that shithead that I shit-talked him into dropping out of the karate match! The term to shit-talk connotes bragging or exaggeration (whereas to talk shit primarily means to gossip [about someone in a damaging way] or to talk in a boastful way about things which are erroneous in nature), but in such constructions as the above, the word shit often functions as an interjection. The exclamation holy shit derives its force from the juxtaposition of the sacred with the profane. Unlike the word fuck, shit is not used emphatically with -ing or as an infix. For example; I lost the shitting karate match would be replaced with ...thefucking karate match. Similarly, while in-fucking-credible is generally acceptable, in-shitting-credible is not. The verb "to shit" The preterite and past participle of shit are attested as shat, shit, or shitted, depending on dialect and, sometimes, the rhythm of the sentence. In the prologue of The Canterbury Tales, shitten is used as the past participle; however this form is not used in modern English. In American English shit as a past participle is often correct, while shat is generally acceptable and shitted is uncommon and missing from the Random House and American Heritage dictionaries. "to shitcan" To shitcan someone or something is to dismiss or dispose of casually or unceremoniously, as into a waste basket. Shitcan can also be used as a noun: Don't bother; a report like this is gonna go directly into the shitcan. It can also refer to being fired from a job: "The boss is gonna shitcan you if you keep showing up late." Backronyms The backronym form "S.H.I.T." often figures into jokes, like Special High Intensity Training (a well-known joke used in job applications), Special Hot Interdiction Team (a mockery on SWAT), and any college name that begins with an S-H (like South Harmon Institute of Technology in the film Accepted (2006) or Store High In Transit in the film Kenny (2006)). South Hudson Institute of Technology has sometimes been used to describe the United States Military Academy at West Point. In polite company, sometimes backronyms such as Sugar Honey in Tea or Sugar Honey Ice(d) Tea are used. Usage in classical poetry Satirist Jonathan Swift wrote a controversial poem "The Lady's Dressing Room" containing the following lines (115 through 118): Usage on television Canada In Canada, "shit" is one of the words considered by the Canadian Broadcast Standards