Using “Shit”

The word “shit” is derived from Old English, having the nouns “scite”, meaning “dung”; and “scitte”, meaning “diarrhoea”; and the verb “scitan”, meaning “to defecate”.  “Shit” eventually morphed into Middle English “schitte”, referring to “excrement”; “schyt”, meaning “diarrhoea”; and “shiten”, meaning “to defecate”. 

The word may be further traced to Proto-Germanic “skit-“, and before that, to Proto-Indo-European “skheid-”, meaning “cut, separate”, the same root believed to have become the word, “shed”.  The word has several cognates in modern Germanic languages, such as German “Scheiße”, Dutch “schijt”, Swedish “skit”, Icelandic “skítur”, and Norwegian “skit”, for as examples.  Ancient Greek had σκῶρ, from Proto-Indo-European “sker-”, which is unrelated. 

The word “shit” is considered to be vulgar and profane in Modern English.  As a noun, it refers to faecal matter, and as a verb it means to defecate; in the plural, “the shits”, it means “diarrhoea”.  As a slang term, it has many meanings. 

When you tell someone, “You’re shit”, and “You ain’t shit”; although they are opposites, are both insults. 

However, saying, “You are not shit”, is meant to comfort and reassure. 

When you say, “You are the shit”, with the addition of the article “the”, it is actually a compliment. 

Welcome to English.