Quoted from o-din:The truth is "crap" shouldn't be taken as an offensive word. I believe it evolved from the word "crapper" which was the last name of Thomas Crapper who was a good plumber and engineer in his day and started his own company that sold fine plumbing fixtures.
Funny you mention this...when I was maybe 10 or 11 back in the mid 80's I was playing trivial pursuit with my family and a question I got was who invented the flush comode? I didn't know the answer but i took a guess and said his name is Crapper....