You can use "crap" all day long, and no American will get upset, unless you use the word to describe the person with whom you're speaking. In American English, a good, minimally offensive substitution is "crap," which can refer to feces, defecation, junk, garbage, a lack of quality, or even another person's possessions in a pejorative manner. I would not use it when talking to my employer or dealing with customers. I would say that "shit" is middle-of-the-road on the scale between mildly offensive and extremely offensive. Oh, crap! What the heck I'm talking about. Oh, shoot! I think talking about it too much has some effects on me. In other words, you don't have to give it a damn. I'm sure as hell you can rephrases its phrases to something else more polite yourself. Good news is you don't have to use it if you don't want to.
To mean bullshit ( Are you shitting me?), orĪs an emphasis ( Sure as shit I survived them all.). To express positive attitude ( The Oregon Trail is the shit.), To express negative attitude ( What a piece of shit!), To express displeasure or an indifference attitude ( Well, I don't give a shit!), For example,Īs a vague noun ( Get your shit together!),Ī surprise or an anger ( When he sees it, he's gonna shit himself.), In addition to being used as an exclamation (to express disgust, anger, or annoyance) alone by itself, shit actually has very wide usages. Sheesh - to express exasperation or annoyance. Humph - to express dislike, disbelief, or annoyance
For example,Īrgh! - to express your annoyance, anger, or frustration If an exclamation in words still makes you feel uncomfortable, you can try other interjections instead. Shoot, crap, damn, dang, drat, rats, damn it, dammit, blast, or hell.Įven just simply saying "What?!" could do the job. If you feel uncomfortable to say shit, but you want to say something anyway, you can try these: In my opinion, we can do just fine without having to say it at all. Typically, I use many of its stand-ins instead. I personally don't let it come out unless I'm sure I'm with people who say it to me first. The context is important, the way you say it is important, and your audience is very important. All in all, it would depend on what you mean, when and how you say it, and to whom. But of course, there are lots of exceptions.
I wouldn't expect to hear shit from a child, nor in a typical business meeting.
ANOTHER WORD FOR THINGS WE OWN TV
(For example, the cable TV I subscribe to always censors the F-word, but never shit.) However, it can be offensive.
(The word crap can also refer to junk, or even be used as a verb in the game of craps.) Context invariably eliminates any potential confusion about which meaning applies, even when they occur close together:įirst of all, I think shit is so common that people don't really think it's extremely vulgar anymore. Origin: alteration of frigging, present participle of frigĪs for the s-word being used both as an expletive and as a reference to excrement, the word crap has the same dual meaning, and then some. Used to express surprise or alarm : Jeepers! Do you think she saw? I won't look these all up, but NOAD does say: Jeepers creepers (instead of Jesus Christ) : Jeepers creepers! You scared the crap out of me!įrickin’ or freaking (instead of fucking) : There's no freaking way I'm paying that much for this car. Gosh darn it (instead of God damn it) : Gosh darn it! How many times have I asked you not to do that? Shoot (instead of shit) : Aw, shoot! I left my keys at home!ĭarn (instead of damn) : Darn! My ball went in the creek again. If you want your speech to sound less vulgar and coarse, use the terms on the left instead of the terms in parentheses: Many cuss words in English have less offensive counterparts, often with phonetic similarities.
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