bullshit/horseshit/chickenshit/batshit: Animal Excrement & English (2024)

I was pondering (don't ask ) the different meanings of various expressions of animal excrement.

For example, in my little corner of the English speaking world (Western USA), we would define them thusly:

Bullshit : nonsense "That explanation was a bunch of bullshit."

Horseshit: Also nonsense, but a bit more emphatic. "I am so tired of that utter horseshit."

Chickenshit: cowardice "That was chickenshit of him to break-up with her by email."

Batshit: crazy "His stupid questions were making me batshit."

Feel like dogshit: to look or feel poorly. "I felt like dogshit after the red-eye flight."

Feel lower than whaleshit: To feel ashamed. "I felt lower than whaleshit after making her cry."

So, my questions are: Do these sound familiar or correct to other English speakers? And, respecting that this is the English Only forum, are the other languages that use expressions of animal excrement?

Don't go apeshit over it, but they all seem fairly ordinary for colloquial speech in AE.

I would strongly advise non-native learners of English to avoid all of these in speech in any formal setting, and to avoid them in any written work other than a letter or e-mail or text exchange with a close friend.

Good collection there, Pismo.
You missed apeshit (good job, Cuchuflete).
Batshit I've heard all my life.
Whaleshit? That's a first for me.

This reminds me of a joke.
A certain polititian was campaigning for office and he paid a visit to an Indian community to make a speech. He thought that things were going very well for him because every promise he made to the crowd was greeted with shouts of "Oom-galla! Oom-galla-galla!" After his stirring speech, the polititian remembered that the community was renowned for its cattle, especially its prize bulls. He asked the tribal leader if he could go down to the stock pen and admire some of their prize bulls. "Sure," the leader answered. "Just be careful not to step in the oom-galla."

I think I've heard the "whaleshit" on once before.

I think "horseshit" sounds more emphatic than "bullshit" because it's less common in AE.

In BE, "thick as pigshit" is used to describe a person as very stupid.

I've heard -ratshit, but only rarely, to describe something very funky. "Dude lives at ratshit ranch".

Also, for payday, the eagle shits on Friday.

Does a bear shit in the woods? For a firm grasp of the obvious.

We have unfairly omitted the human animal.

That's babyshit compared to/with.... This is a way to call something small, insignificant, or insubstantial.

I have often thought about grading the following related terms:

Shit He's a right little shit.

Shitface Oi, Shitface; get your arse over here.

Shitlegs Shitlegs, here's your tea.

Shit house He's a complete shit house.

Shit bag He's a total shit bag - knows nothing.

Shit-hole That restauarant's a shit-hole

English is so triple jointed.

There's also the (British?) expression [ bag o' shite ] meaning rubbish, worthless, stupid.

Besides the repulsiveness of the substance, I think the image of someone putting it in a bag or carrying around the bag, perhaps with misleading labelling, is quite apposite for some situations - emphasising the contrast between external appearances and internal reality.

Not exactly animal poo, but I've recently heard a good one which I think will somehow fit in the pattern of this thread:

When the shit hits the fan, all the shitheads strip for tan ...

Not really sure about the implied meaning ...
Could I be one of them then?

"He's built like a brick shit-house" is a reasonably common description for a burly (not obese) man in Britain. I think this harks back to the days of outside brick-built lavatories.

I don't know if "gnat's piss" is off topic but this is a useful description for beer that is not up to standard,

marghera said:

When the shit hits the fan

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This expression perfectly describes what happened recently in the British MP's expenses scandal. There was "shit" going on behind the scenes for a long time. when this was finally revealed by the Telegraph Group, the shit hit the fan in a big way. All MP's even the honest ones were splattered with the bad publicity.

grubble said:

This expression perfectly describes what happened recently in the British MP's expenses scandal. There was "shit" going on behind the scenes for a long time. when this was finally revealed by the Telegraph Group, the shit hit the fan in a big way. All MP's even the honest ones were splattered with the bad publicity.

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Oh, I'm quite familiar with the "shit hitting the fan" bit, I'm just not so sure about the, to me, new follow-up part, the one about "shitheads stripping for tan". The way I understand it is that when things go rough only an idiot will not duck his/her head. I was wondering if anyone knew the expression and could confirm or correct my understanding of it.

mcnedo said:

I once heard that the difference between chickenshitters and bullshitters is that chickenshitters usually sit at their desks producing chickenshit and bullshitters go from desk to desk spreading bullshit.

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marghera said:

The way I understand it is that when things go rough only an idiot will not duck his/her head. I was wondering if anyone knew the expression and could confirm or correct my understanding of it.

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Never heard it before, Marghera, but that's how I'd understand it too.
Oh and of course

P.S. Devotees of animal byproduct will probably enjoy this thread.

marghera said:

Oh, I'm quite familiar with the "shit hitting the fan" bit, I'm just not so sure about the, to me, new follow-up part, the one about "shitheads stripping for tan". The way I understand it is that when things go rough only an idiot will not duck his/her head. I was wondering if anyone knew the expression and could confirm or correct my understanding of it.

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Shithead is an insulting term for a person that is ignorant, narrow minded, cruel, and/or unintelligent. It is generally considered to be a vulgar and profane term.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shithead

I think "shitheads strip for tan" means more than that. "Tan" obviously refers to getting covered in the brown stuff. My interpretation is that, when things go wrong; mean, narrow minded people revel in the mess and the suffering that others have got themselves into.

grubble said:

"He's built like a brick shit-house" is a reasonably common description for a burly (not obese) man in Britain. I think this harks back to the days of outside brick-built lavatories.

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Interesting, because I (in the US) have always heard "She's built like . . . " to refer to an exceptionally well-proportioned female. It implies curvaceous and attractive.

And lest we forget our bird friends: something that moves very quickly moves "like shit through a goose."

pob14 said:

Interesting, because I (in the US) have always heard "She's built like . . . " to refer to an exceptionally well-proportioned female. It implies curvaceous and attractive.

And lest we forget our bird friends: something that moves very quickly moves "like shit through a goose."

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"She's built like a brick shit-house" is a complement in American English? Well you live and learn!

I'll support grubble in that, in British English, it's usually a term to refer to a big muscly man!

bibliolept said:

I think I've heard the "whaleshit" on once before.

I think "horseshit" sounds more emphatic than "bullshit" because it's less common in AE.

In BE, "thick as pigshit" is used to describe a person as very stupid.

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I have heard of whale shit frequently. They used to say to us when we were fresh recruits in military basic training that we were lower than whale shit, and that's at the bottom of the ocean".

ewie said:

P.S. Devotees of animal byproduct will probably enjoy this thread.

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And this one.

Among older (40+) New Yorkers:

He stepped in dog shit: he had a run of good luck.

Explanation: there used to be so much canine excrement on the sidewalks/pavements of New York City, especially in Manhattan, that it was only a matter of time that someone would step in dog feces.

This place smells like cat piss: the smell is overpoweringly rancid.