Now that's interesting: Growing up in the northeast US, Bullshit is a lie perpetrated to sell someone on something against their better interest, and Chickenshit is petty cowardice.
Patrick King
--- On Sat, 8/22/09, Joy Matkowski <jmatkowski1@comcast.net> wrote:
> From: Joy Matkowski <jmatkowski1@comcast.net>
> Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Chickenfat? Elmore Leonard
> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Saturday, August 22, 2009, 1:59 PM
> I just read three (!) Elmore Leonards
> and didn't encounter the term
> anywhere that I remember. It should have stuck out, because
> it isn't
> familiar to me either.
> I wonder if it's related to "chickenshit,"
> which is the term I grew
> up with rather than "bullshit." It means nothing important,
> just an
> annoying bit of nonsense that has to be taken care of,
> typically because
> someone with power over you demands it, like your boss's
> insistence on a
> weekly report that nobody, including your boss, reads or
> pays attention
> to. And to teenagers, at least then, most of life seemed to
> be dealing
> with chickenshit from parents, teachers, etc. I almost
> never come across
> this term in print, so it must have been local, like
> "gallivanting around."
>
> Joy
>
> funkmasterj@runbox.com
> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I just read Elmore Leonard's City Primeval and Gold
> Coast in his collection Double Dutch Treat (I've previously
> mentioned that I read Moonshine War a while ago). In
> both novels, he uses the slang term chickenfat as an
> insult. I've never encountered that outside of these 2
> novels, was this in use or something Leonard made up or
> what?
> >
> > I did enjoy both novels.
> >
> > Jordan
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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