butthole

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/2

All four words label someone whose behaviour annoys or hurts other people, but they sit at different points on the rudeness scale. 'Jerk' is the safest casual choice — adults and teenagers use it freely in mixed company without sounding shocking. 'Meanie' is childish and almost affectionate; parents and small children use it for someone who refuses a treat or breaks a rule. 'Butthole' is crude but slightly playful, often used by teenagers or in family arguments where 'asshole' would sound too adult or too angry. 'Asshole' is the strongest of the four; it signals real anger or contempt and is unsuitable for polite settings. So a child calls a sibling a meanie, a teenager calls a friend a butthole, an adult complains about a jerk at work, and someone furious about being cheated calls the other person an asshole.

Etymology

A direct compound of 'butt' (meaning the buttocks, recorded in this sense since the late 15th century) and 'hole' (the Old English 'hol', meaning an opening or hollow space). The compound emerged in American English in the early 20th century as a blunt anatomical term, and by the 1970s the secondary insult sense had spread through school playgrounds and informal speech.