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

Fri Oct 7 00:20:28 UTC 2022

I left out "hella boring." Sorry.

JL

On Thu, Oct 6, 2022 at 8:18 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

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

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

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