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Manure : In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before the invention of commercial fertilizers, so large shipments of manure were quite common.
It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, not only did it become heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by product is methane gas of course. 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 instruction ‘ Stow 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 ‘ , (Stow High In Transit) 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 golf term.
Well I never knew that, thanks :?
Interesting – but complete excrement.
The word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon. In German for example the word is scheisse, Dutch schijt, Old Norse skita, and Lithuanian sikti. Unless you can find an equivalent acronym in Lithuanian…….
Anglo-Saxon chronicles use the word “scittan” (and sc was pronouined sh) to describe cows with diarrhoea.
Chaucer in his General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales wrote of “s h i t t e n shepherd and clene sheep”.
Happy to clarify :D
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