# Half-Assed or Half-Fast?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 28, 2001, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553 "2001-08-28T17:19:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Photog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Photog)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/1 "2001-08-28T17:19:40Z")
When describing the sloppy or shoddy completion of a task, is the correct term ‘half-assed’ or ‘half-fast’? I’ve always thought it was the former, however SWMBO insists that it is the latter. In any event, what’s the origin?
---
### Author:  [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/2 "2001-08-28T17:29:34Z")
Definitely the former.
---
### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/3 "2001-08-28T17:34:12Z")
“Half-fast”? 😕
Tom and Ray have a running joke regarding one’s “vast experience” and the other’s “half-vast experience,” but that’s the closest I’ve ever heard to the posited formation.
Definitely “half-assed.”
---
### Author:  [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/4 "2001-08-28T17:39:47Z")
And regarding origins, [m-w.com](http://m-w.com) comes to the rescue.
Main Entry: half-assed
Pronunciation: ‘haf-‘ast, ‘h[a’]f-’[a’]st
Function: adjective
Date: circa 1932
1 often vulgar : lacking significance, adequacy, or completeness
2 often vulgar : lacking intelligence, character, or effectiveness
- half-assed adverb, often vulgar
---
### Author:  [@bafaa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bafaa)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/5 "2001-08-28T20:08:44Z")
Yeah, definitely half-assed.
Reminds me of a friend who used to say “6 and a half, a dozen” instead of “6 of 1, half a dozen of the other”. Had a lot of laughs with her over that one.
---
### Author:  [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/6 "2001-08-28T20:18:36Z")
I’ve got a promo t-shirt from Compaq that says their computers are “Not Half-Fast”. That’s the only time I’ve ever seen the latter construct, and it was clearly wordplay.
---
### Author:  [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/7 "2001-08-28T20:21:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by KneadToKnow \*
> **"Half-fast"? 😕**
Sign in a friend’s tavern:
\*\*PATIENCE
I am not a fast bartender.
I am not a slow bartender.
I am a half-fast bartender.\*\*
---
### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/8 "2001-08-28T21:35:06Z")
In the Rolling Stones song “It’s All Over Now”, there’s a line that could be heard either “spend all my money/playin’ her high fast game”, or “playin’ her half-assed game”. The second makes more sense, but is a bit racy for 1964. Anybody know the right lyrics?
---
### Author:  [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/9 "2001-08-28T22:26:57Z")
I believe the lyric is “high-class game.”
---
### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/10 "2001-08-28T22:49:01Z")
D’oh! (if true) I guess I should take this to the “high-class or half-assed” thread.
---
### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/11 "2001-08-28T22:50:16Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by lno \*
> **And regarding origins, [m-w.com](http://m-w.com) comes to the rescue.
> . . .
> Date: circa 1932**
_American Slang_ by Robert Chapman says it dates from the late 1800s. According to him, it may be “a humorous mispronunciation of _haphazard_”.
---
### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2001, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/12 "2001-08-29T03:19:03Z")
_Lighter_: adj.,meaning contemptible, half-baked, stupid, etc. 1863, “there goes our half-assed Adjutant.”
As an adj. meaning "halfway, poorly, etc., he cites 1929-33, "If I plan to do something, I don’t see any reason to do it half ass.
---
### Author:  [@Waneman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waneman)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2001, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/13 "2001-08-30T05:04:47Z")
I believe I read somewhere that the half-assed or half-ass comes from days when one would employ and ass or mule to do a certain amount of work. Poor work was satirically equivalent to the work done by half an ass. Why there isn’t a half-mule or half-horse, donkey or any other variation, I don’t know.
Ok, so this was a half-assed attempt at answering the question.
I digress.
-Waneman
---
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2001, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/14 "2001-08-30T11:44:58Z")
> [@](#):
>
> American Slang by Robert Chapman says it dates from the late 1800s. According to him, it may be “a humorous mispronunciation of haphazard”.
I like that explanation, because “half-assed” has always bothered me. Does that mean that something done well is “whole assed”? How does being associated with half an ass (of whatever kind) make something bad?
---
### Author:  [@TheThill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheThill)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2001, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/15 "2001-08-30T13:27:36Z")
When in doubt, the naughty version is real and the “clean” one is a silly euphemism.
---
### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2001, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/16 "2001-08-31T04:04:38Z")
Chapman may be the only source who thinks it could have come from a mispronounciation of _haphazard_.
Look at Lighter’s cite from 1863, “there goes our half-assed Adjutant,” and suggest where haphazard comes into play in the meaning of the word. Yes, I know that the adjective meant two different things in the mid/late 1800’s, but the phrase was already establised by 1863 and couldn’t have come from haphazard, IMHO.
---
### Author:  [@curwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curwin)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2001, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/17 "2001-08-31T12:44:33Z")
Isn’t there a Homer Simpson quote with this?
---
### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2001, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/18 "2001-08-31T12:46:09Z")
Yes. See **Ino** ’s reply above.
---
### Author:  [@Awakenedgiant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Awakenedgiant)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2023, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/19 "2023-05-05T13:56:38Z")
I found this discussion because I was looking for a quote that my aunt had on a plaque in her kitchen that said
“I used to be slow, but now I’m half-fast”
I often hark back to that quote, and tie it to a quote my dad said often, “If you don’t do it right, don’t do it at all”.
A rushed project often turns out half-assed. This thinking has caused me to be a perfectionist, both a good and bad trait
Hope this adds to this old discussion in some way, Mike
---
### Author:  [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2023, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553/20 "2023-05-05T14:02:37Z")
“Half-assed”, although I have never really understood why “whole-assed” is that much better than “half-assed”. When I was ten I was shot in a butt cheek by some evil boy who said it was an accident, but I’m quite sure he was lying. In any case, I sat “half-assed” for the a couple of days because of the pain. It was only a minor discomfort.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-assed-or-half-fast/78553.md?page=2)