Letter: Stick in the mud

From Carl Zetie

Your correspondents Steve Champion and Carol Primrose offer differing explanations for the origin of the term “wrong end of the stick” (12 February, p 27). I believe that both are correct, and that the modern term is a linguistic superposition of two distinct expressions.

Growing up, I was familiar with the term “the shitty end of the stick”, meaning to get the worst part of a division of labour. This is certainly consistent with Champion’s explanation, that the expression comes from a stick used to stir a dung pile. This phrase was generally euphemised to “the wrong end” in the presence of children.

Quite separate is the term “getting the wrong end of the stick”, used when somebody has a confused misunderstanding of circumstances. This meaning would be consistent with Primrose’s family etymology about typesetting.

Of course, either situation would be preferable to a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Waterford, Virginia, US