ship, shipping, shippers, shipwar, shipping war, shipable

Thu May 23 13:59:42 UTC 2013

"shipper" has a specialized meaning in fandom. It dates back to 1996
but I do not see it in the ADS archives.

Fanlore wiki: Shipping
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Shipping
Wiki stub for shipping created September 29 2008

[Begin excerpt]
The term originated in the X-Files fandom, where viewers who wanted to
see a romantic relationship between Fox Mulder and Dana Scully were
dubbed "relationshippers," or "shippers." Some were self-described
intellishippers. It was also used on discussion groups for Lois and
Clark, where "shippers" were those who were pushing for the pair to
get together romantically onscreen.
[End excerpt]

Wikipedia has an entry for Shipping (fandom)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_%28fandom%29
[Begin excerpt]
The term for a fan of shipping also evolved:[2] from
relationshipper,[3][4] R'shipper,[5] 'shipper, and finally just
shipper.[6]
[End excerpt]

Here is a cite that seems to be one day before the cite in Wikipedia
for "shippers". The search engine for Google Groups is deeply broken,
so I have no idea what's best.

From: ejo... at mail.alliance.net (Eric Johns)
Subject: Re: The Relationship/Antirelationship Debate
Date: May 18 1996
newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.tv.x-files/xEtYA9yDQOc/vt19YHPy7twJ

[Begin excerpt]
You see, this is precisely what we relationshippers DON'T
want...Scully and Mulder have so much depth, so much meaning, and so
much devotion to each other and what they do together that a night of
cheap sex would taint it all.  There is a purity in their commitment
to each other that we shippers revel in.
[End excerpt]

Urban dictionary has shipper fom May 2, 2003
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shipper

Urban dictionary has shipping fom  Mar 6, 2005
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shipping

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