shit

{{11}}shit (n.) O.E. scitte "purging," from source of from SHIT (Cf. shit) (v.). Sense of "excrement" dates from 1580s. Use for "obnoxious person" is since at least 1508; meaning "misfortune, trouble" is attested from 1937; up shit creek "in trouble" is from 1937. To not give a shit "not care" is from 1922.

{{12}}shit (v.) O.E. scitan, from P.Gmc. *skit-, from PIE *skheid- "split, divide, separate." Related to SHED (Cf. shed) (v.) on the notion of "separation" from the body (Cf. L. excrementum, from excernere "to separate"). It is thus a cousin to SCIENCE (Cf. science) and CONSCIENCE (Cf. conscience). ↑http://www.etymonline.com/baloney.php Despite what you read in an e-mail, "shit" is not an acronym. The notion that it is a recent word may be because the word was taboo from c.1600 and rarely appeared in print (neither Shakespeare nor the KJV has it), and even in "vulgar" publications of the late 18c. it is disguised by dashes. It drew the wrath of censors as late as 1922 ("Ulysses" and "The Enormous Room"), scandalized magazine subscribers in 1957 (a Hemingway story in "Atlantic Monthly") and was omitted from some dictionaries as recently as 1970 ("Webster's New World"). Extensive slang usage; verb meaning "to lie, to tease" is from 1934; that of "to disrespect" is from 1903. Shat is a humorous past tense form, not etymological, first recorded 18c. Shite, now a jocular or slightly euphemistic variant, formerly a dialectal variant, reflects the vowel in the Old English verb (Cf. Ger. scheissen).

The expression [the shit hits the fan] is related to, and may well derive from, an old joke. A man in a crowded bar needed to defecate but couldn't find a bathroom, so he went upstairs and used a hole in the floor. Returning, he found everyone had gone except the bartender, who was cowering behind the bar. When the man asked what had happened, the bartender replied, 'Where were you when the shit hit the fan?' [Hugh Rawson, "Wicked Words," 1989]

Shit-faced "drunk" is 1960s student slang; shit list is from 1942. To shit bricks "be very frightened" attested by 1961. The connection between fear and involuntary defecation has generated expressions since 14c., and probably also is behind scared shitless (1936).