crappy

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Thu Feb 6 00:33:33 UTC 2014


True, but you can't say "shitty" on broadcast TV. Yet. You can, moreover,
feel "shitty" as well as "crappy." And if you can be "shitty," you ought to
be able to be "crappy" too when you damn well feel like it.

Ockham's Shaver suggests that Oz probably said "crabby." Yet there's no
reason at all why a synonymous "crappy" shouldn't exist as well.  And when
it does, you'll have read it here first.

JL


On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 7:15 PM, Spanbock/Svoboda-Spanbock <
spanbocks at verizon.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Spanbock/Svoboda-Spanbock <spanbocks at VERIZON.NET>
> Subject:      Re: crappy
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Seems to me that crappy and shitty are different in that you feel crappy
> and have no control over it whereas being shitty is in some sense willful.
>
> Kate
>
>
> On Feb 5, 2014, at 4:07 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: crappy
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > It sounded like "crappy" to me. But I don't suppose "crabby" is ruled
> out.
> >
> > "Shitty" in this sense, however, is real.
> >
> > JL
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 6:59 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: crappy
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> At 2/5/2014 03:59 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>> Also means "angry or irritable."
> >>>
> >>> Dr. Oz warns that your breakfast may make you "bi!#hy." (The word was
> on
> >>> the wall: he never actually uttered it.)
> >>>
> >>> What he said was, it can make you "cranky, crappy, and cantankerous."
> >>
> >> Did he say "crabby", which sounds similar and fits the other two?
> >>
> >> Joel
> >>
> >>
> >>> Don't believe it means "irritable"?  Well, Mr. or Ms. Smartguy,
> "shitty"
> >> is
> >>> used in precisely the same way, and has been for 40 years and more,
> >>> according to evidence in the HDAS vault.
> >>>
> >>> Cf. Urban Dictionary: "Shitty    Mean, unpleasant, bitchy. She was
> really
> >>> shitty about it."
> >>>
> >>> My experience contributes "You don't have to get so shitty about it."
> >>>
> >>> You might also want to cf. "Don't throw a shit-fit."
> >>>
> >>> JL
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> "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
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "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
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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