Originally just the name for the donkey, this word had no filthy connotations until about the late 1700s, early 1800s, when the pronunciation of true (
English) word for the backside, "arse", had changed enough to sound much like "ass", seeing as how the
English often don't pronounce the "
r" when they speak.
To avoid any unwanted baggage associated with the word, the name of the ass was changed to "donkey". As a result, the word "arse" has disappeared from American vocabulary.
Although before World War I they were similar, the
British pronunciations of "ass" /æs/ and "arse" /ɑːs/ are now very different.
-"Joe, how do you say donkey in Spanish?"
-"Burro."
-"How would you spell it?"
-"
B-U-
R-
R-O-W."
-"... it seems that you don't know your ass from a hole in the ground."