...to think no, it IS a swear word? (Warning: v. petty argument)

[ContessaIsOnADietDammit]

I have been wearing a tatty old university hoodie to do garden work this morning. It has a swear word (shit) on it. The DC do not appear to notice this or care, but I'm conscious others might prefer their cherubs to be protected from such language.

I mentioned to DH that I should prob change my hoodie if heading to the shop. He asked why. I was and invited him to use his eyes. He maintained his stance. I got irritated. He explained that TECHNICALLY shit stands for 'Ship high in transit' and so is theoretically (and in law, apparently) inoffensive and so I can wear it to the shop with impunity.

I got more irritated and called him a pedantic asshole who understood perfectly well the point I was making and was choosing to be obtuse. He said he wasn't responsible for my poor education and that of everyone else in Britain. Angry words ensued. I am now pacing the kitchen calling him the second Rees-Mogg (strong stuff, I know, but am riled).

He IS being deliberately dense here, right? Surely the good people of MyTown will look upon me with disfavour if I wear my debatable sweary hoodie out and about?

I told you it was petty

Can't believe I just googled it to be sure. Yes, it is a swear word. No, it doesn't mean 'Ship high in transit' .

You may enjoy this fascinating wepage about false etymologies.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_false_etymologies_of_English_words

Very disappointed that POSH doesn't really mean 'Port Out, Starboard Home). I won't be able to enjoy Chitty Chitty Bang Bang again.

I would prefer to be called many things in preference to Rees Mogg. I think it is is pretty harsh to call anybody that unless they share his taste in politics. However, I really disapproved when journalists told Rees Mogg's young children what people said about their father. That also seemed harsh and out of order.
Swear words is one thing but name calling is not nice.

Nitrous he is a graduate of the 'It sounds plausible and fits my beliefs so is probably right' school of life. Also an actual graduate with several higher degrees, annoyingly he had not heard of the 'fuck' acronym, is intrigued and will investigate once he is done a) watching the Andrew Marr show and b) being pompous.

muddlepies to my mind, Rees-Mogg is EXACTLY the sort of person who would pettily pick you up on a technicality whilst conveniently ignoring the fact that society as a whole has a different viewpoint, and who would bewail society's general inferiority to his own great brain if forced to acknowledge the disparity. My comparison stands.

It's a swear word.

I thought it was going to be something like 'bloody' or 'bitch', which my grandma counts as being swearing. Shit is fairly conclusively a swear word.

I see much worse words than "shit" emblazoned on hoodies in my local Waitrose! And no-one seems to turn a hair....

I like the cut of your jib OP.

How could he even believe that was true? There's absolutely no logic to it

You both sound a bit petty and childish.

YABU to have a garden that is not frozen solid and under snow.

Have your children inherited your DH's qualities?
I live in a houseful of pedants. I blame DH's genetic influence.

once he is done... b) being pompous

In a few decades then

Ahhhh but... what is the more offensive thing to be called “Shit” or “Reese m*g””

I have pettily made him a cup of tea in a less-preferred mug.

That’s what I used to do Contessa! Back in my student days. Said mug was green, chipped and eventually the handle dropped off. We referred to it as The Punishment.😟

I'm intrigued to know what the rest of the wording on the hoodie is..!

Prunes make you shit?

I mistook immodium for ibuprofen and now I can't shit?

My DH gets the shit mug?

Oh dear!

I’ve got several higher degrees myself and I love pedantry, but it has to be correct pedantry.

It also has to be amongst others who appreciate it, or one just ends up being an insufferable bore.

Who bought the hoodie?

But, his reasoning could just as equally apply to ‘paki is just a contraction of Pakistani therefore not racist’ or ‘actually the swastica is a symbol of peace in Hinduism therefore if my swastica tattoo offends you it’s you who is the bigot’.

He sounds like an A level student who insufferably knows it all but is also wrong

I am married to a pedant of the highest order, and one of our children has inherited the gene. Scrabble is banned as a bloodsport in this house, and I do find myself occasionally wondering whether I should have just left him in his ivory tower.

Yes, it is a swear word, though it’s only a swear word as the result of snobbery. To explain.....

For the fake acronyms. Shit derives from Old England and is Germanic in origin. Likely we picked it up when the Saxons popped over here and decided to stay.

It was a perfectly good word for centuries. Samuel Pepys used it freely in his diaries and at the court of Charles II, so the word can even lay claim to the ultimate in social acceptability: Royal approval.

It appears to have b3come a swear word, as did many Saxon/Germanic words round the 18th - 19th centuries, and this is entirely down to the rise of the British middle classes. The newly-moneyed, particularly those unable to marry into a title, essentially made up much o& what we consider "good manners" in an entirely manufactured way of setting themselves apart from the 'great unwashed' mass of 'common people'. That involved all manner of silly rituals from cutlery settings to what words you could use in 'polite' society. As a measure of how utterly ridiculous this went, polite Victorians insisted that a well-know market be officially named Middlesex Street Market because it was utterly obscene to call it Petticoat Lane.

So there you have it. Shit is a swear word. But we only believe it to be a swear word because we believe we are socially superior to people who say shit.

It's not a swear word.

It's slang and uncouth in conversation perhaps but it's not swearing.

People USE it as an expletive, but equally you could shout DEFACATE or POO.

How can it be a swear word when it a is a noun / verb in common use?

'I am going to have a shit'.

That is not swearing.

If you call someone a 'shit' it's offensive but it's not swearing.

I scalded my hand a few days ago, failing to pick up a hot drink properly in a café, and may or may not have shouted out that word that isn't a swear word in a public place

He's wrong en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_false_etymologies_of_English_words

Quite off topic, Contessals but just wanted to say I do love the way you write. Hope you have a blog or something (if so pls do share by pm). If not, you really should have. Back to topic, going out with any less than vanilla word on a hoodie would get you judged in these parts. In fact wearing a hoodie would probably get you judged. Must remember to move soon.