Where did the word "S**T" come from?

skipz · 29-07-2010 06:36PM #1

Any ideas where the word "Sh*t" came from?
Where and when was the word invented, is it even that old of a word?:p

Degsy · 29-07-2010 06:38PM

I understand it started in ancient china..a man called One Long Pong trod in dog excrement and exclaimed "Shiit"!.

It just took off from there:rolleyes:

kylith · 29-07-2010 06:38PM

It comes from the Old English, and therefore Germanic 'schitte' (sp). It is therefore rather old.

Biggins · 29-07-2010 06:40PM

It is commonly believed that our so-called “four-letter words” are all Anglo-Saxon in origin, dating back to the earliest days of our language. In most cases, this is a false assumption. Most of our modern swear words are much more recent than the Old English era. ****, however, does go back to an Old English root, *scítan . It has cognates in most of the other Germanic languages and shares a common Germanic root with modern equivalents like the modern German scheissen.

*Scitan, however, doesn’t appear in extant Old English texts and is only assumed to have existed in Old English. (The * mark is standard etymological notation for a reconstructed word, one that is believed to have existed. The verb to **** is not actually found in any manuscript until the Middle English period. From a manuscript titled Heil Seint Michel, written sometime before 1325 [the Oxford English Dictionary has a slightly different version of the quote from an unnamed manuscript (possibly the same one) dated from before 1308]:

Hail be ȝe, skinners, wiþ ȝure drenche kiue! Who so smilliþ þerto, wo is him aliue, Whan þat hit þonneriþ, ȝe mote þer in schite.
(Hail be you, skinners, with your tanner’s vats! Who so sniffs at it, woe is him alive, When it thunders, you must **** in there.)

The noun appears prior to 1585 in Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth’s Flyting With Montgomerie:

Fond flytter, **** shytter.

Although it actually appears as an epithet for a disreputable person in 1508 in Walter Kennedy’s The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie:

A schit, but wit.

The interjection is of quite recent vintage, not found until 1920 when it appears in a 3 January letter by James Joyce:

O ****e and onions! When is this bloody state of affairs going to end?

In 2002, an alleged acronymic origin for **** appeared on the Internet. According to this tale, the word is from an acronym for Ship High In Transit, referring to barges carrying manure. This is a complete fabrication and absurd on its face. All it takes to disprove it is to look up the word in any decent dictionary. Remember, anytime someone posits an acronymic word origin, chances are that it is utterly false.

(Sources: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition; Middle English Dictionary, Univ. of Michigan)

Source: http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/more/505/

End of thread.

skipz · 29-07-2010 06:42PM

One long pong story sounds better!:D

amacachi · 29-07-2010 06:42PM

A shorter alternative to meecrob.

Degsy · 29-07-2010 06:45PM

Where the hell is Flutterinbantam??

Donkey Oaty · 29-07-2010 06:47PM

Degsy wrote: »

Where the hell is Flutterinbantam??

No doubt a peelin' and a coilin' one off somewhere, notebook in hand.

MrMatisse · 29-07-2010 06:49PM

it was invented to descibe this thread

skipz · 29-07-2010 06:54PM

Really-Stressed wrote: »

it was invented to descibe this thread

Your name really suits you.

Mint Sauce · 29-07-2010 06:58PM

–noun
1. a discharge of a firearm, bow, etc.
2. the range of or the distance traveled by a missile in its flight.
3. an aimed discharge of a missile.
4. an attempt to hit a target with a missile.
5. an act or instance of shooting a firearm, bow, etc.
6. a small ball or pellet of lead, a number of which are loaded in a cartridge and used for one charge of a shotgun.
7. such pellets collectively: a charge of shot.
8. a projectile for discharge from a firearm or cannon.
9. such projectiles collectively: shot and shell.
10. a person who shoots; marksman: He was a good shot

–verb (used with object)
29. to load or supply with shot.
30. to weight with shot.
–verb (used without object)
31. to manufacture shot, as in a shot tower.
—Idioms
32. by a long shot. long shot ( def. 4 ) .
33. call one's shots, Informal . to indicate beforehand what one intends to do and how one intends to do it.
34. call the shots, Informal . to have the power or authority to make decisions or control policy: Now that he's chairman of the board, he calls the shots.
35. have / takea shot at, make an attempt at: I'll have a shot at solving the problem.
36. like a shot, instantly; quickly: He bolted out of here like a shot.
37. shot in the arm, Informal . something that results in renewed vigor, confidence, etc.; stimulus: Her recent promotion has given her a shot in the arm. The new members gave the club a shot in the arm.
38. shot in the dark, Informal . a wild guess; a random conjecture.

what was the question again

Where did the word "S**T" come from?

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