Chicken shit
| Adjective[1][2] | |
| Etymology | Compound of chicken and shit[1] |
|---|---|
| Meaning | "petty, insignificant"[2] "lacking courage, manliness, or effectiveness"[2] |
Chicken shit, or more commonly chickenshit, is a slang term, usually regarded as vulgar. The online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines chickenshit (one word) as a vulgar adjective with two possible meanings: "petty, insignificant" or "lacking courage, manliness, or effectiveness".[2]
Coward
[edit | edit source]The term has been used figuratively since 1929 to allege cowardice.[3] It can be used as either a noun or an adjective; it is always an insult. In October 2014, an unnamed senior official in the Obama administration was reported to have called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "chickenshit", adding that he "has got no guts".[4] Secretary of State John Kerry apologized to the prime minister,[5] while Israeli media scrambled to understand or translate the idiom.[6]
Petty
[edit | edit source]The alternate meaning of "petty, insignificant nonsense" may be used as either a noun or an adjective.[7] According to Paul Fussell in his book Wartime, chickenshit in this sense has military roots: "Chickenshit refers to behavior that makes military life worse than it need be: petty harassment of the weak by the strong; open scrimmage for power and authority and prestige; sadism thinly disguised as necessary discipline; a constant 'paying off of old scores'; and insistence on the letter rather than the spirit of the ordinances ... Chickenshit is so called—instead of horse—or bull—or elephant shit—because it is small-minded and ignoble and takes the trivial seriously."[8][9]
Other uses
[edit | edit source]The phrase "You can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit" is sometimes used as a variant of "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear". The expression dates back to at least the 1920s, when "chicken feathers" was sometimes used as a euphemism for chicken shit.[10]
Former American president Lyndon B. Johnson once said, "Boys, I may not know much but I do know the difference between chicken shit and chicken salad."[11]
See also
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References
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