The Lexicographer's Rules

My latest column in the Malaysia Star is about the word "shit." This paragraph is the key one:

[Shit] is, I believe, ready to be heard unbleeped (uncensored) on the government-regulated airwaves in America. It is also ready to be printed in mainstream periodicals without fear of outrage, without being remarked upon, or without being subjected to the institutional neutering by limp-spirited editors who, though they avow that they themselves see no problem with the word, claim that a vague mass of others would most certainly take offence.

SHIT:
Store Higher in Transit. Its a nautical term relating to goods being soaked by bilge water in old ships,this practice of not storing goods higher sometimes created methane gas, or potential explosions. I do not see the harm having innocent terms broadcast. Perhaps that education is so poor, that assuming vulgarity is easier than obtaining the proper definition.

To the above -

No. It’s not. Shit is derived from the Germanic term for excrement or just general undesired stuff, it is old old old and has cognates in other Germanic languages. The attached vulgarity has pretty much everything to do with it describing bodily function not suited for dinner conversation, in a like situation to that of fuck. Neither is an acronym, both are good ol’ Germanic, and that’s all.

Konnen Sie Deutsch spechen?Ich Kann. Ich habe in der Sweitz gewhont. Scheisa is perhaps what you are refering to.  SHIT is in fact commonly believed to an acronym for store higher in transit. Fuck is believed to be an acronym, for “Fornication Under Concent of King”. This because the the Prince either King or Queen, would regulate the the court so that those individules could be a married off for polital gain, therefore those court members would require the concent from the regent. So you see words are not bad people are! LOL!
Lastly, do people where you are from watch television during dinner? Not attacking, we actually talk to our family and or guests during the evening meal. The parenthetical citation: I googled this data.

Ric, “shit” does NOT come from “shipped high in transit.” This is provable and demonstrable. Same for the supposed acronymic origin of “fuck.” It does not come from “fornication under consent of the king.”

OK. Just offering what I discovered. All the best.
The from ABOUT.COM internet site retreved 1/08/09
Subject: Fabulous bit of historical knowledge

Ever wonder where the word “shit” comes from. Well here it is:

Certain types of manure used to be transported (as everything was back then) by ship. In dry form it weighs a lot less, 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 discovered what was happening.

After that, the bundles of manure where always stamped with the term “S.H.I.T” on them which meant to the sailors to “Ship High In Transit.” In other words, 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.

It’s not true. It is 100% certain that that “shipped high in transit” story is false and is not the origin of “shit.”

The first strike against it is that words formed from acronyms in English were almost nonexistent before the 1900s.

The second strike against it is that there’s no evidence that large shipments of manure were ever transported by ship.

The third strike against it is that there is no historical record of ships ever being destroyed in this manner.

About.com itself debunks this myth:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-s-word.htm

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