From: "Ken Wolman" <[log in to unmask]>
> Reading it over, this is absolute shite (as it's spelled in the UK).
Ignore.
>
> ken
Actually, the distinction between "shit" and "shite" is more than simply
orthographic.
It parallels but isn't identical to the USAmerican use of "ass" versus the
UK use of "arse".
In both cases, the terms have a large common area (think Venn diagrams), but
equally both can both be used by native-language speakers distinctly in
different contexts.
At the moment, the only example I can think of to make the distinction is
that whereas it's possible to say, "You utter shit-head", you *can't* say
"You utter shite-head".
{Not thinking of you, Ken -- simply this was the first boundary-locution
that came to my mind.
<g> }
A quick and dirty (but wrong -- as with "ass" and "arse") distinction would
have it that "shit" is USAmerican, "shite" UK.
But honest, it's *lots* more complicated than that.
Robin
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