What is the origin of the term bull**** in its figurative sense? I don’t know whether Google Ngram Viewer is a good arbiter of “acceptable” English, but, FWIW, it indicates that “bullshit” seems to have started its climb in the mid-1960s: Google Ngram Viewer I recall hearing “horseshit” used to mean pretty much the same thing as “bullshit” (although, perhaps, slightly less forcefully); Google confirms that “horseshit” is about 5% as
Where did the phrase batsh*t crazy come from? The word crazy is a later addition Scanning Google Books I find a handful of references starting from the mid-60s where batshit is clearly just a variation on bullshit (nonsense, rubbish) - which meaning still turns up even in 2001, but it's relatively uncommon now Here's a relatively early one from 1967 where the meaning is crazy A decade later most references have this meaning, but the
Origin of for the birds (Trivial; worthless; only of interest to . . . for the birds adj phr Inferior; undesirable, of small worth; LOUSY : [examples omitted] {WWII armed forces; a euphemistic shortening of shit for the birds, because some birds eat animal feces, it is the equivalent of bullshit or horseshit} And from J E Lighter, Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (1993):
Where did “Dipped in sh*t” originate from? What does it mean? I searched for this and was surprised to hear that “dipped in shit” meant a measure of surprise I’ve always heard it used as being lucky or untouchable “I blew through that speed trap and as t
What is the origin of the phrase to go apeshit? The OED lists it as just a variant of "to go ape", with the earliest citation of both being a single entry in a 1955 edition of "American speech", where they are both listed as "air force slang" The OED also says "See American Speech (1961) XXXVI 150 for an account of the phrase's development " - that seems to be available only behind a pay-wall
offensive language - English Language Usage Stack Exchange This is a thoughtful and well composed question that adheres to site guidelines and does not deserve closure (one person thinks it does as a matter of opinion) Any discussion of synonyms, single words and offensive language (particularly) involves some opinion The point is to express opinion on the basis of references, quotations and examples of usage, and this question is asking for answer
What does “bupkes” mean? - English Language Usage Stack Exchange Like the English "bullshit" or "horseshit," bupkes was once fairly widespread as an expression of disbelief A response of bupkes meant that you thought someone was talking nonsense; whatever he was saying, it was crap