Ship It, Click it

The curiousness of accidental phrases

In the last few months, I’ve suddenly noticed people in tech using the term “ship” when what they mean is “unveil” or “release”—e.g., “Today we’re shipping a new feature that will let you…”

For some reason, that grates on my ear. It sounds newfangled to me. I thought, Oh, now they call “releasing” “shipping.” Is that like calling sandwiches “handhelds” or calling hard ice cream “hand-dipped”?