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Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006Couple of expressions: "Sussed" and "Arsed"
It's not that difficult to suss out their meanings; in fact, OED makes the s-word quite intelligible. As for the other, OED apparently can't be arsed to illuminate this usage for me, and I can't be arsed to do the work required. Will some one or ones please spend a little charitable energy increasing my arseability?  SignatureFrank ess > It's not that difficult to suss out their meanings; in fact, OED makes > the s-word quite intelligible. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Will some one or ones please spend a little charitable energy > increasing my arseability? The best I've been able to figure out is that some people do many more things with their a.ses than I do, and with all of this assing going on sometimes they just don't have enough a.s left for other activities. For instance, while I do not search the Web with my a.s, apparently some people do -- I base this on the number of times I see them say they can't be assed to look up something on their own. That's a call only they can make, of course, but when I sit down at a community computer I always hope the last person to use it wasn't mousing with his or her a.s. SignatureBlinky RLU 297263 Killing all posts from Google Groups The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html Frank ess filted: >It's not that difficult to suss out their meanings; in fact, OED makes >the s-word quite intelligible. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >Will some one or ones please spend a little charitable energy >increasing my arseability? This is one of those wonderful verbs that appears only in the passive voice, like "complexion" which I mentioned in this group recently...nobody ever seems to arse anybody, yet judging from the number of people insisting they can't be arsed. one must assume that there are others who take to it like a duck takes to orange sauce....r Signature"Keep your eye on the Bishop. I want to know when he makes his move", said the Inspector, obliquely. > Frank ess filted: >> It's not that difficult to suss out their meanings; in fact, OED makes [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > like "complexion" which I mentioned in this group recently...nobody ever seems > to arse anybody, Nobody ever arses anybody because nobody can be arsed. SignatureStephen Lennox Head, Australia > Frank ess filted: > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > arsed. one must assume that there are others who take to it like a duck takes to > orange sauce....r I think you're just arsing about. SignatureRob Bannister > It's not that difficult to suss out their meanings; in fact, OED makes > the s-word quite intelligible. > > As for the other, OED apparently can't be arsed to illuminate this > usage for me, and I can't be arsed to do the work required. If you had looked at the current OED, you would have done the work required. It was added in June of this year: arse, v. _trans_. (in _pass_.). _slang_ (chiefly _Brit_. and _Irish English_). To be willing to make the required effort; to be bothered. Usu. in negative constructions, such as _can't be arsed_ (to do something). 1988 G. PATTERSON _Burning your Own_ vii. 88 Don't forget who it was who organized the building of all this when you were too sulky to be arsed doing anything. 1991 _Face_ Feb. 34/2 No one else could be arsed doing it, mine was the only phone number anyone had, so I had to make a lot of decisions and I made a lot of wrong ones. 1992 _New Musical Express_ 12 Sept. 1 Sources close to the 'artiste' suggest the decision to cancel the tour was not made for glamorous or newsworthy reasons..just that he can't be arsed. 1995 _Mojo_ Jan. 58/1 He's not really arsed if Cigarettes & Alcohol is T.Rex. Doesn't care. 2000 _Minx_ Aug. 95/1 If you really weren't bothered about the bloke, you wouldn't be sufficiently arsed to cop off with him in the first place. SignatureEvan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------ HP Laboratories |"Algebra? But that's far too 1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |difficult for seven-year-olds!" Palo Alto, CA 94304 | |"Yes, but I didn't tell them that kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com |and so far they haven't found out," (650)857-7572 |said Susan. http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ > > It's not that difficult to suss out their meanings; in fact, OED makes > > the s-word quite intelligible. [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > bothered. Usu. in negative constructions, such as _can't be arsed_ > (to do something). [...] And the accidental, if accidental it was, example I've quoted before. A BBC radio news programme was dealing with some political topic; the presenter said "the Minister is away for the weekend [OWTTE], and can't be ahssed." This was, of course, everyday Brit-speak for "asked"; but I like to think it was no coincidence. SignatureMike. >If you really weren't bothered about the >bloke, you wouldn't be sufficiently arsed to cop off with him >in the first place. Is "cop off" BrE only? Marius Hancu >>If you really weren't bothered about the >>bloke, you wouldn't be sufficiently arsed to cop off with him >>in the first place. > > Is "cop off" BrE only? I speak AmE, and I don't know what "cop off" means. Coop might do, however. SignatureBuckwheat Soba >>If you really weren't bothered about the bloke, you wouldn't be >>sufficiently arsed to cop off with him in the first place. That certainly surprises me. I'm not even sure what I would have meant had I written it. Looking back, I see that I quoted the OED, which quoted somebody else. SignatureEvan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------ HP Laboratories |English grammar is not taught in 1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |primary or secondary schools in the Palo Alto, CA 94304 |United States. Sometimes some |mythology is taught under that kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com |rubric, but luckily it's usually (650)857-7572 |ignored, except by the credulous. | John Lawler http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ >>>If you really weren't bothered about the bloke, you wouldn't be >>>sufficiently arsed to cop off with him in the first place. > > That certainly surprises me. I'm not even sure what I would have > meant had I written it. Looking back, I see that I quoted the OED, > which quoted somebody else. Spot on, Erk. SignatureBuckwheat Soba >>> If you really weren't bothered about the bloke, you wouldn't be >>> sufficiently arsed to cop off with him in the first place. > > That certainly surprises me. I'm not even sure what I would have > meant had I written it. Looking back, I see that I quoted the OED, > which quoted somebody else. According to _A Dictionary of [UK] Slang_, ( http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/index.htm ; I hope this brief extract can be considered "fair use"): 'cop off Verb. To commune with someone sexually desirable, occasionally in so much as having sex. E.g."I copped off with a gorgeous girl last night." [Orig. North England]'; which means that "bothered" is probably really "bovvered", as recently discussed. > >>If you really weren't bothered about the bloke, you wouldn't be > >>sufficiently arsed to cop off with him in the first place. Sorry, I am not sure how my other posting got on the server. What I wanted to ask is: do you think "cop off" is only BrE? Marius Hancu >> >>If you really weren't bothered about the bloke, you wouldn't be >> >>sufficiently arsed to cop off with him in the first place. > > Sorry, I am not sure how my other posting got on the server. > > What I wanted to ask is: do you think "cop off" is only BrE? I cant speak to that, but I can say that it certainly isn't American, at least in my experience. SignatureEvan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------ HP Laboratories |Reality is that which, when you 1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |stop believing in it, doesn't go Palo Alto, CA 94304 |away. | kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com | Philip K. Dick (650)857-7572 http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ >>> >>If you really weren't bothered about the bloke, you wouldn't be >>> >>sufficiently arsed to cop off with him in the first place. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >I cant speak to that, but I can say that it certainly isn't American, >at least in my experience. I wouldn't use "cop off", but I would use "cop on" to mean "pick up on" or "get it": "I don't think that UC will ever cop on to how he's regarded here". Of course, if he does cop on, he'll probably cop out by saying that we don't understand. SignatureTony Cooper Orlando, FL Evan Kirshenbaum filted: >> What I wanted to ask is: do you think "cop off" is only BrE? > >I cant speak to that, but I can say that it certainly isn't American, >at least in my experience. Cordell Hull lives!... AUE has taken its toll on you, Evan...you never used to hedge your observations to such an extent....r Signature"Keep your eye on the Bishop. I want to know when he makes his move", said the Inspector, obliquely. } "Marius Hancu" <Marius.Hancu@gmail.com> writes: ... }> What I wanted to ask is: do you think "cop off" is only BrE? } } I cant speak to that, but I can say that it certainly isn't American, } at least in my experience. Check with BucSo. He'd know for sure. Signaturerjv As we all stood and listened, Marius Hancu sung the following words: > What I wanted to ask is: do you think "cop off" is only BrE? I can't answer that directly, but as a speaker of BrE it "feels" British, if you see what I mean. It belongs to the same speech register as "snogging" and "shagging". SignatureA. Gwilliam To e-mail me, replace "bottomless_pit" with "devnull" >> It's not that difficult to suss out their meanings; in fact, OED >> makes the s-word quite intelligible. [quoted text clipped - 33 lines] > him > in the first place. Thank you. I understand _how_ it's used, but how "having an arse" came to mean something that the can'tness-of-being rendered into a kind of active sloth. Another indication of general lack of ability (or luck): the Web site from which I purchased OED on CD-ROM is disguising the path to updates or "additions". SignatureFrank ess > Thank you. I understand _how_ it's used, but how "having an arse" came > to mean something that the can'tness-of-being rendered into a kind of > active sloth. My guess would be something like "to be bothered to get off one's arse". SignatureEvan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------ HP Laboratories |On a scale of one to ten... 1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |it sucked. Palo Alto, CA 94304 kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com (650)857-7572 http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ In alt.usage.english, Frank ess wrote: >Thank you. I understand _how_ it's used, but how "having an arse" came >to mean something that the can'tness-of-being rendered into a kind of >active sloth. won't get up off one's arse? won't get one's arse into gear? SignatureMike Barnes Cheshire, England >>> It's not that difficult to suss out their meanings; in fact, OED >>> makes the s-word quite intelligible. [quoted text clipped - 37 lines] > to mean something that the can'tness-of-being rendered into a kind of > active sloth. It's not 'having an arse', it's 'giving an arse'. >> Thank you. I understand _how_ it's used, but how "having an arse" >> came to mean something that the can'tness-of-being rendered into a >> kind of active sloth. > > It's not 'having an arse', it's 'giving an arse'. The OED's sense of "arsed" as an adjective, as in "smart-arsed" and "half-arsed" is defined as "having an arse". I'd think that the better question would be how (or if) it came from the earlier sense of "arse" as a verb, in "to arse about" (to 'mess around', fool about). I doubt that they're actually related. SignatureEvan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------ HP Laboratories |The body was wrapped in duct tape, 1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |weighted down with concrete blocks Palo Alto, CA 94304 |and a telephone cord was tied |around the neck. Police suspect kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com |foul play... (650)857-7572 http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ >>> Thank you. I understand _how_ it's used, but how "having an arse" >>> came to mean something that the can'tness-of-being rendered into a [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] >"arse" as a verb, in "to arse about" (to 'mess around', fool about). >I doubt that they're actually related. I've always assumed it derived from: 1. I can't be bothered to get up off my arse 2. I [can't be bother] -ed [to get up off my] arse where the now-stemless "-ed", all alone with nowhere to go, tacked onto the end: 4. I can't be ars-ed Yes, of course I just made that up but, hey, who knows? The expression "can't be fussed" may work in the same way. -- THE "If you or I use a word inappropriately, that's an error. If a newspaper uses a word inappropriately, that's a citation source for the dictionaries." -- Peter Moylan >>>> Thank you. I understand _how_ it's used, but how "having an arse" >>>> came to mean something that the can'tness-of-being rendered into [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > > The expression "can't be fussed" may work in the same way. Aha! SignatureFrank ess >>>>> Thank you. I understand _how_ it's used, but how "having an arse" >>>>> came to mean something that the can'tness-of-being rendered into a [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > > Aha! You are Alan Partridge AICMFP. SignatureRay UK >>>>>> Thank you. I understand _how_ it's used, but how "having an >>>>>> arse" [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > > You are Alan Partridge AICMFP. You take PayPal? SignatureFrank ess >>>>>>> Thank you. I understand _how_ it's used, but how "having an arse" >>>>>>> came to mean something that the can'tness-of-being rendered into [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > > You take PayPal? NoPal. SignatureRay UK >>>>>>>> Thank you. I understand _how_ it's used, but how "having an >>>>>>>> arse" came to mean something that the can'tness-of-being [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > > NoPal. Good choice; _nopales_ pickled in vinegar, drained and folded into scrambled eggs or a cheese omelet make a delicious and healthful treat. SignatureFrank ess > >>> Thank you. I understand _how_ it's used, but how "having an arse" > >>> came to mean something that the can'tness-of-being rendered into a [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > >"arse" as a verb, in "to arse about" (to 'mess around', fool about). > >I doubt that they're actually related. I have never knowingly heard "smart-arsed", and was surprised to see so many written examples. I'd always say "a smart-arse journalist". I think "arse about" is just "a.s about", where "a.s" = "donkey", but with some assimilation of "fart-arse about". > I've always assumed it derived from: > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Yes, of course I just made that up but, hey, who knows? I always intuitively felt it belonged to "can't be buggered", a part-rhyming adaptation of "can't be bothered" which isn't uncommon. SignatureMike. >> I've always assumed ["can't be arsed"] derived from: >> [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >I always intuitively felt it belonged to "can't be buggered", a >part-rhyming adaptation of "can't be bothered" which isn't uncommon. Aha! I rather like the sound of that. Is there any evidence for "be/get arsed" or "X arsed Y" referring to buggery, though, o OED-ed up one? -- THE "If you or I use a word inappropriately, that's an error. If a newspaper uses a word inappropriately, that's a citation source for the dictionaries." -- Peter Moylan As we all stood and listened, T.H. Entity sung the following words: > > > I've always assumed ["can't be arsed"] derived from: > > > [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > Is there any evidence for "be/get arsed" or "X arsed Y" referring to > buggery, though, o OED-ed up one? I'm unable to answer that, although I had the same sense. Just posting to comment that "f.cked" also gets used in the same way, although this feels like a fairly recent innovation. On the other hand, "sod" doesn't get used like this, which seems a bit odd; unless it's a dislike for the rhythm of "sodded". SignatureA. Gwilliam To e-mail me, replace "bottomless_pit" with "devnull" >As we all stood and listened, T.H. Entity sung the following words: > [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] >to comment that "f.cked" also gets used in the same way, although this >feels like a fairly recent innovation. Good point. >On the other hand, "sod" >doesn't get used like this, which seems a bit odd; unless it's a >dislike for the rhythm of "sodded". Isn't that probably just because "sod" is short for the noun "sodomite" rather than "sodomise"? -- THE "If you or I use a word inappropriately, that's an error. If a newspaper uses a word inappropriately, that's a citation source for the dictionaries." -- Peter Moylan [snip] >>On the other hand, "sod" >>doesn't get used like this, which seems a bit odd; unless it's a >>dislike for the rhythm of "sodded". > >Isn't that probably just because "sod" is short for the noun >"sodomite" rather than "sodomise"? Counterexample: "Sod off!" Sincerely, Gene Wirchenko Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation: I have preferences. You have biases. He/She has prejudices. [...] > >I always intuitively felt it belonged to "can't be buggered", a > >part-rhyming adaptation of "can't be bothered" which isn't uncommon. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Is there any evidence for "be/get arsed" or "X arsed Y" referring to > buggery, though, o OED-ed up one? Sadry not, glasshopper: we are obligated to remain in an ongoing conjecture situation with regard to this instance. What I can't make out is why The Oracle says, at the "arsed" heading, "cf. to elbow". I, perhaps understandably, expected to be surprised by "he just couldn't be elbowed", or at least "he arsed x out of the way"; but nix -- not even "he doesn't know the difference between arsing and elbowing". I hotfeet it over to "elbow v.", but was none the wiser. SignatureMike. > Sadry not, glasshopper: we are obligated to remain in an ongoing > conjecture situation with regard to this instance. What I can't make > out is why The Oracle says, at the "arsed" heading, Actually at the "arse, v." heading if your oracle is the OED > "cf. to elbow". I, perhaps understandably, expected to be surprised > by "he just couldn't be elbowed", or at least "he arsed x out of the > way"; but nix -- not even "he doesn't know the difference between > arsing and elbowing". I hotfeet it over to "elbow v.", but was none > the wiser. I suspect that it was an implication that, as the verb "to elbow" comes from doing something with your elbows, so "to arse [about]" comes from doing something with your arse. They also invite us to look at the second sense of "a.s" as a verb, which is 2. _intr_. To act the a.s. Now freq. in (orig. schoolboys') _slang_: to fool _about_. So it appears that, in the sense of "arse about", it may be that "a.s" as a "type of clumsiness, ignorance, and stupidity" (which they cite as "chiefly since 1500") led to "a.s about" which led to "arse about". Which would work if it weren't for the fact that "arse about" is cited to 1664 and the "buttocks" sense of "a.s" isn't cited until 1860. Unfortunately my connection to the OED appears to have just disappeared, so I can't check to see whether there's a "fool" sense of "arse" that's old enough. SignatureEvan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------ HP Laboratories |Pious Jews have a category of 1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |questions that can harmlessly be Palo Alto, CA 94304 |allowed to go without an answer |until the Messiah comes. I suspect kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com |that this is one of them. (650)857-7572 | Joseph C. Fineman http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ > > Sadry not, glasshopper: we are obligated to remain in an ongoing > > conjecture situation with regard to this instance. What I can't make > > out is why The Oracle says, at the "arsed" heading, > > Actually at the "arse, v." heading if your oracle is the OED Yes: my slip. > > "cf. to elbow". I, perhaps understandably, expected to be surprised > > by "he just couldn't be elbowed", or at least "he arsed x out of the [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > from doing something with your elbows, so "to arse [about]" comes from > doing something with your arse. The dissonance I felt was because elbowing is doing something _with_ your elbow, while "arsing about" is doing something not _with_ your arse, but because you are _being_ one. > They also invite us to look at the > second sense of "a.s" as a verb, which is [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > disappeared, so I can't check to see whether there's a "fool" sense of > "arse" that's old enough. There's a nice one, but isolated by a couple of centuries. Apparently, William Blake wrote "arse" in a MS in 1784-5, but crossed it out and substituted "a.s": the sense seems to be "fool", but there's room for "contemptible". (I notice that the verb, "arse about/around" is also recorded with a long gap -- approaching three centuries before the next example in OED.) I wonder if there may have been two distinct usages-- "a.s about" and "arse about" -- which converged over time. There's the strange fact that there were non-rhotic BrE speakers who, AFAICT, wouldn't have dreamt of saying "arse" in front of children, but quite happily said "silly ahss"; and a ninish-year-old schoolfellow was allowed to say "silly ahss" in both rehearsal and performance of a school play. It's possible that these speakers were being more daring than I appreciated at the time, but it seems unlikely to me. Against that, I'm sure those RP speakers never used the "ahss" pronunciation for the literal "donkey" sense. I assume that Charles Cotton (1664) was a rhotic speaker and that his example was typical; but it still remains that "ahss" was used in apparently respectable speech for "a.s" in my lifetime. The other thing is /&s/ as a variant Br pronunciation of "arse". OED certainly can't find it farther back than the 19C, but I've heard west-countrymen use it -- rhotic speakers, and, at that, men who were not generally given to euphemism about body parts and functions. The contexts were emphatic. This may or may not mean that it goes back a long way; but if it does, it's certainly very strange that there's no early written record. I suppose this is a fair excuse to again unstable my hobby-horse about the "donkey" question. OED's earliest examples for it are 18-C, and they're both explanations of its meaning. I speculate that this once-rare term became general because "a.s" was too close to non-rhotic "arse" for 19-C comfort; and once I've started speculating, I'm tempted to go on and conjecture that perhaps "a.s" was already in use for "arse", either as a dialect form or, originally, as a euphemism. That short "a" does have a value like /a/ in some dialects. SignatureMike. |
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