HOW DID THE WORD “SHIT” ORIGINATE?

  It is claimed by some that the word “shit” originates in the

  sixteenth century, when manure was transported by ship

  The dry manure weighed little and was stowed below deck

  When mixed with water, however, it gained in weight and

  began to ferment, producing methane gas, which, when

  exposed to a naked flame (that of a lantern, for instance),

  would ignite, causing explosions and fires Because of these

  accidents, crates of manure were labeled “Ship High in

  Transit” to indicate that the crates were to be stowed above

  the deck, so that any water that the ship took on would

  not come into contact with

  them It was assumed by

  many that the word shit was

 an acronym derived from

 this labeling convention

 However, this theory has

 since been discovered to be a

 complete falsehood that can be traced to an Internet posting

 in 1999 and that has been perpetuated ever since The word

 shit is from the Middle English word “shitten,” which in turn

 derived from the Old English word “scitan,” from

 which meant “to be covered with excrement” and is in turn

 thought to originate from the Indo-European root

 word can also be traced back to Germanic languages at the

 time of the Roman Empire The word “shite,” meanwhile, is

 a variant form of the word that is found in some dialects in

 Ireland and Scotland, as well as in colloquial English.besciten,skei The