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The Afrikaans word "kak" has an ancient and noble history, and derives from the Latin verb "cacare", which is used by both Horace and Catullus in their poetry. The verb means literally "to defecate" and was also heard frequently in ancient Rome in the third person singular "cacat" in exactly the same way we would today use the expression "shit". I do not know whether the Romans had any way of stating that "shit happens", considering that that word "cacat" means "he/she/it shits", and that "shit happens" would have to be rendered something like "faeces fierint". Interestingly enough, the English expression "crap" also has an ancient history. It derives from the Latin "crapularius", which means "to do with or in connection with drunkeness", i.e. one who is drunk is apt to say any old thing that springs to mind, generally then "talking shit".
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