Shit
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2008-07-17T01:30:22Z
Hrothgar15
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Added "shitshow."
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:''This article is about the word "shit". For egestion of bodily wastes, see [[feces]] and [[defecation]].''
'''Shit''', in its literal meaning, is usually considered a [[vulgar]] [[word]] ([[swear word]]) in [[English language|Modern English]]. As a noun it refers to [[fecal]] matter ([[Excretion|excrement]]) and as a verb it means to defecate or defecate in; in the plural ("the shits") it means diarrhoea. As a ''slang'' term, it can mean nonsense, foolishness or something of little value; trivial and usually boastful or inaccurate talk, or a contemptible person. To shit, in slang, is to talk nonsense to, or to attempt to deceive.
==Etymology==
Scholars trace the word back to [[Old Norse]] origin (''skīta'', to defecate), and it is virtually certain that it was used in some form by preliterate [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] tribes at the time of the [[Roman Empire]]. It was originally adopted into [[Old English language|Old English]] as the nouns ''scite'' (dung, attested only in place names) and ''scitte'' (diarrhoea), and the verb ''scītan'' (to defecate, attested only in ''bescītan'', to cover with excrement); eventually it morphed into [[Middle English]] ''schītte'' (excrement), ''schyt'' (diarrhoea) and ''shiten'' (to defecate). The word may be further traced to Proto-Germanic *''skit''-, and ultimately to [[Proto Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] *''skheid''-. Ancient Greek language had 'skor' (root 'skat-' from which modern Greek 'skatá'). The words 'skítur' (noun) and 'skíta' (verb), still exist in the Icelandic language today, and in other Scandinavian languages variations of 'skit' are also often used.
==Usage==
{{Inappropriate tone|date=June 2008}}
The word ''shit'' (or sometimes ''shite'' in Scotland, Ireland, Northern England and Wales) is used by English speakers, but it is usually avoided in formal speech.
In the word's literal sense, it has a rather small range of common usages. 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 ''to take a 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 or with a vague and fairly rigid literalism. Substitutes for the word ''shit'' in English include ''sugar'' and ''shoot''.
''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!'').
Interestingly, in slang, prefixing the article ''the'' to ''shit'' gives it a completely opposite definition, meaning ''the best'', as in "''[[Altered Beast]]'' is '''the''' shit," or "''[[Metallica]]'' is '''the''' 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 brown stuff tastes a bit like shit''; or falsehood or insincerity, as in ''Don't give me that shit'' or ''You're full of shit'', or surprised anger, as in ''Jim is totally going to flip his shit when he sees that we wrecked his marriage.'' Sometimes using ''shit'' to denote anger will be heard in the phrase ''shit a brick''. 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 high excitement or 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''.
The expression ''no shit?'' (a contraction of ''no bullshit?'') is used in response to a statement that is extraordinary or hard to believe. Alternatively the maker of the hard-to-believe statement may add "no shit" to reinforce the sincerity or truthfulness of their statement, particularly in response to someone expressing disbelief at their statement. "No shit" is also used sarcastically in response to a statement of the obvious, as in ''No shit, Sherlock.''
''Shit'' can also be used to establish superiority over another being. The most common phrase is "Eat Shit!" symbolizing the hatred toward the recipient. Some other personal word may be added such as "Eat my shit" implying truly personal connotations. As an aside, the above is actually a contraction of the phrase "Eat shit and die!". It is often said without commas as a curse; they with the other party to perform exactly those actions in that order. However, the term was originally "Eat, Shit, and Die" naming the three most basic things humans have to do, and it is common among soldiers.
''Shit'' can also be used as a comparative noun; for instance, ''This show is funny shit'' or ''This test is hard shit'', or ''That was stupid shit''. 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'' can comfortably stand in for the terms ''bad'' and ''anything'' 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 a mischievous or contemptuous person. However, in such a nominative construction, ''crap'' (as in, ''That little crap shot me in the ass'') is not accepted in [[vernacular]] English. 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]])
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 negligible and perhaps even negative value.The term ''piece of shit'' has greater precision than ''shit'' or ''shitty'' in that ''piece of shit'' 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 initiative in that it has kept young people off the streets after school and exposed them to culture and discipline, thereby improving their self esteem and future prospects. The fact that the orchestra's recent rendition of Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony in B minor was pretty much a piece of shit should not in any way detract from this."'' 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 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. For instance, in ''There is some serious shit going down'' shit can easily be replaced by ''stuff'' with no real loss of meaning. The same applies to ''Get your shit together!'' and the like.
To "shoot the shit" is to have a friendly but pointless conversation, as in "Come by my place some time and we'll shoot the shit."
"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). "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, 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 are 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 [[pejorative|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 ''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 something 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 phrases like "I bought some good shit today; I can't wait to try it", the phrase is still common.
Perhaps the only constant [[connotation]] that ''shit'' reliably carries is that its referent 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 aspiring to) higher [[socioeconomic]] strata tend to use it more privately and selectively than younger and more [[blue-collar]] speakers. 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. This meaning is also essentially a substitution for the term ''stuff'', but is also similar to the colloquial usage of ''bad'' to mean ''dangerous and deserving of respect.'' ''Crap'' is unknown in such locutions.
In polite company, sometimes the [[backronym]] ''Sugar Honey in Tea'' or ''Sugar Honey Iced Tea'' is used.
''Shit'' (like ''[[fuck]]'') is often used to add emphasis more than to add 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 [[trash-talk|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 language|Irish]] equivalent ''siúcra'' ({{pronounced|ʃuːkrə}}.
''Shit'' itself can be a quasi-euphemism, many intoxicating or narcotic [[drug]]s (notably [[hashish]] and [[heroin]]) being referred to as ''shit''. To be ''shitfaced'' is to be extremely [[drunk]]. A ''shitshow'' denotes a party or gathering during which multiple people become intoxicated to the point of incapacitation.
"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.
===The verb “to shit”===
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 the prologue of the [[Canterbury Tales]], ''shitten'' is used as the past participle; however this form is very rare in modern English. In American English ''shit'' as a past participle is always correct, while ''shat'' is generally acceptable and ''shitted'' is uncommon.
===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 present active [[participle]], ''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 or noun constructed partially of the word shit, such as ''shittastic'', ''shittacular'' or ''shituation''.
Sometimes in family [[movies]], some actors let the word ''shit'' slip, but then stretch it into a harmless word. An example occurs in [[Spy Kids]], where Carmen is heard to say "Oh, [[shiitake|shit...take]] mushrooms." The euphemism was also written into ''[[Spy Kids#Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002)|Spy Kids 2]]'', where Carmen says, "You are full of shiitake mushrooms."
* "For shits and giggles" describes things done on a whim or for no particular reason. Example: I ran around the campus for shits and giggles.
* In parts of Canada, a "shit-disturber" is a person who deliberately causes trouble or who is aggravating.
* "Shit stirrer" is used to refer the same thing in England, [[Ireland]], and in Australia.
* A "shitload" or a "shit-ton" is a very large amount of something, e.g. "I have a shitload of laundry to do today" or "I have hardly any wine, but I have shit tons of beer in the house".
* "Shit-kickers" are construction boots, large boots in general, or cowboy boots, or wearers of the same (particularly if the person wearing the cowboy boots does not actually herd cattle).
* A "shit-kicking job" is a low-paid blue-collar work.
* "Shit in a bag and punch it" is a common colloquial phrase to indicate frustratation with a situation or question, e.g., "John has been arrested again", "Oh, shit in a bag and punch it."
* In the US military, a dish comprising chipped beef (or hamburger meat) in gravy on toast is often referred to as "shit on a shingle".
*The term "dipshit" is used to describe someone who is considered to be stupid, while "dipshittery" can be used to describe general stupidity, e.g., "Can you believe that new policy? That is just plain dipshittery."
* "Shit off a shovel" is used in the United Kingdom as a euphemism for speed. It is a visual metaphor projecting the image of moist faeces slipping off the smooth metal surface of the gardening instrument with little or no resistance.
* "Hot shit", in reference to persons, is another way of saying "[[hotshot]]" or "hot stuff" but it is usually applied sarcastically to a conceited person.
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. These are all direct [[calques]] of the Chinese expressions for these bodily outputs.
===Usage in acronyms===
The acronym form "S.H.I.T." often figures into jokes, like ''Special High Intensity Training'' (a well-known joke used in job applications), ''Special Hot Interdiction Team'' (a mockery on [[SWAT]]), ''Super Hackers Invitational Tournament,'' and any [[college]] name that begins with an S-H (like ''Sam Houston Institute of Technology'' or ''South Harmon Institute of Technology'' in the 2006 film ([[Accepted]]) or ''Store High In Transit'' in the 2006 film ([[Kenny]]). ''South Hudson Institute of Technology'' has sometimes been used to describe the [[United States Military Academy]] at West Point.[http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:KqoLeNenNsEJ:urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-s-word.htm+South+Hudson+Institute+of+Technology&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-aIn] It is an urban myth{{Fact|date=July 2007}} that [[Grampian Television]] was almost called ''Scottish Highlands and Islands Television'' until they realised what their acronym would be.
[[The Simpsons]]' [[Apu]] was a graduate student at ''Springfield Heights Institute of Technology''.
==Usage in English media==
===Television===
Recently the word has become increasingly acceptable on American [[cable television]] and [[satellite radio]], which are not subject to [[Federal Communications Commission|FCC]] regulation. In other English-speaking countries, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and Australia, the word is allowed to be used in [[broadcast television]] by the regulative councils of each area, as long as it is used in late hours when young people are not expected to be watching.
====United Kingdom====
It is believed that the first person on British TV to say "shit" was [[John Cleese]] of the ''[[Monty Python]]'' comedy troupe in the late 1960s, as he, himself, mentions in a eulogy to [[Graham Chapman]].
====United States====
"Shit" was one of the original "[[Seven dirty words|Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV]]", a comedy routine by the late American Comedian [[George Carlin]]. In the United States, although the use of the word is censored on broadcast network television (while its [[synonym]] ''[[wikt:crap|crap]]'' is not usually subject to censorship), the FCC permitted some exceptions. The [[October 14]], [[1999]] episode of ''[[Chicago Hope]]'' is believed to be the first show (excluding [[Documentary film|documentaries]]) on U.S. network television to contain the word ''shit'' in uncensored form. The word also is used in a later [[ER (TV series)|ER]] episode "[[On the Beach (ER episode)|On the Beach]]" by Dr. [[Mark Greene]], experiencing the final stages of a deadly [[brain tumor]]. Although the episode was originally aired uncensored, the "shit" utterance has since been edited out in syndicated reruns.
An episode of ''[[South Park]]'', "[[It Hits the Fan]]," originally aired on [[June 20]], [[2001]], was a parody of the hype over the Chicago Hope episode. "Shit" is used 162 times, and a counter in the corner of the screen tallies the repetitions. The moral of this episode 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. South Park airs on American cable networks, outside the regulatory jurisdiction of the [[FCC]], where censorship of vulgar dialogue is at the discretion of the cable operators. <ref>[http://www.reason.com/news/show/116787.html "South Park Libertarians", Reason Magazine]</ref>.
American terrestrial radio stations must abide by [[FCC]] guidelines on obscenity to avoid punitive fines, unlike satellite radio. These guidelines do not define exactly what constitutes obscenity, but it has been interpreted by some commissioners as including any form of words like ''shit'' and ''fuck'', for whatever use.
Despite this, the word has been featured in popular songs that have appeared on broadcast radio in cases where the usage of the word is not audibly clear to the casual listener, or on live television. 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. The 1980 hit album [[Hi Infidelity]] by [[REO Speedwagon]] contained the song "Tough Guys" which had the line "she thinks they're full of shit," which was played on broadcast radio. On [[December 3]], [[1994]], [[Green Day]] performed "[[Geek Stink Breath]]," on [[Saturday Night Live]], ''shit'' was not edited from tape delay live broadcast. The band did not appear on the show again until [[April 9]], [[2005]].
Some notable instances of censorship of the word from broadcast television and radio include [[Steve Miller (musician)|Steve Miller]]'s "Jet Airliner." Although radio stations have sometimes played an unedited version containing the line "funky shit going down in the city." The songs was also released with a "[[radio edit]]" version, replacing the "funky shit" with "funky kicks". Another version of "Jet Airliner" exists in which the word "shit" is faded out. Likewise, the [[Bob Dylan]] song "Hurricane" has a line about having no idea "what kind of shit was about to go down," and has a radio edit version without the word. [[Gwen Stefani]]'s "[[Hollaback Girl]]" video had the original album's use of the word censored in its video. The music video title "[[...On the Radio (Remember the Days)]]" by [[Nelly Furtado]] replaced by the original title "Shit on the Radio (Remember the Days)." This also happened to "[[That's That Shit]]" by [[Snoop Dogg]] featuring [[R. Kelly]], which became "[[That's That]]." In [[Avril Lavigne]]'s song "My Happy Ending," the [[Radio Disney]] edit of the song replaces "all the shit that you do" with "all the stuff that you do." Likewise, in the recent song "[[London Bridge (Fergie song)|London Bridge]]" by [[the Black Eyed Peas]] member [[Stacy Ferguson|Fergie]], the phrase "Oh Shit" is repeatedly used as a background line. A radio edit of this song replaced "Oh Shit" with "Oh Snap."
===Japan===
In [[Japan]], the word has even been known to appear in children's programs, such as the television [[anime]] series ''[[Sonic X]],'' in which [[Sonic the Hedgehog (character)|Sonic the Hedgehog]] casually uses the [[interjection]] numerous times, along with other token English phrases like "Let's Go" and "Don't Worry."
==See also==
*[[Profanity]]
*[[Seven dirty words]]
*[[Bullshit]]
*[[Shit happens]]
*[[It Hits the Fan]]
*[[Cheers (album)|Shit Hits the Fan]]
*"Shitwood" and [[stinkwood]] are names for the plants ''[[Gyrocarpus]] jacquini'' and ''Gyrocarpus americanus'' [http://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_catalog/cat.cgi?uid=Gyrocarpus_jacquini].
==References==
*Douglas Harper [http://www.etymonline.com/baloney.php Ingenious Trifling]. Online Etymology Dictionary. retrieved [[October 24]], [[2006]].
{{reflist}}
==External links==
{{wiktionary}}
*[http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE464.html Indo-European Roots: skei-]
{{SevenDirtyWords}}
[[Category:Profanity]]
[[Category:Feces]]
[[Category:Interjections]]
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