[arachne] Re: Contributing.. what is PITA

Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!

On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 09:27:23 +0011, Peter Lawrence wrote:


> It is neither well known nor colloquial. It is US dialect. PML.

It's not dialect, it's slang--known wherever American English is 
spoken. But it's not known by the accronym "PITA" but as the 
phrase "pain in the ass". A really big annoyance is often called
a "royal pain in the ass". Obviously American slang. While there
are many dialects of American speech a word like "ass" which is
commonly used wherever American English is spoken is not dialect.

Americans would almost always refer to the small, four legged beast of
burden as a "donkey". While we would understand that Jesus rode an ass
into Jerusalem if we saw one today it would be a donkey or maybe if
one was speaking colorfully and very informally a "jackass". One
might also use "jackass" to describe someone who was being a really
big pain in the ass--as in "He's a real jackass." But that is a very
informal usage.




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