{{Short description|Slang term}} {{About|the slang term|the organic fertilizer|Chicken manure}} {{Infobox profanity | name = Chicken shit {{noitalics|or}} chickenshit | etymology = Compound of ''chicken'' and ''shit''<ref name="oed">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/chickenshit_adj |title=chickenshit, adj. & n. meanings, etymology and more|encyclopedia=Oxford English Dictionary (OCD) |date=December 2019 |access-date=28 April 2025}}</ref> | type = Adjective<ref name="oed"/><ref name="webster"/> | meaning = "petty, insignificant"<ref name="webster"/><br>"lacking courage, manliness, or effectiveness"<ref name="webster"/> }} '''''Chicken shit''''', or more commonly '''''chickenshit''''', is a slang term, usually regarded as vulgar. The online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines '''''chickenshit''''' (one word) as a vulgar adjective with two possible meanings: "petty, insignificant" or "lacking courage, manliness, or effectiveness".<ref name="webster">{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chickenshit|title=chickenshit|work=Merriam-Webster.com|accessdate=17 February 2015}}</ref>
==Coward== The term has been used figuratively since 1929 to allege cowardice.<ref name="Partridge">{{cite book|last=Partridge|first=Eric|title=The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English: A–I|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4YfsEgHLjboC&pg=PA389|edition=reprint|volume=I|date=2006 |publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9780415259378|page=389}}</ref> It can be used as either a noun or an adjective; it is always an insult. In October 2014, an unnamed senior official in the Obama administration was reported to have called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "chickenshit", adding that he "has got no guts".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/the-crisis-in-us-israel-relations-is-officially-here/382031/|title=The Crisis in U.S.-Israel Relations Is Officially Here|last=Goldberg|first=Jeffrey|date=October 28, 2014|work=The Atlantic|accessdate=19 February 2015}}</ref> Secretary of State John Kerry apologized to the prime minister,<ref>{{cite news | last1=McCarthy | first1=Tom | last2=Roberts | first2=Dan | title=Kerry says US official's 'chickenshit' jibe at Netanyahu was disgraceful and damaging | newspaper=The Guardian | date=October 30, 2014 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/30/john-kerry-condems-official-insult-netanyahu | accessdate=February 18, 2015}}</ref> while Israeli media scrambled to understand or translate the idiom.<ref>{{cite web | title=Israelis Wonder: What's a 'Chickenshit'? |author=(Staff)| publisher=Israel Today | date=November 3, 2014 | url=http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25481/Default.aspx | accessdate=February 18, 2015}}</ref>
==Petty== The alternate meaning of "petty, insignificant nonsense" may be used as either a noun or an adjective.<ref name="Liberman">{{cite web|url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004515.html|title=Language Log|last=Liberman|first=Mark|date=May 21, 2007|accessdate=16 February 2015}}</ref> According to Paul Fussell in his book ''Wartime'', chickenshit in this sense has military roots: "Chickenshit refers to behavior that makes military life worse than it need be: petty harassment of the weak by the strong; open scrimmage for power and authority and prestige; sadism thinly disguised as necessary discipline; a constant 'paying off of old scores'; and insistence on the letter rather than the spirit of the ordinances ... Chickenshit is so called—instead of horse—or bull—or elephant shit—because it is small-minded and ignoble and takes the trivial seriously."<ref>{{cite book|last=Fussell|first=Paul|title=Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War|url=http://johnshaplin.blogspot.com/2010/06/chickenshit-by-paul-fussell.html|accessdate=7 April 2015|year=1989|publisher=Oxford Paperbacks (cited at Johnshaplin.blogspot.com)}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://languagehat.com/chickenshit/|title=Chickenshit|work=Languagehat.com|accessdate=17 February 2015}}</ref>
==Other uses== The phrase "You can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit" is sometimes used as a variant of "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear". The expression dates back to at least the 1920s, when "chicken feathers" was sometimes used as a euphemism for chicken shit.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/you_cant_make_chicken_salad_out_of_chicken_shit|title=You can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit|last=Popik|first=Barry|date=September 22, 2009|work=The Big Apple|accessdate=19 February 2015}}</ref>
Former American president Lyndon B. Johnson once said, "Boys, I may not know much but I do know the difference between chicken shit and chicken salad."<ref name="DLolj">{{cite book |last=Halberstam |first=David |author-link=David Halberstam |title=The Best and the Brightest |date=1972 |publisher=Random House |isbn=0-394-46163-0 |page=436}}</ref> ==See also== {{portal|Language}} {{wiktionary}} *Bullshit *''On Bullshit'' *Chicken manure *Shit *Shit happens
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Slang Category:English profanity Category:Feces