As defined on Wikipedia, “Shipping, initially derived from the word relationship, is the desire by fans for two people, either real-life celebrities or fictional characters, to be in a relationship, romantic or otherwise. It is considered a general term for fans' emotional involvement with the ongoing development of a relationship in a work of fiction. Shipping often takes the form of creative works, including fan fiction and fan art, most often published on the internet. 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.”

As stated, this phenomenon is not limited to the k-pop universe, but it is really prevalent among fandoms. The couples endorsed by shippers are usually labeled as a portmanteau of their names — for example, the SNSD fandom frequently refers to TaeNy (Taeyeon + Tiffany) and YulSic (Yuri + Jessica).

Although this entry is listed as a noun, it is frequently used as a verb, as in “Wow, they’re so cute together! I ship them so hard!”