A wholly English obscenity

In 1388 the author William Langland wrote about a clergyman hunting with “an hepe of houndes at his ers”, and Chaucer depicted a man kissing a lady’s “naked ers”. Yet the word was pedestrian enough to be used in a medical text, which described hemorrhoids as five veins “whyche streche out atte the ars*”.

However, by the late 18th century it was considered obscene – so much so that writers began swapping out the word ‘ass’ for ‘donkey’ because it was too close for comfort. This association led to some particularly rude compounds, such as ‘stupid ars*’ and ‘dumbass’, though none were as offensive as the Old English ‘arcehoole’, or ‘kiss my ars*’. But during World War I, after years on the sidelines, ‘ars*’ re-entered the popular lexicon.