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.
Transcript of “South African “Shot” Slang”
Hi, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Corey calling from Newark, Ohio.
Hi, Corey. Welcome.
What can we do for you?
Hi. So I’ve got a question about a word that I heard in South Africa.
Long story short, my wife and I adopted our son the beginning of this year, and he’s from Johannesburg, South Africa, and we were there for about six weeks.
And obviously, you know, with them speaking English, there were some interesting words that were being used, and one that we just couldn’t quite get to the bottom of the meaning of was shot, like S-H-O-T.
Obviously a word that we use in American English also, but certainly not in the same way.
I just didn’t know if you guys had any background on that.
How was it used?
How did this come up? How did shot come up?
Shot was kind of like a southern bless your heart a little bit, kind of like, oh, that’s so sweet, that kind of thing.
But more like empathetic, like, oh, sure.
Actually, we thought that they were saying sure for the longest time, but then as time went on and we were there for so long, we actually asked somebody who we were spending some time with while we were there, like, what are you saying?
Like, what is that word?
Like, write it down, and sure enough, shot. S-H-O-T.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
That’s super cool.
There are a variety of uses of shot that this brings to mind, but I don’t know this exact expression.
In Australia, they might say that’s the shot to mean well done or approval for something that’s happened.
There’s a general use of shot in South Africa, at least according to my slang dictionaries, to show approval or express agreement.
There’s also outside of North American English, mostly in the UK and Australia and South Africa, you get a shot that refers to, they say, oh, shot. S-H-O-T.
And you use it in sports when someone has done something particularly well, like a good hit or strike or whatever, a goal, that sort of thing.
Interesting.
And there’s one particular usage in boxing, I guess you’d say, when they deliver an effective punch.
You know, a shot as a punch is fairly standard English.
But they say, oh, shot. They don’t say that was a good shot.
It’s just like you blurt the word out.
You know, you just say shot.
And so I’m wondering if you said this bless your heart thing, and for the listeners who aren’t clued into that, you have the positive bless your heart where you generally mean bless her heart.
You know, she deserves love and affection.
And you have the kind of negative one where somebody does something really daffy or dim-witted and you say bless your heart, basically saying the unspoken part is bless your heart.
They can’t help it.
Right, right.
Well, we do have a lot of listeners of South African heritage.
Absolutely.
It’s your time to stand up, everyone, from South Africa and be heard and tell us a little bit about this particular use of shot.
Corey, thank you very much.
We really appreciate your call, and we’ll let you know what we come up with.
All right.
Of course.
Thank you so much.
Take care.
Bye.
Thanks, Corey.
Bye-bye.
So, South Africans, tell us about that use of the word shot.
Is it kind of approval or disapproval?
Is it an expression of regret or sympathy?
What is happening with that, and where do you think it comes from?
777-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.
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.