shithead

English

Alternative forms

• shathead, shitehead
• s**thead (censored)
• shith**d (incorrectly censored)

Etymology

From shit +‎ head, dysphemistically modeled after dickhead.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɪt.hɛd/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

shithead (countable and uncountable, plural shitheads)

1. (countable, derogatory, slang, vulgar) A stupid or contemptible person.

   Unfortunately Todd is a dummy, but what's worse is that Harvey is a shithead.

   • 2010, Jennifer Egan, “Ask Me if I Care”, in A Visit from the Goon Squad:

     He goes, The world is full of shitheads, Rhea. Don't listen to them—listen to me. And I know that Lou is one of those shitheads. But I listen.

2. (uncountable, vulgar, card games) A card game, the aim of which is to lose one's cards.
3. (countable, slang, vulgar) A person who uses the drug cannabis.
   • 2019, Thomas Harper, Incarnate: Essence, page 310:

     Reynolds tensed his jaw, “we have a lot less shitheads in the LoC than they do over here. You wanna know why? Cuz it's all legal. We got farmers growin' marijuana. Poppies. Coca. Instead of shitheads we got cokeheads and dope heads. […]

Related terms

• shitbag

Translations

stupid or contemptible person

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 腦殘／脑残 (zh) (nǎocán), 傻屄 (zh) (shǎbī)

• Danish: skiderik c
• Egyptian: (mḥsḥs)
• Esperanto: fekulo (eo)
• Finnish: paskapää (fi), paskiainen (fi)
• French: enfoiré (fr) m, enculé (fr) m, merdeux (fr) m
• German: Scheißkopf m, Arschloch (de) n, Arsch (de) m, Scheißkerl (de) m, Scheißer (de) m
• Indonesian: bedebah (id), brengsek (id), keparat (id)
• Italian: testa di merda, testa di cazzo f
• Japanese: 糞垂れ (kusotare, kusottare)
• Macedonian: гомнар m (gomnar)
• Polish: gówniarz (pl) m, gówniara (pl) f
• Portuguese: cabeça de merda m or f
• Russian: говню́к (ru) m (govnjúk), хуйло́ (ru) n (xujló), муда́к (ru) m (mudák), уёбок (ru) m (ujóbok), уёбище n (ujóbišče), долбоёб m (dolbojób)
• Spanish: cagón (es) m, cabeza de mierda m or f
• Swedish: skitskalle (sv) c

card game

• Finnish: china hand
• French: kilo de merde (fr) m, paquet de merde m, tas de merde m (Switzerland)
• German: Arschlöcheln n (Switzterland)

  Alemannic German: Arschlöchle n

• Swedish: vändtia (sv) c

See also

• shitheaded

References

• (cannabis user): Tony Thorne (2014) “shithead”, in Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, 4th edition, London,  […]: Bloomsbury

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “shithead n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang