Manure

[Rick]

Manure... An interesting fact

Manure: In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before commercial fertilizer's invention, so large shipments of manure were common.

It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, it not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by product is methane gas. As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen.

Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM!

Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just what was happening

After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term "Ship High In Transit" on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.

Thus evolved the term " S.H.I.T " , (Ship High In Transport) which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day.
You probably did not know the true history of this word.
Neither did I.

[BadMojo]

LOL... what a way to go... Get blown up by a pile of shit. ;D





BadMojo added to this post, 674 minutes and 1 seconds later...

Actually the story is wrong :(


The etymology of "Shit"
The word shit entered modern English language derived from the Old English nouns scite and the Middle Low German schite, both meaning "dung," and the Old English noun scitte, meaning "diarrhea." Our most treasured cuss word has been with us a long time, showing up in written works both as a noun and as a verb as far back as the 14th century.

Scite can trace its roots back to the proto-Germanic root skit-, which brought us the German scheisse, Dutch schijten, Swedish skita, and Danish skide. Skit- comes from the Indo-European root skheid- for "split, divide, separate," thus shit is distantly related to schism and schist. (If you're wondering what a verb root for the act of separating one thing from another would have to do with excrement, it was in the sense of the body's eliminating its waste — "separating" from it, so to speak. Sort of the opposite of today's "getting one's shit together.")





BadMojo added to this post, 33 minutes and 20 seconds later...

Btw. Skittles anyone?

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[rwyatt365]

BadMojo, your efforts are appreciated, but I like Rick's history better - I think I'll use it from now on and begin (or continue) an urban legend! ;D

[Rick]

Thanks for the research, BadMojo. I really had to wonder about the explanation I found, but it made for a good story.

[Pinkie]

BadMojo - I'm glad you said it. I read it yesterday and thought, That's wrong, it's from German, but wimped out of saying anything.

And INTJs are meant to be bluntly honest!

Sorry :(

[narutofanninja]

Rick, you sir are my hero.
Now I can past this on to my kids and let them know how the term shit was created.

[ElstonGunn]

If a speaker of Old English were brought to the present day, he'd mostly be at a linguistic loss. However, he would have no problem with several words used in modern English, such as "shit," "piss," "tits," "cunt," "fart," and "arse." Some things never change.

Other things do change. London used to have a street that prostitutes congregated on, and until the 18th century, its name was Gropencuntlane. And also, in the 16th century, for some reason that I can't understand, "zooterkins" was a pretty taboo word.

[Rick]

I read once that the origin of many of these words were related to a change in culture in England. We had to learn to defecate, urinate, and copulate instead of the four letter word varieties. Perhaps the four letter varieties became what the peasants used.

By the way, I say "Hi fellas' pretty often. Felahs (sp?) is an old word that means 'peasants'.