shit happens

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Painful losses from accidents and coincidences are part of life. Here the fall of a smartphone.

Shit happens is an English-speaking phrase ( Anglicism ) that has been adopted in German in its original form. In German it could be translated as “shit happened [just]”, in the sense of “ran stupid” - in French, C'est la vie would be said in similar situations . The idiom describes the inevitable occurrence of annoyance or setback. It is often used to express that even good planning does not rule out problems and that those affected should not despair. The phrase is part of colloquial language , but is mostly not described as vulgar language or obscene .

origin

The origin of the phrase is unknown. The phrase stuff happens , used today as a weakened synonym, was used as early as 1944 in Lee Thayer's book Five Bullets . In 1969 Jean and Robert Hersey ( These Rich Years ) also used this phrase. The term shit happens was first mentioned in 1983 by Connie Eble in a book on colloquial language at a university . Eble refers to slang terms used at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at the time . What is certain is that the phrase was coined in the USA . It became very popular there in the mid to late 1980s. At first the term was mainly used by students, later also by older people. It was widely used as a bumper sticker . The abbreviation SH is also used in youth language today . In the UK the phrase is often expanded: Fuck it. Shit happens ; there is also an abbreviated variant here: FISH . In Australia, the expanded form Shit happens then you die is common. This phrase is also used in the movie The Knife on the Shore by Tim Hunter . Another variant is: FISHMO - Fuck It, Shit Happens, Move On .

meaning

The idiom has become common language and describes the constant possibility of an unexpected event that is perceived as negative. Such situations are inevitable components of life and must be accepted as such: Shit happens, that's life! The expression thus has both a comforting and euphemistic character. The consolation includes notions of fate (in the strongest form: fatalism ): Shit happens. You can't stop fate .

In the philosophical discussion of conspiracy theories , the term describes a diametrically opposed understanding of the world. In 1999, the American philosopher Brian L. Keeley stated in a much discussed essay that conspiracy-theoretical thinking is characterized, among other things, by the fact that it suspects causal relationships between the most varied of phenomena , with which the supposedly resulting event is explained. It is actually a “ virtue” of conspiracy theories to assume a man-made sense of all events , even if it is bought with radical distrust of all trust-demanding institutions that offer “official”, non-conspiracy-theoretical explanations. Keeley contrasts this nihilistic skepticism of conspiracy theories with the “ absurdist ” world view, according to which the events of world history would occur for no comprehensible reason, but are traced back to more or less unfortunate coincidences and contingencies : “Shit happens”.

Effective media use (selection)

In a conversation with US officer James Creighton in February 2011 in Tarin Kut, Afghanistan, the Australian politician Tony Abbott referred to the death of the Australian Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney, who fell in a gun battle with Taliban fighters in August 2010 : It's pretty obvious that, well, sometimes shit happens, doesn't it? The formulation was broadcast on the Australian television station Channel Seven and caused a sensation in Australia. Abbott later criticized the broadcaster for distributing the statement without considering its inclusion in the context of the conversation at the time. The soldier's widow accepted Abbott's apology for the unsuccessful formulation.

Another publicly discussed incident in Australia was the suicide of the nurse Jacintha Saldanha , who hanged herself in December 2012 as a result of a phone joke about Kate Middleton's health . The managing director of the Australian media group, to which the radio station belonged, whose moderators had deceived Saldanha, had commented on the suicide process at the company's general assembly with shit happens .

In July 2014, the rainbow press reported on Robert Pattinson's comment (Shit happens) on the separation from Kristen Stewart .

Addressing a mistake made by FC Schalke 04 goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand , Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho used the same phrase in 2013 with consoling intent.

In Germany, many leading media cited in January 2007 - mostly in the headline - the comment of SPD General Secretary Hubertus Heil (Shit happens) on the missed election of Wiesbaden mayor due to a deadline violation. The use of the phrase by Kirkel's Mayor Frank John when he was approached by ZDF in December 2014 about a planning error in the construction of a fire station also met with media coverage . When Daimler CEO Jürgen Schrempp was thinking out loud about his resignation in 2004 after losing the vote for the further financing of the Daimler stake in Mitsubishi , his colleague Wolfgang Bernhard commented scornfully: Well, Jürgen, that's how it is. Shit happens. This statement was made responsible by the media as one of the reasons for Bernhard's career at Daimler. The pop singer Matthias Reim stated about his bankruptcy in 2006: Shit happens and it goes on.

Trivia

The fictional film character Forrest Gump (reproduced here in wax), who inspired the invention of the shit-happens sticker in the film of the same name
  • In the feature film of the same name, Forrest Gump (played by Tom Hanks ) steps into dog excrement while jogging and in the subsequent conversation becomes the coincidental creator of the later popular saying.
  • A cartoon series by Ralph Ruthe is entitled Shit happens!
  • The Latin expression Stercus accidit is attributed to the philosopher David Hume , which is now considered the Latin equivalent of Shit happens .

Similar phrases

Web links

Wiktionary: shit happens  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Wolfgang Melzer, Synonym dictionary of colloquial language, related idioms and insults , Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2010, ISBN 3-839-15567-3 , p. 73
  2. ↑ a b John Ayto (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms , Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-1995-4378-6 , p.311 . In English
  3. ↑ The New York author Louis Menand noted this in his review of a book on idioms
  4. ^ Connie Eble, UNC – CH Campus Slang , Chapel Hill 1983.
  5. ↑ a b John Ayto and John Simpson Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang , Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-1992-3205-5 , p.273 . In English
  6. ↑ Tom Dalzell, The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English , Taylor & Francis, 2009, ISBN 978-0-4153-7182-7 , p. 866 . In English
  7. ↑ a b c Wolfgang Mieder, Proverbs: A Handbook , Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, ISBN 978-0-3133-2698-1 , p. 16 . In English
  8. ↑ Hippie Dictionary: A Cultural Encyclopedia of the 1960s and 1970s , Potter / TenSpeed ​​/ Harmony, 2013, ISBN 978-0-3078-1433-3 , p. 467 . In English
  9. ↑ Becky Symens, Acronyms Dictionary for Texting Chatting E-mail Rebecca J Symens, ISBN 978-0-5780-7716-1 .
  10. ↑ a b Thilo Kerkhoff, 100 percent youth language 2015 , Langenscheidt, 2014, ISBN 3-468-69426-1 .
  11. ^ John Miller, The Lingo Dictionary: Of Favorite Australian Words and Phrases , ISBN 978-1-4596-2067-4 , ReadHowYouWant.com, 2011, p. 253 . In English
  12. ↑ Cristiano Furiassi, Virginia Pulcini and Félix Rodríguez González, The Anglicization of European Lexis , John Benjamins Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-9-0272-7363-5 , p. 247 In. English
  13. ^ Brian L. Keeley: Of Conspiracy Theories . In: The Journal of Philosophy 96, No. 3 (1999), pp. 117-125; see. Pete Mandik: Shit happens. In: Episteme 4 (2007), pp. 205-218.
  14. ↑ 'Shit happens': Abbott grilled over digger remark , February 8, 2011, ABC.net . In English
  15. ↑ Phillip Coorey, Abbott's frozen fury lingers beyond his words , The Sydney Morning Herald , February 9, 2011, In English.
  16. ↑ Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney's widow accepts Tony Abbott's apology, politicians offer support , The Courier-Mail , February 9. In English
  17. ↑ Media head brushes off Jacintha Saldanha's death , October 23, 2013, Media Politics in Perspective. In English
  18. ↑ Robert Pattinson on separation from Kristen Stewart "Shit happens" , July 31, 2014, ProSieben.de
  19. ↑ Hildebrand's curious mistake - Mourinho "Shit happens" , Die Welt , November 7, 2013
  20. ^ SPD breakdown in Wiesbaden: "Shit happens" , January 6, 2007, Spiegel Online , "Shit happens" at the SPD , January 6, 2007, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and "Shit happens": SPD angry at Wiesbaden , January 6 2007, n-tv
  21. ↑ Inaccessible new building, incredible reaction: The whole of Germany laughs at this fire station , December 9, 2014, Focus Online
  22. ↑ Henning Peitsmeier, renovators and hopefuls , July 13th 2005 FAZ and Daimler invisible crown prince , Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung
  23. ↑ Alfons Frese, Bernhard is out of the question for Mercedes. The former Zetsche partner stays with VW , August 11, 2005, Der Tagesspiegel
  24. ^ Men are collectors , Süddeutsche.de , May 22, 2010
  25. ↑ Stefan Panoor, cartoon: "Shit happens!" , Spiegel Online , September 3, 2007
  26. ^ Andrew Pessin, Uncommon sense: the strangest ideas from the smartest philosophers , ISBN 978-1-4422-1608-2 , Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham 2012. In English