[Ads-l] bullshit

[Jonathan Lighter]

Jim Gordon, a contributor to Quora,com, posted this interesting suggestion
in 2018:

"  It’s a very small leap from a very basic and frequently-used exclamatory
Chinese term 不是 (Bùshì = is not, not so, not possible, not necessary, not
right, etc.) to an unlettered Westerner’s misinterpretation of it as
bullshit!"

Is this a viable etymology?

Ockham's razor says "Meh," especially since Gordon does not specify which
form of "Chinese" the stated pronunciation comes from, but if
Cantonese-speaking immigrants used it frequently, it would certainly have
leant itself to re-interpretation.

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

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