For the overall fecal expletive, North Americans use “shit”, and those across the pond say “shite”. I’m curious about how Brits say and spell the word when it’s used as a different part of speech. I’ve only heard British usage as an expletive/interjection, and not as a noun, adverb or adjective.
Noun: an American might say “Damnit! I stepped in some shit.” Do Brits say “My word! It appears as if I have ambled into some shite. God save the Queen!”
Adverb: an American might say “They treated me really shitty.” Would a Brit say “They treated me real shitey?”
Adjective: an American might say “I had a shitty day.” Would a Brit say “I had a shitey day?”
Noun: an American might say “Damnit! I stepped in some shit.” Do Brits say “My word! It appears as if I have ambled into some shite. God save the Queen!”
Fuck! I just walked through dog shit. God save the Queen.
Adverb: an American might say “They treated me really shitty.” Would a Brit say “They treated me real shitey?”
They treated me shittily.
Adjective: an American might say “I had a shitty day.” Would a Brit say “I had a shitey day?”
Shit and Shite both have the same form when used as a noun (I stepped in some dog shit/shite). As an adjective, shit can be both that and shitty, but i’ve only ever heard shite as shite (so it would be “a shite day” not “a shitey day”). But then i’m a southern git.
“Shit” is more common than “shite”. As with other nouns in British English, both can be used as adjectives. “I had a shit day”. Cf. “I had a crap day”, “this is a rubbish post”.
Using an adjective as an adverb, as in your example, is less usual in British English. We would say “they treated me like shit” or “they treated me shittily”.
I dunno. I’ve heard the curse ‘shitey bollocks’ used from a fellow Scot. That’s curse as in swearie word and not witchcraft. I’m sure she wouldn’t really wish that on anyone.
Here in the south, ‘shit’ is the norm. ‘Shite’ is pretty much saved for occasional substitution for ‘pile of shite’ etc. For the adverb in the OP, I might expect “they treated me real shit” as the most likely vernacular.
“Damnit! I stepped in some shit.” - this would translate to “Shit.”
‘Shite’ was given a boost in popularity amongst us genteel southerners a few years ago with Steve Coogan’s character Paul Calf who had the catchphrase ‘Bag o’ shite’.
My northern cousins (Yorkshire, Cumbria) always said shite. I thought it a bit daft. I’m now friends here in Baltimore with a chap from Newcastle. He pronounces it shite also.
Shite is shite. Nobody says shitey.
“I’ve had a really shite day”. would be heard in any northern pub.
The Dictionary of the Scots Language gives the example “Ye brocht with you under your plaides … the thing that ye callit to me ane pharisie, quhilk was blak dyn cullourit, lyk unto ane aip or ane schitt”* from around 1600. They suggest the historic adjective in Scots was “shitten,” though a “shitt bairn” seems to be a child unable to control its bowel movements. This site is worth visiting for the quotes alone: “Ma wormes hes thow schittin Than thair is gers on grund” [You have shit (have shat?) more worms than there is grass on the ground].
As for Old English, the word was scitan, pronounced something like sheet-ann, so “correctly” the verb, at least, should have the long * in Modern English. The noun looks like it is a short * in Old English, so either we’ve re-created the verb or the noun has influenced the pronunciation of the verb in the South, and vice-versa in the north. ETA: Vowel length in Old English texts is beyond me, so the long / short variation may well go back to Old English, I don’t know.
*[You bought with you under your plaids… the thing that you called a fairy to me, which was of a dull black color, like an ape or a piece of shit.]
