[Ads-l] Crotch goblin (for the =?utf-8?Q?=E2=80=9Cshitgibbon=E2=80=9D_?=files)

[Neal Whitman]

On a Facebook comment thread a few weeks ago, someone referred to kids as “crotch goblins”. 

This seems to be a perfect example of a shitgibbon, recalling Ben Zimmer’s writings from ~2017: compound noun consisting of one-syllable taboo noun plus trochaic noun, with bonus point for assonance in the stressed vowels.

It sounded so canonical I even assumed I’d find it in Ben’s columns or emails, but I haven’t. In the BYU English corpora, the earliest example I’ve found is from 2019 in the NOW Corpus, which cites an earlier usage, flagged with quotation marks:

Some of the mums joked she should chuck the kids out for causing such a mess, with one hilariously referring to the child as a " crotch goblin ". 

Neal
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