bits

Every meaning of bit takes the same regular plural, made simply by adding -s: the mouthpieces of a bridle, the cutting heads fitted to a drill or router, and the old coins once reckoned in eighths of a dollar. What sets this form apart on the page is that it has a singular behind it. The slang for genitals and the London word for one's patch exist only as bits.

The word lets a speaker mention the genitals without quite naming them. That is why it suits a joke, an awkward moment of undressing someone, or a poem about a dog cleaning herself. It has no singular. A related phrase, doing bits, means getting intimate. Alaina Demopoulos, writing in 2023 about young Americans adopting fake British accents, finds it among the "cute little sayings" picked up from a show.

This sense comes from Multicultural London English, and rappers such as Yungen, Avelino and Jaekae carry it: "the youts in my bits," "you're in my bits." It nearly always takes a possessive, usually after in, and it is never singular. Ends and manor cover the same ground. The preposition keeps it apart from the slang for genitals: a neighborhood is somewhere you are in.