The word crap is actually of Middle English origin and predates its application to bodily waste. Its most likely etymological origin is a combination of two older words: the Dutch krappen (to pluck off, cut off, or separate) and the Old French crappe (siftings, waste or rejected matter, from the medieval Latin crappa). In English, it was used to refer to chaff and also to weeds or other rubbish. Its first recorded application to bodily waste, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, appeared in 1846, 10 years after Crapper was born, under a reference to a crapping ken, or a privy, where ken means a house.
13 Comments
smeg@feddit.uk · 16 pts · 83d
This man was fated to give a crap
dohpaz42@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 83d
I read that in the tone and voice of the narrator from the History of the F Word.
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 83d
So then is crap named after this guy or not?
smeg@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 83d
Not unless he did all his inventing by age ten, no
khannie@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 83d
Nope. That's the cool part.
Codpiece@feddit.uk · 9 pts · 83d
Bit harsh calling him a ballcock mate.
Addv4@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 83d
raman_klogius@ani.social · 7 pts · 83d
I'm a grown man..... I'm a grown man.....
cmbabul@slrpnk.net · 5 pts · 83d
I’m not certain my dad was aware he was not making a joke for all those years
Texas_Hangover@lemmy.radio · 4 pts · 83d
Excuse me, it's pronounced "Crapier." 😤
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 83d
The... ballcock?
Oh, it's a float valve.
joe@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 81d
British people will call anything a cock...
khannie@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 83d
Never heard it called that before but it sounds like the same thing... The big ball in the cistern that stops the water flow.