goatse

English

Etymology

From the name of a now defunct website which first published the image, namely goatse.cx, which used the top-level domain code .cx, reserved for Christmas Island, because an attempt by an English speaker to say the website's full name would result in a string of phonemes sounding like goat sex.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡoʊt.si/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

Proper noun

goatse

1. (Internet) A certain image of a man displaying his unnaturally dilated anus.
   • 2008, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, Chris Anderson, page 182:

     I thought everyone knew about GOATSE, but I was wrong. […] And knowing about GOATSE appears to be one of its secret membership codes, which is what Anil was demonstrating when he cheekily wore the word on his T-shirt […]

   • 2010, Porn.com: Making Sense of Online Pornography, Feona Attwood, page 136:

     Sometimes communities are founded specifically around the images — Facebook has a Goatse appreciation group at the time of writing […]

   • 2011, The Register (newspaper), "Scottish TV news pumps goatse link", John Oates:

     So they resorted to close-ups of LulzSec's Twitter feed. Specifically, 47 seconds in, the message: "For anyone that doesn't know what goatse is, check it out here, it's really eye-opening:"

   • 2011, Cole Stryker, Epic Win for Anonymous: How 4chan's Army Conquered the Web, page 100:

     For many, the experience of Internet shock sites began with goatse, a notoriously repulsive image that is considered the king of shock sites.

See also

• trolling
• 4chan

Anagrams

• atgoes, goes at