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From: hopp@nbs-amrf.UUCP (Ted Hopp)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: About that house in the Netherlands
Message-ID: <82@nbs-amrf.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 29-Nov-85 17:36:42 EST
Article-I.D.: nbs-amrf.82
Posted: Fri Nov 29 17:36:42 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 1-Dec-85 03:26:32 EST
References: <521@klipper.UUCP> <76@nbs-amrf.UUCP> <522@cheviot.uucp>
Organization: National Bureau of Standards
Lines: 35
Keywords: crap

> >> 	a) What does the word "crap" mean?
> >> 							  Biep.
> >
> >a) The word "crap" literally means "trash".  It has the additional
> >   connotation of excrement or something equally unappealing.
> >
> >Ted Hopp
> 
> I believe the word 'crap' comes from a certain Thomas Crapper, who invented
> (or was it Patented?) the modern toilet bowl. :-)
> 
> Rick (E.R.G) Brooker

The following is from "A Browser's Dictionary" by John Ciardi (Harper & Row,
New York, 1980):

    crap (1) n. 1. Excrement. 2. Nonsense. -- v. To defecate.  Also
    _take a crap._ -- exclam.  Expresses disgust, revulsion, vexation.
    _crapper_ A toilet seat.  A toilet.  [The story of Sir Thomas
    Crapper, who was knighted for inventing the flush toilet, is a
    hoax. <ME _crappe_, rubbish, stuff left over, stuff thrown out of.
    <MD _*crappen_, to tear away from.]

Apparently there is a stronger relationship of crap to excrement than
connotation.

Considering that the etymology of crap goes back to Middle Dutch, I find
it interesting that Biep, who was posting from the Netherlands, didn't
know what it meant.  Apparently, _crappen_ did not take on the meaning in
Dutch that it acquired in going through Middle English.  Is there a Dutch
equivalent to the modern English "crap" that has its root in _crappen_?

-- 

Ted Hopp	{seismo,umcp-cs}!nbs-amrf!hopp