Cory in Newark, Ohio, says that while in South Africa, he heard the exclamation shot! used in an empathetic way to mean “that’s so sweet!” or “bless your heart!” In South Africa, the word can be used to express agreement, and in Australia, the expression “That’s the shot!” expresses approval. In boxing, a skillful punch might be commended with “Oh, shot!” This is part of a complete episode.
Leave a comment
1 comment
More from this show
Two words from the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee prep materials: avahi, a term for a woolly lemur of Madagascar, and saltigrade, which describes spiders and other creatures that have feet and limbs adapted for leaping. Saltigrade is...
Louie from Black Hills, South Dakota, recalls the time his girlfriend fell off a paddleboard and into a lake, at which point his father declared She bit the farm! This peculiar locution is most likely his dad’s own combination of two...
There might be some confusion between a few similar words. I am an American living in South Africa, and I had a similar confusion when I first arrived. There is “shot” which is indeed used to express agreement or thanks (e.g. “shot, bru!”) But there’s also “sjoe” (pronounced show) that is used to express sympathy or surprise (e.g. “sjoe, I had no idea she was so sick”). Lastly there is “sharp” (pronounced shahp) that is like a quick thanks, and often doubled (e.g. “sharp sharp;” seems less common among white South Africans). Anyway, it took me a while to realize that they were three distinct words when I first arrived, since the pronunciation is similar.