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Arschloch

ARSH-lokhnounVulgar

A German slang term. Browse all German slang.

What it means

  1. Arsehole — a genuinely nasty person, not merely a fool. The single most-used serious insult in German, and the register is exactly what the English cognate suggests.

  2. Worth knowing that German law treats it as actionable Beleidigung. Saying it to a police officer reliably produces a fine running into three figures, and the tariffs are published.

Literally: Arsehole.

Examples with translations

  • Was für ein Arschloch.

    What an arsehole.

  • Sei kein Arschloch, ruf sie zurück.

    Don't be a dick, call her back.

Where it comes from

Transparent compound, Arsch plus Loch, attested as an insult since the early modern period. Its legal salience is the interesting part: German courts have a long-running jurisprudence on which insults cost how much, and this one is the reference case.