You wrote:

"you could probably not find anywhere that speaks English where the term "shithead" would be taken as a compliment."



I'll grant you that, although these days, who knows for sure. I mean, I see tattooed ladies every day, and people with rings in their noses. I read recently that some Russian youth call themselves scumbags, which is podonok or something like that, in Russian.

So while we agree that almost nobody would consider the term a complement, i.e. what it is not,we might run into a little more difficulty when we try to describe what exactly a shitheadis.

~

I also wanted to note that, while some words themselves may lack precision, precise use of words and language is indeed possible. It is an art, and it takes effort.

I say this to augment my comments in this thread about ambiguities which might be read to imply that clear, precise language is not possible.

It is, but I doubt we would be able to define shithead precisely, beyond saying that it is a vulger synonym for jerk.

sp