Rated PG-13 for crude language

I was flipping through the dictionary yesterday to look up the word "shoehorn," to determine whether it was one word or hyphenated when used as a verb (one word, according to Webster's New World College, Fourth Edition). And as my eyes skimmed the pages — set/settle, shaman/shard, shellfire/shield — one set of guidewords stopped my progress:

shinny/shitkicker

Of course Bad Words are in the dictionary (that's right, kids — go nuts!). But two little things surprised me. One was that the dictionary editors didn't mind "shitkicker" appearing in bold type atop the page. But I guess that makes sense when you assume the dictionary's point is not to dictate any kind of vocab-morality. (Having to police the "wraps" in a volume of 1,716 tissue-thin pages might also get tedious pretty darn fast, although then again, by nature, dictionary editors are probably more up to that task than most mortals.)

The second surprising thing popped out when I decided to take a detour from my "shoehorn" quest to learn a little bit about the roots of "shitkicker" — getting lost in a maze of etymological tangents being one of my more favorite pastimes. What I discovered was that while "shit" is labeled downright "vulgar," its partner "shitkicker" — a term of American origin meaning "a poor, rural person, especially one from the South or Southwest; rural or rustic; of or having to do with country music" (!) — gets a mere notation of "slang" (with "somewhat vulgar" tacked to the end of the definition, after the jump).

Fascinating. So does "shit" lose its power when attached to any kind of suffix? In the eyes of the dictionary, apparently so: "shitfaced," "shit list," "shitload" and "shit-eating grin" are all deemed "somewhat vulgar" as opposed to outright "vulgar," the warning to that effect appearing at the end, rather than at the conspicuous beginning, of each definition. Does the dictionary explain itself? Sort of. Here's what it says about the labels in the "Guide to the Dictionary" section at the front:

Slang: The word or meaning is not generally considered standard usage but is used, even by the best speakers and writers, in very informal situations or for creating special effects. People belonging to a certain group, such as teenagers or jazz musicians, often use a particular group of slang terms. [NV aside: There's so much to say about the examples chosen for that second sentence, I don't even know where to start.]

Vulgar: The word or meaning is regarded by many people as being too crude, coarse, or unrefined to be suitable for use in many social situations.

So, to recap: "shit," not acceptable in mixed company; "shitkicker," not standard, but hey, some of the best speakers and writers may beg to differ!

I don't know. If I were tossing back a few with a bunch of country music fans at Joe's Bar and said "shit"  (vulgar) because I fell off my barstool while getting a little too rambunctious over Willie Nelson singing "Crazy," my pals probably wouldn't be offended. But if I then reeled around and said, "Hey, stop teasing me you bunch o' worthless shitkickers!" (slang), I could see winding up with a pool cue to the head.

The moral of the story: As ever, it all depends on context.

And speaking of context, all this "shit" talk reminds me of a childhood tale:

One day, a little girl — she was 4 at the time, or maybe she was 7 — walked up to her mother with an important question. This little girl was very inquisitive about words, and she'd recently heard one that her friends had refused to define. And so she went to her mother, because that was always the best way to get to the bottom of such things.
"Mommy?" she said.
"Yes, dear," the mother replied.
"I have a question," the little girl said.
"O.K., go ahead."
"What does 'shit' mean?"
And the mother turned bright red and grabbed the little girl by the arm and said, "Who told you that word? Don't you ever use that word again!"
"O.K., Mommy," the girl said. She promised never to use the word, except that there was one problem — she still didn't know what it meant. And so, she solved the problem the second-best way she knew how: She went to the dictionary.

Epilogue: Her promise to cease using the word stuck for quite a few years. She slipped and used it only occasionally, usually in the context of tripping and falling down (and it's quite remarkable that she didn't use the term more often, come to think of it, because her tripping and falling was not exactly an unusual occurrence). Then, alas, she became involved in journalism — and the promise was rendered, as the dictionary might put it, Obs. And so, dear readers, we come full circle, to the post you just read today. The End.

Comments

[neon_mamacita]

Wonderful post! I had the same thought myself one day perusing that same dictionary and saw the "shit" guidewords. It's good to know I'm not the only editor out there who questioned the dictionary editors' decision to leave "shitkicker" at the top of the page. (Personally, I'm fine with it, but I was still surprised they were.)

[Brockeim: Bits of Nonsense Come in Threes]

A good insult, based in a strong use of intelligent vocabulary, is hard to find. Knowing the history of a word makes it all that much more useful.