A vulgar French word

[TheParser]

We English speakers have the vulgar word "sh*t."

The French equivalent starts with the letter "m."

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The French have a euphemism for their M-word.

It is "le mot de Cambronne" (the word of Cambronne).

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Pierre Cambronne was a French soldier at the Battle of Waterloo. When an enemy soldier told him to surrender, he supposedly used the M-word as his one-word reply.

Later he denied the truth of that story.

Nevertheless it has made its way into the French language.

Victor Hugo popularized "le mot de Cambronne" in Les Miserables.



Source: National Geographic History (January/February 2018).

 

[DGS49]

Origin of the word, "S. H. I. T."

British sources often transported bagged, dried manure to British outposts in the empire. Fertilizer.

But when it was stored in ships on the deck, it often got wet, and turned into a smelly, soggy, worthless mess. So these bundles came to be labeled "Stowe High In Transit.

Abbreviated, "SHIT."