Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (138 page)

‘Look at this mess! Lloyd is going to have a shit-fit.'
(
A Passion for Murder
, US film, 1993)

shit-for-brains
n

a very stupid person. This term of abuse, deriving from an earlier rustic expression on the lines of ‘he/she must have shit-for-brains', has been widespread in the USA and Australia since the 1970s. It is now sometimes used adjectivally, as in ‘a shit-for-brains idea'.

shithead
n

1a.
a despicably unpleasant or unfriendly person. This sense of the word has been predominant since the 1970s.

1b.
a stupid or foolish person

2.
a hashish smoker. This sense of the word was briefly current from the mid-1960s, before being replaced by synonyms such as
doper
, etc. (
Pothead
was a less contentious or ambiguous synonym.)

shitheel
n American

an unpleasant or obnoxious person. An embellished form of the milder and more common ‘heel'.

‘I suffer no such illusion, having had firsthand experience at the hands of that world-class misogynistic shitheel.'
(Posting on a Canadian blog, November 2004)

shit-hot
adj

a.
first-rate, excellent, powerful or dynamic

b.
very keen, enthusiastic or punctilious. Shit here is used as an intensifier rather than a metaphor.

shithouse
¹
n

a.
a toilet

b.
a dirty or untidy place

shithouse
²
adj

terrible, inferior, worthless. This elaboration of
shit
or
shitty
is particularly common in Australian speech.

shit-kicker
n

1.
a lowly menial, humble worker or rustic. An alternative to ‘shit-shoveller' heard particularly in the USA and Australia.

2.
a dynamic or energetic person

shit-kicking
adj

wild, earthy, primitive. The word is used especially in the context of country or rock
music and signals approval rather than criticism.

some stomping, howling, shit-kicking rhythm 'n' blues

shit-list
n American

a real or imaginary black list; either as kept by organisations or individuals

Jerry's top of my shit-list this week.
I think I'm on the shit-list of every bar in town.

shitload, shitloads
n

an enormous amount or quantity, specified in a posting on
Urban Dictionary
website in 2012 as ‘more than an
assload
but still less than a
fuck-ton
'. The term originated in US speech, but by the mid-1990s was heard throughout the English-speaking world.
Shedloads
is a British euphemism.

We're in shitloads of trouble here.
‘What about the Mets? I bet you won a shit-load of money!'
(
Bad Lieutenant
, US film, 1994)

shit oneself
vb

to be overcome with fear or panic

shit on one's own doorstep
vb British

to do something damaging or unpardonable which will rebound upon oneself or one's friends; to ruin one's own environment. This expression, like the politer ‘foul the nest', has equivalents in most European languages (normally involving beds rather than doorsteps).

shit-parade
n American

an alternative form of
shit-list

shits, the
n

a.
diarrhoea

b.
a feeling of annoyance, disgust or bitter resentment. This figurative sense of the preceding vulgarism seems to be acquiring a separate identity, usually in the form ‘it/he/she gives me the shits'.

shit-scared
adj British

terrified. An intensive form of the standard adjective.

shit-sheet
n American

a police file (recording criminal activity) or school report (particularly one recording poor results)

shit-storm
n American

a spectacular fuss and/or mess

shitter, the
n

1.
a toilet

2.
the anus

shitty
adj

a.
unpleasant, unfair. The word may mean merely bad or nasty, but usually carries overtones of resentment on the part of the speaker.

That was a really shitty thing to do.

b.
inferior, poor quality

These headphones have shitty sound.

shiv
n

a knife. An alternative rendering of
chiv
, a Romany word used in British underworld and low-life milieus since the 17th century. In the 20th century the word was used (also in the USA) to mean any bladed weapon, including homemade knives and razors. Shiv was also used as a verb, particularly in the argot of street gangs of the 1950s and early 1960s.

shizit
n
,
vb American

a disguised or playfully altered form of
shit

shizzle my nizzle, shizza my nizza

exclamation

an expression of strong agreement, an alteration or disguising of ‘for sure, my nigga', using the vogue combining form
-izzle
, recorded in 2004

shlemiel
n See
schlemiel

shlep
¹
,
schlepp
vb

a.
to drag, haul, pull or carry

b.
to drag oneself, move or travel with difficulty. This is the Yiddish version of the German verb
schleppen
, meaning to drag. It has entered English slang via the American underworld and entertainment industry.

‘I don't want to shlep all the way down there.'
(
Budgie
, British TV series, 1971)

shlep
²
,
schlepp
n

1.
a long, tedious or tiring journey or burdensome task. The noun form is based on the verb.

I hate having to go there – it's a real shlep up that hill.

2.
American
a tedious, feeble or irritating person. This sense of the term is inspired by the notion of burden and drag (literally and metaphorically) in the verb to
shlep
.

shlepper, schlepper
n

1.
a clumsy, inept and/or irritating person

2.
American
a cadger, scrounger or hustler

3.
a sluttish, slovenly and/or immoral person

All the senses of shlepper, which encompass a number of nuances and connotations, derive ultimately from the verb
shlep
with its suggestions of burdensome activity. In British English sense 3 has been extended to denote a prostitute in London slang.

shlock
n

anything shoddy, inferior or meretricious. The word is Yiddish from German (either
schlacke
: dregs, or
schlagen
: slap or knock, in the sense of jacking up prices or damaged goods). The main application of shlock in American, and later British, slang has been to the products of the entertainment industry, particularly films and television.

shlong
n See
schlong
¹

shlub
n See
schlub

shm-
prefix

this is the spelling representing the initial sound of many slang terms of Yiddish origin (also
sch-
and
sh-
). Jewish wits and their emulators substitute these letters for the standard beginnings of English words to indicate mockery or negation.

‘Revolution; Shmevolution.'
(Headline in
Wall Street Journal
, January 1968)

‘It's not the season for beagling.
Season shmeason!'
(
Ticket to Ride
, British TV series, 1988)

shmarmy
adj British

smarmy, offensively ingratiating or smug. This new pronunciation of the common colloquialism represents a late 1980s phenomenon in fashionable and youth circles whereby certain words are altered to resemble the many words of Yiddish origin beginning with
sh-
.

‘That shmarmy man in the coffee advert.'
(Interview,
Making the Break
, British TV documentary about advertising, 1989)

shmear
n

a term of Yiddish origin literally meaning a smear or spreading-out, but now also denoting a complete state of affairs, situation or scenario

‘The Goldmark Gallery, in the person of the friendly and efficient greeter, Sally Jones, demystifies the whole, schmear.'
(
Lights Out for the Territory
, Iain Sinclair, 1997)

shmeg
n British

an idiot. A schoolchildren's term, fashionable from the 1980s, which is a variant form of
smeg
or
smeggy
(from smegma), a word popular among young males in the
punk
era. The altered pronunciation is influenced by Yiddish words such as
schmock
,
schmuck
,
schmendrick
, etc.

shmegegge, shmegeggy
n American

a contemptible or foolish person. The word is Yiddish, but seems to have been an American coinage, often heard in show-business circles. It does not appear to derive from any older term.

shmendrik
n See
schmendrick

shmo, shmoe
n

a fool, ‘sucker' or
jerk
. The word was invented in the USA as an acceptable euphemism for the Yiddish
schmuck
in the late 1940s when the latter term was understood in its literal and obscene sense. Shmo, like ‘shmuck', has been heard in Britain in Jewish and non-Jewish circles since the 1950s.

She seems to like him but the guy's a bit of a shmo if you ask me.

shmooze, shmoose
vb American

to chat or gossip at length, to have a heart-to-heart talk. This American Yiddish word comes from the Hebrew
shmous
, meaning ‘things heard'. The word, spoken with a hard or soft final ‘s', has overtones of intimacy and affection rather than malicious gossip.

shmuck
n See
schmuck

shmutter
n See
schmutter

shnide
adj British

snide
(in both its standard sense of sneering and its slang sense of counterfeit). This quasi-Yiddish pronunciation has been popular with the
hip
young and some working-class speakers since the 1950s; other words are having their pronunciation altered in a similar fashion (
shmarmy
and
shmeg
, for instance). In this case the speakers may be reproducing the original pronunciation (
see
snide
for the origins of the word).

See also
jekyll

shnorrer
n

a cadger, scrounger or hustler. This is a Yiddish word occasionally used by non-Jewish speakers, particularly in the USA, to refer to a sponger or parasite. It derives from the German verb
schnorren
, meaning to beg (itself from
schnurren
, meaning to purr or whirr – the sound of a beggar's entreaties or their musical accompaniment).

shocking out
n

dancing. The term has been used in hip hop and clubbing milieus since 2000.

shoddy
adj British

excellent, admirable. A reversal of the standard use of the term, shoddy in this sense was a fashionable item of school-children's slang in 2002 and 2003.

shoeing
n British

fighting, brawling, attacking. In playground usage in 2003.

shonk, shonker
n British

1.
the nose, especially a large and prominent one. A synonym of
conk
, this is derived from the following sense.

2.
a Jew. An offensive, racist term dating from the 19th century, when
shonniker
was a Yiddish word denoting a pedlar or small-time tradesperson.

shonkie, shonky
n
,
adj

1.
(a) Jew(ish). Like
shonk
and
shonker
, these words derive from
shonniker
, an archaic Yiddish term for a peddler or small-time tradesperson.

2.
American
(a person who is) mean or grasping

shoo-in
n American

a certainty; a candidate or contestant who is certain to win. The term is inspired by the idea of a horse which merely has to be ushered across the finishing line. The phrase is a common colloquialism in the USA which was picked up by some British journalists in the second half of the 1980s.