"shisety" (new word?)

[Jonathon Green]

I have a ref. to _shisety_ or _shysty_, a mid-19C US term, based on
_shyster_, and meaning tight-fisted or mean. A check though Google (for
_shysty_, _sheisty_ and, just in case, _scheissty_) brings up c.365 hits,
some 353 of which opt for _shysty_. They all seem to indicate that the
snowboarders' use, ie a negative, is the accepted definition. The term is
usually used of people, in which case elements of arrogance and cockiness
are implied.

It does seem, the 19C use notwithstanding, to be a pretty recent coinage.
(Although one ref. to the problems caused by a 'shysty' rock promoter - the
context suggests financial meanness - suggests that the older use is still
to be found.) In the end, like many slang qualifiers, it means, once one
accepts the over-riding negative, what the context requires.

Jonathon Green