屎 (shǐ): excrement

Measure Word

一坨屎 tuó

Meanings

1 excrement
2 poop
3 crap

Characters

屎

shǐ

excrement; poop

Examples

HSK 1

这个东西是什么屎？

Zhège dōngxi shì shénme shǐ?

What kind of crap is this?

HSK 2

小心，地上有狗屎。

Xiǎoxīn, dìshang yǒu gǒu shǐ.

Be careful, there's dog poop on the ground.

HSK 7-9

他吓得屁滚尿流。

Tā xià de pìgǔn-niàoliú.

He was scared shitless.

Tips

usage

屎 is vulgar but common in daily speech. Used in many colorful expressions: 狗屎 (dog crap / nonsense), 放屁 is related but uses a different character. 屎 is also used figuratively to mean something terrible.

memory

The top part 尸 means 'corpse/body' and the bottom 米 means 'rice' - what comes out of the body after eating rice.

Components

radical

尸 shī

corpse; body

Top-left wrapping body radical (Kangxi #44) - depicts a seated or reclining body. Anchors a family of bodily-output characters where the body produces something underneath: 屎 (excrement), 尿 (urine), 屁 (fart) - the body radical above, the substance below. Pedagogically transparent, if earthy.

semantic

米 mǐ

rice; grain

Inner rice - depicts grains scattered around a central cross. Paired with the body-shape above, the picture reads as 'rice from the body' = digested grain = excrement. A blunt and very old pictographic compound (会意字). The whole char is indexed under Kangxi #44 尸 (shī, corpse) - the bent-body radical wrapping above.