etymology of "Jack Shit".....?
Lee Carkenord
"He don't know Jack Shit"......
or....
"He ain't got Jack Shit".........
In the context of the above, it appears to mean a small
quantity......or a lack of something..........
Is this phrase a relatively new phrase on the street........or has it
been around a long time? How long??
Thank you..... Lee Carkenord
busta movement
"Jack Shit" means simply "anything" in the sense that "he don't know
Jack Shit" means "he doesn't know anything."
Similarly, "He ain't got Jack Shit " means "he ain't got anything"
i.e, "he has nothing."
Note that "Jack Squat" is a non-obscene version of it.
As for the etymology, I don't know Jack Shit about it.
Dr Robin Bignall
I've got a feeling that I've seen "He ain't got diddly squat" with the
same meaning, in dialogue from the southern states.
--
wrmst rgrds
RB...(docrobi...@ntlworld.com)
Peter Duncanson
"Diddly squat" has crossed the Atlantic eastwards. It is
sometimes abbreviated to "diddly".
--
Peter D.
UK
busta movement
>>>Note that "Jack Squat" is a non-obscene version of it.
>>>
>>>As for the etymology, I don't know Jack Shit about it.
>>
>>I've got a feeling that I've seen "He ain't got diddly squat" with the
>>same meaning, in dialogue from the southern states.
>
>"Diddly squat" has crossed the Atlantic eastwards. It is
>sometimes abbreviated to "diddly".
Mason Barge
There is a computer program called "You Don't Know Jack" that sold a
lot of copies. It is a multimedia trivia game and is very amusing.
I have also heard "diddly-shit".
The meaning of "you don't know shit" seems empirical, and I would
speculate that "squat" would refer to the action of producing the
aforementioned substance.
--
Mason Barge
"People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like."
-- Abraham Lincoln
John Dean
"Lee Carkenord" <cark...@juno.com> wrote in message
news:4346b55e.02070...@posting.google.com...
This one would take forever to track down. A quick glance at OED shows more
meanings for 'Jack' and 'jack' than almost any other word you can think of.
But among them is the meaning 'jack-' signifying something smaller than
usual eg jack-timber, jack-bowl (now known simply as 'the jack' in Green
Bowling) and also jack meaning arse. So jack-shit could be an unusually
small amount or simply shit produced from the logical place. Or something
else entirely.
--
John Dean
Oxford
De-frag to reply
Howard G Walker
1. a stupid and worthless person [Usually refers to a male. Typical of
male-to-male talk.] "Don't be such a stupid jack-shit." "What a jack-shit. Not
a brain in his head!"
2. anything, anything at all. [Always a negative expression. Typical of
male-to-male talk.] "This whole thing isn't worth a jack-shit!" "I wouldn't
give you jack-shit for that!"
Forbidden American English: A Serious Composition of Taboo American English
Richard A Spears
Passport Books 1997
ISBN 0-8842-5162-6
Pat Durkin
"Howard G Walker" <Walker...@att.net> wrote in message
news:3D301C21...@att.net...
> jack-shit
> 1. a stupid and worthless person [Usually refers to a male. Typical of
> male-to-male talk.] "Don't be such a stupid jack-shit." "What a
jack-shit. Not
> a brain in his head!"
> 2. anything, anything at all. [Always a negative expression. Typical
of
> male-to-male talk.] "This whole thing isn't worth a jack-shit!" "I
wouldn't
> give you jack-shit for that!"
>
> Forbidden American English: A Serious Composition of Taboo American
English
> Richard A Spears
> Passport Books 1997
> ISBN 0-8842-5162-6
>
Usage rules, of course, but in 60+ years, I have never heard "jack
shit", or "jack-shit" used with an article or other adjective. "That
jack-shit irritates the hell outta me", for example, could occur, but I
haven't heard it.
"What a jack-shit", and "worth a jack-shit", bring up the same
recollections (none) to me.
I suppose I always think of "jack shit" as an unmodified and
unmodifiable amount, or thing.
"He isn't worth jack-shit", "He doesn't know jack-shit", or "Jack shit
is all she wrote(1)" are the usages I hear most used. (I am
unaccoustomed to using a hyphen, in the few cases in which I write the
expression.)
( All she wrote... this is an idiom that refers to "the end of the
story", or the end of any event, and has nothing to do with a female and
what she might have written. In other words that last example means
"zilch" in response to a question like: How much did you get for your
efforts?)
Howard G Walker
My memory isn't perfect, but in my 20+ years as an EM in the USAF ending in
1968 I've got to admit that I recall hearing "jack-shit" only a
handful-minus-a-thumb times. Again if my memory serves, the expression was
used describing a useless person who was a slacker, malingerer, or just
plain no account,
Brian Wickham
wrote:
>Usage rules, of course, but in 60+ years, I have never heard "jack
>shit", or "jack-shit" used with an article or other adjective. "That
>jack-shit irritates the hell outta me", for example, could occur, but I
>haven't heard it.
>"What a jack-shit", and "worth a jack-shit", bring up the same
>recollections (none) to me.
>
>I suppose I always think of "jack shit" as an unmodified and
>unmodifiable amount, or thing.
>
>"He isn't worth jack-shit", "He doesn't know jack-shit", or "Jack shit
>is all she wrote(1)" are the usages I hear most used. (I am
>unaccoustomed to using a hyphen, in the few cases in which I write the
>expression.)
>( All she wrote... this is an idiom that refers to "the end of the
>story", or the end of any event, and has nothing to do with a female and
>what she might have written. In other words that last example means
>"zilch" in response to a question like: How much did you get for your
>efforts?)
>
Same 60 years - same experience. One other use is to express what you
may have gotten out of something, "At least he got (the blond? a
handshake? a ride home?). I didn't get jack-shit."
Brian
Howard G Walker
> plain no account.
Until I finally took the time to try to find the definition, I thought the
phrase was "Jack shit" or "Jack's shit."