Origin of Manure

[AlanHo]

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 instructed the sailors to stow

it high enough off the lower decks so that any water which 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 thought it was a golf or crown pin bowling term.

[andsome]

Don't you mean Crown GREEN bowling?

[andsome]

Manure -

You probably did not know the true history of this word.

Neither did I.

Discovered where you got this tit bit from. Ya Boo!

Comments: Well, clever as all that may be, whoever wrote it doesn't know s*** about s***. According to my dictionary, the word is much older than the 1800s, appearing in its earliest form about 1,000 years ago as the Old English verb scitan. That is confirmed by lexicographer Hugh Rawson in his bawdily edifying book, "Wicked Words" (New York: Crown, 1989), where it is further noted that the expletive is distantly related to words like science, schedule and shield, all of which derive from the Indo-European root skei-, meaning "to cut" or "to split." You get the idea.

For most of its history "s***" was spelled "shite" (and sometimes still is), but the modern, four-letter spelling of the word can be found in texts dating as far back as the mid-1700s. It most certainly did not originate as an acronym used by 19th-century sailors.

Apropos that false premise, Rawson observes that "s***" has long been the subject of naughty wordplay, very often based on made-up acronyms. For example:

In the Army, officers who did not go to West Point have been known to disparage the military academy as the South Hudson Institute of Technology.... And if an angelic six-year-old asks, "Would you like to have some Sugar Honey Iced Tea?", the safest course is to pretend that you have suddenly gone stone deaf.

Finally, these S.H.I.T. stories are reminiscent of another specimen of folk etymology claiming that the F-word (another good, old-fashioned, all-purpose, four-letter expletive) originated as the acronym of "Fornication Under Consent of the King," or, in another variant, "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge."

Suffice it to say, it's all C.R.A.P.

[trackrat]

I think I prefer Alan`s version. :lol:

[andsome]

I think I prefer Alan`s version.  :lol:

That isn't another version, it was on the same website page.

[Agent Smith]

Suffice it to say, it's all C.R.A.P.

Don't tell me, that is

the Complete Rubbish Andsome Posts

:blink: :D

[andsome]

Suffice it to say, it's all C.R.A.P.

Don't tell me, that is

the Complete Rubbish Andsome Posts

:blink: :D

Who's a clever boy then?

[AlanHo]

Don't you mean Crown GREEN bowling?

Its the way I play it

[andsome]

My first league match of the outdoor season tomorrow.

[catgate]

The way I heard it (in a PM from andsome) was that Noah was involved. It seems that as they were travelling in the ark the animals on board were doing as all animals do, and were doing it all over the ship. So, in the manner of all good seafarers keeping a tidy ship, all the stinking stuff was swept to the back of the boat and made into a big heap.

Eventually this heap became so large that the back of the boat (or "stern" as it is known to seafarers) was only just above the water whilst the front (or "sharp end" as it is know to non seafarers) was totally out of the water. In order to correct this situation, this great heap of s*** was heaved, "en mass" (as it was known to pretentious seafarers), overboard. And there it lay until one day in the middle of the fifteenth century a gentleman called Christopher Columbus discovered it as he was sailing west. The rest, as they say, is history.

[dadyassa]

My first league match of the outdoor season tomorrow.

Got yer wellies with yer :D :D

[D4\/!d]

from another site on the same subject:

Sh!t is a very old word, with an Old English root. *Scítan is the Old English word. It has cognates in most of the other Germanic languages and shares a common Germanic root with modern equivalents like the German scheissen.

*Scítan, however, doesn't appear in extant Old English texts and is only assumed to have existed in Old English. The verb to Sh!t dates the Middle English period (c. 1308), and the noun form is from the 16th century. The interjection is of quite recent vintage, not found until the 1920s.

In 2002, an alleged acronymic origin for Sh!t appeared on the Internet. According to this tale, the word is from an acronym for Ship High In Transit, referring to barges carrying manure. This is a complete fabrication and absurd on its face. All it takes to disprove it is to look up the word in any decent dictionary. Remember, anytime someone posits an acronymic word origin, chances are that it is utterly false.

[r4may]

Sounds like a load of Male Cow Droppings to me :huh:

[andsome]

The way I heard it (in a PM from andsome) was that Noah was involved. It seems that as they were travelling in the ark the animals on board were doing as all animals do, and were doing it all over the ship. So, in the manner of all good seafarers keeping a tidy ship, all the stinking stuff was swept to the back of the boat and made into a big heap.

Eventually this heap became so large that the back of the boat (or "stern" as it is known to seafarers) was only just above the water whilst the front (or "sharp end" as it is know to non seafarers) was totally out of the water. In order to correct this situation, this great heap of s*** was heaved, "en mass" (as it was known to pretentious seafarers), overboard. And there it lay until one day in the middle of the fifteenth century a gentleman called Christopher Columbus discovered it as he was sailing west. The rest, as they say, is history.

All this is of course true.

[popeye]

I think the whole thread is one big load of 'Bull ****' B) :unsure:

[andsome]

I think the whole thread is one big load of 'Bull ****'  B)  :unsure:

Bull or cow, it's all good for the garden