'shipment' originates from Middle English, specifically the word 'shipement', where 'ship' derived from Old English 'scip' meaning 'ship/vessel' and the suffix '-ment' came from Old French '-ment' (from Latin '-mentum') meaning 'result or action'.

'shipment' changed from Middle English 'shipement' (formed from 'ship' + the noun-forming suffix '-ment') and eventually became the modern English word 'shipment'. The element 'ship' comes from Old English 'scip', itself from Proto-Germanic '*skipą'.

Initially, it often meant 'the act of loading onto a ship' or 'a shipment by ship'; over time it broadened to mean 'goods sent (by any means)' and more generally 'the act or instance of sending goods'.