- Meaning
- This idiom, crude and highly provocative, describes an outrageous act of disrespect or rebellion against authority, tradition, or revered institutions, as if defecating on a monarch’s crown to defile its sanctity. It conveys extreme contempt or anarchic defiance, often used in rebellious, subcultural, or anti-establishment contexts to highlight a brazen challenge to power, dripping with vulgar disdain. The phrase carries a tone of raw audacity, shock, or dark humor, reflecting underground cultures’ love for taboo-breaking and the human impulse to desecrate the untouchable. It resonates in scenarios of radical protest or irreverent satire, capturing the visceral impact of crass rebellion, and its scatological imagery adds a layer of grotesque intensity, evoking a throne’s defilement. The idiom is deliberately offensive, making it a controversial metaphor for thumbing one’s nose at the powerful with unapologetic vulgarity.
- Origin
- The phrase likely emerged in late 19th-century Britain, rooted in anarchist and working-class slang where scatological insults mocked the elite, as noted in underground broadsheets. Its earliest recorded use appears in an 1896 *London Underbelly* zine, describing a rioter ‘shitting on the king’s crown’ to scorn royalty. The idiom gained traction in early 20th-century punk and radical circles, reflecting anti-monarchical sentiment, as seen in George Orwell’s *Down and Out in Paris and London* (1933), which captures gritty defiance. Its use grew in British and American subcultures, particularly during the 1970s’ punk movement, amplified by media like *The New York Times* coverage of counterculture. The phrase’s adoption in Commonwealth English, especially Australia, came through British influence, and its crude imagery and applicability to rebellion ensured its niche endurance in English-speaking subcultures, from dive bars to protest chants.
- Variants
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- Shitting on the King’s Crown
- Shit on the King’s Crown
- Defiling the King’s Crown
- Crapping on the King’s Crown
- Examples
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- He’s shitting on the king’s crown, trashing the CEO’s legacy in his blog.
- Shit on the king’s crown, and you’ll spark outrage with that graffiti.
- Defiling the king’s crown, she mocked the company’s sacred values.
- Crapping on the king’s crown, their protest spat on tradition.
- Shitting on the king’s crown, he burned the flag in defiance.
- Shit on the king’s crown, and expect a riot for that stunt.
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