shit

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ʃɪt/^[1]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English shiten, inherited from Old English *scītan, recorded in Old English only in bescītan (“to cover with excrement”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *skīt-.^[5][6] Its cognates are Middle Low German schīten, Dutch schijten, Old High German scīzan (modern German scheißen) and Old Norse skíta.^[5][2][7] Etymonline and Watkins derive it from Proto-Indo-European *skei- (“to cut, split”), the idea being separation from the body,^[6][3] and Merriam-Webster connects it with Old English scēadan (“to separate”), the source of shed.^[8][2] The modern form with short i replaced earlier shite, taking its vowel from the past participle shitten or from the noun.^[5][7][2] The noun is inherited from Old English scitte (“diarrhoea”),^[6][4][9] related to Middle Dutch schitte (“excrement”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English scitte meant “diarrhoea”, a sense the noun kept in Middle English.^[6][4] The verb “to defecate” is first quoted about 1308.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

The general sense “excrement” dates from the 1580s;^[6][4] Old English used scytel for dung, and in the 14th century the usual words were turd or filth.^[6] The word was originally neutral,^[12] and Green's Dictionary of Slang treats it as standard English from the 14th to the late 17th century and slang thereafter,^[10] while the New Partridge has it slipping into vulgarity in the 19th century.^[11] According to Etymonline it was taboo from about 1600 and rarely printed: neither Shakespeare nor the King James Bible has it, late 18th-century texts disguise it with dashes, and censors objected to it as late as 1922.^[6] A contemptible person has been called a shit since 1508.^[6][13] “Nonsense” is from 1924 and “something worthless” from 1925,^[13] and the adjective “bad, inferior” is quoted from 1925 in a letter of Hemingway's.^[10] The sense “trouble, misfortune” is dated 1929 by the HTOED^[13] and 1937 by Etymonline.^[6] The verb “to lie, to tease” is from 1934,^[6][11] the noun “heroin” from 1950,^[11] and the exclamation is in print by 1920.^[6] The past tense shat is a humorous, unetymological form first recorded in the 18th century.^[6] Phrases include up shit creek (1868), not give a shit (1922), shit list (1942) and when the shit hits the fan (1967).^[6]

Timeline

• Old English – scitte, diarrhoea.^[6][4]
• c. 1308 – verb, to defecate.^[10][11]
• 1508 – a contemptible person.^[6][13]
• 1580s – excrement in general.^[6]
• 18th century – shat, humorous past tense.^[6]
• 1868 – up shit creek.^[6]
• by 1920 – exclamation.^[6]
• 1924 – nonsense.^[13]
• 1925 – adjective, bad, worthless.^[10]
• 1934 – verb, to lie or tease.^[6][11]
• 1942 – shit list.^[6]
• 1950 – heroin.^[11]
• 1967 – when the shit hits the fan.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (coarse slang) Excrement; an act of defecating.
2. (the shits) Diarrhoea.
3. Something worthless or disgusting; nonsense.
4. A mean or contemptible person.
5. A narcotic, especially heroin.
6. Things, stuff; one's belongings.
7. Trouble or difficulty.

Verb

1. (coarse slang) To defecate.
2. To tease or try to deceive.

Adjective

1. (coarse slang) Bad, inferior or worthless.

Interjection

1. (coarse slang) Expressing anger, surprise or annoyance.

Word family

• shitty

Related words

• shite
• shed
• science
• conscience
• sharn

Usage notes

The Shorter Oxford labels the word coarse slang.^[4] Its past tense is shitted, shit or shat;^[4] the Cambridge pronouncing dictionary notes that shat is rare in American English, where the usual past tense is shit.^[1] Etymonline stresses that the word is not an acronym.^[6] In Scots shit was also a contemptuous name for a small, puny person or animal, and the form shite, with the adjective shitten “paltry, mean”, was used from Scotland and Westmorland to Somerset and Devon.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b c d e f g Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
12. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)