Re: Useless Trivia VIII
Shakespeare is credited with dropping the "r" from arse in wordplay in a "Midsommer Night's Dream" to create a pun between donkey "ass" (from the root asinus) and a person's bottom ass (arse from the Greek orros), when Nick Bottom (of course) says: "I must to the barber's, monsieur; for methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face; and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me I must scratch." It was not used to mean a person's bottom in common usage until the 19th Century. This is most commonly thought to be because people dropped the "r" from arse to make it sound more polite.