Editing Shit (section)

==Etymology==
The word is likely derived from [[Old English language|Old English]], having the nouns ''scite'' (dung, attested only in place names) and ''scitte'' (diarrhoea) and the verb ''scītan'' (to defecate, attested only in ''bescītan'', to cover with excrement); eventually it morphed into [[Middle English]] ''schītte'' (excrement), ''schyt'' (diarrhoea) and ''shiten'' (to defecate), and it is virtually certain that it was used in some form by preliterate [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] tribes at the time of the [[Roman Empire]]. The word may be further traced to Proto-Germanic *''skit''-, and ultimately to [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] *''skheid''- "cut, separate", the same root believed to have become the word ''[[wikt:shed|shed]]''. The word has several [[cognate]]s in modern [[Germanic languages]], such as [[German language|German]] ''Scheiße'', [[Dutch language|Dutch]] ''schijt'', [[Swedish language|Swedish]] ''skit'', [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]] ''skítur'', [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] ''skitt'' etc. [[Ancient Greek]] had 'skōr' (gen. 'skatos' hence 'scato-'), from Proto-Indo-European *''sker''-, which is likely unrelated.<ref>{{OEtymD|shit|accessdate=6 September 2008}}</ref>