Shit
Shit is a vernacular word of English that means "feces". It is also used as a verb to refer to the act of defecating, and as an adjective to mean "of or pertaining to feces" or more generally "bad" or "low quality".
The word shit is considered vulgar in Western countries, and thus is usually avoided in such regions, for instance, in teaching, religion, political speeches, and most news reporting. However, its use by ordinary people is widespread. Most commonly, it is used not to refer to feces, but rather in a variety of metaphoric meanings. Of these, perhaps the most common is an epithet of dismay (as in "Oh shit!"). Shit is also used as a rather harsh way of designating something as being of inferior quality (as in "That disk drive is shit" or "This disk drive is rather shitty"), and it can also be used to indicate that something previously said is contemptibly false or insincere (as in "Don't give me that shit"); in the latter use the word bullshit is sometimes used as a more precise substitute.
Although the most common uses of shit are metaphorical, the unpleasant literal meaning of the word is seldom entirely absent, and thus most uses of shit have some degree of pejoration. This is not always the case, however—in the sentence "I bought a bunch of shit at the market today", the word shit doesn't connote displeasure as much as an overwhelming quantity. Perhaps the only constant connotation that shit carries is that the subject matter to which it is applied has some degree of emotional intensity for the speaker. Whether offense is taken at hearing the word varies greatly from listener to listener, and is perhaps related to social class: people of higher socioeconomic strata may be more sensitive to the taboo character of the word than those of lower strata.
However, in colloquial speech, calling something "the shit" is actually a compliment. For instance, the sentence "Dave's new car is the shit," suggests the speaker thinks that Dave's new car is very good, or at least very cool. The meaning here is somewhat similar to the traditional vernacular usage of the word "bad".
The term "a shit" is sometimes applied to a contemptible person, or one who has behaved badly or immorally.
The past tense of shit is shat.
The word has existed in English for many centuries, for instance in its Old English form scite. Indeed, scholars can trace the word back through related Germanic languages (e.g., Old Norse skīta), and it is virtually certain that it was used in some form by preliterate Germanic tribes at the time of the Roman Empire. It has cognates in many other Indo-European languages, including Greek, where the cognate root skor, skato- has been borrowed into English and forms the basis of scatology and a host of related technical terms.
The variant form shite (rhymes with "white") is found in certain regional and social dialects, especially in Scotland and Ireland.
Occasionally, individuals enjoy making up pretend etymologies for shit as a joke. See Fake etymology.Usage
Etymology