(Canadian) shit-disturbers

[Laurence Horn]

On Sep 21, 2012, at 12:14 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:

> Sounds like it might have been calqued from French. Sometimes it seems
> that every vivid French epithet has something to do with "shit".
>
> VS-)

Not counting the shit-free French Canadian ones that have to do with chalices, tabernacles, and such.

LH
>
> On 9/21/2012 11:42 AM, Alice Faber wrote:
>> In hockey discussions, the general bowldlerization of this is "shift
>> disturber". And, of course, google shows plenty of hits, mostly from
>> Canada. At least on the first page, the context is, indeed, hockey, and
>> for non-hockey hits, where I can identify a geographical locale, it's
>> Canada (e.g., an edgy Toronto ad agency).
>>
>> On 9/21/12 11:01 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>> I noticed this opener for an article in the Halifax Chronicle Herald (31 August 2012) when I was up there a little while ago:
>>>
>>> ============
>>> People don't recognize Evan Brown anymore. One of Canada's most famous activist shit disturbers and protagonist of the August 2000 pieing of then-prime minister Jean Chretien at the Charlottestown Civic Center during Old Home Week, he lives in a relative anonymity in Halifax working as a theatre technician.
>>> ============
>>>
>>> What struck me was
>>> (1) the apparent status of "shit disturber" (or perhaps "activist shit disturber") as a term of art for, essentially, 'gadfly'
>>> (2) the appearance of this phrase in the kind of newspaper in which I would not expect it to appear in the U.S.
>>>
>>> Googling for it, I find that indeed it is a Canadianism, as least insofar as its usage status of "vulgar [but] not thought offensive enough to be considered taboo"
>>>
>>> http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/shit+disturber (quoting Collins English Dictionary)
>>>
>>> ===============
>>> shit disturber
>>> — n
>>> informal  ( Canadian ) a person who enjoys causing controversy or upsetting people
>>>
>>> usage: Although considered vulgar, this phrase [sic] is nonetheless commonly used and is generally not thought offensive enough to be considered taboo
>>> ===============
>>>
>>> LH
>
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