Why is the word "bullshit" used to describe a lie or some other form of unbelieveable information?

Question

Why the word BULLSHIT? Why not SLOTHSHIT or CHICKENPOO or COWDUNG? Seriously.

Answer 1

i hate wikkipedia, but considering the light nature of the question i will suggest reading this article... it really explains way more than i ever wanted to know about the word...

bull=non-sense

Answer 2

OMG Wikipedia has it listed:
Bullshit (often abbreviated to BS) is a common expletive. Its meanings include unacceptable behaviour or ludicrously false representations. In a literal meaning, it means the excretion of feces from a bull. As with many expletives, it can be used as an interjection (or in many other parts of speech) and can carry a wide variety of meanings.

As it contains the word "sh*t", the term is sometimes considered foul language, hence the use of the euphemistic abbreviations "bull" and "BS". However the term is prevalent in American English and, as with many words, the term is used in a variety countries, some dating back to approximately the same era WWI.
Etymology
"Bull", meaning nonsense, dates from the 17th century (Concise Oxford Dictionary), whereas the term "bullshit" was first used in 1915, in American slang, and came into popular usage only during World War II. The word "bull" itself may have derived from the Old French boul meaning "fraud, deceit"

There again chickenpoo would have quite the same meaning would it? I could probably put some feeling into Cowdung however!
Hope that helps.

Answer 3

first of all it's slang.
I've heard people say they got information from the horses mouth not the horses butt. so bullshit is along the same lines.

and seriously you could use your own suggestions if you think they'd catch on. how do you think bullshit got started?

Answer 4

I started it when during my idle time at a plastic moulding factory, I moulded a rounded thing and when it cools down I was aghast to see that it sure looks like a sht. I painted my plastic moulded thing and was surprised more to find the semblance of a bull's sht.
It was so horrible that my co-workers got a quick jump over my bullshit thing. I said "that bullshit is not real.".

Answer 5

I'm not sure. It would probably be in the Oxford dictionary, though. That's a really good question, and probably something that will drive me insane for days to come! lol

Answer 6

You can also use hogwash.