If your teen mentions “shipping,” chances are it does not have to do with a package is arriving. Nor does “ship” involve a boat or water vessel. In fact, it refers to relationships.
Merriam-Webster defines “ship” as a transitive verb, “to wishfully regard (specific people or fictional characters) as being or having the potential to become romantically involved with one another.”
The slang term, which has been around since the beginning of the century, has ties to imaginative pop culture with fans pairing up characters from television shows and movie series that they believe would make a good romantic couple.
The term is also used beyond the fictional landscape to real-life couples, such as reality shows or celebrities.
Here’s what to know about the slang term, and how to use it correctly.
More slang term definitions:
Where did ship/shipping come from?
According to Merriam-Webster, who added the official new meaning of the word in January 2021, the new meaning of “ship”began appearing on the internet in 1996 on a fan forum about the science fiction/mystery show “The X-Files.”
Fans of the show wanted the show’s two main characters, Agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, to get together romantically, but the word “ship” was only used as a noun and a shortened version of “relationship.” The fans of “The X-Files” forum called themselves “Shippers” because they wanted to set up the two fictional characters.
After that, the verb “ship” appeared on various fan forums in the early 2000s, with fandoms “creating a romantic pairing between two people or characters who are not otherwise romantically linked,” according to Merriam-Webster.
“Shipping” tends to involve fans imagining beyond the actual events of a television series or movie. The term is closely associated with fan fiction culture, or originalstories created by fans based on the source material. Fan fiction often pairs characters that are not already involved in a romantic relationship.
One popular example of the phrase’s use was during the peak of the “Harry Potter” movie series when fans “shipped” characters Harry Potter and Hermione Granger together despite not having any romantic encounters in the series.
Another notable fan “ship” from a recent television series is Carmen Berzatto and Sydney Azamo in “The Bear.” When Season 2 of the show was released in 2023, fans paired the two main characters of the show together and referred to the imaginative couple as “#sydcarmy,” despite Berzatto being involved in a relationship with another character in the show.
“Sydney and Carmy’s chemistry is unmatched and Carmy’s relationship with Claire is very DRY!” One fan wrote in an X post, referring to the “sydcarmy” ship that fans on the internet had created.
There are even X accounts dedicated solely to posting video edits of the fictional couple.
Shipping can go beyond the fictional world as well, most often into reality romance shows like “Love Island” or “Love is Blind.” When a fan believes a pairing on the show is a great match, they’ll “ship” the couple and declare they should be together.
Take this fan’s X post about couple Serena Page and Kordell Beckham from Season 6 of “Love Island” as an example.
“Best love island ship of all time and I’m serious,” the fan wrote in the post.
How do you use ship/shipping properly?
So how do you properly use the term?
Just ask Jenna Bush Hager, who found out about the internet term when people online were “shipping” the WNBA New York Liberty mascot Ellie the Elephant and McDonald’s and part-time New York Mets mascot, Grimace.
When Mcdonald’s revealed pictures on Instagram of the two Mascots hanging out together in New York City, fans were quick to react in the comments with the slang.
“I ship it,” one fan of the relationship commented on the post.
Bush Hagar reacted to the pairing during “Jenna’s Morning Boost” on TODAY on Jan. 14.
“People are ‘shipping’ them, that’s what the kids are saying,” Bush-Hagar said on the show. “‘Shipping’ means ‘I want to set you up.’”
