Interesting but totaly useless information

[Ummgawa]

Manure...A True Story


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 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 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 term used when working on your car.

[Jimmy Sean]

Checked snopes out of curiosity - it states it's not true - but a funny story none the less.

"The word **** 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 **** 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 **** together.") "

http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/****.asp

[Ummgawa]

Maybe the first person to ever step in some said it.

[BThibodeaux]

Such a great word though. Very versitile.
Noun - Hey, come look at this sh*t.
Pronoun - What a bunch of dumb sh*ts.
Adjective - What a sh*tty paint job.
Verb - He about sh*t himself after seeing that 300MPH pass.
Conjunction - The crowd went ape-sh*t-wild when they saw Danika in a wet t-shirt.
Explicative - Holy sh*t.

And so many more great uses....

[Musclerodz]

[Diognes56]

David