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Conference thebay::joyoflex

Title:The Joy of Lex
Notice:A Notes File even your grammar could love
Moderator:THEBAY::SYSTEM
Created:Fri Feb 28 1986
Last Modified:Mon Jun 02 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1192
Total number of notes:42769

530.0. ""Sh*t-eating grin" origin?" by NOTIME::SACKS (Gerald Sacks ZKO2-3/N30 DTN:381-2085) Wed Jun 08 1988 19:53

    I've wondered for a long time about the origin of the phrase
    "sh*t-eating grin."  I thought of asking William Safire, but
    I didn't think The New York Times would publish it.  Any
    hypotheses out there in Lexland?
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530.1Sh*t? never heard of it.PSTJTT::TABERTouch-sensitive software engineeringWed Jun 08 1988 21:3819
If you're too timid to use the word "shit" (which has a long, honored
history in English) then you probably shouldn't try to use the phrase. 

<lunch warning>

Imagry in the rest of the reply may offend the recently fed...



	I've never run across the phrase "sh*t-eating grin" before, but
it's probably a derivitive of "shit-eating grin" which itself probably
derives from the phrase "grinning like a shit-eating dog" from "happy as
a dog eating shit"  The latter two are very popular in the South and
refers to a habit that anyone who has seen a dog with its head buried in
a cat's litter box and it's tail wagging in ecstasy is familiar with. 
"Grinning" is probably hyperbole on the part of the originator of the
phrase referring not to the dog, which doesn't grin at all, but to the
person to whom it gets applied. 
					>>>==>PStJTT
530.2Grinning dogsSMURF::BINDERA complicated and secret quotidian existenceThu Jun 09 1988 00:0013
Re: .1

Patrick, you must never have seen a dog that was fairly excited.  The 
mouth is opened and the lips are drawn back to an appearance that looks 
quite like a grin.

I'v seen dogs with their noses buried in other dogs' shit that looked as 
much as if they were grinning as Alfred E. Neuman does.  Probably for 
similar mindless reasons...

- Dick

PS.  Your explanation seems reasonable.
530.3similar expressionsVOLGA::B_REINKEwhere the sidewalk endsThu Jun 09 1988 05:2210
    To me the expression also relates a bit to the cheshire cat
    smile and the cat eating the canary smile...
    
    kind of a smile when one knows you've gotten away with something
    nasty...
    
    and yes, my dog does grin (and stink!!) after a raid on the cat
    box!
    
    Bonnie
530.4And yet another explanationVAXRT::CANNOYDown the river of Night&#039;s dreamingThu Jun 09 1988 19:148
    I'd always heard it was a shortening of the phrase 
    
    "a grin like a fox eating shit out of a wire-haired brush", 
    
    implying that the fox must pull its lips way back to expose its
    teeth, so that it may succeed at its task.
    
    Tamzen
530.5put more : the fire, please ~ cows come homeVIDEO::OSMANtype video::user$7:[osman]eric.vt240Fri Jun 10 1988 17:0314
I asked someone about whether I should continue to use the term

	sh*t

or whether it was safe to use the real word instead.  They warned me:

	You'd be an ass to risk it.
		    -----------



I hope my little pun makes your day!


530.6Go ahead, PUN_k, make my day!DR::BLINNPut a REAL pinhead in the Oval Office!Sat Jun 11 1988 00:040
530.7Snack Time On The FarmRIGAZI::SPERANDIOThu Aug 24 1989 18:266
A friend of mine is a nurse in a mental hospital.  He says that it is not 
uncommon for some types of patient to eat shit. These poor souls are always
grinning when found with their faces smeared.  Records of this activity go back
to medieval times.  Maybe this is source of the term.

- Skeezix
530.8Might be considered in poor taste...NSDC::RATCLIFFHeisenberg may have been hereWed Sep 13 1989 15:449
Re .7

In the diary of the de Goncourt brothers (of literary (or litterary)
prize fame),  
(Warning: might be considered in poor taste),
hence <FF>

speaking of a coprophagist: "He said shit disgusted him since
the day he found a hair in it".
530.9Warning: Warning may be in poor taste.CAM::MAZURIt ain&#039;t the meat, it&#039;s the lotion.Wed Sep 13 1989 16:058
    re: .8 
    
    >(Warning: might be considered in poor taste),
    
    I thought the warning was funny enough.
    
    -Paul