ISHT

[Beverly Flanigan]

Come to think of it (and I haven't for a long long time), I used to also
hear "isht" and "ishta" as variants of Minnesota "ish," but again only as
an exclamation, not as a noun.  ("Ishta" is sort of like "oofta" up there,
but implying something awful, not just unfortunate.)

At 11:33 AM 3/10/2005, you wrote:
>On Mar 10, 2005, at 8:07 AM, David Bergdahl wrote:
>
>>I think this is to avoid being filtered out by search engines.
>this is almost surely how it started.  but it's gone past that.  my
>student reported people *saying* it (in informal, unmonitored
>settings).  some of the google hits don't sound like the writing of
>people who are tailoring their language -- for example,
>
>Low Budget Tone's News And Views Pertaining To Jacksquat
>.... Me? I'm sick as crap right now. Let me say some isht first. Whoever
>the j-bronie is leaving stupid ass isht on my guestbook, is a retard.
>....
>  www.angelfire.com/ny/blasphamy/March29th2g.html
>
>[this is also worth attention for its apparently telescoped wh
>construction.  "j-bronie" is a insult label, quite possibly coined by
>the writer of the above.]
>
>and. as larry horn is about to observe in the very next ADS posting,
>his yale students have been reporting (spoken) slang "ish" for "shit"
>for some years.  (i agree with larry that this is probably a
>cluster-simplified version of "isht".)  quite
>probably taboo avoidance, but of the everybody-gets-it sort, as with
>"freakin'" and "friggin'" etc. for "fuckin'" (see The F-Word for plenty
>of examples).
>
>some of the users might not even see the "shit" in "ish".
>
>arnold