isht n. a euphemistic misspelling of shit, with the same uses and meanings. Also ish. Editorial Note: This term is also a part of spoken language and in both written and oral cases a form of taboo-avoidance. An unreliable source reports this term originated in the obscuring of obscenities in hip-hop recordings by rearranging their syllables. In American communities with Scandinavian heritage (mainly in Minnesota and Wisconsin), the unrelated interjection ish, indicating disgust or dislike, can be found. According to DARE, it derives from the Norwegian isj and the Danish and Swedish isch. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
David from Plymouth, Wisconsin, wonders about the expression a cord of wood. The phrase goes back to the 17th century and has to do with using a cord to measure a specific quantity of stacked wood. This is part of a complete episode.
Related
How and why do words from one language find their way into another? Vietnamese, for instance, includes many words borrowed or adapted from French, a vestige of colonialism. For example, the Vietnamese word for “train station,” ga, comes...
I’m a middle school teacher, and all the kids are using “ish” these days.