The word shipment came up in a lesson today and I explained it as a delivery of goods. "Yes," said the student "but by sea, obviously?"
Offhand I wasn't sure. Do we use shipment more generally, or is it actually restricted to water transport?
Shipments by train ??
Posted by susan53 · February 20, 2007 · 5 replies
5 Replies
Without looking it up i'd say it was okay.
Otherwise, what about consignment?
The consignment arrived by train.
susan53
OP
By pure chance, after writing the original post I went to the Amazon site to look at some books. And noted that they talk about stuff being shipped. But presumably they don't necessarily send it by boat - ???
Yes, I agree with Clive that consignment/consigned is an alternative. But shipped/shipment seems more usual - in fact I've just done a googlebattle and it's come out : shipment - 47.7 million; consignment 9.2 million. No contest!
I'll take it on the chin like a man. :-)
A search at dictionary.com gives the following definitions for shipment, amongst others:
- goods carried by a large vehicle
- a load of goods sent by sea
And this for the verb "to ship"
- to put or take on board a ship or other means of transportation; to send or transport by ship, rail, truck, plane, etc.
So I think we can safely use "to ship" and "shipment" to refer to other means of transporation too!
I'll chime in and say that I think it's standard to refer to sending goods through a variety of mediums as shipping or shipment.
Everything says 'shipping and handling' for listing additional charges when you buy an item.