# "s\*\*t-eating grin" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 22, 2001, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-t-eating-grin/77553 "2001-08-22T15:29:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Patgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aca169/32.png) [@Patgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patgo)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2001, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-t-eating-grin/77553/1 "2001-08-22T15:29:03Z")
Does anyone knows where the expression “shit-eating grin” come from? Maybe it’s just me, but I cannot understand why dining on fecal matter is supposed to bring you a sense of satisfaction ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2001, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-t-eating-grin/77553/2 "2001-08-22T16:02:27Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, Patgo. I trust you’ll enjoy your stay here. However, this forum “About This Message Board” is for questions on the operation of the boards. The forum best suited for your query would be [General Questions](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=3). That one is for wide-ranging inquiries of a factual nature. I’ll move this thread over there for you. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2001, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-t-eating-grin/77553/3 "2001-08-22T20:11:44Z")
My guess is that it derives from another expression: **Like a possum eating shit** Opposums have that funny little grin on their faces and are known to eat just about anything. It is a short jump from there to **“shit eating grin”**. ---
**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2001, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-t-eating-grin/77553/4 "2001-08-22T23:34:33Z")
I don’t recall if I heard this explanation or I just guessed it from the expression, but I think the shit eating grin refers to a grin that is put on while doing something distastful which you must seem to enjoy. I think the idea of being forced to eat or ‘take’ shit is older than the term ‘shit-eating grin’. If a person is your superior, say a military superior or someone who could kick your ass, they can force you to eat shit (metaphorically, one hopes). So the phrase ‘to eat shit’ came to mean being forced to do something distasteful. Eventually people may have started refering to the grin that people put on when they had to “eat shit”. Thus, a shit eating grin. Of course I may be completely wrong about this. I have heard the term used to describe a someone who is simply smiling a very wide smile. Perhaps this could be explained by saying that the phrase now refers to a grin that is overly wide, as a it would be if the person were trying to cover up distaste. ??? I don’t know, this is a good guess though. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2001, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-t-eating-grin/77553/5 "2001-08-22T23:55:22Z")
Based on context, I’ve come to understand “shit eating grin” to mean a completely unabashed, uninhibited, totally hedonistic grin. Somehow as if eating shit were the most rewarding thing in life. Thus the OP’s confusion. And I admit, I never understood it either. However, when we had a dog that loved to eat “kitty roca”, we did use the phrase quite frequently. Along with the phrases “turd breath,” and “get your tongue off of me, I know what you’ve been eating!” ---
**Author:** ![warmgun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecccb3/32.png) [@warmgun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/warmgun)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2001, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-t-eating-grin/77553/6 "2001-08-23T01:16:08Z")
I always took it to be a I-just-got-away-with-something grin. In TX we used to say, “…grinnin’ like a possum eat’n shit out of a Cokebottle”. never understood either one… ---
**Author:** ![Corrvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@Corrvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corrvin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2001, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-t-eating-grin/77553/7 "2001-08-23T02:25:43Z")
I believe I have the solution…a rural Oklahoma saying is “Grinning like a dog shitting peach seeds” It’s obvious that this might be shortened to shit-eating grin…referring to the wideness of the grin, not necessarily the dog’s HAPPINESS at expelling large objects out its backside. Corr ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-t-eating-grin/77553/8 "2001-08-24T07:19:29Z")
If I had to eat shit I would not be smiling. But I’ve never eaten shit. The closest I’ve come is the chicken pizza at my school. ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-t-eating-grin/77553/9 "2001-08-24T11:05:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Corrvin \* > \*\*I believe I have the solution…a rural Oklahoma saying is “Grinning like a dog shitting peach seeds” > > It’s obvious that this might be shortened to shit-eating grin…referring to the wideness of the grin, not necessarily the dog’s HAPPINESS at expelling large objects out its backside. > > Corr \*\* Where does the eating part come in? To me, a shit-eating grin is a extra-big grin. Like **warmgun** and **bughunter** , I always though it was a kind of “Hehehehe, I just did a funny” grin. As if they someone who just did something bad and got away with it - hence the phrase. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-t-eating-grin/77553/10 "2001-08-24T12:39:21Z")
I always heard the “dog shitting a peach pit” phrase as "_shaking like_ a dog shitting a peach pit, which seems more apt. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-t-eating-grin/77553/11 "2001-08-24T12:50:24Z")
A very quick search in Google didn’t turn up a definition, only uses of the phrase… Could the meaning have changed? Maybe it started out as a reference to an overly-large grin from someone forced to do something they didn’t want to do - grinning while eating shit; then, over time, people began to call any overly-large smile a shit-eating grin. When I have used the phrase or heard it used, it was typically an insincere, I-have-this-smile-on-my-face-to-show-you-I-know-I-got-away-with-it type of smile - not one of hedonistic pleasure. So at the very least, both the “taking shit and grinning” and the “got away with it” smiles are not really about pleasure - but about showing you know something that you may or may not want others to know. Given that relation, it seems possible that the meaning evolved from one to the other. ---
**Author:** ![Patgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aca169/32.png) [@Patgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patgo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-t-eating-grin/77553/12 "2001-08-24T13:03:47Z")
My friend Lisa tell me that the expression come from monkeys and apes in zoos. To gross out visitors, they seldom eat or make believe the eat their feces. Visitors: “AH! DISGUSTING” Monkeys: \