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

[Laurence Horn]

I just discovered this family of words myself recently, reading review sites.  I kept wondering who was shipping what where, not having noticed the invisible apostrophe.

LH

On May 23, 2013, at 9:59 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:

> "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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org