Talk:Shyster/Archives/2018

Etymology

To anyone speaking German, the etymology is obvious: Scheisser, German for someone who shits. Most likely taken up in English via Yiddish. Quote from the urban dictionary: "Shyster is derived from the German term scheisser, meaning literally “one who defecates,” from the verb scheissen, “to defecate,” with the English suffix -ster, “one who does,” substituted for the German suffix -er, meaning the same thing." Definitely should be on the main page. I can only guess that it has been removed by some over-sensitive old maiden. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.93.204.79 (talk) 18:00, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

The article says Scheißer (literally "shitter" but also used to refer to deceivers) That would be Bescheißer, not Scheißer (jemanden bescheißen = to cheat someone). I've never seen Scheißer used to mean deceiver. According to Duden Scheißer means "disgusting person; unworthy person; (affectionate term for) a toddler". Grimm offers a range of meanings including old man, coward and puppy, but nothing close to deceiver. Wiktionary translates it as fucker (I suppose in the sense of not fornicator but "undesirable person"), not deceiver.--176.4.87.176 (talk) 09:17, 20 July 2015 (UTC)

Duden lists "Scheißer" as "unpleasant", "disgusting", or "worthless" person. This article from 2013 cites "newspaper articles in 1843 about the Tombs, the city prison. Editor Mike Walsh denounced scammers who took prisoners' money by pretending to be lawyers who would get them out. One of the scammers who actually knew something about the law disparaged his rivals by calling them shisers, British criminal slang for worthless people. (It comes ultimately from the German word for excrement.) Walsh misheard it as shiseters, and a new word was born." I'm going to include this in the body of the article.-Ich (talk) 14:16, 17 January 2018 (UTC)