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From: aa318@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (John Coughlin)
Subject: Re: "Chier" and "shit"
Message-ID: <D57own.EoA@freenet.carleton.ca>
Sender: aa318@freenet3.carleton.ca (John Coughlin)
Reply-To: aa318@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (John Coughlin)
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References: <D56pso.JG1@freenet.carleton.ca> <D54zI4.7G5@aplcenmp.apl.jhu.edu> <793753349snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 06:33:58 GMT
Lines: 18

In a previous posting, I wrote:
> In a previous posting, Louis Biggie (avlb@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu) writes:
>> I always thought (or perhaps assumed) that "shit" was releated to the
>> word "shed."
> 
> You are correct.  Althought I don't have the reference handy to supply a
> quotation, I recall that Ayto's _Dictionary of Word Origins_ traces "shit"
> and the verb "to shed" back to a proto-Germanic (or maybe it was PIE?)
> common ancestor.  The general idea is that when we excrete we shed a part
> of our body.
> --
I have the book in front of me.  The Indo-European *skheid (to split, divide)
produced shed, shit, schist, and schism.
--
Flesh:  John Coughlin                       ___     __o
Net:    jcoughlin@acm.org                 ___     _`\<,
        aa318@freenet.carleton.ca          ___   (_)/(_)
Status: Mi hidrodeslizador esta' lleno de anguillas.
