shit! (coarse exclamation of annoyance or disgust)

[Garson O'Toole]

Is it possible that the fined player was using the term as a noun?

shit, shite, n. 1. b. A contemptuous epithet applied to a person.

The first cite in the OED is 1508 for this sense. For example 1886 W.
Somerset Word-bk., Shit, a term of contempt. (Very com.) He's a
regular shit. Applied to men only.

Perhaps Ebenezer R. Dupignac called umpire Eugene Plunkett a "shit"
for making a bad call?


On Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 9:22 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: shit! (coarse exclamation of annoyance or disgust)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9/4/2010 06:29 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>Wow!
>
> Undsoubtedly shit, but does a "s--t" qualify for the OED and the HDAS?
>
> Joel
>
>
>>Of course, only a lexicographer would say that. All others would
>>yawn. Didn't the Venerable Bede say that in informal moments?
>>
>>They certainly say similar things in _Beowulf and Grendel_ (2005).
>>Concerning Grendel, Hrothgar laments, "He's a fucking troll! How do I know
>>why a fucking troll does what a fucking troll does?"
>>
>>JL
>>
>>On Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 1:25 PM, George Thompson
>><george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:
>>
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> > -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
>> > Subject:      shit! (coarse exclamation of annoyance or disgust)
>> >
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > The OED has this from 1920 (Joyce's Ulysses).
>> >
>> > An article in the journal Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game has an
>> > article by John Thorn, "Origins of the New York Game" (vol. 3, #2, Fall,
>> > 2009).  He discusses certain of the rules laid down by the Knickerbocker
>> > Base Ball Club in the mid 19th C.
>> >
>> > "[Rule] 17.  All disputes and differences relative to the game, to be
>> > decided by the Umpire, from which there is no appeal."  Thorn remarks "A
>> > rule observed largely in the breach, ever since umpire Eugene
>> Plunkett fined
>> > Ebenezer R. Dupignac six cents "for saying s--t.""
>> > Footnote 33 cites the Game Books of the Knickerbocker Club, now in the New
>> > York Public Library, and gives the date April 26, 1849.
>> >
>> > The passage quoted appears on page 116; footnote 33 on p. 124.
>> >
>> > GAT
>> >
>> > George A. Thompson
>> > Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>> > Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org