"from a hole in the ground" antedating

[hpst@earthlink.net]

I still use the phrase almost every day and have done so since I was in my
teens in the 1950s.

I am curious, however, about when the word ass replaced the word arse in
common usage in the US.

This in my southern Illinois dialect caused some giggles when I was growing
up if you read the Bible and read the word ass as in not coveting thy
neighbor's ass.

We used to make jokes about this including whether or not it referred to
his butt or his wife.

This in turn gets me into the discussion of bumper stickers which read
"Keep off of my donkey".

Inquiring minds are interested in the solution to this problem.

Page Stephens

> [Original Message]
> From: Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: 8/8/2006 1:44:12 PM
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "from a hole in the ground" antedating
>
> This was still common in my father's cursing lexicon, circa 1950 (usually
> with the adjective 'dumb').
>
> At 01:20 PM 8/8/2006, you wrote:
> >Speaking of Civil War-era locutions, here's a colorful and significant
> >antedating. If I remember correctly, this too is from a court-martial
> >record (but it may have been a letter or personal journal):
> >
> >   1866 in Andrew E. Masich _The Civil War in Arizona_ (Norman: U. of
> > Okla. Press, 2006) 101: So drunk that he did not know his ass from a
hole
> > in the ground.
> >
> >   JL
> >
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