[Ads-l] ship, v. (2000-01)

Thu Aug 18 10:25:28 UTC 2016

Looks great, Flourish! Thanks for the acknowledgement.

LH mentioned that the relationship between Cybill Shepherd and Bruce
Willis in the TV series Moonlighting in the 1980s would have been a
natural candidate for application of the family of "ship" terms if
they had existed at the time. Your article mentions Kirk and Spock.

There was another earlier pair that apparently inspired desires among
fans: Perry Mason and Della Street. This couple was mentioned in a
Usenet post. A Wikipedia entry (of unknown reliability) lists some
shippy moments:

[Begin excerpt]
There are several instances of sexual tension between Mason and Street
in the Gardner novels; multiple glances, kisses and so on. There were
also several proposals of marriage, all of which Della turned down
because she wanted to be a part of Mason's life and she knew that
meant being a part of his work.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Thu, Aug 18, 2016 at 12:44 AM, Flourish Klink
<flourish.klink at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for sharing that, Ben - I was too shy (being new to the list).
>
> I should note that some of the responses have been fabulous - the major
> criticism of my explainer among the fan community is that "to slash" is a
> perfective thing ("this story slashes Batman and Robin" implying that the
> next story might slash Batman and the Joker, who knows) whereas "to ship"
> is continuous ("I ship Batman and Robin" = "my mental model of these
> characters is that they are in a relationship and that's pretty much how I
> operate"). So I will probably write a follow up incorporating those
> comments, as I think that the criticizers are right (and have lots of
> examples proving that they're right, also).
>
> Flourish
>
> On Thu, Aug 18, 2016 at 12:26 AM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Medium, Flourish Klink posted a nice explainer on "shipping"
>> incorporating some of the recent discussion here and on Twitter:
>>
>> https://medium.com/fansplaining/to-ship-or-not-to-ship-c7a0572e3782
>>
>> Merriam-Webster has also appended an addendum to their post acknowledging
>> the antedatings for the verb "ship":
>>
>> http://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/ship-words-were-watching
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 9:42 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
>> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Below is an message dated September 28, 1999 from a Star Trek fan
>> > fiction newsgroup that contains the phrase "my friend who ships this
>> > couple" which I think is evidence of "ship" being used as a transitive
>> > verb.
>> >
>> > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.startrek.creative.
>> > erotica.moderated/Tp8EbQLWxGE/jjPS2hIZ330J
>> >
>> > [Begin excerpt]
>> > From: "Ivan Roman" <IAR... at hotmail.com>
>> > Subject: Who Lives Happly Ever After 1/? P, K/T (Voy/DS9)
>> > Date: 1999/09/27
>> > Organization: Better Living Thru TrekSmut
>> > X-Server-Date: 28 Sep 1999 00:41:10 GMT
>> > Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated
>> >
>> > . . .
>> > Authors note:First I got the idea for this story from "I don't have to
>> > wonder"
>> > by Timothy Hood  Second let me thank Karah for her beta one
>> > day I'll get my Grammar right. Third let me warn you K/T shippers my
>> > friend who
>> > ships this couple Pissed me off so I stared writing this. Aside
>> > from that I welcome any and all feedback and or helpful suggestions.
>> > [End excerpt]
>> >
>> > Garson
>> >
>> > On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 4:47 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > > On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 10:36 AM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > >
>> > >> OED3 has a first cite of 2005 for the verb "ship" = 'To discuss,
>> > portray,
>> > >> or advocate a romantic pairing of (two characters who appear in a work
>> > of
>> > >> (serial) fiction), esp. when such a pairing is not depicted in the
>> > original
>> > >> work.' A Merriam-Webster "Words We're Watching" post also dates it to
>> > 2005:
>> > >>
>> > >> http://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/ship-words-were-watching
>> > >>
>> > >
>> > > [snip]
>> > >
>> > > This one is more clearly transitive:
>> > >>
>> > >> -----
>> > >> Lia, Harry Potter fanfiction (Yahoo Group), Oct. 4, 2001
>> > >> I ship Hermione with almost anyone.
>> > >> https://beta.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ParadigmOfUncertainty/
>> > >> conversations/messages/12241
>> > >> -----
>> > >>
>> > >
>> > > Slightly earlier:
>> > >
>> > > -----
>> > > wingless pegasus, Fiction Alley SCUSA Archive (forum), Sept. 12, 2001
>> > > I personally don't ship either couple, and if you asked me, I'd say
>> > > Draco/Harry (yes I like slash).
>> > > http://forums.fictionalley.org/park/showthread.php?s=
>> > 1f85b2471a8788d6f58889d1ef3483cd&threadid=1785
>> > >
>> > > -----
>> >
>> >
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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