I Don't Understand American Insults

[jimmydasaint]

All in good fun, if not in good taste...

 

Folks, I thought I was reasonable well acquainted with the vagaries of the English language until I read the term 'asshat' in this Forum.

 

The only time I have seen anything that resembled this mythical 'asshat' was when I saw aliens from Star Trek. Which of the following is the best 'asshat?'

 

Is it the guy on the right in this image?

 

or these guys? Note the groove on the lower forehead.

 

To my mind, these guys come the closest:

 

The Americans have a tendency to create new and ever-inventive insulting phrases from swear words, e.g. f---wad. What on Earth does that mean? Have you guys destroyed the English language, or made it more inventive? And can anyone tell me more of your American insults.

[Sisyphus]

The truth of "asshat" is more poetic than literally coherent, I think.

[JohnB]

Have you guys destroyed the English language, or made it more inventive?

There is an incorrect assumption at the core of your inability to understand.

 

To be in a position to destroy the English language, Americans would first have to actually use it. Their continued inability to master the intricacies of even basic spelling, (colour and neighbour come to mind) would demonstrate a similar lack of ability in other areas of higher language function.

 

So rather than destroying the English language, Americans are demonstrating the strength of the language by creating a sub dialect that is more suited for those of lower linguistic aptitude. Even those without the mental acuity to master "English" can learn "American" and be reasonably understood by those of us in the advanced, "English Speaking" world.

 

In a similar fashion, when it was found that things like long division were too hard for some sections of the populace, schools began teaching "Social Maths". Note that we had to shorten the name as those poor, benighted students were simply incapable of spelling "Mathematics" and it was thought to be too degrading to be trying to learn a subject that they couldn't even pronounce or spell.

 

It's probably best to simply think of "American English" as the same as "Social Maths". A small subset especially useful for those of limited understanding, abilities and aspirations.

 

While not a perfect outcome, it should be remembered that the Americans are doing the best that they can do and as such should be complimented and encouraged in their efforts to overcome their natural handicaps.

 

[Moontanman]

Jimmy, I've lived in the USA my whole life and ass-hat was a new one me too. Possibly it means shit-head or is similar to dick-head, or butt-head. One thing i like about American English is the ease of insulting people in new ways, the best way is to insult someone by making up a word that describes them perfectly but will still take a few days till they figure it out....

[Marat]

I am always surprised at the way Americans seem to find even the minimal inflections and grammatical agreements required by the English language -- in contrast to the endless number of different tenses in French, each with their own forms, or the 4 cases and 3 genders of German, or the 7 cases of Russian -- way too difficult to learn or use correctly. Even where they have a 50-50 chance of getting it right, Americans always seem to guess wrong, such as when they say 'lay' when they mean 'lie' (as in 'he was laying on the ground'), or say 'hung' when they mean 'hang' ('he was hung for murder'), or use intensifying adverbs for absolute adjectives ('that was very excellent work'). In Canada I even hear people say 'had went to the store,' which I never heard anywhere in the United States. It must be that it is the very lack of grammatical demands made by English which encourages a total laziness about getting anything right.

 

In contrast, native speakers of a heavily inflected language who learn English always find it easy to get everything right. You can almost spot the foreigners in an English-speaking crowd by their perfect grammar.

[iNow]

It's a slightly more socially allowable way to call someone a dumb fuck. I've been using the term asshat for nearly a decade, myself.

 

 

 

Also... to JohnB, while your own mastery of language is clear, I must illuminate for you that it would have been so much better for you to have in your rather articulate post to have chosen to add the brilliant English qualifier of "some" to your comments about Americans.

 

 

[jimmydasaint]

There is an incorrect assumption at the core of your inability to understand.

 

To be in a position to destroy the English language, Americans would first have to actually use it. Their continued inability to master the intricacies of even basic spelling, (colour and neighbour come to mind) would demonstrate a similar lack of ability in other areas of higher language function.

 

So rather than destroying the English language, Americans are demonstrating the strength of the language by creating a sub dialect that is more suited for those of lower linguistic aptitude. Even those without the mental acuity to master "English" can learn "American" and be reasonably understood by those of us in the advanced, "English Speaking" world.

 

In a similar fashion, when it was found that things like long division were too hard for some sections of the populace, schools began teaching "Social Maths". Note that we had to shorten the name as those poor, benighted students were simply incapable of spelling "Mathematics" and it was thought to be too degrading to be trying to learn a subject that they couldn't even pronounce or spell.

 

It's probably best to simply think of "American English" as the same as "Social Maths". A small subset especially useful for those of limited understanding, abilities and aspirations.

 

While not a perfect outcome, it should be remembered that the Americans are doing the best that they can do and as such should be complimented and encouraged in their efforts to overcome their natural handicaps.

 

 

John B, you have articulated an argument with a piquant wit and the use of colourful wit that gives this thread a whole new flavour and lustre. In fact it is one of my favourite posts and I have duly honoured it by adding to your reputation. Your humour has amused me. I have to clarify that I admire the ability of Americans to come up with new and inventive pejorative words. However, I have also seen an English mother use the word f@@k in a supermarket as a noun, verb and adjective and subject of a single sentence, when she was reprimanding her hapless child, so we are not immune to linguistic inventiveness ourself are we?

Edited September 4, 2010 by jimmydasaint

[swansont]

I've always understood the asshat as the result of a cranio-rectal inversion, i.e. having one's head up one's ass. Which means a crass and profound unawareness of the world around you.

 

 

It is left as an exercise to determine if continually posting in a thread without answering the OP's question qualifies as asshattery.

 

[ParanoiA]

The truth of "asshat" is more poetic than literally coherent, I think.

 

Yeah, maybe so. Something about the word really makes me smile, I love it. It's like saying you don't matter enough to be an ass, you're only relevant enough to achieve an ass's hat...

 

I mean, if you're going to use pejoratives, they might as well be funny too.

[divagreen]

Blimey, Jimmy...slagging off on the Yanks?

 

Here is an asshat:

 

 

And when you can be arsed enough will you please explain to me the etymological properties of "munter", "eegit" and "bint"? And how they compare to the American synonyms?