[Ads-l] Valid First Use of "Shit Happens" ?

Fri Oct 7 00:18:09 UTC 2022

No way was that book written in 1969.

On the first page is the phrase, "Wassup beyotch!" That says to me "post-ca
2000."

The "Golden Girls" (also mentioned) didn't appear until 1985.

The use of sequential numbers like "2.0" was popularized by the home
computer revolution of the '80s and '90s.

(Of course, the copyright date is "33 A.D.")

JL

On Thu, Oct 6, 2022 at 8:04 PM Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> Well, Google says it's 1969. The phrase is on p49. The only question is
> whether this is a general usage or a specific usage, or both?
>
> On Thu, Oct 6, 2022, 7:49 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> > In the past I have checked the alleged 1978 Stephen King usage and it was
> > erroneous.
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> > Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> > Sent: Thursday, October 6, 2022 4:08 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Subject: Re: Valid First Use of "Shit Happens" ?
> >
> > Fred probably knows about this, being a co-author of the book you
> cite....
> >
> > The "stuff happens" examples (1944 and 1969) also cited there feel pretty
> > strong to me. The Brown novel is different; it's a more general use
> ("once
> > you know the reason why shit happens..."), not a universal expression of
> > resignation. I've seen a number of other 1970s examples in this general
> use.
> >
> > Green's Dictionary of Slang cites the 1990 "complete and uncut" edition
> of
> > Stephen King's _The Stand_, and dates it to 1978; I think this is
> probably
> > inaccurate: while this edition did restore a large amount of unused
> > manuscript material that was cut from the original edition, it also
> > included "new material that King added as he reworded the manuscript for
> a
> > new generation", so I would not consider this reliable evidence for a
> 1978
> > use.
> >
> > Here's a rock-solid 1983 example--same year as the Eble, but the right
> > phrasing. This is from a Northern California sailing magazine, where it's
> > presented multiple times as an example of a "cruising maxim":
> >
> > 1983 _38 North_ (Jan.) 139: _Shit happens_ The ocean-going equivalent of
> > "That's life"...Our dinghy was stolen. "Shit happens." Your best
> crewmember
> > runs off with your wife. "Shit happens."
> >
> >
> >
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Flatitude3867jaunse%2Fpage%2F138%2Fmode%2F2up&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C38665fa0f07e477e24a808daa7d68dd9%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638006837202918542%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=a1Z2KCt%2BYcj14hqf4DqTOfGaf7tzqfPZ%2FcxRu2oMtZA%3D&reserved=0
> >
> > Jesse Sheidlower
> >
> > On Thu, Oct 06, 2022 at 03:51:37PM -0400, Nancy Friedman wrote:
> > > I found a 1978 citation ("Tragic Magic," a novel by Wesley Brown) with
> > > evidence of earlier usage:
> > >
> > >
> >
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstronglang.wordpress.com%2F2015%2F08%2F18%2Fshitlike-stuff-happens%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C38665fa0f07e477e24a808daa7d68dd9%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638006837202918542%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=EeOPJiruPhmHGfKeG%2BWPQJQRDfm4%2BQ2avssj4NbKNdY%3D&reserved=0
> > >
> > > On Thu, Oct 6, 2022, 3:35 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > > It has just dawned on me that I am responsible for a kind of
> > etymological
> > > > urban legend that is not accurate.  The Yale Book of Quotations
> > indicated
> > > > that Connie Eble printed "Shit happens" in her 1983 compilation of
> > > > University of North Carolina slang, and this factoid has gained some
> > > > notoriety in the media as the earliest known use of the proverb.  But
> > > > Eble's wording was actually "That shit happens."  To me that is not
> the
> > > > real proverb, as it refers to some specific shit as occurring with
> some
> > > > frequency.  The true proverb is a general proposition about the
> > prevalence
> > > > of shit in the world, which the Eble citation is not.
> > > >
> > > > Can anyone help point me to the earliest discoverable
> > general-proposition
> > > > citation for "Shit happens" ?
> > > >
> > > > Fred Shapiro
> > > >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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