A Short History of, er, Sh**!

"Oh, skita. Look who's here!"

There are bad words and then there are BAD words. So just to warn you, this blog post mentions the bad word in the post's title.

But I’m sort of surprised that sh** IS a bad word. After all, it has a long and distinguished history!

A thousand years ago, if a Viking wanted to say poop, he used the Old Norse word for it: skita.

The word skita made its way to England, where it was altered a bit. In the 1300s, an English poem named Kyng Alisaunder referred to amazing snakes in the exotic East that “shiteth preciouse stones.” Nice snakes!

Guy Schmidt

By the 1600s, it was common to describe loudmouths as people who “cracked shit-fire.” 

And in the 1700s, the word got so popular, that a dictionary lists a wide variety of words like shit-abed (pooping the bed), shit-breech (someone who poops his pants) and shittle-come-shites.

I have no idea what that last one means. But I DO know that in 1875, there was an expression of disgust known as “shittletidee”!

Anyway, Brits today often still use “shite,” while Americans typically leave the “-e” off. But either way, if you still think of it as cursing, I have some good news: It turns out that swearing is a powerful pain-killer! (So it's okay to shout "Skita!" if you stub your toe.)

Fun Fact! May 29th is Shit Sack Day. (Do not confuse it with Shitten Saturday.)

Top photo by Duncan Harris. 

Thanks to Paul Collins 

for doing the heavy lifting!