[Jimbee (OP)]

"Force shites upon Reason's Back."

-Benjamin Franklin.

As you can see, the S word used to have an E on the end. But when and how did it lose the E? It is from the Germanic -skīt, meaning "to cut, to split". But no one ever talks about how it lost the E, at least nothing I have seen.

So how did it happen?

[Bored chemist]

The question might be where did it ever gain that e?
The Norwegians pronounce SK as we would pronounce SH

skitt.png (6.4 kB . 765x195 - viewed 234 times)

It looks like the vowel sound had changed by the time Chaucer was using it.
"And shame it is, if that a priest take keep, To see a shitten shepherd and clean sheep:?

1:20.
However, both pronunciations are still to be found in the uk

[evan_au]

Benjamin Franklin lived 1706 to 1790, a time when spelling was more freestyle than it is today.
Webster's dictionary was first published in 1806, and brought some standardisation to American English.

This etymology website does not mention shite as a predecessor of sh1t...

https://www.etymonline.com/word/sh1t

PS: I see that this website has a "politeness censor", which automatically changes "i" to "1"...

[alancalverd]

I've always assumed the word derived from Old Norse kitt (which hasn't changed in any Scandinavian language) rather than any Saxon root. Modern German uses scheisse, which is quite different and "cut" is schnitt.

[Zer0]

SHlT!