Manure

 

 

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 which 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 still in use to this very day.

 

"S.H.I.T." often figures into jokes like:

 

• Special High Intensity Training (a well-known joke used in job applications),
• Special Hot Interdiction Team (a mockery on SWAT),
• Super Hackers Invitational Tournament, and any college name that begins with an S-H (like Sam Houston Institute of Technology or South Harmon Institute of Technology)
• Store High In Transit in the 2006 film Kenny.
• South Hudson Institute of Technology has sometimes been used to describe the United States Military Academy at West Point.
• The Simpsons' Apu was a graduate student at Springfield Heights Institute of Technology.

 

In polite company, sometimes the backronym Sugar Honey in Tea or Sugar Honey Iced Tea is used.

 

HOWEVER, BELIEVE IT OR NOT!

 

There is no historical evidence that "Ship High in Transit" Aboard ships was the origin for the word "shit."  The eRumor has circulated on the Internet since about 2000.

This issue is specifically addressed by the folks at the Online Etymology Dictionary who say that "Despite what you read in an e-mail, 'shit' is not an acronym."

The Merriiam-Webster dictionary dates the word back to 1526 and says that is is from the Old English scite and akin to a related word -scitan and means to defecate. 

A writer for the Online Etymology Dictionary points out that the use acronyms didn't develop until the 20th century so a word that is hundreds of years old would not have originated as an acronym.