Assholery

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Engaging in behavior that is offensive, inconsiderate, and disrespectful while showing disregard for social conventions and the feelings of others
2. The demonstration of rude and selfish actions that violate social norms and negatively impact interpersonal relationships
3. The practice of exhibiting offensive, rude, and selfish behaviors that disregard the feelings of others and flout accepted social norms

Etymology: Assholery is a straightforward formation: "asshole" with the suffix "-ery", which attaches to nouns to name a collective or characteristic behavior, as in "bakery" or "roguery". The first part is older than it looks. "Ass" (the animal) came into English from Old English "assa" and Middle English "ars", and the "arse" spelling that survives in British English descends from the same ancestor. In the Proto-Germanic root, the word for the donkey and the word for the rear end were related, so the rude sense sits in the family tree from the start. "Hole" was the other half. Its earlier sense was a simple opening, and joining it to "ass" produced a compound that was blunt and coarse. The suffix was then added to that compound, so "assholery" describes conduct characteristic of an asshole, the way "knavery" describes conduct of a knave.

Synonyms: rudeness, jerkiness

Antonyms: kindness, politeness