Fanspeak

Fanspeakis theslangorjargoncurrent inscience fiction and fantasy fandom,especially those terms in use among readers and writers ofscience fiction fanzines.

Fanspeak is made up ofacronyms,blended words, obscure in-jokes,puns,coinages from science fiction novels or films, and archaic or standard English words used in specific ways relevant or amusing to the science fiction community.

Evolution

Mostof the terms used in fanspeak have spread to members of theSociety for Creative Anachronism,Renaissance Fairparticipants,fantasy footballplayers, andinternetgamingandchatfans,due to the social and contextual intersection between the communities.

Common examples of widespread usages are:

• fenas the plural offan
• fannish"of or relating to fans and fandom"
• gafiate(verb), an acronym for "getting away from it all" (i.e., leaving fandom, temporarily or permanently)
• fafiate(verb), an acronym for "forced away from it all" (i.e., being forced to leave fandom for personal or professional reasons)

A few fannish terms have become standard English, such asfanzine,short for "fanmagazine",coined byRuss Chauvenetin 1940, which swiftly replaced the older termfanmag.

Conversely, some fannish terms have been made obsolete by changes in technology (the decline of themimeographhas doomedcorflufor "correction fluid"), cultural changes (afemmefan[female fan] is no longer unusual) or the mere passage of time (slan shackfor "a house where a bunch of fans live together" has faded, since fewer young fans have readSlanbyA. E. van Vogt).Slanalso produced one of the most common fan idioms: "Fans areslans". Fanspeak is so interwoven into the fabric of fandom that it is difficult to discuss fandom without resorting to fannish terms such asfanac"fannish activity" orfilk music(originally a typo for "folk music" ).

Sociology

Like other forms of jargon, fanspeak serves as a means of inclusion and exclusion within the fannish community. In the 1970s, the use of traditional fanspeak separated thefanzineandconvention-attending subcommunity (sometimes distinguished astrufenor "true fans" ) from fans of science fiction movies and television shows (mediafen). The division of the community into trufen and others is rejected by many fans as inherently unfannish.

Today, subsets of fanspeak define subcommunities within fandom. For example,ringersfor "fans ofThe Lord of the Rings"is used primarily by fans of thePeter Jacksonfilms (see alsoTolkien fandom).

External links

• Fancyclopedia Iby John Bristol (Jack Speer), the Fantasy Foundation, 1944
• Fancyclopedia IIpublished 1959
• Fancyclopedia IIIArchived2021-07-27 at theWayback Machine,a wiki incorporating the first two Fancyclopedias and supplemented by other sources and ongoing contributions, led by Jim Caughran (though 2010), Mark Olson. Jack Weaver and Joe Siclari
• Overview of FanspeakThis was originally posted in rec.arts.sf.fandom in 1999 by Cally Soukup, summarizing a talk by speech therapistKaryn AshburnatMinicon.
• "The Language of Science-Fiction Fan Magazines," Bruce Southard,American Speech,Vol. 57, No. 1. (Spring, 1982), pp. 19-31
• FanloreA fan wiki with a large section dedicated to defining fandom terminology

Glossaries

• Dr. Gafia's Fan Termsby rich brown
• Fandbook No. 1: A key to the terminology of science-fiction fandomby Donald Franson for the National Fantasy Fan Federation, 1962. A classic glossary that predates laser printers, the internet, and media fandom.
• FanSpeak Dictionary of the Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association
• Fanspeak Glossary at ReadersAdvice
• Fanspeak Glossary at the NCF Guide
• The Neo-Fan's Guideedited by Bob Tucker (1955) at eFanzines. Another classic glossary that predates laser printers, the internet, and media fandom.
• The Conbledegook File