# Excrement of a male bovine. \[language\]

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excrement-of-a-male-bovine-language/384024>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 13, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excrement-of-a-male-bovine-language/384024 "2006-12-13T21:37:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![1010011010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/ea666f/32.png) [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excrement-of-a-male-bovine-language/384024/1 "2006-12-13T21:37:49Z")

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What makes bull shit particularly apt for the phrase?

Is it different in appearance, texture or odor from cow shit? Is there any basis at all for the word choice?

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**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excrement-of-a-male-bovine-language/384024/2 "2006-12-13T21:44:16Z")

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[del]Americans[/del]_think_Cowboys

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excrement-of-a-male-bovine-language/384024/3 "2006-12-13T21:51:42Z")

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[QUOTE=ouryL]  
[del]Americans[/del]_think_Cowboys  
[/QUOTE]

I don’t get it.

Anyway, there’s no connection. Bullshit is merely an intensifier of the older use of bull as nonsense.

> **[Search 'bullshit' on etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=bullshit)**
>
> Search results for 'bullshit' on etymonline

> [@](#):
>
> “eloquent and insincere rhetoric,” 1915, Amer.Eng. slang. Bull in the sense of “trivial or false statements” (1914) is usually associated with this, but it existed since M.E. in the sense of “false talk, fraud,” apparently from [O.Fr](http://O.Fr). boul, and perhaps connected to modern Icel. bull “nonsense.” There also was a verb bull meaning “to mock, cheat,” which dates from 1532.  
> “Sais christ to ypocrites … yee ar … all ful with wickednes, tresun and bull.” [“Cursor Mundi,” c.1300]

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**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excrement-of-a-male-bovine-language/384024/4 "2006-12-13T21:52:06Z")

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[quote]  
thinkCowboys\*\*

I dunno…

I seem to recall a comedy movie from 1983: “Bullshot”

> **[Bullshot Crummond (1983) ⭐ 5.8 | Action, Adventure, Comedy](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085279/)**
>
> 1h 35m | PG

It seems that the phrase got adopted over in the UK, but when? And why, if they don’t have cowboys?