Crap

"Crappy" redirects here. For the species of fish, see Crappie. For other uses, see Crap (disambiguation).

Crap is a term meaning either poor quality or feces. The former meaning is sometimes considered mildly vulgar; the latter meaning is oftentimes considered mildly or moderately vulgar, but could be, on occasion, viewed as strongly vulgar by means of scatological and sensory-provoking use of the word.

In its former meaning it also connotes inaccurate, of little factual substance, lies, hype, or quackery. It can be partnered with "bull" to enhance the power of the word.

The word is considered by many people to be less offensive than "shit", which holds similar meanings and can be used nearly interchangably. Some people find the word crap offensive, even if not intended to mean feces, and will use the minced oath "crud" instead, as in "Oh, crud!" Alternatively, for some people, crap retains its association with feces to a greater extent than shit, and is therefore more offensive than the latter.

Contents

1 Etymology
2 Derivative words
3 Expressions
4 See also

Etymology

The word "crap" is old in the English language, one of a group of nouns applied to discarded cast offs, like "residue from renderings" (1490s) or in Shropshire, "dregs of beer or ale", meanings probably extended from Middle English crappe "chaff, or grain that has been trodden underfoot in a barn" (c. 1440), deriving ultimately from Late Latin crappa, "chaff."

The word fell out of use in Britain by the 1600s, but remained prevalent in the North American colonies which would eventually become the United States. The meaning "to defecate" was recorded in the US since 1846 (according to Oxford and Merriam-Webster), but the word did not hold this meaning at all in Victorian England. The connection to Thomas Crapper is conjectured by Hart-Davis to be an unfortunate coincidence of his surname.

The occupational name Crapper is a variant spelling of "Cropper". In the US, the word crapper is a dysphemism for "toilet," although it is not clear if this has anything to do with Thomas Crapper. The term first appeared in print in the 1930s. It has been suggested that US soldiers stationed in England during World War I (some of whom had little experience with indoor plumbing) saw many toilets printed with "T. Crapper" in the glaze and brought the word home as a synonym for "toilet" — a sort of back-formation from "crap."

Yet another purported explanation is that Thomas Crapper's flush toilet advertising was so widespread that "crapper" became a synonym for "toilet" and people simply assumed that he was the inventor.

Derivative words

Crap's popularity as an all-purpose word has given rise to a number of derived words, such as:

crapola — synonym for "crap"
crappy — of poor quality
craptacular — a portmanteau of "crappy" and "spectacular"
craptastic — a portmanteau of "crappy" and "fantastic"

Despite the word usually taking the form of either a noun or verb, some people (usually speakers from Commonwealth countries) use crap interchangeably with its adjective form crappy. For example, "My computer has a really crap video card," or "I'm crap at this."

These derivative words are very frequently not considered to be vulgar (even mildly so), especially if they are used in a way that doesn't have an obviously-implied association to feces.

Expressions

Most expressions involving the word "shit" have equivalent expressions which substitute the word "crap". Other expressions involving "crap" are:

Cut the crap — to stop lying or beating around the bush; cut to the chase.
Crap face, sack/piece of crap — an insult.
Crap out — meaning to break down or stop working.
Holy crap — an expletive, expressing surprise.
Crap-load — a large amount.
The crapper — a toilet or bathroom.

Crap

Etymology

Derivative words

Expressions

See also