Where did the word "crap" come from?

[Lionel Mandrake]

Once there was a plumber named Thomas Crapper, who claimed to have invented a better way to deal with human excrement. Mr. Crapper was proud of his invention and published advertisements like this one:



After a while "crapper" became a synonym for "toilet", and "crap" became the word we are all familiar with.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. that is crap-tastic, Lionel!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Actually, that's not the real origin of the word:

It has often been claimed in popular culture that the slang term for human bodily waste, "crap", originated with Thomas Crapper because of his association with lavatories. The most common version of this story is that American servicemen stationed in England during World War I saw his name on cisterns and used it as army slang, i.e. "I'm going to the crapper".

The word crap is actually of Middle English origin; and hence predates its application to bodily waste. Its first application to bodily waste, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, appeared in 1846 under a reference to a crapping ken, or a privy, where ken means a house.

Its most likely etymological origin is a combination of two older words, the Dutch krappen: to pluck off, cut off, or separate; and the Old French crappe: siftings, waste or rejected matter (from the medieval Latin crappa, chaff).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapper

[rurallib]

5. Ergo: Crapper derived his name from crap and not vice-versa

probably made him feel crappy.

[Lionel Mandrake]

6. I know the word is older than the man,

but I suspect that the widespread use of the word "crap" really comes from the Crapper family and their advertisements.

The earliest usage of any word in English (as described by the OED) isn't necessarily the source of its modern usage.

[LiberalEsto]

3. Dunno, but if you're happy and you know it,

From engrish.com

[bluesbassman]

4. Shouldn't that tag line be "Make a mess!"?

[madinmaryland]

7. THANKS!! Now I need to take a crap...