Oh Shit !!!!

[erection2015]

Manure

In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and 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 of course. 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 instruction "Stow 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', (Stow High In Transit)
which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

It is Ship High In Transit.

 

[erection2015]

ahhh ok bro

It is Ship High In Transit.

 

[rolling]

everyday you learn something new!

 

[kopiauntie]

everyday you learn something new!

No, don't learn this. The word 'shit' is not an acronym. The above-mentioned origin of the word came into circulation since a Usenet posting from 1999.

The word shit has a long and well-documented history, far older than any large-scale organized sea-trade in northern Europe. Anglo-Saxon leechdom books use scittan in reference to cattle having diarrhea.

The acronym theory of the origin of shit can't explain the related words in other languages, such as German Scheiss, Dutch schijt, Old Norse skita, and Lithuanian sikti, which come from the same prehistoric root. As far as I know, there's no corresponding acronym to "ship high in transit" in the merchant marine history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

So, the acronym theory for the origin of "shit" breaks down because:

• the word itself is a good 1,000 years older than the common use of acronyms;
• the original form of the word (Anglo-Saxon sc-, which regularly evolved into M.E. sh-) does not correspond to the supposed acronym;
• the verb is the original form, the noun derives from it; the acronym supposes the noun came first;
• no one has produced a single instance of this supposed acronym from any old mercantile record or ship's manifest;
• in fact, no one has ever established that there was a custom of shipping manure;
• the word has cognates in many other languages, including ones outside Germanic, for which no acronym theory of origin makes sense;

It doesn't fit the facts, it requires a very elaborate supposition for which there is not the slightest evidence, and there is a much simpler, saner explanation for the word, the only drawback of which is that it doesn't make a very good Internet joke.

source: Online Etymology Dictionary

 

[TakKiewPeng]

Before manure, how was shit called?

So it's not true. It most probably happen to sound similar, but shit is shit, since before ships were invented.