Manure..Is this for real?

[STOCK_INGTOPS]

Was sent this by a friend..Does anyone know if it's true?
MANURE

In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before commercial fertiliser'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,..BOOOOOOM!
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 the methane.
Thus envolved 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.
Is this the true history of this word or am I being wound up? : /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[ShipsWoofy]

Found most sites would list your story and then state it was untrue, and all seemed to agree on the following explaination;

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 (second 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 '[censored]' 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 [censored] 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 [censored] 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 [censored] together.")


Hope this helps

 

[Dave_Snelson]

And I thought it was a good old Saxon word, just like...err, no - I won't start this off here. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[jfm]

All correct I beleive SW. As you say, the scandi word is "skit", but interestingly their word (both Swedish and Danish) for tax is "skat" which is very similar. So when they say they have to pay lots of tax (which they do) they are literally saying they are being shat upon. Quite apt really.

 

[Trevethan]

Skit also means dirt skittent toy meand dity laundry

Skatt also means treasure and can be used as a term of endearment.

 

[l'escargot]

Go to this page and click on the appropriate link towards the bottom of the page.

(I can't post the direct link as it includes the word and this forum censors it!)

 

[paulineb]

can i do a list of words just to check which are censored ?