shat

English

Etymology 1

A late innovation, apparently by analogy with sit → sat; spit → spat, etc.^[1]^[2] First recorded in the eighteenth century.^[3] Compare Old English sċāt.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʃæt/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Rhymes: -æt

Verb

shat

simple past and past participle of shit
- 1999, Julian O'Neill, quoted in Peter Moss, "Let He Without Sin Kick The First Goal", in Workers Online number 12 (1999 May 7):
  Hey Schlossie [=Jeremy Schloss], I just shat in your shoe.
- 2009, Rob Dunn, Every Living Thing:
  We all lived in small communities, hunted, and foraged. We shat in the woods.

Etymology 2

From Arabic شَطّ (šaṭṭ); see chott; for the spelling, compare Shatt al-Arab.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʃʌt/^[4]
Rhymes: -ʌt

Noun

shat (plural shats)

Alternative form of chott
- 1902, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Tenth Edition; […] , page 482:
  All this region round the shats has been called the “Jerid” from the time of the Arab occupation.

Etymology 3

Sometimes said to be a shortening of an obsolete word (*)shattle (“needle”),^[5]^[6] but more likely a shortening of the synonymous (pine) shatter.^[7]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʃæt/
Rhymes: -æt

Noun

shat (plural shats)

(chiefly Maryland, Delaware) Synonym of shatter (“a pine needle”).
- 1921, Whitelock vs Dennis (decision on appeal), in the Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Court of Appeals of Maryland, page 559:
  Dryden used the car that afternoon to get shats for the hog pen of Ollie Hitchens, who [...] gave Dryden a dollar for his services in getting the shats [...] some pine shats for his father.
- 2012, Rob Wilgus, Sickle, Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 225:
  A small, well known, pine shat covered path pushed between two rows of trees.

References

^ Bruce L. Derwing, Royal Skousen, Productivity and the English Past Tense, in The Reality of Linguistic Rules, page 202
^ Survival of the Strongest, in Studies in the History of the English Language V (2010, →ISBN, page 101: What may come as a surprise, depending on the framework in which one operates, is that sit must have been largely responsible for the preterite shat of shit and probably the preterite spat of spit. Shit should conjugate shite~shote, and spit was originally weak (OED).
^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “shit”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
^ William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “shat”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volume (please specify |volume=IV or V), New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
^ J. A. Cope of the Maryland State Department of Forestry, Loblolly Pine in Maryland: A Handbook for Growers and Users (1923), page 3: [...] so it frequently gets the designation of long-leaf pine, or long-needled pine, or more commonly, especially in Somerset County "long-shat pine" — shat, or shattle, being an obsolete word for needle.
^ Ella C. Emery of the Delaware Commission for Conservation of Forests, Report of Commission for the Conservation of Forests in Delaware (1926), page 27: The needles of this pine are from 6 to 8 inches long and for that reason, in the regions where it abounds, it is often called long shat pine; that being an abbreviation or contraction of the obsolete word shattle, meaning needle. It is so termed as a matter of distinguishing it from scrub pine ...
^ Theophilus Tunis, Forestry for Profit: How the Woodlot Can be Made to Pay (1923), page 72: An artificial planting of loblolly pine I knew forty years ago, planted for a convenient or near-by supply of pine needles known in various localities by the various names of pine shats or shatters, pine straw or litter, [...]

Anagrams

ATHs, HATs, Tash, has't, hast, hats, tash, thas

Albanian

Alternative forms

shatë

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *śaktā, from Proto-Indo-European *sēk-teh₂-, from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”). Cognate to Latin secula (“sickle”), sacena (“pick-axe of the pontifix”).^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʃat/

Noun

shat m (plural shata)

heart-shaped hoe, mattock

References

^ Demiraj, B. (1997) Albanische Etymologien: Untersuchungen zum albanischen Erbwortschatz (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 7)‎^[1] (in German), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, page 358

Australian Kriol

Etymology

From English shot.

Noun

shat

attempt

Hausa

Etymology

Borrowed from English shirt.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʃât/
- (Standard Kano Hausa) IPA^(key): [ʃât]

Noun

shât f

shirt

[1] Bruce L. Derwing, Royal Skousen, Productivity and the English Past Tense, in The Reality of Linguistic Rules, page 202

[2] Survival of the Strongest, in Studies in the History of the English Language V (2010, →ISBN, page 101: What may come as a surprise, depending on the framework in which one operates, is that sit must have been largely responsible for the preterite shat of shit and probably the preterite spat of spit. Shit should conjugate shite~shote, and spit was originally weak (OED).

['shit'_entry_at_Etymology_Online_Dictionary-3] Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “shit”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

[4] William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “shat”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volume (please specify |volume=IV or V), New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

[5] J. A. Cope of the Maryland State Department of Forestry, Loblolly Pine in Maryland: A Handbook for Growers and Users (1923), page 3: [...] so it frequently gets the designation of long-leaf pine, or long-needled pine, or more commonly, especially in Somerset County "long-shat pine" — shat, or shattle, being an obsolete word for needle.

[6] Ella C. Emery of the Delaware Commission for Conservation of Forests, Report of Commission for the Conservation of Forests in Delaware (1926), page 27: The needles of this pine are from 6 to 8 inches long and for that reason, in the regions where it abounds, it is often called long shat pine; that being an abbreviation or contraction of the obsolete word shattle, meaning needle. It is so termed as a matter of distinguishing it from scrub pine ...

[7] Theophilus Tunis, Forestry for Profit: How the Woodlot Can be Made to Pay (1923), page 72: An artificial planting of loblolly pine I knew forty years ago, planted for a convenient or near-by supply of pine needles known in various localities by the various names of pine shats or shatters, pine straw or litter, [...]

[8] Demiraj, B. (1997) Albanische Etymologien: Untersuchungen zum albanischen Erbwortschatz (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 7)‎^[1] (in German), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, page 358

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