🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 6 Feb 2003 23:31:42 +1100, "Granny" <granny71@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
>Peter Dingleberry wrote:
>: Sorry for all the > - I can't find where I've put that cleaner-upper
>: program. I can't verify the accuracy of the information - but it came
>: to me in an email, so it "must" be true....
>:
>:: Ever Wonder where that gloriously descriptive word came from???
>::
>:: "Store High In Transit"
>::
>:: In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by
>:: ship.
>::
>:: It was also before commercial fertiliser's invention, so large
>:: shipments of manure were common. It was shipped dry, because in dry
>:: form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea)
>:: hit it, it not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation
>:: began again, of which a by-product is methane gas.
>::
>:: 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 term "Store High In Transit". Which meant
>:: the sailors were 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," 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 but i found out and now
>:: you do too.
>
>Well, that was very informative Pete!  I didn't know that's where the word
>came from!
><but I do know that chook shit smells dreadful when wet!!>

Origins (other than the physical) :))

Middle English shitten, probably from Old English -sciten (as in
besciten, covered with excrement), past participle of *scitan.

Skyrider

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