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 byproduct 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.

I had always thought it was a golf term. I'll bet Don Mason knew what it meant! His back yard is a golf course.

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Hmmmmmmmm, I always thought that was the correct response when someone else yelled "BINGO" !

This is good to know. Bits of info like this always come in handy.

Salud,

Joe

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Songman55
Joe Ayala

Another opinion .....

[Collected on the Internet, 1999]

In the 1800's, cow pie's were collected on the prairie and boxed and loaded on steam ships to burn instead of wood. Wood was not only hard to find, but heavy to move around and store.

When the boxes of cow pie's were in the sun for days on board the ships, they would smell bad. So when the manure was boxed up, they stamped the outside of the box, S.H.I.T. . . which means Ship High In Transit.

When people came aboard the ship and said,"Oh what is that smell!" They were told it was shit.

That is where the saying came from . . . It smells like shit! :-)


Origins: This sorry piece of codswallop about exploding ships appears to have begun its Internet life in February 2002. Its cousin, the "bad smelling steamship fuel" tale (example quoted above), began its online life as an April 1999 post to the USENET discussion list rec.humor. Akin to the faux etymology of the word 'f*ck' a specious acronym has once again been claimed as the origin of yet another term beloved of potty-mouths everywhere.

We could launch into a long, involved discussion of ancient shipping practices, methane production and properties, and Internet leg-pulls, but we'll spare you all that, as the fanciful stories listed can easily be debunked as the product of someone's wild imaginings through linguistic means.

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.")

Dave, you obviously have too much time on your hands. Get a girl friend. No wait, that didn't work either!
DonM

So is mine... and I hear them talking about 'ship high, etc' all the time! (even with the windows closed)

Down here in Saragossa, when we ship it, we lable it B-S-H-I-T

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Cheers....Pose

As a matter of fact, I'll be slipping out to play a game of "Aw shit" in about an hour.
We have had practically NO winter. It was 74 yesterday. I shot the temperature by the way!

DonM

GRRRRRRRRRRR !!! ...
t.

Darn, we only had 68 yesterday but we set a record for a hot day only 2 or 3 days ago when we were up in the 70's.
Even the palm trees are swetting
Bebop

Got up to 39 here today, but the wind was howling at 35 to 45 MPH. Nasty damned day here in the People's Republic of Maryland.

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

It hit 72 today. But, with the windchill it felt more like 71.
Eddie

Eddie, I'll be flying into Orlando Saturday evening, but I have to leave early Sunday, so it looks as if I will not have time to come see you this trip.
DonM

Gary, you are forgetting that Don is from the south. Down there the term is sheeat.

Tom

Don, too bad you will miss Eddie. Like yourself he is a fine friend and gentleman.

Don...
Sorry you can't make it. I have 3 gigs this weekend and was hopin' you would sit in at one of them. I love it when guys like you, Tom and Gary come down. I don't have to worry about getting replaced by an "out of towner".

Tom...
Awww shucks. You're embarrasing me.

Eddie

I arrived at Orlando at 7:00 p.m. Saturday and my brother-in-law picked me up at the airport. We ate dinner, drove to Palm Bay where he lives and I went to bed around midnight. Got up and left at 8:00 a.m. and drove the 1,000 miles back home, arriving at 1:00 a.m. A long day!
We'll be coming back down that way sometime later this year for a little vacation, and we'll be sure to save some time to get together.
DonM

Gary...getting back to your initial observation...
I take it "poop deck" came out of this somehow?

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...shboom

THE MOST FUNCTIONAL ENGLISH WORD

Well, it's shit... that's right, shit!
Shit may just be the most functional word in the English language.

Consider:
You can get shit-faced, Be shit-out-of-luck, Or have shit for brains.

With a little effort, you can get your shit together, find a place for your shit, or be asked to shit or get off the pot.

You can smoke shit, buy shit, sell shit, lose shit, find shit, forget shit, and tell others to eat shit.

Some people know their shit, while others can't tell the difference between shit and shineola.

There are lucky shits, dumb shits, and crazy shits. There is bull shit, horse shit, and chicken shit.

You can throw shit, sling shit, catch shit, shoot the shit, or duck when the shit hits the fan.

You can give a shit or serve shit on a shingle.

You can find yourself in deep shit or be happier than a pig in shit.

Some days are colder than shit, some days are hotter than shit, and some days are just plain shitty.

Some music sounds like shit, things can look like shit, and there are times when you feel like shit.

You can have too much shit, not enough shit, the right shit, the wrong shit or a lot of weird shit.

You can carry shit, have a mountain of shit, or find yourself up shit creek without a paddle.

Sometimes everything you touch turns to shit and other times you fall in a bucket of shit and come out smelling like a rose.

When you stop to consider all the facts, it's the basic building block of the English language.

And remember, once you know your shit, you don't need to know anything else!!

You could pass this along, if you give a shit; or not do so if you don't give a shit!


Well Shit, it's time for me to go. Just wanted you to know that I do give a shit and hope you had a nice day, without a bunch of shit. But, if you happened to catch a load of shit from some shit-head..........
Well, Shit Happens!!!


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...shboom

... sounds like CARLIN ...
t.

It could very well be George Carlin. A friend passed this along to me a few weeks ago, so I thot I'd pass it on.

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...shboom

poop deck - an exposed partial weather deck on the stern superstructure of a ship. Also known as the shelter deck, weather deck: an upper deck having no overhead protection from the weather, but sheltering the deck below.

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Yes it is George Carlin. I first remember hearing it back in the early 70s. Here is a transcript http://www.schedler.org/cookie/shit.html It's pretty much the same with slight changes that you'd expect George to make in his routines over the years.

That must have been around the same time as the "7 words you can't say on television".

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...shboom