{"id":2508,"date":"2017-02-02T08:42:49","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T14:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/?p=2508"},"modified":"2017-02-02T08:42:49","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T14:42:49","slug":"5-best-idioms-using-the-word-shit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/5-best-idioms-using-the-word-shit\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Best Idioms Using the Word Shit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every language is enlivened by its array of idioms and my impression is that English is particularly well-endowed, perhaps because Shakespeare played for our team.\u00a0 I have collected dictionaries of idioms, including specialized references, such as idioms of the army (i.e. FUBB) or idioms of the sailor (i.e. son of a gun). \u00a0Each year there are new board games that are based on the origins of idioms, and I have even tried to create my own game called \u201cSweep the Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many idioms are based on local history, religion, geography or contemporary culture, the word \u201cshit\u201d has spawned an impressive variety of expressions.\u00a0 At first I thought these idioms would be understandable and embraced across languages and cultures. However, my preliminary research (i.e. in cabs with international drivers), suggests Americans seem particularly besotted with the word \u201cshit.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Culled from a list of hundreds, the following idioms represent the best shit has to offer.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 When the Shit Hits the Fan<\/strong><\/p>\n

This idiom is chosen for its graphic visual describing something that goes terribly, terribly wrong.\u00a0 I stand in grateful awe to the Shakespeare-caliber wit who first crafted this stunner, his name now sadly lost to history.\u00a0\u00a0I recall a humid childhood day sitting with a group of friends next to a fan, when my brother decided to test out the aerodynamic effects of a body fluid applied to moving blades. He spat into the fan.\u00a0 The drifting mist brought the idiom into horrific focus.\u00a0 The related idiom \u201cshit storm\u201d is feeble in comparison.<\/p>\n

I asked an Aramaic-speaking cab driver to translate the idiom into his language, feeling sure that this nifty expression had gone viral years ago and was part of a universal lexicon, but he gave me a shocked look and said, \u201cthat is just disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Shit-eating grin<\/strong><\/p>\n

My advice here is not to dwell on this idiom, but instead enjoy a fleeting appreciation of the multiple senses involved \u2013 visual, tactile\/mouth-feel, smell, and yes, yuck, even taste.\u00a0 It also captures the conceptual naughtiness of shit, of someone enjoying a guilty pleasure.\u00a0 Okay, I would agree this idiom may be difficult to translate to other languages and that it might reflect poorly on American taste.\u00a0 An alternative for a more genteel audience might be \u201clike a cat who ate a canary.\u201d<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Don\u2019t Shit Where You Live<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love the scientific flavor of this idiom, neatly describing the evolutionary imperative for a social animal.\u00a0 It applies not only to humans but foxes, rabbits, basically anyone lives in a den.\u00a0 This coziness requires a modicum of personal space free from the health hazard of feces.\u00a0 The evolution of voluntary sphincters was a breakthrough event for all of us living in close quarters.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Holy Shit<\/strong><\/p>\n

This idiom does not present a strong visual but is chosen for its linkage between the blasphemy of old and current expletives.\u00a0 Psycholinguists, the niche group who study the cultural impact of swearing, point out that as the power of the church waned, words such as God, Damn, Hell and their religious ilk were no longer taboo.\u00a0 New words were needed.\u00a0 The next frontier was culturally-defined obscenities describing sex, anatomy and the curious category of \u201ceffluvia,\u201d of which shit is a member.\u00a0 Combining \u201choly\u201d and \u201cshit\u201d embraces the entire spectrum of expletives across centuries of evolution.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Shit Happens<\/strong><\/p>\n

This idiom showcases shit as a philosophical statement about the vagaries of fate and coincidence.\u00a0 Optimists may favor such saccharine phrases as \u201cgood things happen to good people,\u201d but \u201cshit happens\u201d is simple, direct, real.<\/p>\n

Also rans:<\/em><\/p>\n

Up shit creek without a paddle, ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag, rare as rocking horse shit, push shit uphill with a pity stick<\/p>\nFollow Liza Blue on: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>Share: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every language is enlivened by its array of idioms and my impression is that English is particularly well-endowed, perhaps because Shakespeare played for our team.\u00a0 I have collected dictionaries of idioms, including specialized references, such as idioms of the army … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[40,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lists","category-what-words-mean"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iVc8-Es","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2509,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508\/revisions\/2509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}