shipper
UK /ˈʃɪp.ə/ · US /ˈʃɪp.ɚ/ noun
Forms shippers
- noun (archaic) A seaman; mariner; skipper.
- noun The person or organization that ships (sends) something. “The shipper should have paid for insurance on the package, because it was damaged when it arrived.”
- noun A box for shipping something fragile, such as bottled beer or wine.
- noun (fandom slang) A person who supports a romantic or sexual relationship between fictional characters or real people.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
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”).
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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun One who sends goods from one place to another not in the same city or town, esp. one who sends goods by water.
Etymology [See Ship, n., and cf. Skipper.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “shipper”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details