Asshat is a slightly more trendy and less severe variation of asshole, graphically describing someone who has his "head up his ass" (i.e., not knowing what's going on), or a variation of "butthead." In the former sense, it is suggested that one is "wearing one's ass for a hat", or alternately, "a hat for one's ass." A more modern usage of asshat describes a person doing something stupid, and can apply to anyone: "the boss is up to asshattery because he broke the computer even though he knew he was doing the wrong thing."

The word is popular in many online communities, serving as a more palatable version of its antecedent. According to Google's Usenet statistics, the word only saw a token appearance every day or two starting in July, 1999, but following a slow rise in 2002, it entered popular usage in May, 2003. The pejorative was popularized by its use on online community Fark.com and in various Internet Relay Chat communities.

Also a term used in Massive Multiplayer Online games to describe sitting your character on the head of a dead character; "Bob Killed Fred then he Asshated him ROFL."

December 20, 2002 saw a graphical representation of an asshat in the online comic /usr/bin/w00t, whereafter it was used frequently to represent customers who annoyed the technical support personnel.