Shinolan.
/ʃʌɪˈnəʊlə/, U.S. /ˌʃaɪˈnoʊlə/ U.S.
1. A brand of shoe polish.A proprietary name in the United States.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > cleaning > cleaning shoes > [noun] > preparation for
blacking1598
blacking ball1740
boot-blacking1866
Shinola1902
nugget1903
1902 Sunday Leader (Eau Claire, Wisconsin) 2 Mar. 8/1 (advt.) Shinola..not a liquid..requires no moistening.
1903 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 8 Sept. 537/1 Shinola. The word ‘Shinola’. Used since January 1, 1900.
1939 Life 20 Nov. 98 (advt.) You'll love the way Shinola gives quick easy shines.
1980 G. Tibbles Never get Smart with Angel i. 23 We're over a shoe store!..The place reeks of leather and Shinola.
1987 Christian Sci. Monitor 14 Aug. 21/3 A squib of Vaseline from the visor, a smear of Shinola from a shoe can put demons into a well-thrown baseball.
2008 Washington Times (Nexis) 3 June a8 Older readers of this column..will tell you that Shinola was a popular brand of shoe polish during the previous century.
2. colloquial.
a. Used as a euphemism for shit n. and adj., in various (esp. figurative) senses and phrases.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > organs of excretion > excretions > faeces > [noun]
gorec725
mixeOE
quedeeOE
turdeOE
dungOE
worthinga1225
dirta1300
drega1300
naturea1325
fen1340
ordurec1390
fimea1475
merd1486
stercory1496
avoidc1503
siegec1530
fex1540
excrement1541
hinder-fallings1561
gong1562
foil1565
voiding1577
pilgrim-salvec1580
egestion1583
shita1585
sir-reverence1592
purgament1597
filinga1622
faecesa1625
exclusion1646
faecality1653
tantadlin1654
surreverence1655
draught1659
excrementitiousness1660
jakes1701
old golda1704
dejection1728
dejecture1731
shitea1733
feculence1733
doll1825
crap1846
excreta1857
excretes1883
hockey1886
dejecta1887
job1899
number two1902
mess1903
ming1923
do1930
tomtit1930
pony1931
No. 21937
dog shit1944
Shinola1944
big job1945
biggie1953
doo-doo1954
doings1957
gick1959
pooh1960
pooh-pooh1962
dooky1965
poopy1970
whoopsie1973
pucky1980
jobbie1981
1944 Let. 8 May in W. S. Tsuchida Wear it Proudly (1947) 47 Every time a vehicle no matter how small, or a train (even one box car) would appear in this town, sure as shinola a P-47 would pop up to strafe the hell out of it.
1951 H. Wouk Caine Mutiny (1952) i. i. 7 Well, fellas, looks like we're in for a lot of Shinola, don' it?
1978 Washington Post 29 Dec. a17/3 Outside of gloves, and maybe cameras, I don't know shinola about garments or any of that technical stuff.
1989 Boston Globe 5 Oct. 49/1 Pinhead Ivy League professors who impress the Shinola out of the brightest little boy from Brookline High.
1998 Wired July 56/2 Last year, it was titanium. This year, magnesium is the latest marketing shinola. But it's not all hype.
2007 Santa Fe New Mexican 22 Mar. (Drive section) 12/1 Danny, this is one of those situations where you're the parent, she's the child, and what she wants is tough Shinola.
b. not to know shit from Shinola and variants: to be stupid or ignorant. not to know (something) from Shinola: to be ignorant of (something).Also with elision of shit in not to know from Shinola (about something).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > want of knowledge, ignorance > be ignorant [phrase] > know nothing
to say (also know) neither buff nor stye?a1750
to know little (or nothing) and care less1783
not to know beans1833
not to have the remotest1864
(not) to know from nothing1933
not to know shit from Shinolaa1948
society > morality > virtue > purity > innocence > be innocent [verb (intransitive)] > be innocent or ignorant
not to know shit from Shinolaa1948
1947 H. A. Smith Lo Former Egyptian vi. 71 It took a long time to bounce them [sc. Native Americans] out of the state, but the white settlers who swarmed in..managed to do it by giving them whisky until they were unable to distinguish between sheep droppings and Shinola.]
a1948 in G. Legman New Limerick (1977) viii. 272 There was an old man from Arcola Who didn't know shit from Shinola.
1949 J. Street & J. Childers Tomorrow we Reap xii. 215 And that upstart who comes in here calling himself a drummer!.. Don't know a shirt from Shinola.
1957 J. Lake & H. Giblo Footlights, Fistfights & Femmes 69 In the beginning, Marcus Loew didn't know show business from Shinola. I became his first adviser.
1958 J. Langdon S. S. Silverspray ii. v. 70 Listen, you loudmouth crap-for-brains... Right now you don't know from Shinola!
1973 J. Ludwig Woman her Age iv. 81 Moolie the foreman, who can't tell shit from shinola.
1987 Fortune 13 Apr. 87/1 We'll package them together for people who don't know s— from Shinola.
1992 J. Dunning Booked to Die 64 I'd probably just get in your way. I don't know from Shinola about this stuff.
1995 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 13 July 45/4 He doesn't know plot from shinola and his timing is off.
2000 JazzTimes Mar. 118/3 These morons that..don't even know where Phil Glass goes. I mean, they don't know shit about Shinola and they're working at record stores.
2007 Riverfront Times (St. Louis, Missouri) (Nexis) 31 Jan. There's a stigma about the Midwest, that we're a bunch of podunk hick people who don't know shit from Shinola.
c. neither shit nor Shinola: neither one thing or the other. rare.
ΚΠ
1975 J. Goulet Human Ape (1977) xxv. 146 You're neither shit nor Shinola, as they say... You're not a gorilla and you aren't human.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1902