I supposesaint wrote:I am not a native English speaker but, after accepting that an "iron ass" was a beefed up ship and part of Oolite jargon - that is common speak in Oolite universe - "lead posterior" is really really nice, sounds to me as an ancient lady that tries to use a term she once heard...Cmdr James wrote:Right, word for word translation makes no sense, but my point way that even the original is pretty meaningless. We know what it means, but I wouldnt regard it as standard english, even as slang.
To translate in other language it could be nice to know what was originally an "iron ass" and why. There's an USAF general that had that nickname, and I found it referred to american custom bike, but have no clear idea except "Oolite jargon".
A hard arse in english slang is someone who is not easily beaten in a fight. Iron being a hard metal, and ships mostly being made of metal we now get iron ass.