[Ads-l] "smacked-ass"/"face like a smacked arse"

[Ben Zimmer]

It must have been pretty localized, since I don't recall hearing it growing
up in central NJ. There are examples of "smacked-ass" as both a noun and
adjective on Usenet going back to the early '90s. These two early examples
(one adj. and one n.) both come from Philly student sources.

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https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.humor/0eWStkUVIfk/usyHOWgB46cJ
Jeff DePolo [Univ. of Pennsylvania], rec.humor, 3/18/91
The billboards are as smacked-ass as the town is.
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https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.games.mud.diku/ai4zjHcElrs/Jb3BPBtxDMcJ
Mike Smith [Temple University], rec.games.mud.diku, 5/1/93
Oh yea, right, like we're going to just scrap all our work just because
some drugged up smacked ass thinks we should.
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On Thu, Feb 8, 2018 at 2:37 PM, Yagoda, Ben <byagoda at udel.edu> wrote:

> I am looking into to the provenance of the above expressions. “Smacked
> ass,” which I first heard circa 1982, is an insult that appears to be
> limited to the Philadelphia area. To the extent I could discern the
> location of the author of every cite I could find on Google Books and other
> databases, it was Philly, for example, crime writer Lisa Scottoline, Rough
> Justice: "Then I hold a press conference where I tell the world that the
> mayor is a smacked ass.” The first Google Books citation is from a 1977
> criminology text, quoting (presumably) a criminal: "I just asked for change
> for a ten-dollar bill and felt like a real smacked-ass to myself.” The
> snippet view doesn’t allow me to search for any info on the person being
> quoted, but one of the coauthors, the late James Inciardi, was a professor
> at my institution, the University of Delaware, and may have done fieldwork
> in Philly, less than an hour away.
>
> Somebody used it on a bulletin board, was asked what it meant, and
> replied, “Northeastern US slang for ‘complete idiot.” Someone else
> responded, "Funny, I've never heard of that in my 30 years of existence,
> all of it in the Northeast.” Then the original poster said, "Philadelphia,
> actually. Maybe it was just my mother.” (http://boards.straightdope.
> com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=207765)
>
> Green’s Dictionary of Slang has no entry for the term (neither does DARE),
> but it does have “Face like a smacked arse,” defined as “a phrase used to
> describe someone who looks very depressed.” It appears to be common in
> Ireland and the North of England. Jonathon’s first cite for it is 2000 but
> I found a 1987 quotation on Google Books:  "Big red nose, big red face,
> just like a smacked arse.”—Cedar, by James Murphy. “Face like a smacked
> arse” has gotten quite popular, with 23 Google Books hits since 2010.
>
> Any guidance or information appreciated. And I’d be interested in if
> anyone outside of Philadelphia or the United Kingdom has heard it.
>
> Ben
>

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