so what is kick ass?

My own notion, pre-dictionary, would be this:

“An adjective that describes someone or something pretty hard core without being rock-hard hard core. Potent, fiery, purposeful, and yet surprisingly suave. An admiring, positive word.”

From the trusty Oxford English Dictionary:

kick-ass adj. (U.S. slang) rough, aggressive, powerful. Ex. 1977, Rolling Stone, 16 June 60/3 “Jan Hammer's cranked-up Moog and Beck's raving guitar, given even a taste of fusion's structure, turned especially *kickass.”

Kick ass is to Millennials as hardcore is to Generation X. Or as kick butt is to a wannabe dad.

 

 

But don’t confuse kick ass with badass:

Badass is more brute force. Badass is causing a smack down on the playground because you wanna, while kick ass is giving the badass grief because you gotta. Oxford English Dictionary says badass is “Belligerent or intimidating; ruthless; tough.

Kick ass has evolved in it’s short lifetime, so that currently: “if something’s kick ass, its really cool. Great! As in it kicks the ass of all else. It can be inanimate and still kick ass.” This notion of kick ass originates from the verb “to kick ass,” as in, to beat the hell out of someone, like in scrabble, or in jail. I'm just saying. Kick ass can also just mean “To be really, really, really cool.” (Urban Dictionary) My roommate tells me, “I think Thucydides is pretty kick-ass."

What a nose. He'd be 2472 this year, which is... kick ass? Well, whatever.

So there you have it. Lastly, I’m fully backing my decision to use this cuss word. It screams, “Check me out, I swear! But no one’s gonna bust me for saying ass, because it’s mature to accept swearing in college” ...which just goes to show how much of a baby you really are if you think this. But most youngsters like us do, at one point in our lives, and this blog represents us millennial youngsters.

*Apparently kick ass, kick-ass, and kickass are all legit.