evil.  The origin of this handy attribute lies in Norse mythology for Thor was once almost drowned in a river at the hands of a witch but he threw at her a great stone and was carried ashore, pulling himself from the depths by grasping at the limbs of a tree, forever after known as “Thor’s rescue.”  Thus began the tradition of shouting rauntree or rointree to chase away witches, of which there are many.  Rowan is a noun of Scandinavian origin (the Icelandic reynir; the Norwegian raun), the suggestion being an imprecation like a “raun“ to “reyn to thee” seems effortlessly to have slurred to become “aroint thee.”  Some are convinced, some not.

Ass & Arse

Arse (pronounced ahrs)

(1) One of many slang terms for the human buttocks (in much of the English-speaking world except the US).

(2) By extension, one of many slang terms applied to the rear or back-end of anything, animal, vegetable or mineral (in much of the English-speaking world except the US).

(3) In Australian slang, effrontery; cheek.

(4) In slang, a stupid, pompous, arrogant, mean or despicable etc person, a use sometimes enlivened as “arsehole” (in much of the English-speaking world except the US).

(5) A person; the self; (reflexively) oneself or one's person, chiefly their body and by extension, one's personal safety, or figuratively one's job, prospects etc (in much of the English-speaking world except the US).

(6) In biochemistry, as ARSE, the abbreviation of arylsulfatase E (an enzyme, deficiencies in which are associated with abnormalities in cartilage and bone development).

Pre 1000: From the Middle English ars, eres & ers, from the Old English ærs & ears, from the Proto-West Germanic ars, from the Proto-Germanic arsaz and cognate with the Old Frisian ers, the Dutch aars, the Old Norse, Middle Low German, Old Saxon & Old High German ars (from which modern German gained Arsch), the Greek órrhos (rump (from orso-, used frequently in compounds)), the Armenian or̄kh and the Hittite arras.  All of the nouns derive ultimately probably from the primitive Indo-European h₃érsos- (backside, buttocks, tail), the source also of the Ancient Greek ourá & orros (tail, rump, base of the spine), the Hittite arrash and the Old Irish err (tail).  In the hierarchy of vulgarity, arse had an interesting history, beginning as something purely descriptive but, because of the association with the buttocks and their functions (with all that that implies), the word soon became a vulgar form, avoided in polite conversation.  That restraint lingered well into the twentieth century but even though things are now more relaxed, a careless use of arse in the wrong time and place, in the wrong company, can still cause offence.  The Latin arse was the vocative masculine singular of arsus, the perfect passive participle of ārdeō which was used with a variety of senses (1) to burn (to be consumed by fire), (2) Of eyes which glow or sparkle, (3) in poetic use, to glisten with a feature, usually with a colour, (4) figuratively, “to burn, be strongly affected with an emotion, (5), figuratively, “to be eager” & (6) figuratively, ardently or fervently to be in love, to burn with lustful or romantic desire.  Arse is a noun & verb; arsing is a verb and arsed is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is arses.

One should avoid losing one's ticket.

There can have been few words as productive as arse in the construction of slang and idiomatic forms, some of which survived while some died out.  To “hang the arse” (slow, reluctant; tardy) was from the 1630s while the more graphic (and in some cases presumably literal) “arse-winning” referred to income gained from prostitution "money obtained by prostitution" was in Middle English in the late fourteenth century.  The familiar “arse over tit” (to fall down; to fall over) is actually an alternative form of the original “arse over tip” which was first recorded in 1884 although it had probably long been in oral use.  Arseward was a synonym of backward in the fourteenth century while the mysterious arsy-versy (backside foremost) dates from the 1530s and was probably a reduplication of arse, perhaps with suggestions of “going backwards; in reverse”.  Arsehole can of course be literal (referencing the anus) and the late fourteenth century was spelled arce-hoole, an inheritance from the Old English in which the Latin anus was glossed with earsðerl (literally "arse-thrill" with the noun thrill used in its original sense of "hole".  Asshole (a stupid, pompous, arrogant, mean or despicable etc person) is also a frequently used term of abuse.  One long-serving Australian foreign minister, early in his undistinguished term was overheard referring to poor nations as “BACs” (busted arse countries) and while he never apologized, did sit smirking in parliament while the prime-minister assured the house he’d been assured it wouldn’t happen again (presumably the leak rather than the comment).  A smart-arse (a person thought flippant or insolent, usually with a tendency to make snide remarks) should not be confused with an arse-smart (also ars-smart), the herb Persicaria hydropiper (formerly Polygonum hydropiper), named in the early fourteenth century, the construct being arse + smart (in the sense of “pain”).  The herb was also at the time once culrage and since the late eighteenth century has been known as smartweed.  Arse smart was a direct translation of the Old French cul rage, the construct being the Old French cul + rage which some sources suggest is from the Latin rabies (from rabiō (to rage)) but evidence is lacking and the French word may have been a folk etymology.

In German "My ass!" is spelled "Mein Arsch!".

The list of arse-based phrases (some of which began in the US as “ass” slang) is long and perhaps impossible wholly to compile but some of the other more frequently used forms are (1) arseage or pure arse (good and usually undeserved luck), (2) arse licker (sycophancy, also expressed as suck arse or kiss arse), sometime used in conjunction with (3) arse-kicker (stern superior) in the phrase (4) “kisses up, kicks down” which refers to those obsequious towards superior and officious to subordinates, (5) light up someone’s arse (provide encouragement in a strident or violent manner) which Dr Joseph Goebbels (1897-1975; Nazi propaganda minister 1933-1945) used in typically imaginative manner, telling his staff just after the failure of the July 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945), “It takes a bomb under his arse to make Hitler see reason”, (6) arse about (and arse around) which can mean either “the wrong way around” or “behaving frivolously, wasting time”, (7) half-arsed (something done badly or improperly), (8) fat arse (someone overweight), (9) dumb arse (someone considered not intelligent or an act thought most unwise), (10) cover one's arse (to take such action as one considers necessary to avoid later blame or censure (this one definitely borrowed from the US)), (11) to break one’s arse (working hard), (12) arse in a sling (an unfortunate state in one’s personal affairs, especially if the consequence of one’s own mistakes or ill-considered actions), (13) pain in the arse (someone or something troublesome or really annoying (pain in the neck the polite alternative)), (14) kick in the arse (a form of encouragement, a punishment or combination of the two), (15) bet your arse (an expression of certainty), (16) pulled it out of one’s arse (an admission of luck), the companion phrase being (17) can’t just pull it out of one’s arse (introducing a sense of reality to a conversation), (18) stick it up (your) arse (declining an offer, invitation or suggestion) and (19) can't be arsed (can’t be bothered).

Gratuitous objectification of the callipygian: One dozen pictures of Lindsay Lohan’s ass.

Ass (pronounced ass or ahrs)

(1) Ass is a noun and the adjectival form is ass-like (assesque a bit clumsy); the noun plural is asses.  adjective: asinine

(2) Either of two perissodactyl mammals of the horse family (Equidae), Equus asinus (African wild ass) or E. hemionus (Asiatic wild ass).  They are long-eared, slow, placid, sure-footed and easily domesticated, thus long used as a beast of burden.

(3) An alternative spelling of arse (buttocks or anus) and the standard form in the US and much of Canada.

(4) A stupid, foolish, absurdly pompous or stubborn person (although when seeking to suggest stubborn, “mule” was historically the more usual form).

(5) Someone with whom sexual intercourse is desired, contemplated or achieved and in those contexts can be used also to express admiration (nice piece of ass).

Pre-1000:  From the Middle English asse, from the Old English assa, probably a pet name or diminutive form based on a Celtic form such as the Old Irish asan or the Old Welsh asen, from the Latin asinus and akin to the Greek ónos (the donkey-like ass), from a non-Indo-European language of Asia Minor, possibly the Sumerian anše (ass).  The use as an alternative spelling of arse dates from the 1860s in the US and may be related to the increase in the mixing of linguistic traditions during the Civil War.

Tree humor.

Arse thus is the British slang word referring to (1) the human or animal posterior, or (2) a stupid person.  Ass is the American equivalent and is used also as the name of the beast of burden so like “check”, in US English there is potential for confusion whereas in British & Commonwealth use, the ass/arse & cheque/check distinction avoids this although, given the differences in definition, ass is less prone than check.  Some style guides and the more helpful dictionaries caution that ass in the US is less acceptable that arse has become in the commonwealth and when speaking of the beast, donkey or mule is often used, even when zoologically dubious.  Still, the word is useful and on Reddit there’s the subreddit AITA ("Am I the asshole"), which is the clearing house for enquiries where those involved in disputes can seek views on whether they are in the wrong.

Dick Assman (Assman the Gasman), Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, 1995.

Dick Assman (1934-2016) was a Canadian gas (petrol) station employee who gained his fifteen minutes (actually several months) of fame by virtue of his name which came to the attention of US talk-show host David Letterman (b 1947).  Seeing the comedic potential, Letterman in mid-1995 added a nightly segment called Assman the Gasman which lasted a few weeks but it generated for Mr Assman so much name-recognition, that it led to opportunities such as judging beauty contests.  The names Assman & Assmann are of fourteenth century German origin and are thought variations of Erasmus from the Ancient Greek erasmos (loved).  It was originally a personal name which evolved into a surname as the conventions of family names evolved in the post-feudal period.  Mr Assman enjoyed the celebrity ride but did note the name is correctly pronounced oss-man.

Bismarck class Schlachtschiff (battleship) KMS Tirpitz. 

Vice Admiral Kurt Assmann (1883-1962) had a career at sea before between in 1933 appointed head of the historical section of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine which would later become part of Oberkommando der Marine (OKL; the naval high command)).  The books he published in the post-war years are a valuable source of facts and a helpful chronology but much of his analysis about political and naval strategy was criticized on both sides of the Iron Curtain.  His nephew was naval Captain Heinz Assmann (1904—1954) who for a time served on the Bismarck-class battleship KMS Tirpitz and was later attached to Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW; the armed forces high command).  His notable contribution to history was being in the conference room on 20 July 1944 when the bomb intended to kill Hitler exploded.  After recovering from his injuries, he returned to his duties at OKW and was attached to the Flensburg staff of Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz (1891–1980; head of the German Navy 1943-1945, German head of state 1945) when the latter was named in Hitler’s political testament as his successor as head of state, his time in office lasting three weeks.  Captain Assmann subsequently was interviewed by allied investigators who were seeking fully to understand the chain of events of on the day of the July plot.  Between 1953-1954, he served as a member of the Hamburg Parliament.

The original McDonalds Yass billboard (left) may not have been well designed but as a piece of “brand awareness” it succeeded like no other sign in Australia, images of it widely circulated and appearing often in memes.  When the Yass outlet became a 24/7 operation, the local council had the sign re-designed (centre) to use an initial capital for “Yass” and increasing the distance between the corporate “M” (the so-called “golden arches”) and the town’s name.  That was however too subtle and Australians still got the joke; the memes continued.  Why the problem wasn’t solved by shifting the “M” to right (digitally altered image, right) isn’t known but it may be such a placement would have violated corporate guidelines.

Yass (population 6,763 (2021 census)) is a town in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW);it sits some 174 miles (280 km) south-west of Sydney and is 37 miles (59 km) from Canberra, the national capital.  The name is believed derived from a word (either Yarrh or Yharr) in the language of the local Ngunawal people meaning “running water”.  Lady Bird Johnson (1912–2007; First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) 1963-1969) thought the proliferation of roadside billboards an intrusive ugliness and championed the Highway Beautification Act (HBA, 1965) which was intended to control billboards, junkyards, and other unsightly features along federally funded highways while encouraging landscaping and scenic enhancement.  In the way things are done in the US (such things “hammered out” in the Congress in a cocktail of lobbying and campaign donations), over the decades the HBA was “watered down” and its provisions became interpreted with some generosity but, as amended, it remains in effect and without it, there would likely be even more roadside clutter.  The act certainly was effective in screening junkyards visible from highways but despite that, Lady Bird Johnson on many occasions expressed her disappointment the law did not realise its original intent.  What can be certain is if Lyndon Johnson (LBJ, 1908–1973; US president (POTUS) 1963-1969) has ever seen the Yass McDonalds sign, he’d have had a good chuckle.

The ass in thought crime

Thou shalt not covet is one of the biblical Ten Commandments (or Decalogue), regarded by most scholars as moral imperatives.  Both Exodus and Deuteronomy describe the commandments as having been spoken by God, inscribed on two stone tablets by the finger of God, and, after Moses shattered the originals, rewritten by God on others.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ass, or anything that belongs to thy neighbor.

Thy neighbor's ass (pronounced ass).

It differs from the other nine in that while they’re concerned with the actions of sinners, the prohibition on being a coveter is about a sinner's thoughts and thus, an early description of thoughtcrime (a word coined by George Orwell (1903-1950) for his dystopian 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four).  Indeed Matthew (5:21-21, 27-28) anticipates Orwell in saying that it’s not enough merely to obey the commandment “thou shalt not commit adultery” because “…anyone who looks upon a woman with lust has already committed adultery in his heart”.  Jimmy Carter (1924-2024; US President 1977-1981) quoted this in his Playboy interview, a statement of presidential probity neither shared nor always adhered to by all his successors and predecessors.  In that context, it should be remembered there's an (unwritten) eleventh commandment: "Thou shall not get caught".

Oikophobia

Oikophobia (pronounced oick-oh-foh-bee-uh)

(1) In political science, an aversion to or rejection of one’s own culture, and traditions; a dislike of one's own compatriots.

(2) In psychiatry, one of a number of phobias related to (1) one’s home (either as a building or as place of abode), (2) returning to one’s home or (3) some or all of the contents of one’s home.

From the Ancient Greek οἶκος (oîkos) (house; household; a basic societal unit in Ancient Greece; a household or family line) +‎ -phobia from phóbos (fear).  The suffix -phobia (fear of a specific thing; hate, dislike, or repression of a specific thing) was from the New Latin, from the Classical Latin, from the Ancient Greek -φοβία (-phobía) and was used to form nouns meaning fear of a specific thing (the idea of a hatred came later).  Oikophobia & oikophobe are nouns, oikophobic is a noun and adjective and oikophobically is an adverb; the noun plural is oikophobes.

Roger Scruton in his study.  Although a staunch conservative tied to earlier traditions, even The Guardian granted a deservedly generous obituary.

The political sense where oikophobia (literally the antonym of xenophobia (hatred, fear or strong antipathy towards strangers or foreigners)) dates only from 2004 when it was used by English philosopher Roger Scruton (1944-2020) as part of the culture wars which swirl still around the critiques and defenses of Western civilization, the Enlightenment and the implications of post-modernism.  Scruton’s slim volume England and the Need for Nations (2004, Civitas, 64 pp ISBN-10-1903386497) argued that empirically, based on the last two-hundred years odd, it was the nation state which best created the conditions necessary for peace, prosperity, and the defense of human rights.  There are obviously not a few examples of nation states which have proven not to be exemplars of the values Scruton values but his agreement was essentially structural: Where there have been attempts to replace the nation-state with some kind of transnational political order, such things have tended to descend to totalitarian dictatorships like the old Soviet Union or evolve into bloated unaccountable bureaucracies like the post Maastricht European Union (EU).  It surprised nobody that enthusiastically he supported the UK’s exit (Brexit) from the EU:

 “I believe we are on the brink of decisions that could prove disastrous for Europe and for the world and that we have only a few years in which to take stock of our inheritance and to reassume it.  Now more than ever do those lines from Goethe’s Faust ring true for us: "Was du ererbt von deinen Vätern hast, Erwirb es, um es zu besitzen" (What you have inherited from your forefathers, earn it, that you might own it).  We in the nation states of Europe need to earn again the sovereignty that previous generations so laboriously shaped from the inheritance of Christianity, imperial government and Roman law. Earning it, we will own it, and owning it, we will be at peace within our borders.”

Portrait of Theodor Herzl (circa 1890), oil on canvas by Leopold Pilichowski (1869-1933), Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, London.

Scruton of course rejected the notion he was in any way xenophobic but did reference that as oikophobia’s antonym when he described the latter as a “…need to denigrate the customs, culture and institutions that are identifiably ours” and ominously implicit in his critique was the observation it was a cultural malaise which tended to befalls civilizations in the days of decline before their fall.  Plenty have documented the mechanisms by which the faith in Western civilization was undermined, their phrases famous landmarks in the development of post-modernism including “cultural relativism”, “march through the institutions” & “deconstructionism” etc.  However, in a political context the idea of oikophobia wasn’t then entirely new, the idea of the “self-hating Jew” documented in 1896 by Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) in his book 1896 book The Jewish State.  Regarded as “the father of modern political Zionism”, Herzl denounced those who opposed his model of a Jewish state in Palestine, calling them “disguised anti-Semites of Jewish origin”.  Essentially, Herzl saw being Jewish as not only compulsory for Jews but defined the only “true” Judaism as his Zionist vision but despite that, among European Jews, especially the educated and assimilated, Zionism was by no means universally supported and both sides weaponized their vocabularies.  In 1930, German Jewish philosopher Theodor Lessing (1872–1933) published Juedischer Selbsthass (Jewish Self-Hatred) and from then onwards the “self-hating Jew” came to be slung at those (often intellectuals) opposed to Zionism.  In 1933, Lessing (who had fled to Czechoslovakia) was murdered at the instigation of the Nazis.  In the post war years “self-hating Jew” has come to be used by Israeli politicians against any Jew who opposes their policies, often with as little basis as “fascist” came to be deployed in post-Franco Spain.

Before it was picked up in political science and purloined for the culture wars, oikophobia had been a technical term in psychiatry to refer to a patient’s aversion to a home environment, or an abnormal fear (phobia) of being in their own home, the companion terms being (1) ecophobia (fear of a home environment) the construct being eco- (from the French eco-, from the Latin oeco, from the Ancient Greek οἶκος (oîkos) (house, household) + -phobia & (2) nostophobia (a fear of, or aversion to, returning to one's home), the construct being the Ancient Greek νόστος (nóstos) (a return home) +‎ -phobia.  It was the idea of the “unwillingness to return home” that was later absorbed by the deconstructionists and other post-modernists in the sense of “an aversion to the past, the antithesis of nostalgia” because in their assault on Western society, it was the political and social relics they attacked, condemning them as symbols (indeed tools) of oppression and mechanisms by which the power elite maintained their hegemony.  Thus, Western legal & theological traditions and the artistic & literary canon were just one of many constructs and, because of their oppressive history, needed to be overthrown.

In psychiatry, oikophobia, ecophobia & nostophobia cold also be used of patients exhibiting the symptoms of phobia relating to all or some of the contents of a house: electrical appliances, the plumbing, the cupboards, the furniture, the light fittings etc.  So specific were some of these cases (an there were some not unjustified such as a fear of certain allergy-inducing substances such as chemicals) that the profession added domatophobia (a specific fear of a house as opposed to its contents), the construct being domato- (from the Middle French domestique, from the Latin domesticus, from domus (house, home) + -phobia.  In the years after World War II (1939—1945), the word domatophobia came to be used by journalists to described what was emerging as a mass phenomenon: women attracted to careers outside the home, this explained by (usually male) journalists as “a fear of or aversion to housework”, presumably their proper role.