A-Hole

A-Hole is a polite way of calling someone an asshole. It is a vulgar expletive considered to be profane by most people. It is used to describe someone who is of low moral fiber, who behaves discordantly with acceptable norms and is often combative with others. Simply put, A-holes are just all-around jerks. In fairness, the word is actually very subjective in terms of who it describes and is subject to interpretation.

In terms of movies, A-holes are found just about everywhere. In most cases, they serve as the antagonist of a film, but this is hardly a truism. One can be an antagonist or "villain", but this doesn't mean they are necessarily an A-hole. Conversely, certain protagonists may also be A-holes. Just because a character serves a loftier purpose in life, does not mean he or she is somehow immune to being branded an A-hole. For example, Staff sergeant Dignam from Martin Scorsese's The Departed is a police officer laboring towards taking down Irish-American crime boss Frank Costello. Sounds like a pretty good guy, eh? Not really. Dignam is foul-mouthed, belligerent with others, difficult to work with and he has a funny sounding name. In short, he's an A-hole.