Thank you for your answer,
Ouisch.
Your replies are always enlightening and instructive. :up:
Bum as in "you're a lazy bum" has nothing to do with posteriors.
I have noticed that you don't wish to answer any more questions regarding this subject, and being thankful for your answers, I respect your decision, but I would like to get to the
bottom (Pun intended! :mrgreen: - I hope this works.
) of this "extremely important" question.
With that said, it's still not clear to me what "bum" means if you remove the adjective, "lazy" from my example sentence? (That is, "He's such a bum.") Does that,
in itself, also mean that the person in question is a lazy person, a "lazy bum", OR does that mean that he's an ass? :roll:
On a side-note, the phrase "bum-shot" is used for pictures like
this one, with the obvious meaning of a posterior. :mrgreen: To me, that indicates that the word, "bum" means what many people apparently consider to be a nasty word. ;-) By the way, does "bum" sound less rude? :roll:
As for the word that also means a donkey,
can we say that it is a matter of personal preference whether a native English speaker thinks of
1.) a "
hoofed mammals of the genus Equus, resembling and closely related to the horses but having a smaller build and longer ears, and including the domesticated donkey." (From
TheFreeDictionary), or
2.) the buttocks, or
3.) without thinking of either of the above, they just simply think of a "
vain, self-important, silly, or aggressively stupid person.":?: (That is the question.
)
PS: I (and I'm sure I can speak on behalf of birdeen's call as well
) would still like to know what BrE speakers can tell us about the usage of 'arse'. (Like in "smart-arse". When hearing this phrase, do you think of a "smart donkey", or a "smart posterior"? :lol: )