Thanks for that Who Needs AI when we have Mother Goose !! Every day is a school day for me.Asshole is British and dates back to the 1880's. Meaning a "contemptible person" is from mid-1930s. Earlier the word was a Northern English and Scottish dialectal variant of ash-hole, a "receptacle for ashes beneath a grate." Wright's "English Dialect Dictionary" (1898) lists many examples, such as, "Tell'd her a hunderd times nivver to put t'poaker i' t'ass-hoil" [West Yorkshire]. So, whilst the Americans may use it more than us, it is in fact English.