Some Bitch-Ass Shit: A Brief Diachronic Account of Three English Expletives

Final Project by Alden Harrell for Diachronic Linguistics LING-5570

Introduction

Swear words are an undeniably fascinating linguistic aspect of culture, and a fun one at that. They can be used in a myriad of ways semantically and can be some of the most grammatically flexible words in a language. Just the word fuck, for example, can be used as a noun (“That exam was hard as fuck!”), a verb (“Fuck that exam!”), as part of a pronoun (“Look at fuck-face over there trying to ace the exam!”), and, of course, the all too popular interjection (“Fuck! I can’t believe he actually aced it!”). Not only are these words fun and versatile, but they also tend to be quite interesting etymologically, having undergone numerous semantic and syntactic changes over time. In order to examine these phenomena more closely, let’s take a look at three English swear words and their journeys through time.

Shit

The word shit, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, can be traced all the way back to Proto-Indo-European (PIE) with the root *skei-, meaning “to cut” or “to split.” This is the same root believed to have become the words shed, conscience, and, hilariously, science. From PIE the word evolved first to the Proto-Germanic *skit, then to the Old English scite, then Middle English schītte, before finally arriving at the modern shit we all know and love. Along this journey, it has undergone a few key linguistic changes, namely semantic broadening, syntactic reanalysis, and, occasionally, amelioration.

First, many new semantic meanings for the word have arisen over time. Shit and its earlier forms originally only referred to excrement, but semantic broadening has given us a number of new meanings. You might refer to a pile of detritus as a “pile of shit.” Do you have a long list of chores and errands to take care of? It sounds like you have “a lot of shit to do.” Maybe you got into some trouble with the law and now you’re “in deep shit.” It’s easy to see how these examples could be classified as metaphor, as they are all, generally speaking, negative.

There’s an interesting case, however, with a more recent ameliorated usage of the word shit, as in, “This party is going to be the shit!” (meaning it will be a party for the ages). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first documented use of the shit to refer to something excellent, as opposed to the more common opposite use of shit described above, was in a 1987 unpublished typescript manuscript of "campus slang" at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Clearly shit has undergone quite a bit of semantic broadening over the years.

Along with this semantic broadening has come syntactic reanalysis, with new lexical classes being added over time. Originally the word was utilized mainly as a noun, to refer to excrement. Over time, however, shit picked up a number of new lexical classes, including verb and interjection. Take, for example, the cases, “I don’t mean to shit on your idea,” and “Oh shit! I can’t believe it!” Neither of these cases would be possible without syntactic reanalysis. Fig 1 shows the frequency of usage of the word shit over time, from 1800 to 2019. It is clear that usage of shit has increased quite dramatically, particularly spiking since the year 2000.

Bitch

Etymologically bitch comes from the Old English word bicce and earlier, likely, from the Old Norse bikkjuna, both referring to a female dog. While the usage of “dog” as an insult can be dated all the way back to ancient Greece, the earliest use of bitch specifically as a derogatory term for women dates back to the 15th century and, according to English language historian, Geoffrey Hughes, referred to sexual behavior, serving as a metaphorical extension of the behavior of a “bitch in heat.” This derogatory usage of bitch toward women has largely persisted over time, with a few key caveats.

First, there has been an interesting semantic narrowing split based on gender. When women are called bitches, it is usually to indicate that they are in some way overly domineering, controlling, or rude. Note that this usage is often accompanied by a size adjective like “huge” (as in, “She’s a huge bitch.”) On the other hand, if a man is called a bitch, it is usually to achieve the opposite effect—to indicate that he is in some way subordinate, weak, or cowardly. To further cement that this sense is in direct contrast to the sense targeted at women, it is typically accompanied by the opposite size adjective, “little” (as in, “Stop being a little bitch”).

Along with this gendered narrowing split, bitch has undergone some of the same linguistic changes over time as shit—syntactic reanalysis and amelioration, both of which have taken place somewhat recently, relatively speaking. Around the 1930s, bitch acquired a new lexical class as a verb meaning “to complain,” a sense that is still quite common today. More culturally interesting, however, is the amelioration of the noun bitch. With the advent of the modern feminist movement, women have sought to reclaim the term that has been used against them by misogynists for centuries, using it to signify confidence and power. This reappropriation of the term bitch serves to subvert the sexist assertion that if a woman stands up for or asserts herself, she is nothing but rude and domineering.

Fig 2 shows the frequency of usage of the word bitch over time, from 1800 to 2019. While bitch was clearly used a bit more frequently than shit between 1800 and 2000, it is clear that, much like shit, its usage has increased exponentially since then.

Ass

Much like shit, ass can be traced back to PIE with the root *ors-, which later became the Greek orros, then Old English ærs, and finally arse. While many European dialects of English still employ the form arse, the North American English variation typically utilizes the non-rhotic ass. There are two main theories that account for the change from arse to ass. One admittedly less exciting theory is that there is simply a trend of /r/ loss before /s/. A particularly relevant example of this would be the /r/-drop in the word “curse,” which becomes “cuss.” On the other hand, there is another, more intriguing theory, that of taboo replacement. The theory claims that, in an effort to be more polite, people opted for the word ass instead of arse, as it was simply the more common word for donkey.

In a fascinating and ironic turn of events, there was, subsequently, another round of taboo replacement regarding the word ass. As its status as a swear word became more ubiquitous, it became disfavored to use the term ass to refer to a donkey. While the use of the term ass to refer to a donkey can be traced back to before Shakespeare, the first recorded use of donkey wasn’t until the 1780s. Since the 18th century, thanks to the process of taboo replacement, donkey has gradually ousted ass.

More recently, as with shit and bitch, ass has undergone a process of syntactic reanalysis. Whereas the others have gained one or more lexical classes, however, ass has been reanalyzed as what could be argued to be a productive nominalizing morpheme. Take, for example, the words dumb, fat, and hard. Alone, they are simply adjectives. With the addition of -ass, however, these words become nouns—dumbass (“one who is dumb”), fatass (“one who is fat”), and hardass (“one who takes no metaphorical shit”).

Fig 3 shows the frequency of usage of the word ass over time, from 1800 to 2019. Interesting to note is how much more frequent this word was than both bitch and shit around the year 1800 (~0.001% of the English corpus, compared to ~0.0001% and near 0% for bitch and shit, respectively). From then on the term became less and less frequent, perhaps as a consequence of its taboo replacement, until (yet again) the year 2000, when usage shot up exponentially.

Discussion and Conclusion

English expletives, as we have seen, have quite fascinating etymologies and, diachronically, have evolved in quite interesting and varied ways. In many cases, the ways these words develop over time mirror the growth and change of culture. This fact is especially apparent in cases like bitch. While misogyny has been an issue for centuries, the increased usage of swear words at large, and specifically the word bitch, has really highlighted the problem recently. The fact that there is a gendered split with this word at all indicates some sort of imbalance, but the semantics of this split really speaks volumes. The word historically has been used to refer more frequently to women. The fact that, when this term is applied to men, it is used to diminish them underscores the notion that the most insulting thing a man can be called is a term typically reserved for women. The more recent amelioration of the term by women themselves also illustrates the growing push to overturn and fight back against these misogynistic tendencies.

None of this would be possible—or at least not as easily traceable—without the rapid increase in usage of expletives since the year 2000. But why did this rapid increase occur? Perhaps the dawn of the internet ushered in a newer, cruder era of online vernacular. Maybe the internet inherently carries with it more documentation and, therefore, more recorded instances of swear words. While there is no doubt some truth to both of these claims, I believe that, once again, the increase in expletive usage parallels cultural changes. Specifically in the United States, as we depart and distance ourselves from our religious and colonial roots, the social stigma surrounding swear words has become much less severe. Consequently, as swear words have become less taboo in recent years, their usage has shot up.

As we have seen, expletives have quite an interesting place in the history of the English language and have quite varied etymologies and journeys through time. By examining the cases of shit, bitch, and ass, we can see that their usages have undergone several fascinating semantic and syntactic changes and that they can affect and be affected by changes in culture. Swear words are not only fun ways to spice up language, but important data points that can teach us a lot about both culture and language more generally.

REFERENCES Fairman, Tony (1994). "How the ass became a donkey". English Today. Harper, Douglas. "ass". Online Etymology Dictionary. Harper, Douglas. "bitch". Online Etymology Dictionary. Harper, Douglas. "shit". Online Etymology Dictionary. Hughes, Geoffrey. Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-Speaking World. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2006

Thoughts and Feelings about Tinned Fish

by Emy Butler and Jordan Murphy

Jordan Murphy: First, you gotta understand terroir. 

Terrior (pronounced “tare-wahr”) is basically the cornerstone of the whole appreciation of wine and food. It's this French idea that wine and food are supposed to be about a sense of time and place. It’s an experience, an appreciation of a specific moment, an homage to someone’s craft. Food and wine are expressed in a myriad of ways based on the palate of the consumer, the technique of the chef/winemaker, the quality of the soil, the pedigree of the winery or restaurant, the weather that year, the lunar cycle, a love of farming, the history of a village, the soul of a community …it’s fascinating and complicated and historic and dreamy and blunt and gross and scientific and surprising, and terroir celebrates every bit of that nuance. 

My friend Emy had been asking about tinned fish for a while when I told her to put her money where her gills are and come taste some with me at Redneck Beach. Little did we know what our day would turn into. We babysat some old pawpaws grandchildren so he could flirt with his girlfriend. We were some of the only people there who spoke English. And we enjoyed every minute of it, the last hot day of 2022, in some perfect blend of chaos and peace. Which also describes the dichotomy of eating seafood out of a fucking’ can. Lemme tell you though if you're buying the right stuff, there's some fresh-ass, delicious food in that tin.

Emy Butler: Had my dear friend and I not outran the police that one night, I would have never known about the tinned fish community.

Cockles in cold pressed grapeseed, ok, white tuna belly filets, Galician mussels in Spanish sauce. Fish roe in spicy olive oil. Fish balls. Peppered mackerel. Brined anchovies. Infinite and personal mollusks swimming in hot juice, hiding in the dark, wading. These lil canned po’ boys were low cost with high protein starting in the early 1900s. Now, there is an unforeseen grip that tinned fish has on an entire culture, and to an extent, I do get it.

Shelf stable, eco-friendly, an endless variety, and still affordable for now. However, gentrification has reached the fish aisle. Trout in a can is being sat next to a passion fruit next to a $45 local soft cheese. Growing up as an underprivileged girl raised on potted meat and saltines that made her way through life in the service industry, one can say, I'm most definitely intrigued. 

I told my criminal of a friend to take me to a horrible place. There we would indulge in this pop-top of strange social status swimming in all the darkest corners of the unknown kitchen cabinet. Under a broken beach umbrella, we lay out our Hot Girl Spread on a pink and black sarape, outlooking the murky and movey Tennessee, its floor filled with its own version of radiated clams and mussels. Atop the sandshore of Taluca Beach, we toast our tins. And to Diaper Island, our Ranch Waters.

We sat and ate what we could but ended up baptizing each other in the river, packing up the fish and all the ants that red clay could house, then blasted Yelawolf down the windy, dirty country roads back home, then met with another girlfriend to just eventually split a bag of Krab Kingz. Special thanks to the two men in Birmingham that helped jack up the car and changed out tires after outrunning the cops. Without them, CHUM wouldn't have had a CHUM Bucket this time. 

JM: A few months ago, the owner of Russ over at Research Park Wine Merchants introduced me to the concept of Merrioir (pronounced “mare-wahr”), which is like terroir, but under the sea. Blew my fucking mind. I was already a fan of conservas (Spanish and Portuguese tinned fish) thanks to the restaurant Domaine South who had a little resection on their menu dedicated to them last summer, and Russ only furthered my appreciation. He showed me a copy of a book that his friend Chris McDade wrote called The Magic of Tinned Fish and I was immediately hooked. It's a fascinating and educational book about how to appreciate, cook with and eat conservas. He suggests high-quality brands, tells you how to pack a Spanish seafood picnic, and includes through-provoking recipes like anchovy sauce on a charred steak, alongside twists on old classics like dank-ass tuna salad sandwiches. Research Park Wine Merchants keeps a great line of conservas on hand, so I bought a $16 tin of La Brujula Yellowfin Tuna Belly there and experienced a spiritual awakening when I ate it that night, straight out of the mother fucking can, and was reminded that some of the best things in life need no accouterment.

This piece was first published in CHUM Vol.8

 
 

Today in Sports, Chef Curry Serves Up Baseball Hits

Chef Ryan Curry is the Executive Chef AND Director of Food and Beverage at the Rocket City Trash Pandas - America's Premier Minor League Baseball Team in Madison, Alabama.

With their Undefeated 2020 Season or "The Perfect Season,"… 2020 was the year of "Just Trash." The Pandas anticipated a BLAST OFF to their inaugural season, but instead, fans from a distance chanted, "This is Trash!"

So hopefully, in 2021, we can enjoy a baseball game—none of this "watch it on TV" bullcrap! 

But actually, go to a game because there is something to be said about ballpark ambiance that can add to the whole baseball experience. 

You got the sights of mascots clowning around, the jumbotron, and people clamoring over the t-shirt toss. The 'crack' sound of a baseball bat, the 'roars' the 'cheers' and the "boos" of a crowd, the funny sound effects in between pitches, the traditional sound of organ music (which feels like the only place you hear it these days maybe besides church), and a hawker yelling, "Get yer cold beer here!" 

And, of course, the food!

Food is everything, and everything revolves around food. People flock for food, people go for the food, people fight over food, people want food, people love food, people NEED food!

The nice thing about a ballpark is that you can find all sorts of grub there, from a dawg to sesame-crusted ahi tuna and all kinds of in-betweens. So, whoever thinks that ballpark food is hotdogs and beer has never explored the possibilities of chow one can find there. Just because food served up in fancy restaurants distracted by a pretty presentation doesn't make it better than good ole' ballpark food. 

After all, the hot dog is warm, filling, and salty and compliments a cold beer quite well.

Even though certain items such as peanuts, beer, Cracker Jacks, hamburgers, and yes, hotdogs—have become the central part of baseball grub, it wasn't the case when baseball first started. 

At first, ballpark food was centered around ham sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, or ham and cheese sandwiches in certain exceptional circumstances! As the game's popularity grew, so did fans' palates. Ice cream, lemonade, and popcorn became popular concession items as well! Since then, ballpark tastes have come along way, and today it has showcased world-renowned chef creations, regional specialties, and offerings of outrageous baseball bites. Ranging from a peanut-butter-and-jelly bacon burger, BBQ pork parfait, Twinkie Dogs, Churro "Dessert" Poutine, and grasshoppers (yep, the insects like in Mexico!) Even vegan and kosher options!

Chef Ryan Curry from Northern California has the recipe for persuasion and proudly serves it to anyone who thinks a Stadium Chef can only cook hot dogs and peanuts, "It's something that took me a little while to come to grips with," says Curry. 

People think stadium chefs are uncreative and uneducated carnies that schlep stale hot dogs and pretzels to crazed fans. Maybe that was the case 25 years ago, but "stadium chefs today are creative, out-of-the-box thinkers that hold culinary degrees, great leaders, and look good on TV, if possible," explains Curry. 

Slated to begin his fourteenth season in sports, Curry crafts recipes and leads a food service team that prepares culinary delights for thousands at a time during professional baseball games, soccer matches, and industry conferences. 

He was ranked a Top 10 Chef in Minor League Baseball by Sports Illustrated in 2010. "It wasn't my favorite dish, but it received the most buzz of anything I've ever done. It was a cheeseburger on an artisan green chili bun, ghost pepper cheese, and topped with a red chili cotton candy poof, called the Tumbleweed Burger," says Curry. Featured around the nation on sports and news shows and even made it to the BBC, and a cooking show called "The Hairy Bikers" that went out of their way to feature it on their show when they were doing a tour of Route 66. 

"The year before, I came in as runner up for the best new menu item for Venues Now for a Green Chili Peach Flambé. I honestly liked that item better than the tumbleweed burger (read HERE)," Curry says. In 2019 for the Albuquerque Isotopes, he even received a lot of fanfare for a dish he created and ended up winning the Best New Menu Item by Venues Now (read HERE).

But for Curry, whose accolades designing stadium specialties was the furthest thing from a dream job. 

"I remember thinking to myself; there is no way I'd lower myself and my career to that of a stadium chef," Curry recalls. 

During the financial crisis of 2007, his Dad had fallen ill. He moved back home to Grass Valley, California, a small town about an hour north of Sacramento that is tucked into the National Forests' line to be closer to his family, leaving a position as Executive Sous Chef at the Marriott in Anchorage, Alaska. "Many restaurants in the area were closed due to hard times. I looked for a job, but they were very hard to come by in the area. Many chefs were unemployed due to closings," states Curry.

For weeks, one particular job that appeared in the paper was a chef position for the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A Minor League affiliate of the Oakland A's. "I thought I went to one of the best culinary schools in the country. I worked for premier restaurants, private clubs, ski resorts, and hotels up and down the west coast. Cooking hot dogs and hamburgers was way below me," he said.

His mom finally convinced him to go for an interview advising him that, "It's always easier to find a job when you already have one."

He got the gig, and well, the rest is history.

Curry has been in the food and beverage industry for 27 years. He began his sophomore year in high school as a dishwasher and has worked his way up to currently the Executive Chef AND Director of Food and Beverage at the Rocket City Trash Pandas.

Curry reveals, "to be a ballpark chef, it takes excellent organization, leadership skills, patience, and a good work ethic." He also says, "when you have 200+ employees working for you, you must have patience. You will also put in many more hours than you want. You can't expect your staff to work hard if you are not leading by example." These were skills that he gathered overtime and working with great leaders. "I owe a lot of my success to a GM I had at the Sacramento Rivercats. We butted heads and did not agree for the first half of my second season at the Rivercats. Then something clicked where I put my ego away and realized I could learn a lot from him if I'd stop and listen. It was the most valuable thing I've done in my career to date," he said.

Even though Curry doesn't cook anywhere near what he used to, he explains that his job is more of a Director, which gives his team the information and tools they need to execute successful events, sometimes for ten days or more in a row. "My time is spent writing recipes, scheduling, ordering, inventory, data entry, data analysis, POS systems, research, and spreadsheets. Financial responsibilities like forecasting, budgeting, and cost savings take up a considerable part of my time," he says.

With his new directorial role as Director of Food & Beverage Curry still has a lot to learn as well as learning to playball with other department heads, “I'd be naive to think I'd step into this role knowing the best way to do everything. It's essential that all of us understand what others are going through and what is brought to the table. You don't necessarily have to like your fellow directors, but you have to work well as a team to better the operation. Sometimes ego's get in the way. Or the "this is how I've always done it" mentality. We've all worked hard to get where we are today. I feel I'm more open to suggestions than some I work with. I've slowly realized that I'm not always right or don't always know the best way.”

Not only is Chef Curry dealing with learning how to play ball with other Directors but he is also dealing with curveballs of uncertainty to each event and working with 200+ seasonal, part-time employees also have its challenges. "The call-offs, employee issues, and everything that goes along with relying on a workforce that may or may not feel this is what they want to be doing as a career. When I was working in restaurants and hotels, doing fine dining cuisine, most of my team members were culinary school graduates or had been in the business for a long time and looked at it as a career. The majority of your staff in a stadium environment does not look at the job the same. I am also trying to gauge what 10,000 people may eat during an event. I have a pretty good idea of what will get consumed during most events as I've been doing sports and entertainment for over 12 years. Many factors can swing the attendance of a game, weather, other local events, what players are playing or may not be playing, how the team is doing. I can arrive to work at 9 am, and attendance projections can be at 7,500, but by the time we open gates and get actual attendance, 11,000 could have walked through the gates.  It can also swing the other way, which is very tough to plan. You have to be ready for anything."

He is also dealing with 10,000 critics per event experiencing the venue and criticizing it. He also gets negative feedback, such as fans thinking he is "dog shit and should find another career to pursue." Curry explains, "Let's say your venue averages somewhere around 550,000 fans per year for various games, concerts, and special events. You might make 97% of the fans happy, which isn't always the case in sports and entertainment, but that leaves 16,500 folks unhappy, and not raving about your food. And that was hard for me." Curry continues, "I have a passion for what I do. I also must realize I'm putting my trust and faith into a large team of food and beverage folks to execute my vision and do it the same way hundreds of times per event. We are human beings. Not perfect beings. Things will go wrong no matter how well prepared you are. How well your team is trained. How good your recipes and direction are. Once I got over that, I was able to sleep better at night." 

There is a massive scope food and beverage prepares for that one may not realize, "the meals in the press box to pre and post-game meals, umpire meals, meals for the bus, catering, picnics, concessions, suites, and sports med stadium club etc. Every single hot dog, orange slice, nacho chip, plastic spoon, ice cream cone, and ounce of soda has been planned, cost out, organized, ordered, counted, and executed. For this to happen, 200 employees have to be driving on all cylinders. Food and beverage is the largest department to staff as a whole. Again, It's not just hot dogs and hamburgers as most think," he explains.

Positive customer service sets many venus apart. Every facet of the stadium operations is essential in the overall positive customer service experience, from the parking attendants to the ticket takers to security to ushers to cleaning crew to food and beverage workers to on-field entertainment to store clerks, and to visual production. "It all comes together for a truly memorable experience for our fans. If one area fails, it starts a domino effect. Suppose a fan has a bad experience in any area, their perception of the real event changes. Of course, I like to think F&B has the biggest shoes to fill, and I will preach that to my team to rally them, but we are only as good as the rest of the stadium operations. So, in other words, we are number one!" Curry laughs.

But Curry is most proud when he works with young kids and molding them into future leaders in the culinary world. "My first sous chef at Raley Field got transferred to be the chef of a large casino in Idaho. My two sous chef at Raley Field was transferred and became the chef for Cal Expo and Bonney Field. My third sous chef at Raley Field was the chef for the El Paso Chihuahuas and is now the chef for the Albuquerque Isotopes. My current sous chef at Toyota Field was a lead cook of mine at the Isotopes and was transferred to be the sous chef for Texas Tech, and then I stole him from there to help me open Toyota Field."

I asked him what he enjoyed most about his job, and he said, "I love getting to be creative and thinking outside of the box. I've had a lot of fun in sports and entertainment. I fell in love with it. I love sports and always have. Even though you don't get to watch much of it or even know which team is winning most of the time, being in the environment is electric. The excitement and the roar of the crowd are intoxicating, and I love the grand scale of it all. There are 75 different areas of a stadium where food and beverage coincide throughout the day. From pre-game meals for the home and away team, post-game meals for both teams, umps, media, multiple concession stands, numerous catering areas, food portables, 35 luxury suites, club areas, restaurants, etc., etc.," 

With his experience working in MLB, NFL, MLS, and many minor league baseball kitchens, he states that "the kitchens and concession stands here at Toyota Field are by far equipped the best I've seen. We are very fortunate here."

If you are curious about Trash Panda food, make sure to head over to Toyota Field this season and get yourself more than just a hotdog!

Ryan Curry is a California native and a graduate of the California Culinary Academy. Curry has 24 years' experience as a professional chef and has worked for Major League and Minor League teams, restaurants, country clubs, resorts, and hotels up and down the West Coast from California to Alaska. Curry also served as Executive Chef for the 2016 Major League Soccer All-Star Game in San Jose, Calif.  

He is also the Dad of a sweet dog named Basil.