| 释义 |
▪ I. ass, n.1|æs|
Forms: 1–2 assa, 2–8 asse, 3– ass (3–5 as, 3 has, 4–5 a nasse). Pl. 4– asses: 1 assan, 2–4 assen, 3–4 asse (south.).
[OE. assa m. has no exact analogue in the cognate langs. OE. had also ęsol, app. for ęsel, ęsil, the common Teut. form, = OS. and OHG. esil (mod.G. esel, Du. ezel), Goth. asilus, like the Celtic and Slav. names (OIrish asal, Lith. asilas, OSlav. osl:—*osilu-) evidently ad. L. asinus. From the Celtic was the Old Northumbrian asal, assal, assald, the only form in Lindisf. Gospels (occurs 10 times). Of the latter, assa was perh. a diminutive, formed like the dim. proper names Ceadda, ælla, Offa, etc., which at length displaced the earlier ęsol. Assa had also fem. assen, on the type of fyxen, wylfen, ælfen, which did not survive into ME., where he-asse, she-asse, occur already in Wyclif. Jack ass, Jenny-ass are modern familiar appellations.
The reputed OE. fem. asse seems to be an error founded on assan folan in which ass is no more fem. than are lion, tiger, in lion's whelp, tiger's cub. The ON. asna f., asni m. appear to be independent late adaptations of L. asina, asinus, not actually connected with the OE. The Celtic, Teut., and Slavonic can hardly have been independent adoptions of the L.: the Slav. was apparently taken through Teutonic: was the latter through Celtic? The Ass had no original Aryan name: L. asinus, Gr. ὄνος (? = ὄσνος), were prob. of Semitic origin: cf. Heb. āthōn, she-ass.]
1. a. A well-known quadruped of the horse kind, distinguished from the horse by its smaller size, long ears, tuft at end of tail, and black stripe across the shoulders. Found wild in western and southwestern Asia, where it has been used from the earliest ages as a beast of burden, and whence, in later times, it appears to have been introduced as a domestic animal into Europe.
(In familiar use, the name ass is now to a great extent superseded by donkey (in Scotland cuddie); but ass is always used in the language of Scripture, Natural History, proverb, and fable; also, in oridinary use, in Ireland.)
c1000ælfric Numb. xxii. 23 Se assa ᵹeseah ðone engel. c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxi. 2 Sona finde ᵹyt ane assene ᵹetiᵹᵹede, and hyre folan mid hyre. Ibid. John xii. 15 Uppan assan folan sittende. c1175Lamb. Hom. 3 Heo nomen þe asse and here colt. 1297R. Glouc. 404 Hii ete Her hors..and hassen ar hii lete. c1325Cœur de L. 6453 Fyftene hundryd asse Bar wyn and oyle. a1300Cursor M. 3152 Þe child he kest a-pon an ass. Ibid. 6156 Sheepe ne cow ox ne as. a1300E.E. Psalter civ. 11 Wilde asses in þar þrist sal abide. 1382Wyclif Gen. xlv. 23 Ten hee assis..and as feele she assis [1388 Ten male assis..and so many femal assis]. c1386Chaucer Wife's Prol. 285 Assen, oxen, and houndes. c1400Apol. Loll. 97 Þe oxe knowiþ his weldar, and þe as þe crib of his lord. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. iv. i. 21 He shall but beare them, as the Asse beares Gold. 1617F. Moryson Itin. iii. i. iii. 49 A Traveller to Rome must have the backe of an Asse, the belly of a Hogge, and a conscience as broad as the Kings highway. 1620Venner Via Recta v. 87 Asses milke appertaineth rather vnto physicke then vnto meat. 1739T. Sheridan Persius i. 23 As the World goes, who has not Asses Ears? 1760Wesley Wks. (1872) III. 9 Procuring a fresh horse, about the size of a jackass, I rode on. 1782Cowper Gilpin li, While he spoke, a braying ass Did sing most loud and clear.
b. fig. ‘Beast of burden.’
1614Raleigh Hist. World II. v. iii. §i. 359 He..makes himself..an Asse; and thereby teacheth others, either how to ride, or driue him. 1635E. Pagitt Christianogr. 237 This Kingdome..usually stiled the popes Asse, which hee rode at his pleasure, til she was able to beare him no longer.
c. The ass has, since the time of the Greeks, figured in fables and proverbs as the type of clumsiness, ignorance, and stupidity; hence many phrases and proverbial expressions. (Chiefly since 1500; the early references to the animal being mostly Scriptural, with no depreciatory associations.)
c1200Ormin 3714 Mannkinn..skillæs swa summ asse. c1400Apol. Loll. 57 Wan an vndiscret is maad bischop in þe kirk, þan is an hornid asse born þer in. 1590Nashe Anat. Absurd. E j b, That which thou knowest not peraduenture thy Asse can tell thee. 1599Thynne Animadv. (1875) 5 Wrangle for one asses shadow, or to seke a knott in a rushe. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 21 A dull Scholar not apt to learn, is bid to sell an Asse to signifie his blockishness. 1611Cotgr. s.v. Asne, As angrie as an Asse with a squib in his breech. 1620Shelton Quix. III. xxviii. 201 Well, well, the Honey is not for the Ass's mouth. Ibid. xxxv. 254 An Ass laden with Gold will go lightly up hill. 1622Middleton & Rowley Old Law iii. i, Asses have ears as well as pitchers. 1653Urquhart Rabelais i. xi, He..would act the Asses part to get some bran. 1711Addison Spect. No. 13 ⁋4 The ill-natured world might call him the Ass in the Lion's Skin. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. II. viii. 277 An unlettered king is a crowned ass.
d. to make an ass of: to treat as an ass, stultify. to make an ass of oneself: to behave absurdly, stultify oneself.
1590Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 124 This is to make an asse of me, to fright me, if they could. 1865Trollope Belton Est. xx. 241 Don't make such an ass of yourself as to suppose that, etc. 1866Fraser's Mag. 284/1 They could not be deprived of the common right of Englishmen to make asses of themselves if they liked it.
e. Asses' Bridge or Pons Asinorum: a humorous name now given to the fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid's Elements.
c1780Epigram, If this be rightly called the bridge of asses, He's not the fool that sticks, but he that passes. 1860All Y. Round 560 He never crossed the ass's bridge.
2. Hence transf. as a term of reproach: An ignorant fellow, a perverse fool, a conceited dolt. Now disused in polite literature and speech.
1578Lyte Dodoens 348 Landleapers, roges, and ignorant asses. 1598Shakes. Merry W. i. i. 176, I am not altogether an asse. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. ii. (1651) 316 A nobleman..a proud fool, an arrant asse. 1717Pope Let. Hon. R. Digby Wks. 1737 VI. 73 They think our Doctors asses to them. 1828Scott F.M. Perth I. 39, I am but an ass in the trick of bringing about such discourse. 1843Lever J. Hinton iv. (1878) 25 Lord Dudley de Vere, the most confounded puppy, and the emptiest ass.
3. Astr. The Two Asses: the stars γ and δ of the constellation Cancer, on either side of the nebula Præsepe (the Crib).
1556Recorde Cast. Knowl. 266 Other two starres are called the Asses whiche seeme to stande at the Crybbe. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 17 The two Asses, placed there as some say, by Bacchus.
4. Paper-Making (The relationship of the form asp, also used, is unexplained.) A donkey-rest (see donkey 3 b).
a1875Knight Dict. Mech. I. 170/2 Ass, a post in the bridge of a pulp-vat to lay the mold upon while the water drains from it. Used in the hand-made paper work. 1927World's Paper Trade Rev. 24 June 2002/2 Ass, the wooden strut against which the vatman places the mould for a moment to drain, shaped like a bow. 1947D. Hunter Papermaking (ed. 2) vi. 178 The coucher placed the mould..against the inclined drainage-horn, or ‘asp’, which allowed the surplus water to drain back into the vat. Ibid. xv. 437 The coucher..leans the mould against the asp or horn at the proper angle.
5. Comb.
a. General relations: (a) appositive, as ass beast; (b) possessive genitive, as ass bone, ass ear, ass flesh, ass hoof, ass stall (where ass's would now be usual), ass colour; (c) objective genitive, as ass-driver, ass-keeper; (d) attrib. as ass argument (i.e. asinine); (e) parasynthetic deriv. as ass-coloured, ass-eared.
c1375Wyclif Serm. xcviii, Sel. Wks. 1869 I. 345 Þanne mai we telle scorne by sich *asse argumentis.
a1300Cursor M. 14963 Þar sal yee find an *ass beist.
Ibid. 7171 Hefand an *assban.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 356 This Beast..is of a Mouse or *Ass colour.
1658Rowland Mouffet's Theat. Ins. 1048 A little creature with many feet, *Asse-coloured.
1564Bauldwin Mor. Phil. (Palfr.) i. (1595) 19 Till they perceived captaines of armies to be *asse-drivers.
1672Davenant Law agst. Lovers (1673) 309 Have her *Ass-ears in publick bor'd, as Love's Known Slave.
1629Symmer Spir. Posie To Reader A iij b, Some *asse-ear'd Midas will misconstrue these words.
1831Carlyle Misc. (1857) II. 224 Not overloaded with *Ass-eared giants.
1822T. Mitchell Aristophanes II. 190 *Ass-flesh, as food, is far preferable to beef and even to veal.
1601Holland Pliny II. 338 To strew vpon them the ashes of an *asse-hoofe.
1591Percivall Sp. Dict., Asnero, an *Asse keeper.
c1400Epiph. (Turnb. 1843) 140 Lyyng in a *nasse stall, Invenerunt puerum.
b. Special combinations: ass-back, like horseback, in later times humorously; ass-cart, a cart drawn by an ass; ass-colt or -foal, the young of an ass; ass-herd, a keeper of asses; ass-like a., like an ass, asinine; ass-man, a driver or letter out of asses; assmanship, asswomanship, humorously after horsemanship; ass-mare, a she-ass; ass-mill, one driven by an ass; ass-parsley, obs. name of some umbelliferous plant; ass-ship, condition or quality of an ass; humorously after lordship; ass-woman, female of ass-man. Also ass-head, -headed q.v.
1377Langl. P. Pl. xviii. 11 Barfote on an *asse bakke.
1766Smollett Trav. 42 The way of riding most used in this place is on *assback.
1800Southey in C. Southey Life II. 109 Edith and myself on *ass-back.
1821Blackw. Mag. Apr. 412/2 They met the country people coming in—some in horse-carts, others in *ass-carts. 1902Yeats Where there is Nothing (1903) ii, A little kennel of straw under the ass-cart.
1587Golding De Mornay xxx. 481 Tying his *Assecolt [Coverdale, asses colte] to the vyne, and the foale of his sheeasse to the hedge.
a1617Hieron Wks. II. 166 In his birth he is but like a wild *asse-colt.
1595Hunnis Life Joseph 72 He shall bind his *Asse fole fast vnto the pleasant vine.
c1450Gloss. in Wright Voc. 213 Hic asinarius, a *nashard.
1652Gaule Magastrom. 351 Quoth the *asse-herd, the lot means another, and not me.
1567Drant Horace Epist. i. xiii. E iij, Least thou *asslyke unloden the with greater note of cryme.
1581Sidney Def. Poesie (Arb.) 59 They would make an *Ass-like braying against Poesie.
1770G. White Selborne xxviii. 79 The head was about twenty inches long, and *ass-like.
a1500MS. Bodl. 565 (Halliw.) And ye most ȝeve yowre *asman curtesy a grot other a grosset of Venyse.
1859N. & Q. Ser. ii. VIII. 17 Of..this *assman, as he was called, I have an anciently engraved copper-plate card.
1882Punch 24 June, They witch the world with noble *assmanship.
1598R. Barckley Felic. Man ii. (1603) 88 Who rode..uppon a silly *asse-mare.
1591Percivall Sp. Dict., Atahona, an *Asse mill.
1611Cotgr., Cicutaire, mock Chervill, wild Chervill, great Chervill, *Asse Perseley.
1610Healey St. Aug., City of God 694 Yet had he his humane reason still, as Apuleus had in his *asse-ship.
1729T. Cooke Tales, Prop. &c. 87 Ended thus his *Assship's Reign.
1728Daily Post 7 July, The famous Stoke Newington *Ass-woman dares me to fight her for the 10 pounds.
1800Southey Lett. (1856) I. 119 Edith has made a great proficiency in *asswomanship.
▪ II. ass, n.2 Now chiefly U.S.
[vulgar and dial. sp. and pronunc. of arse.]
1. a. = arse n. 1 a.
(Webster 1961 ‘often considered vulgar’.)
1860H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 37 The ass of the block is known by the scoring being deeper in that part to receive the splice. [Cf. 1721 Bailey, Arse, (among sailors) the Arse of a Block or Pulley, through which any Rope runs, is the lower end of it.] 1930J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel i. 100 My ass to habeas corpus. 1934J. O'Hara Appointment in Samarra (U.S. ed., 1953) iv. 119 You give me a pain in the ass. 1949‘N. Blake’ Head of Traveller ii. 37 Put it to rights in two shakes of a cat's ass, you would. 1959W. Golding Free Fall iv. 96 You sit on your fat ass in your 'ouse all the week. 1967Observer 8 Oct. 31/2 All our trousers are designed to fit round the ass and not sag at the crutch.
b. Sexual gratification. Also, a woman or women, regarded as an object affording this.
1942, etc. [see piece of ass s.v. piece n. 3 d]. 1960J. Updike Rabbit, Run (1961) 163 Then he comes back from the Army and all he cares about is chasing ass. 1970R. D. Abrahams Positively Black ii. 47 When we got upstairs I threw her on the floor I was anxious to get some ass off that frantic whore. 1976N. Thornburg Cutter & Bone i. 14 It made him almost wish he was sixteen again,..embarking on that long road of teenage ass. 1986P. Booth Palm Beach iii. 77 Word is there's more ass up in the North End on the weekends than Heinz has varieties.
2. one's ass: one's self or person. Usu. with get and an advb. (phr.), as a synonym for ‘go’. Freq. as second element in contemptuous expressions, as poor-, punk-, sad-ass (see under first element). See also jive-ass, smart-arse, -ass a. and n.
1958G. Lea Somewhere there's Music xxi. 180 If I knew it'd kill my ass, I'd follow. 1968W. Labov et al. in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 337 Don't worry while they got your ass up there Breakin' up rocks like a grizzly bear. 1972Language XLVIII. 914 Get your ass in here, Harry! The party's started! 1975Toronto Star 27 Sept. b5/4, I protested at being told to ‘get your ass home’. 1978J. Carroll Mortal Friends i. ii. 19 ‘Collins'll be off in America,’ he bellowed, ‘giving speeches while kids at football get their asses shot!’
3. Phrases.
a. to kiss (a person's) ass: see kiss v. 6 l; also to lick (a person's) ass in the same sense.
1973C. Mullard Black Britain ii. iv. 44 We were treated like filth, not good enough to lick their asses. 1975Maclean's Mag. Feb. 40/3 The guys who are returning to work are rookies. They're in there ass-licking. But when we get back, if they want to lick asses, they'll be licking our asses.
b. Used casually in various phrases as an intensifier, esp. to indicate strength of feeling, action, etc.: to work (run, etc.) one's ass off; to chew ass, to reprimand severely; to tear ass, to move fast, to hurry.
1946T. Bell There comes Time ix. 57 Here's a smart apple like you working your ass off for a lousy forty bucks a week. 1946Amer. Speech XXI. 198 Chew ass, reprimand severely. 1949H. Robbins Dream Merchants vii. 199 ‘Come on, kid,’ he said. ‘Let's break their asses!’ And then he was running zig-zag across the field. 1954Amer. Speech XXIX. 103 Tear ass, to drive fast or recklessly. 1958J. Barth End of Road (1962) xi. 196 I've run my ass off today getting it set up. 1970R. D. Abrahams Positively Black iii. 67 So John packed up his bags and tore ass the next day. 1973Black Panther 17 Nov. 7/4 Maybe if he saw it, some pig might..get his ass chewed. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 20 Mar. 11/2 You work your ass off for years so the kid can get a college education. 1984Melody Maker 6 Oct. 13/2 You want to..retire to your bedroom and practise your ass off for a year till you become competent enough to try it.
c. up your ass: an exclamation of contemptuous rejection (often used imp.). Similarly in various descriptive phrases (see quots.). Cf. stick v.1 18 d and up adv.2 3 b.
1965N. Mailer Amer. Dream i. 15 ‘Ain't you got any consideration?’ he asked. ‘Up your ass, friend.’ 1970R. D. Abrahams Positively Black ii. 26 I'd 'a told that white motherfucker to fly up his own ass! 1971A. Hailey Wheels ii. 28 You can stuff a surrender flag up your ass and wave goodbye to any discipline around this place from this day on.
4. Special Combinations. asshole, (a) = arse-hole s.v. arse n. 3; (b) someone or something foolish or contemptible; an uncompromising term of abuse; also attrib.; ass-kissing ppl. a. and vbl. n., toadying, flattering; hence (as back-formation) ass-kiss v. trans., to flatter, truckle to; ass-kisser, one who does this; ass-licker, a toady; hence (as back-formation) ass-lick v. intr.
1935Dylan Thomas Let. July (1966) 159 The best socialists suck all they can from the jaundiced *ass-hole of an anti-socialist state. 1948Amer. Speech XXIII. 319 Ass hole buddy, comrade-in-arms. 1962J. Baldwin Another Country i. ii. 111 Of course, he's an asshole too. 1977J. D. MacDonald Condominium xxiv. 208 ‘What did you call me?’ McGinnity demanded. Branhammer studied him and said distinctly, ‘I called you an ass hole, you ass hole! I don't trust one of you overeducated ass holes sitting there in a goddam row.’ 1981R. Schoenstein et al. I-Hate-Preppies Handbk. 20 Two distinct kinds of Nerds are indigenous to America today: the asshole with a high IQ and the asshole with a low one.
1974A. Lurie War between Tates xii. 195 It is bad enough to hear Jeffrey..call his teacher an ‘*ass-kissing idiot’. 1977Rolling Stone 16 June 6/4 Glossy fringe publishing, T-shirt peddling and political ass kissing. 1978S. Brill Teamsters i. 28 He had to watch the ass-kissers court Fitzsimmons. 1984S. Bellow Him with his Foot in his Mouth 128 If it could have been done by ass-kissing his patrons and patronesses, B. B. would have dried away a good many tears.
1939H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn 18 Besides, I wasn't a good *ass-licker. 1970R. Lowell Notebk. 218 Not ass-licking for medals on the peacock lawn.
▪ III. ass, v. nonce-wd.
[f. ass n.1; but for sense 2, cf. arse v.]
1. trans. To call ass.
2. intr. To act the ass. Now freq. in (orig. schoolboys') slang: to fool about.
1592G. Harvey Pierces Superer. 57 He..bourdeth, girdeth, asseth the excellentest writers of whatsoever note that tickle not his wanton sense. 1647Ward Simp. Cobler (1843) 52 To keep their Kings from devillizing and themselves from Assing. 1899Kipling Stalky vii. 196 Don't mind learnin' my drill, but I'm not goin' to ass about the country with a toy Snider. 1932A. J. Worrall Eng. Idioms for Foreign Students 1 Those boys are not working; they are just assing about. Ibid., Don't ass about with that valve, you'll break it. |