Shipping

Shipping, initially derived from the word relationship, is the desire by fans for two or more people, either real-life celebrities or fictional characters, to be in a relationship, romantic or otherwise.

About
Shipping can involve virtually any kind of relationship: from the well-known and established, to the ambiguous or those undergoing development, and even to the highly improbable or blatantly impossible.

Shipping often takes the form of creative works on the internet, including fanfiction and fanart. A 'ship' refers to the relationship supported, while 'shipping' refers to the phenomenon.

The pairings of characters are typically given names—usually portmanteau of the characters names. For instance, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger combines the "Ro" from Ronald and "mione" from Hermione to give Romione. While other fandoms, such as Once Upon A Time choose ship names that fit the character's roles and personality. For example, 'Outlaw Queen' is the ship between an evil 'queen' and an outlaw archer.

X-Files Origin
The term originated from the X-Files fandom. Many fans wanted to see a romantic relationship between characters Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. These fans would post on the X-Files form alt.tv.x-files.creative. At first, they called themselves "relationshippers," then R'shipper, 'shipper, and finally just shipper.

Additionally, the term "NoRomo" was coined by fans who wanted Mulder and Scully to remain platonic. Though the term never gained widespread usage, unlike shippers, which is still a common word in fandom to this day.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the use of the noun ship and shipper began around 1996, shipping a little later in 1997, and the verb to ship in 1998.

Slash fanfiction
In the late 1970s, slash was coined to describe the genre of fanfiction that focuses on same-sex relationships. This predates the usage of shippers (around 1996), while slash was used years earlier. The term originated from the Star Trek fandom. Many fans would write "Kirk/Spock" fanfictions. The use of the slash "/" was used to refer to the romantic relationship, and the symbol "&" to refer to the platonic relationship. This would later gain more widespread usage by other fandoms, namely Starsky and Hutch, Blake's 7, and The Professionals. This spawned into its fandom, known as slash, and centred around gay fanfiction from different media.

In addition, the word Femslash was coined to refer to fanfiction about female same-sex relationships. This term was relatively rare until the late 1990s. The show Xena: The Warrior Princess is often credited for being the catalyst of femslash popularity, with the Xena/Gabrielle gaining many fans and becoming the show's dominant ship. Likewise, femslash also increased in popularity by Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1999, and the canon pairing Tara/Willow. Around the 1990s, het was used to describe fanworks focused on heterosexual relationships.

For some time, shippers usually referred to fans who are interested in heterosexual relationships. While 'Slashers' referred to people who enjoyed gay relationships. In the early 2000s, this became more rare, with ship referring to every type of relationship (het, slash, femslash etc). Additionally, the word "Gen" (short for general) was used to refer to platonic relationships.

In the early 2010s, the usage of the words slash, femslash, and het is declining in popularity. Some fans opt to use the terms M/F, M/M or F/F instead, or use no categories at all.