'Ship' and its derivatives in this context have since come to be in wide and versatile use. The oldest uses of the noun ship and the noun shipper, as recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary, date back to 1996 postings on the Usenet group alt.tv.x-files shipping is first attested slightly later, in 1997 and the verb to ship in 1998. They called themselves 'relationshippers,' at first then R'shipper, 'shipper, and finally just shipper. The actual usage of the term 'ship' saw its origin around 1995 by internet fans of the TV show The X-Files, who believed the two main characters, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, should be engaged in a romantic relationship.
