instruction:
Generate the answer for a given question. The question requires common knowledge of English. Make sure that the answer is in detail, long, consistent with the context, and requires general knowledge of English. To be less repetitive, please vary your language for each question. Give a proper explanation to answer, and if necessary, provide the definition of various terms. And conclude your answer if it's long. If you have used other resources (e.g., Merriam Webster's.) to answer the question, include citations in your answer. You don't need to paraphrase the context of your resources, but make sure that your answer is consistent and complete.
question:
What is the etymology of shithole? Did it originate from A) the orifice through which excrement is passed, or B) the hole in the ground intended for the disposal of such excrement? (This is a serious question for professional research. You don't want to know the details.).
answer:
The OED's earliest citation for shithole is from the seventeenth century, and it's given as 'coarse slang' for 'the rectum or anus'. The earliest citation for shithole meaning 'a toilet; a latrine' is only from 1947.


question:
For example, we agreed with a friend to meet in a week, and the day before the meeting I want to make sure nothing has changed about the agreement. So I'd come up with something like Are we still meeting tomorrow? Is there a better (shorter) way to say/ask this?.
answer:
Your phrase is perfectly expectable. The only obvious shortening would be: Are we still on? You could shorten it further to: We still on? But at some point you aren't really gaining anything. Other alternatives: Are we still on for tomorrow? You still up for lunch tomorrow? We still good for lunch? Is tomorrow still good? And so on. Most of these, by the way, are extremely informal and are primarily heard in purely conversational English.


question:
Possible Duplicate: What is the correct possessive for nouns ending in s? Before you vote to close as a duplicate, note that these two questions deal with similar issues to this, but none of them address all three criteria of this question: The singular already ends with an s. I am dealing with multiple of the thing. I want the possessive of all of them in general. The singular is class, and the plural is classes. The singular possessive is class's (as addressed here). What is the plural possessive? Is it classes's, or classes'?.
answer:

It is classes', which sounds the same as the singular class's. I would have thought this was a general rule for plural nouns ending -s', -es' or -ies'.