An article in the Harvard Magazine described the Harvard Law experience of a woman who preceded RBG (Orin Kerr linked to it in a tweet). The author describes a class where women were grilled over past legal cases with language which would be embarassing. Hers was a case involving a farmer's ass (donkey) who got out onto the road. This happened in 1956, a year I remember well enough to know that "ass" was never mentioned in polite society; neither was "butt" for that matter, except in the context of cigarettes.
I've been struck by changes in language usage over the years--"ass" being one. These days it seems pretty common in the print media, much more so in entertainment. So I decided to do an ngram search. In America its frequency of usage seems to take off in the mid '90's, reaching a peak in 2014 and declining slightly since. (The British usage pattern differs.)
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