Talk:shit

Slang?
How can a word that's been in about the same use for at least a thousand years old be considered slang? Karmosin 19:32, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Well, the Slavs still have the root *jeb- (fuck) from Proto-Indo-European, so I don't think age has got anything to do with it. Wakuran 11:36, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
 * That doesn't answer anything. It just opens an unrelated discussion about whether the mentioned Slavic word is "slang". That I don't know. But English "shit" is definitely not slang. Slang is a form of language used by a certain social group, a certain profession, or the like. If a word is generally known and is used equally by people of "all walks of life" it can never be slang. It can be vulgar, it can be informal, yes; but not slang. Of course, this mistake is made throughout this dictionary and others. 92.218.236.219 19:38, 16 February 2023 (UTC)

german translation
I know that german for "shit happens" is mist passiert. I'm not sure if mist is used more than scheißen.
 * Scheisse = shit and Mist = crap or poo. Mist is just a slightly more "elaborate" way of saying it. Andskar S.--82.221.36.18 06:06, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Origin
Is the story true about the origin of the word being an old acronym for '(Store/Ship) High In (Transit/Tranport)'?


 * No. For a start, it used to be spelled scitte.  The word has been around much longer than shipping instructions.  Widsith 14:35, 28 June 2006 (UTC)


 * And there is cognates found in nearly all other germanic languages (German Scheisse, Dutch scheet, Swedish skit etc...), which further discredit the backronym. Backronyms are quite easy to invent, and not particularly common before 19th century, so acronymical etymologies should generally be taken with a grain of salt. Wakuran 12:39, 30 June 2006 (UTC)


 * That’s right. It comes from Proto-Germanic *skit-, which is from the Proto-Indo-Eurupean base *skheid- (split, divide, separate). It’s cognate with shed. —Stephen 17:38, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

From RFC

 * 1) Currently listed as having two etymologies, but they do not seem to be distinct.
 * 2) Verb senses 1 & 2 need to be recombined (translation section)
 * 3) Headings are not in order (probably from the incorrect etym split?)
 * 4) // inconsistencies.
 * 5) Too many (specious) quotations - move to a quotations subsection.

--Connel MacKenzie 23:46, 13 July 2006 (UTC)


 * The etymologies are distinct. The noun and the verb came from different (though related) words.
 * Verb sense 1 is transitive, 2 is intransitive. They are properly separate senses.
 * Don't mind about the others though (The quotations are not specious however!). Widsith 09:04, 14 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I said they were specious, as the most vulgar possible quotations seem to have been selected. While some will argue that milder citations would not convey meaning as well, I shall preemptively assert that they are full of it.  Someone please remind me to request a checkuser on  (Primetime) if I forget.


 * Adj./Noun and Verb/Interj. still need to swapped order. But otherwise, the entry looks much better already.


 * Widsith, if I haven't said so recently, let me say now: Thank You for your excellent contributions and cleanups. --Connel MacKenzie 17:30, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Adjective: shit
I dont think "shit" in "shit film" is an adjective. It seems to be qualifying noun such as "shcool" in "school desk", "world" in "world war", or "cannon" in "cannon ball". That is why it doesn't have its own comparative and superlative forms.--66.191.239.22 20:56, 17 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes, in "shit film", it’s simply a qualifying noun. —Stephen 13:46, 19 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Disagree strongly. You can call something a "shitter film", or even the "shittest film", but it does not make sense to call something a "schooler desk" or the "worldest war". Shit can be used as an adjective. BananaBork (talk) 11:21, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

to defecate. Latin: defecare. Fr: déféquer. It: defecare. Pt: defecar, evacuar, obrar. Ro: a defeca.

vulgar slang: to excrete (something) through the anus. Latin: cacare. Fr: caguer, chier, couler un bronze. It: cacare, cagare. Pt: cagar, dar um cagão, soltar um barroso. Sp: cagar.

Portuguese = solid excretory product evacuated from the bowel: merda, bosta, cocô, caca, totô, excremento, fezes. nasty, despicable person: seu merda, um merda, um bostinha, cuzão, safado/a, sacana. of poor quality: de merda, merdal, vagabundo, uma caca, ruim. despicable: merda, cagada, imprestável, sacana, canalha, pilantra, cafajeste (man), safada (woman), vagabundo/a, vadio/a.

Arabic خراء
Got stuck with Arabic خراء and found different pronunciation, perhaps all valid. --Anatoli 04:50, 11 February 2009 (UTC)


 * In Modern Standard Arabic, it’s xarā’. If there are spellings and pronunciations without hamza, they will be dialect, and I only know about MSA. The one who knows Arabic dialects is User:Hakeem.gadi, when he has the time. —Stephen 05:41, 11 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks, Stephen. Fixed the Arabic section. Will contact Hakeem.gadi occasionally. Anatoli 05:48, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

It's xirāʼ according to http://dictionary.sakhr.com It is a trustworthy source, I have added as an alternative. --Anatoli 09:01, 11 February 2009 (UTC)


 * There can be considerable variation in short vowels, with certain limitations, since they are not considered very significant the way Indo-European vowels are. What is really important are the consonants and to a smaller degree, at least in MSA, the vowel-length contrast. It is one of the main reasons that complete vowel pointing is often not a good idea. —Stephen 10:00, 11 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Agreed, I am aware of a few variants in other examples, e.g. Rabat, Palestine can be pronounced with different middle short vowels in Arabic. Anatoli 10:39, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Region-specificity of use of Verb "shit" as past tense (USA only, or possibly North America)
The use of "shit" as Simple past and as Past participle is, I believe, exclusive to the USA (or possibly I should say North America, but I'm not sure what form Canadians use) and I think it's important to point this out. (I'd be very interested to hear from anyone out there who has heard native English-speakers from elsewhere than the USA use anything besides "shat" as Simple past & Past participle?) Anyhow, in order to reflect both the chronology (i.e. the British were saying "shat" before the Americans started using "shit") and prevalence (presumably, based on the fact that in the UK, Australia, and at least some of the USA, "shat" is used) of the usages, I'd like to propose we change (and sorry, I'm not sure about the formatting of this, especially of the regional qualifiers I've inserted) the following:


 * to shit (third-person singular simple present shits, present participle shitting, simple past shit, shitted, or shat, past participle shit, shitted, shat, or shitten)

to something more along the lines of:


 * to shit (third-person singular simple present shits, present participle shitting, simple past shat, shit (USA), or shitted past participle shat, shit (USA), shitted, or shitten)

I've also reorganised (in the draft above) the order of "shitted" and "shitten" to reflect an order of 'most common to least common'. (I'm not sure if that's consistent with any Wiktionary guidelines that might exist on the subject & would be grateful to be referred to such guidelines if my assumption about that is wrong.) Also, I've rarely heard (or read) "shitted" and never heard (or read) "shitten". I strongly suspect that they are region-specific, or possibly just rare (does Wiktionary qualify things as 'rare'?) and/or archaic. I'd very much like to see a bit more info about where or by whom they are used, if possible. Any help or constructive feedback on this will be grafefully appreciated.--Tyranny Sue 13:26, 5 April 2009 (UTC)


 * It’s okay with me, but the British used to say "shit" for the past tense, too. The "shat" form didn’t appear until around the time that the U.S. declared independence, and then was only jocular. After some 200 years of use in Britain, it seems to have gained a sort of respectibility and most people now think it was the original past tense, and that the Americans just didn’t know how to talk dirty properly. —Stephen 17:23, 5 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Ah, interesting! Thank you. Stephen. For me, it's not really about 'knowing how to talk dirty', but just knowing how to talk in general (not that I fully believe in prescriptive grammar, I'm just talking about my subjective reaction to how certain things sound). Plus, thinking about it now, it seems more useful (& therefore logical) to use a past tense that distinguishes itself from the present tense (as 'sit'/'sat' vs 'hit'/'hit').
 * I've always thought it interesting (well, strange, really) the way many Americans inflect their "shit" and "spit" following the rule for "hit", whereas in the circles I've moved in (including a half-American background) the rule for "sat" has always seemed to be the 'correct' one.--Tyranny Sue 22:08, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Verb usages: "take a shit", "do a shit"
What about these? Should they be in there? (including their past tense inflections) And if so, what's the best way to go about it please? Thanks. :) --Tyranny Sue 05:59, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

Frisian equivalent
You may want to add the Frisian (that is to say West Frisian, the Frisian language spoken in the Netherlands, as opposed to Sater Frisian and North Frisian, which are spoken in Germany) equivalent to the etymology section: skyt (noun; the verb is skite). It's a nice touch, I think. 80.61.230.65

shit
I don't think this can be shown to be an adjective. See English adjectives. DCDuring TALK 02:35, 18 June 2010 (UTC)


 * But it's comparable! Survival of the shittest. Equinox ◑ 02:38, 18 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually, I think I am wrong. The entry formerly had shittier and shittiest as the comparative and superlative, which made me pull my gun. But on mature reflection, I think it was one of my most shit decisions. DCDuring TALK 03:12, 18 June 2010 (UTC)
 * cited IMHO. I have atoned by copiously citing true adjective use, though I haven't matched and am not sure I can match the quotations to the senses we have. DCDuring TALK 04:23, 18 June 2010 (UTC)
 * shittier and shittiest are of course the comparative and superlative of shitty, not of shit... —CodeCat 09:03, 18 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I think shitter and shittest are ok, I seem to think I created fr:shittest in 2008 or 2009. Mglovesfun (talk) 15:53, 19 June 2010 (UTC)
 * "Shitest" and "shitest" seem attestable, too. I wonder if these are relatively more common in the UK. I like to think that's why this bothered me. Wouldn't be easy to determine from our Google sources. DCDuring TALK 16:37, 19 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I've added [[shitter]], with commented-out URLs of four b.g.c. cites (found via searches for "shitter than" and "even shitter"). I'll try to add the cites themselves sometime this weekend. —Ruakh TALK 18:07, 19 June 2010 (UTC)
 * shiter and shitest are probably forms of shite:, which is pronounced differently (to rhyme with white). Equinox ◑ 08:59, 20 June 2010 (UTC)
 * That might well be the superior hypothesis, but we don't yet have evidence one way or the other. How would be get regional evidence? Not likely from "News". Would need to appear in cite with UK spelling, idiom, or grammar. DCDuring TALK 11:32, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

Kept, very widespread use (oh, and cited). Mglovesfun (talk) 09:07, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

couldn't give a shit
What sense would the phrase "couldn't give a shit" come under? There is also "couldn't give two shits", which implies it is countable (which sense 1 isn't, currently). 109.154.74.120 21:35, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
 * In fact, thinking about it, there is also "going for a shit" - should sense 1 be countable+uncountable? 109.154.74.120 21:37, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I have added sense 3 "(countable) An instance of defecation.", a usage example, and the link to the "derived term" take a shit. At least, it is the basis for give a shit. DCDuring TALK 23:19, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

rubbish
There is a listing for "rubbish" here. But the Japanese translation is "kuso" which doesnt mean rubbish, as in garbage or trash, the stuff that goes into a landfill and kills sea turtles. In this case does it mean the rubbish I just described or more like "useless" as in "oh, his speech he gave was complete rubbish!", in which case "kuso" would be an acceptable translation.

Maybe the listing needs to be expanded a little, like instead of "excrement", it was expanded to: "solid excretory product evacuated from the bowel", rather than just "rubbish" maybe


 * It is already expanded in the definition line above the translation section. Definition No. 4 under the header Noun explains what is meant by shit in the sense of rubbish. —Stephen (Talk) 20:01, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Translations of "the shits" or "diarrhea"
A lot of the mentioned translations don't fit, because they are not, for example Greek διάρροια, which is, according to wiktionary, a medical term ! --Fsojic (talk) 13:51, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

French
"shit" or "chite" means hashish only, not all cannabis. For weed/grass, the term is "beu" or "beuh". Calling weed/grass "shit" is simply incorrect. 91.84.66.235 19:58, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

Alternative forms
Could some kindly admin add shite, sheeyit and sheeit to an alternative forms section? WurdSnatcher (talk) 13:39, 9 October 2015 (UTC)
 * ✅ — Ungoliant (falai) 13:54, 9 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks! WurdSnatcher (talk) 14:00, 9 October 2015 (UTC)

Shit scared
Is "shit scared" ("I like dogs now, but I was shit scared of them when I was a kid") an adverbial use of 'shit'? A phrase?--Simplificationalizer (talk) 22:31, 31 March 2018 (UTC)
 * I'd say it's to "scared as shit" what "ice-cold" is to "cold as ice". I'm not sure we should have an adverbial section at, though I don't know how to parse "ice-cold" then. I'm sorry, this doesn't really answer your question. --Per utramque cavernam (talk) 22:39, 31 March 2018 (UTC)

give shit
Why is give shit redirected? --Backinstadiums (talk) 00:32, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

PIE root category
Please add to the etymology section. Thanks in advance. — 69.120.66.131 20:49, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

Penis?
Is there a separate AAVE sense "penis", or should that be categorized as just a specific use of "stuff"? Here's two examples I recall.: Simplificationalizer (talk) 00:25, 28 December 2022 (UTC)

Shit v. def 3 tags
> (transitive, reflexive) To defecate on; to soil through defecating.

> I farted so hard I shat myself.

Considering that example, doesn't this deserve the tag vulgar? Ha. I think this also deserves colloquial.

I'd also like to dispute the exclusivity of the "reflexive" tag, given the prevalence of statements like "I shit/shat my pants" and "You shit/shat the bed" 2601:58A:887F:48C:F0D4:7CED:E119:34D5 20:34, 15 May 2024 (UTC)


 * ✅ Fixed. "Reflexive" means just "sometimes can be reflexive", not necessarily always. Equinox ◑ 20:36, 15 May 2024 (UTC)