Getting shafted

[snopes]

Comment: When I visited New Orleans last year, someone said something about the
expression, "he got the shaft" coming from the old cemetaries in New
Orleans.

I think he said something about people used to put bodies in those big
tombs and each time they would open up the top part of the tomb and drop
in the new body on the top of the others. I cannot remember if the upper
body was 'shafted' or if it was a lower body.

[Altered Statesman]

It's very complicated, and no one understands it but his woman.

[Eddylizard]

I was always led the believe it is an extension of the term "to shaft (someone)" being a euphamism for sexual intercourse.

[Altered Statesman]

That's what I always thought.

Or it's an old mining term from the goldrush days when people used to fall down shaft's all the time (as was the fashion of the day). "Have you seen Johnny, cobber?" says Rob, "No I heard he got shafted" said Dave.

[Ana Ng]

I always pictured chucking someone down a laundry or garbage chute.

[Johnny Slick]

I always pictured someone getting it on with a washing machine. That isn't true.

I'm going with Eddy because it's freaking obvious.

[SatansHobbit]

Who's the black private dick
That's a sex machine to all the chicks?
(Corpora Cavernosa!)
You're damn right

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by snopes

I cannot remember if the upper
body was 'shafted' or if it was a lower body.

I take it the commenter hasn't got any biological children of their own.

[RealityChuck]

The OED dates it from 1959 in the US:

Originally Posted by OED

1959 Amer. Speech XXXIV. 155 A girl or boy who makes a play for another's date is snaking... If he succeeds, the loser gets the shaft (sometimes with barbs), the purple shaft, or the maroon harpoon, depending upon the degree of injury to his pride. 1960 WENTWORTH & FLEXNER Dict. Amer. Slang 461/1 Shaft.., an act or an instance of being taken advantage of, unfairly treated, deceived, tricked, cheated, or victimized; a raw deal. Usu. in ‘to get the (or a) shaft’. Fig., the image is the taboo one of the final insult, having someone insert something, as a barbed shaft, up one's rectum.

[Johnny Slick]

Is it just me, or do the English have a bit of a preoccupation with things being shoved up or slapped against rear ends? I mean, so does America, but it's a bit more sporting on this side of the ocean.

[Ana Ng]

Originally Posted by Johnny Slick

Is it just me, or do the English have a bit of a preoccupation with things being shoved up or slapped against rear ends? I mean, so does America, but it's a bit more sporting on this side of the ocean.

I second this.