# Archie says his job gets "kind of butthole at times" in 1947 newspaper comic

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 23, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754 "2012-04-23T22:12:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Tammi\_Terrell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Tammi\_Terrell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tammi_Terrell)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2012, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/61 "2012-05-27T02:33:58Z")

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But, as Ben Zimmer notes in [his 28 April post to ADS-L](http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1204D&L=ADS-L&P=R16903), one of the (now four) newspapers known to have run that particular strip published a version in which “butthole” appears as illegible or partially so. Ben found this case in [newspaperarchive.com](http://newspaperarchive.com)’s reproduction of page 11 of _The Zanesville_ (Ohio) _Times Recorder_. The entire page is now viewable at the URL below. Interestingly, it’s just that one word that’s particularly difficult to read; even the teeniest print on the page is easier to make out.

[![](https://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a319/Cackalacky/Archie.jpg) ](https://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a319/Cackalacky/Archie.jpg)

So, perhaps – as Ben suggests – someone at the Zanesville paper _was_ familiar with an offensive meaning for “butthole” and decided to have the word obscured before that day’s issue went to press.

Further, as Ben points out in [another posting](http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1204D&L=ADS-L&P=R13961), Green’s Dictionary of Slang records a 1942 usage of “butt-hole” to signify, well, “anus,” so at least the hyphenated form was known to some segment of America as a synonym for “asshole” when “butthole” appeared in Montana’s strip.

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**Author:** ![Tammi\_Terrell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Tammi\_Terrell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tammi_Terrell)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/62 "2012-05-27T03:17:10Z")

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Actually, the PDF version of that page from the Zanesville paper has much better resolution. For the next couple of weeks the PDF can be viewed at

[http://tinyurl.com/brk35f5](http://tinyurl.com/brk35f5)

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