Taboo replacements

[Nik Taylor]

Rick Mc Callister wrote:
>         So why didn't this word's homonym come into American English as
> "arse" with an /R/?

It's my understanding that "ass" began as a *euphemism* for "arse",
which later disappeared from most dialects of American English.

--
"It's bad manners to talk about ropes in the house of a man whose father
was hanged." - Irish proverb
http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/X-Files
http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/Books.html
ICQ: 18656696
AIM Screen-name: NikTailor