Shit

This article is about the expletive "shit". For excretion of bodily wastes, see Feces.

Shit or Shite is a vernacular word in Modern English denoting feces, the byproduct of digestion. It is an old and native English word, but following the Norman Conquest, Norman, Anglo-Norman, French, and Latin terms for many common objects and bodily functions began to be seen as more distinguished than native words, and thereafter feces became the accepted English noun, to defecate became the accepted English verb, and shit was no longer used in polite company. It is therefore a swear word and can be classed as 'slang'.

Etymology

Scholars trace the word back to Old Norse origin (skīta), and it is virtually certain that it was used in some form by preliterate Germanic tribes at the time of the Roman Empire. It was originally adopted into Old English as scitte, eventually morphing into Middle English schītte. The word may be further traced to Proto-Germanic *skit-, and ultimately to Proto-Indo-European *skheid-, ". Spoken and written substitutes for the word shit in American English include sugar and shoot.

Usage

The word shit (or sometimes shite [to rhyme with bite] in Scotland (depending on context), Ireland, Northern England and Lincolnshire), is used by English speakers, but it is considered an obscenity, and thus is usually avoided in formal speech. A less vulgar substitute is crap, which while still impolite and/or emphatic, is not considered obscene. The correct vernacular usage of crap is mostly identical, with certain key exceptions (see below). Many people receive satisfaction from the usage of the word and see it as, subsequently, a good way to relieve stress. Such phrases include Oh shit!, or the more polite Shit-ake Mushrooms!.

Used in a sentence one may say 'I have shit on my shoe', 'You smell like shit!', or perhaps 'you are a shit faced shit-head'. These can refer to the literal meaning or merely as a vulgar insult. The word may also be used when reffering to something seen as appealing, as in, 'It's the shit.'

In the word's literal sense, it has a rather small range of common usages. In American English, an unspecified or collective occurrence of feces is generally shit or some shit, a single deposit of feces is sometimes a shit or a piece of shit, and to defecate is to shit, or counterintuitively to take a shit. Often one describes a particularly intense bowel movement as 'taking a wicked shit'. While it is common to speak of shit as existing in a pile, a load, a hunk and other quantities and configurations, such expressions flourish most strongly in the figurative. For practical purposes, when actual defecation and excreta are spoken of in English, it is either through creative euphemism (pinching a loaf, laying some cable, seeing Mr. Brown off to the coast, dropping the kids off at the pool, brewing up a pot of s.h.i. tea, releasing the prisoners, lighting a bum cigar, cutting a log, dropping a deuce, making sausages, making butterfinger bb's, punching a grumper, busting a grumpy, releasing the demons, dropping a charge, greeting the night, splitting the corn, taking a ride down the sunshine highway, seeing a man about a horse or wallaby', 'planting a brown carrot', 'giving birth to a food baby, 'dropping a dagger', 'paying tribute to Dutch porn', "taking the Browns to the Superbowl", negotiating the release of the chocolate hostages) or with a vague and fairly rigid literalism. In the United States Army, the euphemism 'executing a class one download' has become popular.

Most expressly, in English, shit carries an encompassing variety of figurative meanings. Of these, perhaps the most common are generic expressions of displeasure (as in, Shit!), fear (Oh, shit!), or surprise (Holy shit!).

Shit denotes trouble, as in, I was in a lot of shit; low quality, as in, That disk drive is shit (see "piece of shit" below); unpleasantness, as in, Those pants look like shit, or This casserole tastes like shit; or falsehood or insincerity, as in, Don't give me that shit, or You're full of shit or surprised anger Jim is totally going to flip a shit when he sees that we wrecked his bike. The word bullshit also denotes false or insincere discourse. (Horseshit is roughly equivalent, while chickenshit means cowardly, batshit indicates a person is crazy, and going apeshit indicates a person is entering a state of unbridled rage.). Are you shitting me!? is a question sometimes given in response to an incredible assertion. An answer that reasserts the veracity of the claim is, I shit you not.

Shit can also be used as a comparative noun; for instance, This show is funny as shit (or sometimes shite [to rhyme with bite] in Scotland (depending on context), Ireland, Northern England and Lincolnshire), or This test is hard as shit(or shite), or That was stupid as shit(e). For the third example here, stupid can be replaced with a synonym such as dumb or idiotic, although idiotic is uncommonly used and would sound out of place in this phrase. These three usages (with funny, hard, and stupid or another synonym of stupid) are heard most commonly in the United States. Note that shit is both a positive and negative thing in these examples, shit being apparently very funny (a positive thing) and in the second and third examples very hard (as in, difficult- a negative thing to be) or very stupid. Note also that in a phrase like this, the speaker doesn't include the term as before the comparison- saying that something is as funny as shit would sound like a criticism to anyone reading the term (shit not being a very funny thing to be), although if spoken could be understood along with the spirit it's said in. Using the as changes these phrases from a simple colloquialism to a literal statement.

Shit (or sometimes shite [to rhyme with bite] in Scotland (depending on context), Ireland, Northern England and Lincolnshire) can comfortably stand in for the terms bad and nothing in many instances (Dinner was good, but the movie was shit. You're all mad at me, but I didn't do shit!). Many usages are idiomatic. The phrase, I don't give a shit denotes indifference. I'm shit out of luck usually refers to someone who is at the end of their wits or who has no remaining viable options. That little shit shot me in the ass, suggests an individual of small rectitude. However, in such a nominative construction, crap (as in, That little crap shot me in the ass) is not accepted vernacular English. A more likely phrasing would be, that little crap-head, or that little turd. Of further note is that little shit is common as a term of opprobrium, while big shit is unfamiliar, and that direct scatological appellations are rarely applied to females, for whom gender-specific terms such as bitch or cunt more readily accrue. (However, in Britain and Australia, the term cunt is used to refer to men very much more frequently than to women, so it is not really a gender-specific term.)

The term piece of shit is generally used to classify a product or service as being sufficiently below the writer's understanding of generally accepted quality standards to be of neglible and perhaps even negative value. For example, one could say "Japanese automobile manufacturers achieved market dominance in North America in the late 1970's because quality cars like the Honda Civic faced no greater competition than the Ford Pinto, which was essentially a piece of shit." The term piece of shit has greater precision than shit or shitty in that piece of shit specifically identifies the low quality of a specific component or output of a process without applying a derogatory slant to the entire process. For example, if one said "The inner city youth orchestra has been a remarkably successful intiative in that it has kept young people off the streets after school, and exposed them to culture and disclipline thereby improving their self esteem and future prospects. The fact that the orchestra's recent rendition of Tchaikofsky's Manfred Symphony in B minor was pretty much a piece of shit should not in any way detract from this larger accomplishment." The substitution of shit or shitty for pretty much a piece of shit would imply irony and would therefore undermine the strength of the statement.

In Get your shit (or sometimes shite [to rhyme with bite] in Scotland (depending on context), Ireland, Northern England and Lincolnshire) together! the word 'shit' may refer to some set of personal belongings or tools, or to one's wits, composure, or attention to the task at hand. He doesn't have his shit together suggests he is failing rather broadly, with the onus laid to multiple personal shortcomings, rather than bad luck or outside forces. Shit can even be a plain, neuter pronoun for basically anything in vulgar speech. EG, in There is some serious shit(e) going down shit can easily be replaced by stuff with no real loss of meaning (the same goes for Get your shit together! and the like).

"When the shit hits the fan" is usually used to refer to a specific time of confrontation or trouble, which requires decisive action. This is often used in reference to combat situations and the action scenes in movies, but can also be used for everyday instances that one might be apprehensive about. "I don't want to be here when the shit hits the fan!" indicates that the speaker is dreading this moment (which can be anything from an enemy attack to confronting an angry parent or friend). Here again shit is usually replace by shite in Scotland, Northern England and Lincolnshire, not in Ireland however. "He's the one to turn to when the shit hits the fan." is an indication that the person being talked about is dependable and will not run from trouble or abandon their allies in tough situations. The concept of this phrase is simple enough, as the actual substance striking the rotating blades of a fan would cause a messy and unpleasant situation (much like being in the presence of a manure spreader). Whether or not this has actually happened, or if the concept is simply feasible enough for most people to imagine the result without needing it to be demonstrated, is unknown. Another example might be the saying "Shit rolls down hill" particularly illustrating, the consequences of putting your superiors in a bad position at work. There are a number of anecdotes and jokes about such situations, however, as the imagery of these situations is considered to be funny. This is generally tied-in with the concept that disgusting and messy substances spilled onto someone else is humorous.

While the most common uses of shit are figurative, the unpleasant substance to which the term literally refers is seldom entirely absent, and thus most uses of shit have some degree of pejoration. But this is far from a universal rule: In some styles of discourse, shit can replace nearly any noun. In the sentence, "I bought a bunch of shit at the store today", shit is merely a casual intensification of the term, stuff. Similarly, Check that shit out! connotes surprise at some sort of stuff or activity that could very well be pleasant. Give me a bite of that shit implies a deliciousness notably absent from the literal substance. It's common for someone to refer to an unpleasant thing as hard shit (You got a speeding ticket? Man, that's some hard shit), but the phrase tough shit is used as an unsympathetic way of saying too bad to whomever is having problems (You got arrested? Tough shit, man!) or as a way of expressing to someone that they need to stop complaining about a negative thing that occurred to them and just deal with it (Billy: I got arrested because of you! Tommy: Tough shit, dude, you knew you might get arrested when you chose to come with me.) Note that in this case, as in many cases with the term, tough shit is often said as a way of pointing out someone's fault in his/her own current problem. To drug users, shit almost always refers to a drug being discussed. This was a secret code in the early 60s, and though most people now understand that in phrases like "I bought some good shit today, I can't wait to try it", the usage of the phrase is still common.

Perhaps the only constant connotation that shit reliably carries is that the referent to which it applies holds some degree of emotional intensity for the speaker. Whether offense is taken at hearing the word varies greatly according to listener and situation, and is related to age and social class: elderly speakers and those of (or attaining to) higher socioeconomic strata tend to use it more privately and selectively than younger and more blue-collar speakers. Regardless, it is highly improbable that any native English speaker of any age or social position can truthfully claim never to have used the word. Moreover, in some colloquial speech, calling something or someone the shit is laudatory. For instance, Dave's new car is the shit, suggests that Dave's new car is very good, or very cool. This meaning is also essentially a substitution for the term stuff, but is also similar to the vernacular usage of bad to mean dangerous and deserving of respect. Crap is unknown in such locutions.

The verb to shit

The verb, to shit, is most commonly used to refer to the literal act of defecation, but it can also mean to treat badly or to humiliate (I got shit on for being late, He shit all over my project), or to produce something carelessly (I was hoping for a project we could all be proud of, but Dave just goes and shits something out at the last minute). The preterite and past participle of shit are attested as shat, shit, or shitted, depending on dialect and, sometimes, the rhythm of the sentence. In American English shit as a past participle is always correct, while shat is generally acceptable and shitted is uncommon. In the Prologue of the Canterbury Tales, "shitten" is used as the past participle.

There are many ways in which one can express that they would like to shit. The statement will usually begin with "I'm gonna..." and end with "take a shit", "crimp one off", "release a chocolate hostage", "fire off a torpedo", "drop the kids off at the pool", "have a dump", "make some gravy", "cook up some turds", "boil a brown egg", "lay a cable" etc. Note that the above list is not exhaustive. There are a variety of expressions, many of which are often associated with particular demographics. You are unlikely to hear a blue-blooded member of society saying anything other than "I'm going to defecate", whereas it would be commonplace to hear the average blue collar man saying "I'm gonna go dent some porcelain".

If one is going to use the word 'shit' when discussing a bowel movement one will generally add an adjective such as wicked, presumably to communicate urgency and therefore justify the indiscreet disclosure. There may be a slight ambiguity with respect to whether the term wicked describes the intensity of the requirement to defecate or that of the output itself. An example of the former is "I missed the prime-minister's after dinner speech because I had to go take a wicked shit." An example of the latter is "Stay away from the upstairs bathroom - someone from the rugby team just took a wicked shit" Because there is generally a strong correlation between the intensity of the requirement and that of the output, the ambiguity is limited. Note that one cannot use the term "wicked" as an adverb without altering the meaning of the statement. Saying "I missed the prime-minister's after dinner speech because I had to wickedly shit," might imply that the speaker was engaged in a clumsy attempt to poison the pate.

Usage of shits occurs in three types of common English. Although not formal, shits as a verb (Mark shits in the morning) is still correct, but this tense is not widely used, as takes a shit is more direct in meaning. As a noun (Those little shits) refers to children or people of low status, such as Freshman to upper classmen on any level. Lastly, the shits is euphemistic for diarrhea (That bean burrito dip gave me the shits!!).

Shit (like fuck) is often used more to add emphasis than meaning: Shit! I was so shit-scared of that shithead that I shit-talked him into dropping out of the karate match. The term, to shit-talk, connotes bragging or exaggeration (whereas to talk shit primarily means to gossip [about someone in a damaging way] or to talk in a boastful way about things which are erroneous in nature), but in such constructions as the above, the word shit often functions as an interjection. Euphemisms for shit in this usage include shoot, shucks, and in Hiberno-English sugar and its Irish equivalent siúcra (pronounced /ʃuːkrə/.

Shit itself can be a quasi-euphemism, many illicit drugs (notably hashish) being referred to as shit. To be shitfaced is to be extremely drunk.

"Shit" can also be combined with other words to denote the type of feces one has. For instance, "Snake shit" describes feces that are long and slender in shape thus reminiscent of a snake's appearance. "Shapeepee" or "Shit pee pee" is another word for diarrhea or can be used to describe feces that are almost entirely of liquid composition.

Other parts of speech

Non-native English speakers should take note that shit and fuck often serve different uses as expletives, such that (for instance) the gerundive, shitting, is rarely used emphatically. Ex.: In the sentence, I was so shit-scared of that shithead that I shit-talked him into dropping out of the shitting karate match, the phrase, shitting karate match, would be incomprehensible to native speakers except in suggesting a singularly unsanitary form of karate. (In the UK, phrases such as shitting hell as an emphatic are not unknown.) A correct and clear vulgarism would be, the fucking karate match. Similarly, shit is never used as an infix: While in-fucking-credible is comprehensible English, in-shitting-credible is not. Shit you! is likewise a puzzling and ineffective expression of defiance. It is not uncommon, however, to encounter an adjective constructed partially of the word shit, such as "Shittastic" or "Shittacular".

Sometimes in family movies, some actors let the word shit slip, but then stretch it into a harmless word. An example of this occurring are in Spy Kids, where Carmen is heard to say, "Oh, shit...take mushrooms." The euphemism was also written into Spy Kids 2, where Carmen says, "You are full of shiitake mushrooms." (The crowd was offended anyway.)

In parts of Canada, a "shit-disturber" is a person who deliberately causes trouble or who is aggravating. A "shit stirer" is used to mean the same thing in the South London and North Kent areas of England, as well as in Australia. A "shitload" is a whole bunch of something, eg. "I have a shitload of laundry to do today". "Shitkickers" are large boots or cowboy boots, or the cowboy (particularly if the person wearing the cowboy boots does not actually herd cattle).

"Shit" is very commonly used in the Dutch language, expressing a general discomfort with a certain situation ("Shit!"), or to describe the situation itself. ("I'm in deep shit"). It is not as offensive to Dutch speakers as it is to English, but one would not use it in a formal situation. The use of it by children is discouraged by adults, teaching them substitutes like chips (In Dutch pronounced as the English ships). "Shit" is most commonly used as a replacement of the more obscene word "kut", meaning "cunt", "Kut" is mostly used in the same way as "shit" is in the Dutch language.

Some users of English in the Far East use the expression nose shit to describe the fragments of dried nasal mucus which occasionally exit (deliberately or accidentally) from the nostrils. Similarly, expressions eye shit and less commonly ear shit describe discharge of the eye, dried or still moist, and ear wax, respectively.

Acceptance

Recently the word shit has become increasingly acceptable on American cable television and radio (in Britain and Australia this has been the case for some time, although fuck and cunt remain mainly taboo). It is believed that the first person on British TV to say 'shit' was John Cleese of Monty Python comedy troupe in late 60's, as he mentions himself in a eulogy to Graham Chapman.

Certain songs with the word shit in them have recently slipped past censors on the radio.

A good example is the episode of South Park "It Hits The Fan" originally aired on June 20, 2001. It is one of the most notable episodes of the show. It is best known for its repeated use of the word shit. (To be precise, the word is used 162 times: a counter in the corner of the screen tallies the repetitions.) The moral of this episode (signaled by the cheesy music and Stan or Kyle saying "I learned something today") is that swearing is okay occasionally, but if it is done over and over and over, it takes away from a word's impact and the word gets very, very boring. However, these shows all appear on American cable networks, outside the influence of the FCC, so their censorship is strictly voluntary.

In Canada, "shit" is often aired uncensored on tv. A good example is the Canadian sitcom Trailer Park Boys where words like shit, fuck, and even creative phrases like "shitbat" are used many times per episode.

In the song "Man in the Box" by Alice in Chains, the line "Buried in my shit" was played unedited over most rock radio stations. Often such words in pop songs are blurred together and cannot be understood sufficiently to be recognized by fans, much less cause offense to censors. However, many large pop hits have nevertheless included the word. Pink Floyd's hit "Money," originally released in 1973, refers to "bullshit," a slightly less offensive form (which recently formed the title of one of the country's bestselling books). It is unknown whether the song was played in an edited form on radio.

In Steve Miller's "Jet Airliner", many radio stations leave in the line "funky shit going down in the city". Likewise, the Bob Dylan song "Hurricane" has a line about having no idea "what kind of shit was about to go down". Both of these songs were released with a "radio edit" version (replacing the words "funky shit" in the Miller song with "funky kicks") that is now rarely played by increasingly popular satellite radio and smaller community stations throughout the United States.

The 1980 hit album Hi Infidelity by American rock group REO Speedwagon contained a song called "Tough Guys", which had the line "she thinks they're full of shit". This was not a major hit from the album, though it did get radio play.

However, American terrestrial radio stations with any significant audience must abide by FCC guidelines on obscenity to avoid punitive fines. These guidelines do not define exactly what constitutes obscenity, but it has certainly been interpreted by some commissioners as including any form of words like shit and fuck, for whatever use, rude or not. Thus the word shit is actually less likely to be heard today than a decade or two ago. In the album version of her recent song, "Hollaback Girl", Gwen Stefani repeatedly utters the phrase "This shit is bananas!", but the music video had the phrase instead playing as, "This shhh is bananas," where 'shit' was the only word deemed worthy of censorship. Terrestrial radio is also decreasingly popular for the type of music and talk programming where the word might be used, perhaps due to this climate of fear among station managers.

See also

• Profanity
• Seven dirty words
• Bullshit
• Crap
• It Hits the Fan
• Holy Shit

External links

• Shit as Art
• shit.com