Etymology

shipper

ship·per
S1H4I1P3P3E1R1

Today it means: A seaman; mariner; skipper. Full definition →

Middle Low German schipper
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shipper · noun1

  1. Middle Low German · borrowed fromschipper
  2. English todayshipper

Either formed anew from ship + -er or borrowed from Middle Low German schipper; compare skipper and Old English sċipere (“sailor”). Piecewise doublet of skipper (“captain, sailor”).

shipper · noun2

From a clipping of relationshipper. Relationshipper emerged in early online fandom of the television series The X-Files as a term for fans who supported the possibility of a Mulder/Scully romance. It was shortened to r'shipper, then 'shipper, and finally shipper. By surface analysis, ship (“to create a fictional romantic relationship”) + -er.

Words from the same roots

Middle Low Germanschipper all →

skip

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.