Oxford English Dictionary makes ‘Masshole’ official

Boston Globe ^ | 6/25/15 | Stephanie McFeeters

[Slings and Arrows]

The Oxford English Dictionary added the word Masshole to its roster on Wednesday, formalizing a term well known to frustrated drivers throughout the Northeast.

A piece of “coarse slang” defined as “a term of contempt for a native or inhabitant of the state of Massachusetts,” Masshole was one of nearly 500 words added to the dictionary on Wednesday, along with twerk, sext, hyperlocal, freegan, fratty, and fo’ shizzle.

[Slings and Arrows]

Wicked pissah.

[Slings and Arrows]

Hopefully "Californicate" will be next.

[Tax-chick]

That’s funny.

[Slings and Arrows]

It’s not funny if it’s not true. ;^)

[Dr. Ursus]

Fo’sizzle,my Masshole nizzles!

[Slings and Arrows]

Shakespeare wept.

[Tax-chick]

Good point.

[DoodleDawg]

Shakespeare wept.

The OED just provided definitions. It doesn't censor.

[metesky]

Wicked pissah.

That's a Maine-ism, Bub.

[nickcarraway]

Does this include Scumnecticut?

[Slings and Arrows]

Ayep.

[Slings and Arrows]

Nope. Nor Toad Island.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

If you really must know what Freegan is highlight here.. a person who rejects consumerism and seeks to help the environment by reducing waste, especially by retrieving and using discarded food and other goods. Just yuck.

[Gay State Conservative]

[KGeorge]

It is funny. You can tell how bad the traffic is by how many times you say Ahole between point A & point B. A 20 Ahole trip is a rough trip. (”I need a cigarette”)

They’re really behind on Californication. I saw that term in an interior design magazine c. 1993- 95 (about Washington & Oregon)

[Gay State Conservative]

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

It’s not funny if it’s not true. ;^)

The best epithets contain more than a grain of truth. The OED explains rather than judges. The term, as I understand it, was originally applied to people from Massachusetts who move to New Hampshire to avoid Massachusetts taxes, and subsequently began to demand that the state and town governments in New Hampshire act and spend like it was Massachusetts. The state and local tax burden in New Hampshire used to be about half what is was just to the south, still they had better roads and schools. Southern New Hampshire is a Massachusetts refugee camp. The Bay Staters are completely clueless, they think the epithet applies to all other Bay Staters, except them.

[Tax-chick]

I’m fortunate to live somewhere with very moderate traffic.

[Darksheare]

Oh, I see these guys all the time!
Usually in Beemers or some SUV with mindless bumper stickers, riding the centerline of the highway either going fast enough to vaporize metal on impact, or glacially slow and preventing forward travel due to their self assumed importance...

[No One Special]

As a kid returning from California after a 3000 mile trip and having learned just how bad Massachusetts drivers were by comparison with my experiece driving cross country and back, I got on the Massachusetts Turnpike and was immediately passed by some fool going over 100 mph and he was closely followed by another car at the same speed. Knowing my Massachusetts drivers, what was happening was the second car was playing cop by chasing the other guy because he was going to fast. Happened all the time back then. I had traveled perhaps 7000 miles all over the country without any of the type of driving that was common in Massachusetts only to immediately encounter it as soon as I got back.