And are you talking about an IOU or a pert young girl?

I’ve probably spent more than my fair share of time at various message boards and reading other people’s chat while they play games at pogo.com. I’m frequently baffled by the use of the word “chit.” Someone was just saying “Chit on this game.” Some guy at the Vine has said things like “What is the obsession with chit?” since he was talking to someone who was calling MrSpittle MrShittle I’m guessing he means chit to substitute for shit, which ties in nicely with the other ways I’ve seen it used.

Let me digress for a moment about the person who called MrSpittle names. How funny is that? To take a name as repulsive as MrSpittle and try to make it sound worse is quite the exercise in futility.

But anyway to get back to this chit thing, anyone who has read even one Regency romance knows that a chit is young girl who speaks up for herself and is perceived as sassy and pert. It’s also an IOU which is also known as your vowels as in Sinjun’s got St. Claire’s vowels and I declare if he doesn’t make them good he’ll have to take a tour of the continent.

So how does an interesting word become a synonym for shit? I guess someone who wasn’t much in the way of being imaginative decided to change one letter to make a word to get past the censors. But here is where I have another problem.

If shit and chit are not supposed to mean exactly the same thing why should chit be treated any differently? Why should it get past the censors? If there are rules against cursing then shouldn’t it be treated like a curse and be against the rules?

Plus who would want to use it like that? Certainly not me. If I want to say shit I will say it. I don’t get a weird little thrill by cheating the system. Because that is my final analysis. People use that word that way because they think they are getting away with something. Now if I could just decide if that is really sad or really funny. I’m hoping it’s funny.