Back in the days of wagons and carts, pulled by horse, mules and oxen, ships moved hay and.......
Manure
An interesting fact about Manure: In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything for export had to be transported by ship.
It was also before the invention of commercial fertilizers, so large shipments of manure were quite common.
It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, not only did it become 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 imagine 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 instruction Stow high in transit 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 ' , (Stow High In Transit) 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.
A little bit of shitty history never hurt anyone right!?
Imagine the tombstones of the deceased sailors "Death by S.H.I.T!" :brainfart: Ok that was corny!
Seriously though, I had no idea! We learn something new everyday!!
unfortunately it is not totally true about the ship storage and naming, but it is still a good story... however it is true with regards of the term being used around a golf course on a regular basis.
An amusing story. I will have to look up the real origin of the word now. You mentioned that it is used around golf courses a lot, is it used just in the swear word way or with an alternate meaning?
Teye22, No, not gullible. It's a plausible explanation because that is how many words came to exist and so it is easy to think this could also be true.
rickymouse, Nice! I think that you are right. It's right up there with that meme that I see floating around that is a picture of Abe Lincoln with the text "Don't believe everything you read on the internet. - Abe Lincoln". There are a couple of others that I know have "origin stories" for curse words that have gained widespread popularity, but aren't actually true. I can't think of which off hand, but there are a handful.
Post by Michigan Swamp Buck on Jun 14, 2017 20:44:14 GMT -6
All the names we use for excrement must have some origin. Some others are: poop or poop-poo, crap, turd, scat, guano, #2, and a few more I can't bring to mind at the moment.