Meanderings From The Crapper

It has been suggested by those close to me that, in everyday conversation, I overuse the word crap. "Puke-green is a crappy color. My under-700-square-foot crappy house. My drawing got crapped up. Poison ivy is the crappiest. My day got crapivated. These crappy socks have a hole. There's a crappy hole in my socks. There's a crappy hole in my crappy socks, crap!"

Is it my fault that "crap" is so pleasurable to say, so evocative? There's the initial crack of a "k" sound, a short open mouthed vowel, and the kind of emotional finish that comes only from spitting out a "p". Other people must think so too because the word crappa goes back to Middle Latin, spoken in Medieval times. That's some noble pedigree. Sir Thomas Crapper, the person who commonly gets credit for inventing the word, marketed an English toilet under his name in 1861 because he wanted in on the crapwagon. (See also: www.theplumber.com and What's in a word?) Yup, whether the word is whispered, shouted, or yelped, rushed out on quick breath or massaged slowly in the mouth and then dribbled out the lips, crap is satisfying.

Speaking of crap, the real kind, how come it's called "taking a crap"? I don't know about you but I have never once done any taking. I'm a leave-it-at-the-toilet kind of person. Why isn't it "to leave a crap"? Plop a crap, drop a crap, do a crap, put a crap, yes but, take a crap? Language can be so disgusting.

Comments

Rick Rockhill said…
"craptivated" I like that one. You need to submit that to Wikipedia!
March 31, 2007
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