goatse

From the name of a now defunct website which first published the image, namely goatse.cx, which used the TLD 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.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡoʊt.si/

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, p. 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, p. 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, Epic Win for Anonymous: How 4chan's Army Conquered the Web, Cole Stryker, p. 100:

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

• trolling
• 4chan

• atgoes, goes at