I heard this phrase for the first time a couple weeks ago online, in reference to a guy that is in great shape (though not a body builder) and of average height. It was said by another guy, and I couldn’t tell whether or not it was just a wise crack with a little jealousy behind it, or if it was supposed to be an out-and-out insult.
Have any of you heard this saying before? Would you take it as a sign of insult or envy? Is it a regional thing?
And most importantly, are there actually brick chicken houses? I’ve only ever seen wooden coops…
It is a compliment. I’ve always heard it is as “built like a brick shit house.” It means well built, sturdy (well built body, basically). It can also be used to describe a woman with a great body (curves, etc). I grew up in North Carolina.
As far as chicken houses being brick - I guess that’s the compliment. Unlike a normal wire, flimsy chicken house (or flimsy wooden shit house), this is a much better built brick chicken house (or shit house).
Never really stopped to analyze this saying before!
I’ve heard of “built like a brick shit-house” or just “brick house” (shakeadownshakeadownowow) but I’ve never heard of “brick chicken house”. I’ve heard them in reference to women that are stacked, never in reference to a man.
I seem to recall having heard it on Are You Being Served?, where the canteen manageress refers to her boyfriend that way, but in any other context, I’ve always heard “shit house” or, euphemistically, “outhouse”, and always referring to a woman.
I’ve always heard it as brick shithouse and assumed it was in some way connected to the brickhouse in the Commodores’ song; whether it was before or after the record’s usage, I don’t know (perhaps the Commodores disinfected (pun intended) it?).
I’ve also only heard it used in reference to a woman, but there’s not reason it could not refer to a well-built man.
We gays have come a long way and we have the right to the right to refer to another man as a stinky toilet if we wanna.
I’ve heard the saying “built (or stacked) like a brick shithouse” long before the Commodores’ record. Yeah, they obviously cleaned it up for radio play.
Oh, way back when I was young in the age of the dinosaurs, it was only used to describe a stacked broad (oops, sorry, politically incorrect), and it was “built like a brick shithouse.”
On those days one did not bandy about that word in polite society, so I used to say “built like a brick shipyard” and everybody looked startled, then laughed.
In Brooklyn, they used to say, “boy, has that broad got a built on her.”
I’ve heard brick house before too, but for women only, and never brick shithouse for anyone. That’s why when I heard brick chicken house, I was wondering if there was supposed to be an element of insult… but I can see that’s not the case now.
And yes, the guy in question is extremely well built, so the label suits pefectly.
I’m with Mangetou here. “Brick shithouse” and never in reference to the size of a woman’s frontage. So, ususally for men, although possibly, perhaps, for some solidly built female rugby player type of build.
Another vote for “shithouse” and that it’s meant for statuesque females. Never heard the chicken house reference nor the use of the phrase for men.
I think the Commodores’ verbal space in “brick…house” is a direct reference to the naughty word’s omission.
Now I do recall reading somewhere, probably online in a “believe it or not” type website but maybe in one of those books that specialize in obscure trivia, that the “brick shithouse” is supposed to connote some godawful structure with crooked walls and off-plumb lines as if some over-zealous yokel meant to outdo a neighbor by having a brick privy but had zero architectural skills. This sounds, the way I’m describing it, way too far-fetched to be taken seriously, but I do recall reading such a thing. Maybe I can run down a cite. Maybe not.
