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offensive language - Etymology of "half-assed"



The term "half-assed" is used to refer to something being sloppy or partially completed. For example, "You really did a half-assed job on those TPS reports, Bob." What is the etymology of this phrase? If half-assed means partial or incomplete, can something be "full assed" or "fully assed"?



Answer



The normal expression is half-assed (or half-arsed in the UK) and "full assed" or "fully assed" aren't commonly used expressions.


"Half-arsed* usually means half-hearted today, and appears to follow on from an earlier use of the phrase meaning inferior or incompetent. Perhaps the suggestion was that a half-assed person is not entirely effective, a bit like a donkey, or half like an ass.


There a similar British expression "I can't be arsed" meaning "I can't be bothered".


Oxford


The OED has half-assed from 1932 in American Speech:



Half-assed, mediocre; insignificant.



They say it's originally American slang meaning "ineffectual, inadequate, mediocre; stupid, inexperienced"; no mention is made of haphazard.


The British half-arsed is recorded much later, in 1961.


Partridge


However, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2008) gives an earlier meaning:



half-assed; half-arsed adjective 1 inferior, unsatisfactory, incompetent US, 1865. 2 incomplete, not serious, half-hearted US, 1933



1863


I found this earlier "incompetent" meaning in General Orders of the War Department: Embracing the Years 1861, 186" & 1861 Adapted Specially For the Use Army and Navy of the United States (Volume 2, published 1864) by Thomas M. O'Brien and Oliver Diefendorf, Military Attorneys of Kansas.


It appears as evidence in a general court martial of July 2, 1863 of an incident in January 1862:



Specification 1st -- In this; that he, the said Captain John H. Behan, Company F, 16th Regiment Virginia Volunteers, while on duty in camp, on or about the 12th day of December 1862, did use abusive and grossly insulting language to Joseph B Hamilton, 2d Lieutenant of said Company F, before and in the presence of said Company F, while he, the said Joseph B. Hamilton, was on duty and was acting Adjutant of said 16th Regiment Virginia Volunteers, in words as follows, to wit: 'There goes our half-assed Adjutant;' which was calculated to impair and weaken the influence and control of said Lieutenant Joseph B. Hamilton as Adjutant of said Regiment, and also his influence and control over said Company.



There goes our half-assed Adjutant


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