good arse

5 Responses to good arse

1. SRW says:

   October 21, 2004 at 9:24 am

   Very odd. Two compound adjectives carefully joined by a hyphen followed by one without. What exactly is the “motion” that triggers these things?

   I am delighted to discover that only one of the dictionaries via http://dictionary.langenberg.com/ recognises “bad-ass”. Predictably, I suppose, it’s the Microsoft version, hidden behind a coy parental guidance spoiler.

   The OED gives the earliest citation of “bad-ass” as 1955, attributed to one J.Blake, author (apparently) of “A plan for regulating the marine system of Great Britain” (1758). A lesson in the limitations of automatic generation of hyperlinks?

   And how about this, from 1935: “The best socialists suck all they can from the jaundiced ass-hole of an anti-socialist state”. That well known American Dylan Thomas.
2. Ben Hammersley says:

   October 21, 2004 at 10:26 am

   No, no, my dear chap. In this usage, ass is a word stem, not a word itself. “Bad-ass” is merely a misspelling: “Badass” however, connotes something excellent. This is an evolution of the meaning, where it previous meant something ruthlessly efficient. For example, “The Prime Minister is a total badass mofo.” – or “The Prime Minister is indeed a gentlemen of singular vision”

   “Bad-arse”, on the other hand, although a neologism for the sake of this comment, would probably indicate a surfeit of the consumption of pies. Viz, “The Deputy Prime Minister is a bad-arse.” Modern speech is already equipped with phrases to denote such a posterior, which may go some way to explain why this homophone has yet to catch on. I indeed to use it liberally from now on, however.
3. Rupert says:

   October 21, 2004 at 4:34 pm

   But surely Badarse would be a Germanic bidet – or perhaps a small country town noted for its waters.

   I can only reiterate the worries about what sort of motion operates these things. In a ‘restroom’ in California, the hand-driers were “Motion Triggered!”: this would seem to be desperately premature for the required purpose. Those driers ran for twenty seconds: how on earth is one supposed to fit the entire post-motion process of clenching, checking for stragglers, wiping, hoisting one’s strides and washing one’s hands into that sort of timelock?

   As for the light: if you still need to navigate at the point of activation I think you have bigger issues than making sure the seat is down. However, it is almost a certainty that in the pale, quantum glow of the solid state lights you could indeed identify and take ownership of a bad arse — and presumably make full use of any badarse that has been thoughtfully provided.

   R

   (Is ‘Andrew Motion’ some kind of cockney slang?)
4. rupert says:

   October 21, 2004 at 5:37 pm

   oh, I forgot to say: Louise and I can recommend this dry Marsala.

   It has, as they say, bottom.
5. Louise says:

   October 23, 2004 at 9:34 pm

   It’s most definitely a good arse!

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