A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

Recent entries:
“Shoutout to ATM fees for making me buy my own money” (3/27)
“Thank you, ATM fees, for allowing me to buy my own money” (3/27)
“Anyone else boil the kettle twice? Just in case the boiling water has gone cold…” (3/27)
“Shout out to ATM fees for making me buy my own money” (3/27)
20-20-20 Rule (for eyes) (3/27)
More new entries...

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z


Entry from February 22, 2013
Sugar Honey Iced Tea (“shit” backronym)

“Sugar honey ice(d) tea” is a backronym (back acronym) of the word “shit.” The “sugar honey ice tea” euphemism appears to have been cited in print since at least the 1970s. The Urban Dictionary made “Sugar Honey Iced Tea” its Urban Word of the Day for January 30, 2011.
 
“Sweet honey ice(d) tea” is a much less frequently used backronym for the same word.
   
 
Wiktionary: sugar honey ice tea
Etymology
Words chosen so that their initials, taken in order, spell out shit
Interjection
sugar honey ice tea!

1. (euphemistic) shit!
   
Google Books
Catalog of Copyright Entries
By Library of Congress. Copyright Office.
Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office
1970 (The Google Books date appears to be incorrect, but this appears to have been published in the 1970s—ed.)
Pg. 253:
Sugar, honey, ice tea. DU87523.
 
Google Books
Wicked Words:
A treasury of curses, insults, put-downs, and other formerly unprintable terms from Anglo-Saxon times to the present

By Hugh Rawson
New York, NY: Crown Publishers
1989
Pg. 351:
And if an angelic six-year-old asks, “Would you like to have some Sugar Honey Iced Tea?”, the safest course is to pretend that you have suddenly gone stone deaf.
 
Google Books
Straitjacket & Tie
By Eugene Stein
New York, NY: Ticknor & Fields
1994
Pg. 58:
“Sugar honey iced tea.”
“I never heard that before,” Bert said.
“Nowadays kids say ‘Snap.’ Have you heard that?”
   
Google Books
Between the Lies
By L. J. Harris
Printed by author
1996
Pg. 137:
Here was another Friday — it had been a week since what she would kindly refer to as “that sugar, honey, ice, tea” with Silvia had hit the fan.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Sugar honey ice tea Why you wanna flip on me ; If you walk away ... [etc.]
Author: Goodfellaz.; Polygram international.; Polygram. Division Polydor.; Polygram Records Inc.
Publisher: [S.l.] : Polygram international ; Antony : Distrib. Polygram. Division Polydor, 1997 (DL)
Edition/Format:   Music CD : CD audio : English
 
Urban Dictionary
sugar honey iced tea
January 30, 2011 Urban Word of the Day
Sugar - S
Honey - H
Iced - I
Tea - T
It means “SHIT”, you just say Sugar Honey Iced Tea when you can’t openly swear.
(...)
by K- K- KATIE! Aug 30, 2005

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityFood/Drink • Friday, February 22, 2013 • Permalink


Commenting is not available in this channel entry.