Definition and etymology of shiznit

Factual Questions
1

Anybody know the origin of this word?

Googling for this word brings up all sorts of sites using it, but rarely any definition. Context suggests it’s a non-vulgar replacement for “shit” when it’s used as a term for great, outstanding, or “nothing comes close”, as in “The SDMB is the shiznit”. There also seems to be some variants on spelling, such as shisnit, shiznet, and shiznitt.

A couple of sites attempt to give a definition, such as UrbanDictionary.com, Turd’s Words :rolleyes: , and The Online Slang Dictionary, but all of them seem to take their definitions from ones submitted by random users.

Did Snoop Doggy Dogg make this word up? My wife tells me he is known to put “izn” in the middle of many words while rapping/talking.

The reason I’m asking is because I’m forming a volleyball team and I want to call it The Shiz Nets. Do you think people would be offended by that name?

2

Fo shizzel my nizzel, ill find out and reply when the game is finished on the televizzle.

3

As long as it’s not a children’s volleyball team, I don’t think anyone would really care…

4

I’m sure we did this before. Just search the board for the word.

It goes back to rap in the early 1990’s/late 1980’s.

It means “the best.”

5

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=182544&highlight=shiznit+snoop
That would be a previous thread that may help.

6

Sounds like a variation of BeBop.

Insert “z” after the first letter.

“cool” becomes “c-zool”

“dope” becomes “d-zope”

“sham” becomes “sh-zam” Yeah, I kn-zow…

7

Thanks for your input, guys. Sounds like the contributers of the other thread didn’t really know either. I may just have to wait until “shiznit” makes it’s way into the OED. Let them figure it out. :smiley: