Fandom Dictionary
Apr. 12th, 2006 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flowrs4opheliaI wanted to put this dictionary of internet fandom words together to have in the memories if people ever need to refer to it. Some people who find this journal may be new to fandom and have trouble understanding what I and others are talking about. I don’t usually throw around fandom jargon so much that you would think fanspeak and not proper English was my first language, but some people do that, and it can get confusing. Even if you have been involved in fanfic and stuff for a long time, sometimes you get into a new fandom where certain terms you don't know are a lot more popular and you can suddenly feel like a newbie. I myself didn’t even know what a Mary Sue was for a few years because I was too shy to ask.
I included some words and abbreviations that are specific to the most prominent fandoms represented with the recs and stuff on this journal.
The Dictionary of Fandom Terminology
Everything you need to know to talk like the t00bs
A-E
AU/Alternate universe - Fanfic that deviates from the way events occur in canon, often making one specific event happen differently in a way that affects the outcome of the entire story. Examples: A Harry Potter fic in which Harry was put into Slytherin House or a Brokeback Mountain fic in which Jack didn’t die and he and Ennis decided to be together.
AU!AU - fanfic that is not even close to being accurate to canon and doesn't change just one or a few aspects of the original story but as much as the whole story, setting, time period, and the characters' relationships to each other. Example: A Queer as Folk fanfic set in medieval times in which Brian is a knight and Michael and Justin are both princes and brothers. (Many may refer to fics others would call AU!AU or AR as just AU.)
angst - describes very emotional fanfic with lots of tortured emotions of misery and depression like jealousy, often with very over-the-top melodrama. Stories with not much actual action in them but a lot of characters thinking about their feelings and being sorry for themselves are usually what would be categorized as angst.
AR - Alternate Reality. Another term for AU!AU.
BBM - Brokeback Mountain.
beta reader - a fanfic editor who volunteers to read a writer’s story and give them feedback on it before it is posted anywhere for anyone else to read. Beta readers may give advice about anything including grammar, plot, accurate characterization, or correct use of slang or way of talking for the location and period.
canon - what is true according to the original material for which fanfiction is being written. Example: The James/Lily ship in Harry Potter is canon, while the Draco/Ginny ship is fanon.
The Crackfic - In Brokeback Mountain fandom, a nickname for the classic alternate universe fanfic “Human Interest” by MadLori. The author said she wrote this fanfic faster than anything she had ever written before and started calling it the crackfic because of how addicted she was to writing it. Fans adapted the name because of their addiction to reading it.
crackfic - Fanfiction that is intentionally unbelievable and insane, and often humorous.
crackmix - A fanmix not meant to be taken seriously, often intended to be funny.
drabble - a very short fanfic, usually meaning one that is no more than 100 words long.
F
fan art - artwork of characters or scenes from a book, movie, TV show, or game done by fans of the work.
fandom - the fan collective for a particular book, movie, TV show, comic, or whatever. Also refers to the activity of all fans of a work.
fan fiction/fanfic/fic - fiction written by fans of any book, movie, TV show, or game about the characters of that work.
fanmix - a soundtrack that a fan mixes for a particular story, character, or ship, using songs that remind them of it or that they think fit the subject.
fanon - the opposite of canon; what is not true according to the original material that fan art or fiction is done for, but made up by fans. Sometimes means something that is commonly accepted as true by fans through speculation but never clearly stated by the author or creator of the work.
fanvid - A fan-made “music video” of a movie or TV show assembling clips together into a montage that goes along to a song that the fan finds relevant to the story, ship, or character their video is about.
femmeslash/femslash - the pairing of two female characters in a romantic relationship in fan art or fanfic. Not as popular as slash.
ficlet - a fanfic vignette. Usually no longer than about 1,000 words.
ficmix - a fanmix that has included in its post drabbles or other short fanfiction pieces that are somehow related to the song choices on the mix.
fluff - fanfic that is very light-hearted, innocent, and sweet, and usually does not have sex in it. A story about Sirius and Remus having a picnic on Valentine’s Day and exchanging gifts but not getting frisky would most certainly be called fluff.
G-Q
gen/general - fanfic with no romance, focusing on individual characters rather than relationships between them. A fanfic all about Snape in his childhood would be called Snape gen.
HP - Harry Potter.
LJ - LiveJournal.
LOTR/LotR - Lord of the Rings.
The Marauders - In the Harry Potter fandom, the creators of the Marauder’s Map: James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. It was only recently confirmed by J.K. Rowling that they did in fact call themselves "the marauders" in addition to using the word for the map; before then it was somewhat of a fanon term.
Mary Sue - an original female character in fanfiction who is ridiculously perfect, beautiful, and all-powerful, who everybody falls in love with. A Mary Sue is often the author’s subtle way of inserting herself into her elaborate sex fantasy stories.
meme - a survey or quiz that is posted in livejournals or other blogs and passed around. Sometimes when people post memes they will "tag" specfic friends so they will have to do the meme in their journal as well.
MWPP - In the Harry Potter fandom, means the four creators of the Marauder’s Map: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.
NWS - Not Work Safe. A warning attached to fan art or other images that may be too graphic for you to want to be caught having on your computer screen at work, should a co-worker happen to stroll by.
OC/Original Character - A character the author made up who appears in their fanfiction. Authors often make up original characters to have romantic involvement with a character from the original work who has no obvious possible partner within canon.
OOC - Out Of Character. A common criticism an author might get for his/her fanfic is that characters are written OOC, or behaving or thinking in a way that the character would not in the original material. Sometimes, however, it is purposeful when a character is done OOC.
OTP/One True Pairing - what one calls his/her favorite ship that they adore above all others, although the term is fleetingly thrown around in joke (“Lucius/pimpcane = OTP”) and fans will sometimes call any ship they like an OTP. It can also mean the one ship in a fandom that is true to canon, therefore superior to all others.
Pilots - Nickname for the Kara/Lee ship from Battlestar Galactica. Now referred to by some as "Piloticians" to fit Lee's change in career.
plot bunny - an idea for a story that pops out of nowhere. “I need to do my homework but the plotbunnies are attacking me!”
The Pornstache - In Brokeback Mountain fandom, the nickname for Jack Twist’s porn star-like mustache. The pornstache is the cause of much controversy among BBM fans, for one either hates or loves the pornstache.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
teampornstache is a community of pornstache lovers, while the I Like Jake Without Pornstache Association (iljwpa) was created as a rival to Team Pornstache.
PWP - Porn Without Plot. Pretty self-explanatory.
R-S
rec - short for “recommendation.”
RPF/real person fiction - any fanfiction written about actors, singers, or other celebrities.
RPS/real person slash - fanfiction depicting two male celebrities in a romantic relationship.
ship - short for “relationship.” Refers to a pairing of two specific people from any work in a romantic relationship in fan art or fiction. If you think the idea of Kirk and Spock together is totally hot, you support the Kirk/Spock ship, or you are a Kirk/Spock shipper.
slash - the pairing of two male characters from an original work in a romantic relationship in fan art or fanfic. Slash ships are rarely canon. Most slash is created by women and read or enjoyed by women. The word originates from the slash used between two names to show a ship (Aragorn/Legolas).
smut - graphic sex in fanfiction. The line between smut and general description of sex is sometimes hard to draw, but usually any scene that names body parts with terms your health teacher didn’t teach you would be considered smut.
songfic - A fanfic inspired by and based on the lyrics of a song that fits the ship or story somehow and often has the lyrics inserted within the story.
spoiler - information about important events in a story that people who have no seen or read it yet may not want spoiled for them. If you post in a Harry Potter community two days after the latest book came out writing about how you can’t believe your favorite character died, you will probably get yelled at for giving spoilers. This is what lj-cuts and spoiler warnings are for. I myself don’t use them in this journal, so be careful.
T-Z
Team Edward - In the Twilight fandom, the sub-group of fans who want Bella Swan to stay in a relationship with Edward Cullen.
Team Jacob - In the Twilight fandom, the sub-group of fans who want Bella to leave Edward and be with Jacob Black, her friend who is also in love with her.
Team Switzerland - In the Twilight fandom, the sub-group of fans who are undecided or neutral in their opinion of whether she should be with Edward or Jacob. The name is inspired by a part of the third book in the Twilight series, Eclipse, when Bella refuses to pick between having Edward as a boyfriend and Jacob as a friend by saying, "I am neutral. I am Switzerland. I refuse to be affected by disputes between mythical creatures."
t00b - A generally nonsense word, usually playfully meaning “idiot.” It can be used as a verb to describe idly messing around or goofing off. Example: “I was t00bing around LJ when I found this community.”
The Trio - in Harry Potter fandom, the three main characters: Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
vignette - a short literary sketch describing a brief scene or incident.
WIP - Work In Progress.
w00t - An expression of joy or excitement that originated as an acronym for We Owned the Other Team. "My report card came and I didn't fail algebra, w00t!"
/ - symbolizes a romantic relationship between two characters in a fan work, or ship. When posting fanfic or fanfic recs for fandoms with a lot of characters and ships, I will often specify what characters are prominent in the story by writing something like "Characters: Sirius/Remus, James, Peter," which would mean the story involves a relationship between Sirius and Remus but also has important appearances of James and Peter.
Sources That Helped
The FictionAlley Dictionary of Terminology
MadLori's List Of Commonly Used LJisms
UrbanDictionary.com
Did I miss a word that should be here?? Tell me so!
I included some words and abbreviations that are specific to the most prominent fandoms represented with the recs and stuff on this journal.
Everything you need to know to talk like the t00bs
AU/Alternate universe - Fanfic that deviates from the way events occur in canon, often making one specific event happen differently in a way that affects the outcome of the entire story. Examples: A Harry Potter fic in which Harry was put into Slytherin House or a Brokeback Mountain fic in which Jack didn’t die and he and Ennis decided to be together.
AU!AU - fanfic that is not even close to being accurate to canon and doesn't change just one or a few aspects of the original story but as much as the whole story, setting, time period, and the characters' relationships to each other. Example: A Queer as Folk fanfic set in medieval times in which Brian is a knight and Michael and Justin are both princes and brothers. (Many may refer to fics others would call AU!AU or AR as just AU.)
angst - describes very emotional fanfic with lots of tortured emotions of misery and depression like jealousy, often with very over-the-top melodrama. Stories with not much actual action in them but a lot of characters thinking about their feelings and being sorry for themselves are usually what would be categorized as angst.
AR - Alternate Reality. Another term for AU!AU.
BBM - Brokeback Mountain.
beta reader - a fanfic editor who volunteers to read a writer’s story and give them feedback on it before it is posted anywhere for anyone else to read. Beta readers may give advice about anything including grammar, plot, accurate characterization, or correct use of slang or way of talking for the location and period.
canon - what is true according to the original material for which fanfiction is being written. Example: The James/Lily ship in Harry Potter is canon, while the Draco/Ginny ship is fanon.
The Crackfic - In Brokeback Mountain fandom, a nickname for the classic alternate universe fanfic “Human Interest” by MadLori. The author said she wrote this fanfic faster than anything she had ever written before and started calling it the crackfic because of how addicted she was to writing it. Fans adapted the name because of their addiction to reading it.
crackfic - Fanfiction that is intentionally unbelievable and insane, and often humorous.
crackmix - A fanmix not meant to be taken seriously, often intended to be funny.
drabble - a very short fanfic, usually meaning one that is no more than 100 words long.
fan art - artwork of characters or scenes from a book, movie, TV show, or game done by fans of the work.
fandom - the fan collective for a particular book, movie, TV show, comic, or whatever. Also refers to the activity of all fans of a work.
fan fiction/fanfic/fic - fiction written by fans of any book, movie, TV show, or game about the characters of that work.
fanmix - a soundtrack that a fan mixes for a particular story, character, or ship, using songs that remind them of it or that they think fit the subject.
fanon - the opposite of canon; what is not true according to the original material that fan art or fiction is done for, but made up by fans. Sometimes means something that is commonly accepted as true by fans through speculation but never clearly stated by the author or creator of the work.
fanvid - A fan-made “music video” of a movie or TV show assembling clips together into a montage that goes along to a song that the fan finds relevant to the story, ship, or character their video is about.
femmeslash/femslash - the pairing of two female characters in a romantic relationship in fan art or fanfic. Not as popular as slash.
ficlet - a fanfic vignette. Usually no longer than about 1,000 words.
ficmix - a fanmix that has included in its post drabbles or other short fanfiction pieces that are somehow related to the song choices on the mix.
fluff - fanfic that is very light-hearted, innocent, and sweet, and usually does not have sex in it. A story about Sirius and Remus having a picnic on Valentine’s Day and exchanging gifts but not getting frisky would most certainly be called fluff.
gen/general - fanfic with no romance, focusing on individual characters rather than relationships between them. A fanfic all about Snape in his childhood would be called Snape gen.
HP - Harry Potter.
LJ - LiveJournal.
LOTR/LotR - Lord of the Rings.
The Marauders - In the Harry Potter fandom, the creators of the Marauder’s Map: James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. It was only recently confirmed by J.K. Rowling that they did in fact call themselves "the marauders" in addition to using the word for the map; before then it was somewhat of a fanon term.
Mary Sue - an original female character in fanfiction who is ridiculously perfect, beautiful, and all-powerful, who everybody falls in love with. A Mary Sue is often the author’s subtle way of inserting herself into her elaborate sex fantasy stories.
meme - a survey or quiz that is posted in livejournals or other blogs and passed around. Sometimes when people post memes they will "tag" specfic friends so they will have to do the meme in their journal as well.
MWPP - In the Harry Potter fandom, means the four creators of the Marauder’s Map: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.
NWS - Not Work Safe. A warning attached to fan art or other images that may be too graphic for you to want to be caught having on your computer screen at work, should a co-worker happen to stroll by.
OC/Original Character - A character the author made up who appears in their fanfiction. Authors often make up original characters to have romantic involvement with a character from the original work who has no obvious possible partner within canon.
OOC - Out Of Character. A common criticism an author might get for his/her fanfic is that characters are written OOC, or behaving or thinking in a way that the character would not in the original material. Sometimes, however, it is purposeful when a character is done OOC.
OTP/One True Pairing - what one calls his/her favorite ship that they adore above all others, although the term is fleetingly thrown around in joke (“Lucius/pimpcane = OTP”) and fans will sometimes call any ship they like an OTP. It can also mean the one ship in a fandom that is true to canon, therefore superior to all others.
Pilots - Nickname for the Kara/Lee ship from Battlestar Galactica. Now referred to by some as "Piloticians" to fit Lee's change in career.
plot bunny - an idea for a story that pops out of nowhere. “I need to do my homework but the plotbunnies are attacking me!”
The Pornstache - In Brokeback Mountain fandom, the nickname for Jack Twist’s porn star-like mustache. The pornstache is the cause of much controversy among BBM fans, for one either hates or loves the pornstache.
teampornstache is a community of pornstache lovers, while the I Like Jake Without Pornstache Association (iljwpa) was created as a rival to Team Pornstache.PWP - Porn Without Plot. Pretty self-explanatory.
rec - short for “recommendation.”
RPF/real person fiction - any fanfiction written about actors, singers, or other celebrities.
RPS/real person slash - fanfiction depicting two male celebrities in a romantic relationship.
ship - short for “relationship.” Refers to a pairing of two specific people from any work in a romantic relationship in fan art or fiction. If you think the idea of Kirk and Spock together is totally hot, you support the Kirk/Spock ship, or you are a Kirk/Spock shipper.
slash - the pairing of two male characters from an original work in a romantic relationship in fan art or fanfic. Slash ships are rarely canon. Most slash is created by women and read or enjoyed by women. The word originates from the slash used between two names to show a ship (Aragorn/Legolas).
smut - graphic sex in fanfiction. The line between smut and general description of sex is sometimes hard to draw, but usually any scene that names body parts with terms your health teacher didn’t teach you would be considered smut.
songfic - A fanfic inspired by and based on the lyrics of a song that fits the ship or story somehow and often has the lyrics inserted within the story.
spoiler - information about important events in a story that people who have no seen or read it yet may not want spoiled for them. If you post in a Harry Potter community two days after the latest book came out writing about how you can’t believe your favorite character died, you will probably get yelled at for giving spoilers. This is what lj-cuts and spoiler warnings are for. I myself don’t use them in this journal, so be careful.
Team Edward - In the Twilight fandom, the sub-group of fans who want Bella Swan to stay in a relationship with Edward Cullen.
Team Jacob - In the Twilight fandom, the sub-group of fans who want Bella to leave Edward and be with Jacob Black, her friend who is also in love with her.
Team Switzerland - In the Twilight fandom, the sub-group of fans who are undecided or neutral in their opinion of whether she should be with Edward or Jacob. The name is inspired by a part of the third book in the Twilight series, Eclipse, when Bella refuses to pick between having Edward as a boyfriend and Jacob as a friend by saying, "I am neutral. I am Switzerland. I refuse to be affected by disputes between mythical creatures."
t00b - A generally nonsense word, usually playfully meaning “idiot.” It can be used as a verb to describe idly messing around or goofing off. Example: “I was t00bing around LJ when I found this community.”
The Trio - in Harry Potter fandom, the three main characters: Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
vignette - a short literary sketch describing a brief scene or incident.
WIP - Work In Progress.
w00t - An expression of joy or excitement that originated as an acronym for We Owned the Other Team. "My report card came and I didn't fail algebra, w00t!"
/ - symbolizes a romantic relationship between two characters in a fan work, or ship. When posting fanfic or fanfic recs for fandoms with a lot of characters and ships, I will often specify what characters are prominent in the story by writing something like "Characters: Sirius/Remus, James, Peter," which would mean the story involves a relationship between Sirius and Remus but also has important appearances of James and Peter.
Sources That Helped
The FictionAlley Dictionary of Terminology
MadLori's List Of Commonly Used LJisms
UrbanDictionary.com
Did I miss a word that should be here?? Tell me so!
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Date: 2006-07-02 08:29 pm (UTC)It is "an expression of joy or excitement." It originated as an acronym for "We Owned the Other Team." Guess I'll have to add that definition to the list.