This is a term that was originally applied, not to clergy, but to a female with an unsightly arse. The arse in question might be fat, lopsided or saggy, it could be overly skinny or have strange looking lumps and bumps on it, or it may just not look right. Any of these attributes would turn her into a
cassock wearer. It all goes back to a saying that started in England just after World War II. At that time, most people went to church and would kneel for prayers on a sort of cushion called a
hassock. These hassocks could be lopsided or saggy, frequently skinny and often had strange looking lumps on them. Somebody made the comparison of an unsightly female arse to a hassock and from this grew the rhyme “with an arse like a hassock she should wear a cassock”, which was shortened to cassock wearer. It has now become a term applied generally to an
unprepossessing female.
