Chicken shit
{{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{{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}}
| meaning = "petty, insignificant"
"lacking courage, manliness, or effectiveness"
}}
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".{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chickenshit|title=chickenshit|work=Merriam-Webster.com|accessdate=17 February 2015}}
Coward
The term has been used figuratively since 1929 to allege cowardice.{{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}} 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".{{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}} Secretary of State John Kerry apologized to the prime minister,{{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}} while Israeli media scrambled to understand or translate the idiom.{{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}}
Petty
The alternate meaning of "petty, insignificant nonsense" may be used as either a noun or an adjective.{{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}} 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."{{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)}}{{cite web|url=http://languagehat.com/chickenshit/|title=Chickenshit|work=Languagehat.com|accessdate=17 February 2015}}
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.{{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}}
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, "I may not know much, but I do know the difference between chicken shit and chicken salad."{{cite web |title=Ranking the Presidential Obscenities: 8 Foul Presidential Quotes |date=February 17, 2011 |url=http://www.holytaco.com/ranking-the-presidential-obscenities-8-foul-presidential-quotes/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110219232138/http://www.holytaco.com/ranking-the-presidential-obscenities-8-foul-presidential-quotes/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 19, 2011 |work=Holytaco.com |access-date=May 29, 2019}}