I was already a creature without shame when it came to things like writing and reading fanfiction, but then I met one of my favorite college professors. Not only did she talk about writing K/S in high school, it turned out she later wrote for TNG and DS9! Fandom is always older than we think! 🖖
Also whichever episode it is where a conventionally attractive yeoman is trying to massage a knot out of Kirk's back and he's disappointed when he turns around and realizes it's not Spock giving him a back rub.
I am a couple years older than Star Trek, and this is new to me. But it explains a lot, including why Nurse Chapel never made it out of the 'friend zone'.
"Spirk" and "the premise" both refer to the idea that Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are in love / fucking each other. This pairing is possibly the first, certainly among the first of what has become a standard part of many fandom subcultures - "shipping."
"Ship" in this sense is abbreviated from "relationship." To "ship" characters means to let your imagination run with your interpretation of subtext in the "canonical" production.
E.g. in Star Trek, Kirk and Spock are never explicitly romantically involved, but there are certain exchanges they have, certain looks they give each other, and people have been reading between the lines since at least the early 70s.
Comments
My experience has been that Spirk is the standard term in current usage, but ofc ymmv.
Versailles, for example
Also whichever episode it is where a conventionally attractive yeoman is trying to massage a knot out of Kirk's back and he's disappointed when he turns around and realizes it's not Spock giving him a back rub.