Odd Searches
I got an odd search query on my personal blog. I doubt they found what they were looking for, so hopefully they’ll find this. Who knows.
So, what did they search for? Glad you asked.
the meaning and +dreivation of the word shit
I did some digging. (No pun intended, but I’ll take it!) Apparently there is an email going around that claims shit is an acronym, but it is inaccurate. The noun is from Old English scitan, meaning “split, divide, separate”. It’s linked to science and conscience, interestingly enough.
It seems to have a fairly shady background and it’s a little hard to trace the original uses. It was taboo and vulgar. But The Online Etymology Dictionary places it c. 1600. They say it was omitted from some dictionaries as recently as 1970!
What you’re really looking for:
Extensive slang usage; verb meaning “to lie, to tease” is from 1934; that of “to disrespect” is from 1903. Noun use for “obnoxious person” is since at least 1508; meaning “misfortune, trouble” is attested from 1937. Shat is a humorous past tense form, not etymological, first recorded 18c. Shite, now a jocular or slightly euphemistic variant, formerly a dialectal variant, reflects the vowel in the O.E. verb (cf. Ger. scheissen). Shit-faced “drunk” is 1960s student slang; shit list is from 1942. To not give a shit “not care” is from 1922; up shit creek “in trouble” is from 1937. Scared shitless first recorded 1936.
So, how do you use it? Is it still vulgar? Or, has it’s use/overuse taken away the vulgarity? What say you?
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