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hit the fan. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
hit the fan, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
hit the fan in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
hit the fan you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
Uncertain. Possibly derived from an old joke:
A man in a crowded bar needed to defecate but couldn't find a bathroom, so he went upstairs and used a hole in the floor. Returning, he found everyone had gone except the bartender, who was cowering behind the bar. When the man asked what had happened, the bartender replied, 'Where were you when the shit hit the fan?'[1]
Other possible sources include American/Canadian military slang or agricultural manure spreaders.[2]
Pronunciation
Verb
hit the fan (third-person singular simple present hits the fan, present participle hitting the fan, simple past and past participle hit the fan)
- (idiomatic, intransitive) To have a dramatic, usually negative, effect.
They were just clowning around, when suddenly it all hit the fan.
Then the shit really hit the fan.
2004 December 2, Neil Cavuto, “Interview With Jeff Flake”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):Let me ask you, Congressman, the case of a lot of these corporate scandals, I followed enough of them to know how -- how it works out. Once everything starts hitting the fan, the CEO, the chairman or maybe a large share of the board of directors simply leaves, resigns
Usage notes
- Usually in the phrase (when the) shit hits the fan. Use with other subjects than shit is probably intended to evoke the image without actually saying the word which is taboo in some contexts.
References
- ^ Hugh Rawson, "Wicked Words," 1989 in Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “shit”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ Patridge, Eric (1986) A Dictionary of Catch Phrases: British and American, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day, Routledge