fansplaining:

Recently, Merriam-Webster published an article about shipping (not boats). They were tracking the noun “ship,” the verbal noun “shipping” and the verb “to ship” separately, with different dates of origin: while they dated “ship” to 1996 in the X-files fandom, they claimed that the verb version of “ship” (“I ship Olicity,” “do you ship Bella and Edward or Bella and Jacob?”) appeared in 2005. I… was not so sure.

When M-W suggested “shipping” was just over a decade old, @flourish went on a mission to unpack the etymology and timelines of “ship,” “slash,” and more.

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