I curate a newsletter that keeps up to date (or at least attempts to keep up to date) with Gen Z and Gen Alpha slang, and “type shit”, also spelled as “type s”, “type shi” or “type shiii”, threw me for a loop when I found it on this teacher’s ban list.
Apparently, the young-uns are saying it to affirm whatever was said before. Here’s an example given by a Reddit user:
“I can DM you”
“type shit”
Here’s an example from Urban Dictionary:
Guy: Shawty where you from?
Girl: Venezuela
Guy: Ohhh, type shit
After a lot of puzzling, watching TikToks and reading Reddit threads, my hypothesis is that it is short for “that’s the type of shit I’m talking about”. I have not been able to find any actual evidence for this, but I do think it fits well with the meaning, and it makes sense.
(Of course, “type shit” can also mean “that kind of stuff”, as in “that’s some Stanger Things-type shit”. This is not the meaning we are discussing here.)
Here’s a TikTok video showing how versatile the phrase apparently is
And here’s a TikTok with someone saying the phrase originated in Memphis in 2013 (unconfirmed, obviously)
I use Urban Dictionary to date slang (not perfect, but at least something), and the oldest entry for Type Shit used in this way on Urban Dictionary is from 2019.
Heddwen Newton is an English teacher and translator. She is fascinated by contemporary English and the way English changes. Her newsletter is English in Progress. 1900 subscribers and growing every day!
We (Black and Browns of a certain class) were using the original form in the Bronx of the 70s, so it had to be at least a decade old by then.