Shem is the all purpose pronoun used to avoid the annoying he/she and his/hers constructs. Note that the posessive of shem is shemps.

examples:
No programmer (especially JAPH) should have to work anywhere shem doesn't want to.
A student with poor grades is going to have to get shemps grades up.

Shem is one of the sons of Noah in the bible who, along with his brothers Ham and Japheth and their wives, was on the Ark. He is the father of the shem-ite peoples - the semites - from whom the tribes of Israel sprung. The story of Noah and the Ark is in Genesis 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

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