More old GI slang

[Jonathan Lighter]

No literary evidence of this phrase has surfaced.

  JL

"Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
Subject: Re: More old GI slang
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>"You live in shit!"
>
>Back in the late '50's and the early '60's, this phrase, with
>sentential stress on "shit," was used by white GI's to
>congratulate a person who'd unexpectedly had something
>especially good happen to him, such as being assigned
>to T[emporary]D[ut]Y, which both lowered one's work load and
>simultaneously raised one's pay.
>
>IAC, I've never been able to figure out the semantic reanalysis
>necessary to use something really bad to describle something
>really good. Of course, I realize that "bad" can mean "good."

Maybe this is a version of "happy as a pig in shit"/"like pigs in shit"/etc.?

-- Doug Wilson


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