FUCK and SHIT

[slumber]

*sniffs* I miss sailorsimba and dark_eyed_amy. I don't think I've spoken to them in the past week at all. And Amy won't be back until Wednesday. (And I'd say I miss siobhanohare and kiwi666 too, but dude. Speaking to them now. Yay.)

Anyway, yeah. Schtuff. I found out two shibby thingies. And because I am all for higher education among my flist, who I notice love these two words anyway, here are the origins of the words:

SHIT

A long long time ago, manure was shipped from place to place as fertilizer, and since it's manure, well, duh, they had to put it in the basement, or whatever you call its equivalent in ship-speak.

So alright, shit downstairs, people upstairs, nothing smells and everyone's happy, right?

Well, not exactly.

Because the shit's all downstairs where it gets cold and somewhat damp, chemical processes act up and eventually they make the manure flammable, and that is a LOT of manure, so all it takes is some poor bloke to come down with a lamp to check that all the stuff is there and, well, there goes the ship.

This goes on for a really long time and so many ships sink in between (*resists urge to make silly crack about fandom*) and nobody knows what on earth's going on. Finally, they realise it's all got to do with ships who ship shit (*cackles*) so they decided to transfer the manure to higher decks where it won't get damp and flammable. To make sure no idiot mistakenly puts the stuff at the bottom of the decks, they stamped all the manure with S.H.I.T., which is actually an acronym for Ship High In Transit, which is what they've been doing to shit since then.

*bows*

FUCK

This one I got from my friend.

So, during the Victorian era, the people were right little prudes. So much that sex was actually really truly taboo, even for married couples.

So much that they had to get permission from the fucking KING before they could have sex.

I have no idea how they went about it, or how they get arrested if they don't have permission--do guards randomly enter houses at night to see who's having it off with who and where, I wonder?--but once they do get permission, they put a big FUCK at their door (or something, I mean--if sex is so taboo, why proclaim you're having it?), and it stands for Fornication Under Consent of the King.

So, really, when people fuck? They have Royal Authority to do so.

This enlightening and educational entry was brought to you by the letters W, T, and F.

PS. hp_kris_kringle sign-ups end November 20. Which I have just realised is today. Well, tomorrow for some of you. Hahaha, never mind, I can extend til Sunday, because that's what I meant anyway.

shadows_edge rocks, dude. Join it.

Gmail allows a filter to forward mail to somewhere else. I think I am in love.

Comments

[jaig.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAthat'ssoamusing.

Is it true? I mean, really now.

[slumber.livejournal.com]

I read the stuff about shit in a feature article in a newspaper, and it sounds plausible enough, and the thing about fuck was told by a pretty reliable enough source anyway. Hee, I don't know, I think I shall believe them. Otherwise, life would be boring. :P

[ant-power.livejournal.com]

*is not missed, not even a bit, not even at all*

Also, I <3 etymology. :P

[slumber.livejournal.com]

You're on the Permanent List of People I Miss, Ant. <333

[ant-power.livejournal.com]

Well, that's alright then.

<3333333333333333333

[sparklychibi.livejournal.com]

Dude! That is awesome! Wow. I'm so totally telling people that when they scold me for swearing. "It's not bad! It just means 'Ship In High Transit'!"

[slumber.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

Or, when you say someone's fucking someone, you can go, "At least it's with the king's consent." XD

[sparklychibi.livejournal.com]

Thank you, dear Slumber, for giving me a chance to be weirder than I already was. :D

[slumber.livejournal.com]

Anytime. XD

[fallenravie.livejournal.com]

*isn't going to nitpick*

I never knew that about shit. Hmm.

Okay, I can't help myself.

Fuck, being a tabooed word, is a very difficult word to find the etymology on. What we do know is that it is first found in a poem that is pre-1500s. The line in question is (this part is copy-and-pasted 'cause ack) |Non sunt in celi quia fuccant uuiuys of heli.| The translation of that line is |They are not in heaven because they fuck the wives of Ely.| "They" refers to a group of monks, "Ely" is a town near...Cambridge? I think. The earliest definite siting is in 1503...that time it was "fukkit" I think, and in 1535 there is a case of the modern spelling. The origin is squabbled over, and some different theories point to either a Scandanavians, Dutch or, of course, Latin derrivation.

...I'll stop now. The theory you stated is a very common theory, as is For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and Fornication Under Carnal Knowledge. I'm just a dork and like to know these things.

...maybe this is why I'm never missed. :)

[slumber.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I didn't know that. I shall tell my friends. :D But how do you people stumble into things like these? I just read the shit thing in some newspaper and my friend told me about the fuck thing and your info is so detailed and stuff--I mean, is there some sort of specialised monthly I should be subscribing to? Hee, I must know more quirky trivia. ;)

*snugs*

(Silly bean, we ought to talk more often. :P)

[irian.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha. I'd read about the SHIT before, but that's the first time I'd heard about the origins of the word FUCK. Thanks for the laugh.