jackass

   A word for a male donkey, applied to stupid people as an insult only since the beginning of the nineteenth century. ‘Ass’ was used much earlier. In modern American usage ‘jackass’ has the merit of distinguishing between the animal and ‘ass’ meaning the buttocks (British ‘arse’). R.L.Stevenson, in St Ives, has ‘“Jackass!” I said, and I think the greatest stickler for manners will admit the epithet to have been justified.’ ‘Shut up, you jackass’ is said by Ravenal, in Edna Ferber’s Showboat. ‘You jackass’ is also used by a black man to a white in An American Dream, by Norman Mailer. He continues: ‘Up your ass, Mother Fuck,’ where ‘ass’ has its buttocks meaning.