Quick definition:Shipping is fan slang for supporting and imagining a romantic relationship between two characters in a story, often through discussion, art, stories and lively online debate.
Meaning
Shipping, short for relationship, describes the habit of hoping that two characters will become a couple. A fan who supports a pairing is a shipper, and the pairing itself is called a ship. Shippers may enjoy a romance that the story presents openly, or imagine one that the creators never wrote and never intended to write.
Fans express the interest in many ways, including drawing fan art, writing fan fiction, making videos and arguing over which pairing is best. Ships are often given combined names, made by joining parts of the two characters' names, so that a couple can be referred to with a single word that everyone in the community understands.
Shipping can be friendly, but disagreements sometimes grow heated when fans feel strongly about rival pairings. Series that leave the romance unresolved, or that offer several possible partners, often produce especially lively debate. Many fans see the hobby as a playful way of engaging with characters, and the word has spread well beyond anime.
Origin:Shipping comes from the English word relationship, shortened to ship, and it began in online fan communities in the 1990s. The exact origin is not clearly documented. Anime and manga fandoms adopted the term early and still use it widely, and a pairing that fans support is called a ship.
Example:After a long-running romantic comedy introduces a girl who bickers with the hero and another who quietly supports him, fans split into groups, each posting drawings and stories of a favourite pairing. Online polls and long threads follow, even though nobody knows which ending the author will choose, and friendly rivalry keeps the debate alive for months.
Did you know?Many ships have combined names formed by joining parts of two characters' names. Fans sometimes put a slash between the names for a romantic pairing and an ampersand for a friendship, which lets large communities refer to a couple with a single short tag.
