| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
/
|
Two letters separated by a / in the title or description of a story usually means that it's about romance between two characters whose names start with these letters. Yes, sometimes figuring out who those characters are can be tricky if you don't know the fandom well!
The word slash (see entry) comes from this practice, derived from its use to denote same-sex relationships in the 'zine days -- the most famous being K/S (Kirk/Spock). However, in summaries or subject lines, the slash-mark itself is useful shorthand for labelling het relationships too, ie. L/R (Logan/Rogue).
Note: If one member of a pairing is considered dominant or the initiator of the relationship, his/her initial goes first. This is optional or unknown in many fandoms, but important in others and absolutely critical in yaoi or BDSM.
| general
|
|
!
|
When used before a word, this is known as a "bang" and signifies "not." Example: POP-UP FANFIC_OK !MST_OK means "You can reproduce this story as a pop-up fanfic but you may not reproduce this story as an MST." "!amused"=not amused, and so on. A holdover from a programming language, thus used mainly by techies and dinos.
When used between a modifier and a name, is just a cute way of connecting the two concepts. Ie. amused!Viggo, sulking!Egon.
| general (rare)
|
|
@
|
If you see this next to someone's name in an IRC channel, they have ops status.
| IRC
|
|
* *
|
Bracketing a word or phrase, these indicate:
- the old ASCII indicator for bolded text, in much the same way as / /=italics, ^H^H^H^H^ and / after each letter=strike-through, _ _=underline, etc.
- A physical action in a chat or other virtual interactive environment. Ie. *hug*="I just hugged you" (or "I would hug you if you were standing right here next to me.")
| 1) pre-Internet
2) chat, online RPGs
|
|
_____-shaped
|
A fill-in-the-blank way of referring to an RPG character's player, because publically revealing players' identities is frowned upon in most games. For example, someone referring to the person who plays Buffy Summers in their game might refer to him/her as "Buffy-shaped."
| LJ RPGs
|
|
+
|
Indicates a connection between characters but has different useages, which can usually be determined from the fandom and/or the story summary:
- Used by some to refer to nonsexual friendship or a family relationship between characters, as opposed to the slash (/) which indicates a sexual relationship.
- Used by some to denote uneven bonds in a relationship involving more than two characters, specifically to indicate a character whose emotional bond to the others is weaker. Often relates to three-way fics, where A/B+C can refer to anything from "A and B are in a committed relationship but have a PWP threesome with C" to "A, B, & C are in a menage a trois, but A and B care about each other much more than either does about C."
| general fandom
|
|
3TP
|
A term which makes no grammatical sense, honestly... See OT3.
| unknown
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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|
A/A
|
"Action/adventure" -- a story which focuses on fight scenes.
| Harry Potter
|
|
ABH
|
See Anywhere But Here.
| Star Wars
|
|
ACAD, Acad
|
Indicates a story taking place during the academy (specialized college) career of the characters involved.
| Star Trek, Star Wars
|
|
ACFF
|
"Alt.comic.fan-fiction," a newsgroup spun off of RACMX many years ago in order to keep the loonies in their own bin. As to who exactly the loonies are, I'll let you draw your own conclusions. Sadly, this newsgroup has pretty much been abandoned to tumbleweeds and spam.
| comics
|
|
active fan
|
One who gets personally involved in the fan community beyond merely enjoying the source material. The latter is a casual fan. Can be a bone of contention as there are different schools of thought as to how to define "active."
| UK fandom since at least the 50s
|
|
actorfic, actor-fanfic
|
Stories about the actors themselves, as opposed to the characters they play. See real-people fic.
| Xena, Roswell
|
|
actorslash
|
See real-people fic.
| Xena
|
|
adult
|
Refers to tales which are inappropriate for children due to sexual content, violence, or mature subject matter.
| general
|
|
Agent, the
|
A fannish nickname for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, based on the concept that the Sherlock Holmes stories were really authored by Dr. John Watson, and that Doyle merely acted as Watson's literary agent to get them published. (An aspect of The Great Game.)
| Sherlock Holmes
|
|
Age Of Sail
|
A general term for any fandoms set within the era of cannons and wind-propelled warships -- see next field for a list.
| Horatio Hornblower, Master & Commander, Pirates Of The Caribbean
|
|
age statement
|
Anything which makes the reader declare that he/she is legally old enough to access adult material. Often found in the form of a link that must be purposely clicked to access adult material, thus removing liability from the writer and archivist.
| general
|
|
AGoL
|
"Ares God of Love" -- Ares' designation in certain alternate-universe episodes, abbreviated in this manner to differentiate him from Ares' normal nasty self (sometimes denoted as AGoW -- "Ares God of War"). Noted here because it's not an immediately apparent acronym.
| Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
|
|
AGoW
|
"Ares God of War." See AGoL for full explanation.
| Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
|
|
alternate reality
|
In many fandoms, a story which transplants familiar characters into situations totally different from canon, such as Snape as a pirate captain and Harry as the cabin boy. Not to be confused with AU, which is often defined more as a possibilty resulting from a change in the canon timeline, but these two terms tend to be interchangeable.
| general fandom
|
|
alternate universe
|
Imagine a universe slightly different from ours... All fictional settings and the variants thereof are said to take place in alternate universes, as if they're actually real but can't be seen or reached except by the imagination -- or by crossovers. ;) Sometimes this term is shortened to AU or A/U, and it is often the subject of debate in comparision to alternate realities. See also Elseworld (DC/Marvel) and uber (Xena).
| general
|
|
alternative fiction
|
Another term for slash
| Xena
|
|
Americanisms
|
American spellings, terms, and references, usually regarded as glaring fangirl errors in fandoms whose canon is set in England or related locales.
| Harry Potter
|
|
AMV
|
The acronym for Anime Music Video.
| anime/manga
|
|
ANC
|
"Annoying New Character" -- an author-created character who (obviously) annoys the hell out of readers. Often, but not always, a Mary Sue.
| anime/manga
|
|
angst
|
Refers to the emotional wounds suffered and/or borne by a character, especially if they spend pages moaning about their miserable life in great detail. Can add intensity to a story or turn it into one big long pityparty. Warning: angst can be addictive!
| general
|
|
angstfic
|
A tale, generally a vignette and often first-person, which ruminates on the heavy emotional repercussions of a character's ruined relationships, life, month, day, hairstyle, etc. 'Ware suicide.
| general
|
|
anime
|
Short form of "animeshon," the Japanese phonetic spelling of "animation." While technically it refers to all animation, anime fans reserve "cartoon" for Western fare. The old term Japanimation is considered offensive, both racially and as a lame pun. See manga for the difference between the two mediums.
| anime/manga
|
|
anime music video
|
A fan-production wherein scenes from a favorite show are spliced together to an appropriate song. Considered a creative outlet as much as fanfic or fanart. Often abbreviated to AMV.
| anime/manga
|
|
Annoying Original Female Character
|
Any Original Female Character who's, well, irritating as all hell. Usually a Mary Sue. Often abbreviated to AOFC.
| general
|
|
anonymouse
|
Someone who posts anonymously in a forum or comment thread. Often shortened to "mouse"; the plural, of course, is "anonymice."
| Fandom_Wank, most likely
|
|
anonymice
|
The plural of anonymouse. :)
| Fandom_Wank, most likely
|
|
antific
|
A story in which an author abuses and/or kills off the cast of a show, book, or story he/she dislikes. Rather childish, but sometimes funny.
| MST3K
|
|
Any Two Guys
|
A poorly-written slash story which is so generic that if you changed the names and a few minor details, the main characters could be mistaken for any two men pulled off the street. Usually abbreviated to ATG
| unknown
|
|
Anywhere But Here
|
A type of story told in second-person form (ie. "He walks over and takes your hand...") These tend to be sexual in nature and are generally regarded as pretty bloody horrible. Usually abbreviated to ABH.
| Star Wars
|
|
AOFC
|
The acronym for Annoying Original Female Character.
| general
|
|
APA
|
Amateur Press (or Publication) Association (or Alliance) -- an old-fashioned way of distributing fan-related materials in which contributors submitted pages to an editor who photocopied and mailed out the collated result. Some APAs featured fanfic, though it was not originally called that. APAs still exist and are sometimes mentioned in connection with fanfic.
| old fandom
|
|
AR
|
See alternate reality
| general fandom
|
|
AR
|
See Attempted Rape
| general fandom
|
|
archive (n.)
|
A collection of fanfic available on a website or automatically logged for a mailing list. The former is handled done by an archivist, either of their own work or that of others, with express permissions; the latter is automatically handled by a list server under the assumption that anyone posting to the list knows in advance that their posted work will be logged for future access. A third as-yet-rare type of archive allows writers to archive their own work (ie. www.fanfiction.net).
| general
|
|
archive (v.)
|
To save a story, essay, comment, etc. in an archive.
| general
|
|
archive fic
|
Originally created by Buffy archivist Anya to present her archive updates in an amusing fashion, this is one clever way to keep an off-topic post on-topic. Basically, the author writes him/herself into a short fic interacting with a character(s). Usually used to get information out to a mailing list. Also known in comic-fanfic circles as a feedback fic.
| Buffy
|
|
archivist
|
Any person who owns/manages an online repository of information, either on a website or in a public FTP. In fandom's case, this usually refers specifically to someone who archives fanfic and/or fanart.
| general
|
|
Asylumverse
|
Like the Wishverse and the Birthdayverse, a canon Jossverse AU -- this one created by a Buffy season-six episode called "Normal Again" in which Buffy hallucinates that she's been in an insane asylum for the past six years. Thus everything since becoming the Slayer was never real, including the existence of her sister and the death of her mother. This term covers any AU fanfic connected to this premise. Also called "the Normalverse."
| Buffy
|
|
ATG
|
See Any Two Guys.
| unknown
|
|
Attempted Rape
|
In Buffy fandom, this specifically refers to a scene in the episode "Seeing Red" wherein Spike attempts to rape Buffy after she rejects him. This event is hugely controversial within the fandom, provoking flamewars over whether it was morally rape, whether it was in character, whether it was artistically successful, and/or whether the characters could have a romantic relationship of any kind afterwards. Often abbreviated to AR, an acronym not to be confused with Alternate Reality.
| Buffyverse
|
|
AU, A/U
|
See alternate universe.
| Star Trek, general
|
|
Aubrey/Maturin
|
It looks like a slash term, yes, and it may be used as such, but it is also an official canon term for the Patrick O'Brian novels adapted to screen in "Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World." Chortle all you like, slashfen.
| Master & Commander
|
|
Aus, A(us)
|
Shorthand for "Angelus," Angel's evil unsouled counterpart -- as opposed to "A" for "Angel." Noted here because it's not an immediately apparent acronym.
| Buffy, Angel
|
|
Aura Of Smooth
|
An imaginary energy field said to exist around blatant Mary Sues or other self-insertions. It's the only explanation for how the canon characters suddenly turn into gullible shadows of their normal selves around 'em.
| MST3K
|
|
avatar
|
1) A character which represents the person that created him/her -- a fictional version of the real person, so to speak. Most writers have several "me" characters but only one true avatar.
2) A small image used to represent oneself in messageboards and forums. An icon is technically also an avatar, but the name has taken on its own meaning.
| gaming, general
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
Babe Of The Week
|
According to Kat: "You know how Our Hunky Hero always seems to meet, each episode, a beautiful (feisty) woman who ends up going out with him and/or exchanging kisses with him, and/or going to bed with him before the end of the episode -- and is then never seen or heard from again? She's the Babe Of The Week." Usually abbreviated to BOTW.
| Sentinel, others
|
|
babyfic
|
Fanfic in which the main characters adopt and/or raise children. Usually refers to a subgenre of Mulder Scully Married (MSM) fanfic.
| X-Files
|
|
badfic
|
To quote (edited) from the source itself:
1) Fiction that is intentionally bad, written to entertain and amuse, and also educate, by pointing out common errors made by inexperienced writers.
2) Fiction that is unintentionally bad; the author thinks it's good. Often those who know the difference between good and bad fic don't know whether to laugh or cry...
| Buffy
|
|
baka
|
Japanese for idiot, dope, moron, fool, etc. Most famously heard as "Ranma no baka!" ("Ranma, you idiot!") Has crept into many anime fans' vocabulary.
| anime/manga
|
|
bandom
|
A punnish nickname for fandoms centering around fictionalizing real-life bands like the Goo Goo Dolls, Good Charlotte, Nirvana, etc. Term said to have been coined by Raedyn.
| band fandoms
|
|
Barbieshipper
|
A fan of a particular pairing that acts a particular way. Barbieshippers want their pairing to behave in an idealized fashion, and tend to throw fits if anything threatens that cherished bubble. Get a good full explanation here.
| X-Files
|
|
Barbieshipping
|
See Barbieshipper.
| X-Files
|
|
bard
|
One who writes Xena and/or Hercules fanfic. See fanficcer.
| Xena
|
|
basher fic
|
Fanfic devoted to vilifying, humiliating, torturing, and/or killing a character who the author dislikes. The character in question may be portrayed as anything from a buffoon to a jerk to a psychotic monster, even if he/she was never portrayed as any of these in canon.
| general
|
|
BBS
|
Boy Band Slash, ie. NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys, etc. Yes, it exists, and there's a lot of it. See also slash and RPS.
| slash
|
|
bdsm, BDSM
|
Bondage, domination, sado-masochism. A term from outside of fanfic, but a useful one to know when deciphering ratings.
| general
|
|
Best Served, First In
|
The policy of adding stories to an archive in order of their ease of addition; that is, those stories which are easy to archive (well spelled, properly spaced, correctly formatted) are generally added first.
| unknown
|
|
beta, betaread, beta-read
|
To edit and comment on someone else's work before it's finalized, taken presumably from the old software term "betatesting." Betareading brings a fresh perspective to a rough draft -- by the definition of the word, one cannot beta one's own work.
| general
|
|
betareader, beta-reader
|
Someone who edits your work upon your request (or bribe). You cannot be your own betareader, and unsolicited comments from readers after the story goes live do not count.
| general
|
|
bezoar
|
Another term for troll -- originally a B:TVS monster who controlled others' minds through its foul eggs. In appearance, a huge, gaping maw.
| Buffy
|
|
BGM
|
Short for "background music" -- an integral part of the anime experience, for some fans.
| anime/manga
|
|
bi-faux-nen
|
A humorous term invented by the Yaoi Files to denote girls who either happen to look like pretty boys or are purposely masquerading as males. A pun on the term bishounen.
| anime/manga
|
|
Big Name Fan
|
Someone who is so active in fandom that their name becomes well-known in fan circles, to the point that sometimes other fans want their autographs or pay their way as guest speakers. A term originally native to conventions and other traditional fan gatherings, it has appeared online and now takes on a negative connotation of "arrogant and sel-important." A step lower on the totem pole is the WKF (Well-Known Fan) -- Lord knows who makes the distinction. Usually abbreviated to BNF. Also called a superfan.
| old fandom
|
|
Birthdayverse
|
Yet another Jossverse canonical AU; this one comes from the third season Angel episode "Birthday," in which we see what would have happened if Cordelia had come to LA and met neither Angel nor Russell Winters. She becomes a famous actress with her own sitcom; Angel gets mystical visions and goes mad. See Asylumverse and Wishverse for other popular AUs in this genre.
| Buffy, Angel
|
|
bishie
|
Having bishonen qualities.
| anime/manga
|
|
bishounen
|
"Beautiful young man" -- refers to any male so inhumanly handsome that he's pretty, as often seen in popular anime. Although not generally automatically associated with adult stories, this word's etymology is covered in Yumemisama's full explanation of anime/manga adult story classifications.
| anime/manga
|
|
BLFC
|
See Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.
| fiction
|
|
blog
|
Short for "weblog" -- denotes any online diary or journal. LiveJournal is popular with the fic/RPG crowd, as is GreatestJournal
| general
|
|
Blue Believers
|
An old Beast/Nightcrawler/anyone-cool-&-blue fanclub.
| comics
|
|
BNF
|
See Big Name Fan.
| old fandom
|
|
BOB
|
(Julian) Bashir/(Miles) O'Brien, a popular near-canonical slash pairing. Noted here because with no clarifying slash or hyphen it could confuse a newcomer to the fandom.
| Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
|
|
BoLT
|
Book Of Lost Tales -- a set of unfinished canon works.
| Tolkien
|
|
BOTW
|
See Babe Of The Week.
| Sentinel, others
|
|
boyfic
|
A sarcastic term for stories big on action, explosions, and violence but low on character development.
| X-Files
|
|
breaking the fourth wall
|
The fourth wall is what you can't see when you look at a movie or a comic panel -- the invisible barrier which separates fantasy from reality. A character breaks the fourth wall when they speak or refer directly to their audience or creator, revealing awareness of their fictional existence. Not strictly a fanfic term, but a useful one. The fourth wall is pretty much a shattered ruin in any Subreality story or metafic.
| general
|
|
Brit-pick, britpick
|
To correct or betaread a story in such a way that brings its lexicon, spelling, etc. in line with British usage.
| Harry Potter
|
|
Britspeak
|
British spellings, terms, and references, important in fandoms whose canon is set in England or related locales.
| Harry Potter
|
|
Buffyverse
|
Referring to the world shared by the canons of "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" and "Angel: The Series." Often now called the MEverse, or subsumed by the word Jossverse to include "Firefly."
| Buffy, Angel
|
|
Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, the
|
The BLFC is an annual competition at San Jose State University which challenges entrants to write the worst possible novel-opening sentence. Edward George Bulwer-Lytton was a minor Victorian novelist and the original author of the notorious "It was a dark and stormy night."
| fiction
|
|
bunny
|
See plot bunny.
| general
|
|
bunny
|
A dangerous sneaky eeevil little beast. Don't be fooled!
| Monty Python, Buffy
|
|
bunny
|
Gamer/tech slang for "a (usually female) person manning a stand at a convention/trade show who appears to be employed largely as sentient visual decoration rather than because of any knowledge or interest in the product." (Thanks to Philip Eagle for the phrase.)
| cons
|
|
bunny
|
Short for "boink bunny" -- somebody met for casual playful sex, often in the context of a convention. Not technically a fanfic term, and not a very common one, but it does pop up! Term created/popularized by Trisha Sebastian.
| comics, anime/manga
|
|
bunnyslippers, predatory canaballistic
|
Namely Wink-Wink and Nudge-Nudge, writer Abyss's imaginary sentient footwear. It's a long story. Suffice it to say that they're small, cute, fluffy, and known throughout comic fanficdom as the most dangerous creatures in the multiverse.
| general
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
C&C
|
"Comments And Criticism" -- another word for feedback. According to Andrew Dynon, "Authors need the former to survive -- without it they either curl up into a ball and die, or buy an Uzi and take out a K-Mart. They don't like the latter, and will often respond with posts the size of doctoral theses as to why they are right and you are wrong."
| anime/manga
|
|
canon
|
An adjective referring to a character, event, plotline, etc. which happened "for real" -- the actual professional source material. Note that "canon" is a term used throughout most fanficdoms, not just here. On the Star Trek fanfic forums, this is sometimes jokingly referred to as TDC (The Dread Canon). See also fanon and manon.
| general
|
|
canon rape
|
A writer is committing canon rape when they twist the canon characters, setting, etc. so far out of alignment that it burns to read. May occur to accommodate a Mary Sue, a bad parody, no research, or simply a total lack of writing ability.
| general
|
|
casual fan, casual
|
A fan who merely enjoys reading/watching, as opposed to an active fan.
| Star Trek
|
|
CBFFAs
|
The Annual Comic-Book Fan-Fiction Awards, an open fic/writer popularity vote first instituted in early 1998 -- voting is conducted in December/January (watch this site and others) and the results are presented in a rather unique form in March (hopefully!). The virtual award taken home by winners is called the Creative License.
| comics
|
|
CC
|
See Conventional Couple
| Roswell
|
|
CFAN
|
The Comic-Book Fanfic Authors' Network (yes, I know the acronym doesn't fit exactly) -- the major hubsite for comic ficdom, now on hiatus.
| comics
|
|
challenge
|
An informal game played in writing circles -- one person says "Hey, I dare you to write about [X]!" and anyone who likes the idea responds with a story about it. [X] can be a character, a particular set of characters, a crossover, a situation, an event, or even a set of funny lines or objects that must be included within the body of the story. A challenge must be interesting, unusual, and original -- something that hasn't been done before, if possible. Ie. if characters X and Y have been written as a couple a hundred times already, asking for more stories about them is not a challenge.
| general
|
|
challenge fic
|
Any story written as the result of a challenge.
| general
|
|
-chan
|
A Japanese suffix that implies that one is younger and more innocent. It could be translated as "sweetie," "little one," "dear," or even "junior." Used as an endearment or as a component of the word chanslash.
| anime/manga
|
|
chan
|
Short for chanslash.
| Star Wars
|
|
chanslash
|
Slash stories wherein one member of the pairing is under the legal age of consent (usually between 13-18 years of age but can also be under 21). When George Lucas based the Jedi upon Samurai warriors, he neglected the fact that the Samurai expected apprentices to "service" them in return for training. Many Phantom Menace slash writers have thus interpreted this into Jedi tradition. NOTE: Many archives/lists will not accept chanslash. Chanslash archives are often underground to avoid legal difficulties. See also shotacon and lolicon.
| Star Wars
|
|
character death
|
A warning placed in the header of a story in which one or more major characters dies. Yeah, I know, my opinions shouldn't be expressed on this page, but honestly: "Oh no, you killed [insert character name here] without warning me! I'm traumatized! Boo hoo! Waaaah!" *snort* Babies. Go read "Devil's Due" and get out of my face.
| general
|
|
chibi
|
Japanese for "small/cute." When used as a prefix, such as "chibi-Ramna" or "chibi!Heero," it indicates that a character is being depicted in a superdeformed style. It's also used to indicate the young version of a character, such as in a flashback, or just someone so damn adorable that they're unreal. Often associated with the exclamation "kawaii!"
| anime/manga
|
|
chi-bishounen
|
A humorous term invented by the Yaoi Files to denote cute young boys in the range of 10 to 13 years old. Taken from the words chibi and bishounen. Good examples are the Clamp Campus Detectives.
| anime/manga
|
|
Childhood Killer
|
Denotes material most likely to spoil innocent memories of fandoms you held dear as a kid. Abbreviated to CK!, and often involves toon porn.
| GAFF
|
|
citrus, citrusy
|
Indicates a tale with a strongly erotic tone yet without any actual sex. Read Yumemisama's full explanation of anime/manga adult story classifications.
| anime/manga
|
|
civilian
|
Someone who comments and interacts with people from the Must Be Pop game, but are just themselves (not portraying anyone famous) and only playing along with the game's concept.
| LiveJournal
|
|
CK!
|
See Childhood Killer
| GAFF
|
|
Classic Who
|
Official BBC name, accepted by fandom, to refer to the original Doctor Who television series (1963-1989) on contrast to the current revival of the series.
| Doctor Who
|
|
clone
|
In an online RPG, a duplicate created of a character who is still active -- either an innocent mistake or a vicious attempt at an override, but either way a big no-no. In some games, this term can blur to mean any duplicate of any character, active or retired.
| LJ RPGs, probably originating in MustBePop
|
|
cocooning
|
Like 'shipping but more so -- it refers to a practice wherein two roleplayers seek out or fall into a pairing (or multiple pairings) so tight that they stop roleplaying with others. A very negative term.
| online RPGs
|
|
combined story
|
A story involving more than one Trek series -- ie. TNG/DS9 (Next Generation/Voyager).
| Star Trek
|
|
Common People, The
|
An open-to-all-writers anthology of short stories dealing with everyday non-superhero life in the Marvel Universe. This concept can be used in other genres. Often abbreviated to TCP.
| comics, Gundam Wing
|
|
Companion
|
1) In Firefly, an educated upscale prostitute.
2) In Mercedes Lackey's books, a telepathic white horse.
3) In Fiona Patton's books, a bodyguard/concubine.
Not to be confused with a companion in Doctor Who. ;)
| see above
|
|
companion
|
Used for decades refer any of the various characters who have accompanied the Doctor in his wanderings through space and time. Appears to have been used for the first time in canon dialogue in the episode Aliens Of London.
| Doctor Who
|
|
con
|
Slang for a fan-related convention, often used as a modifier (ie. consuite, San Diego ComicCon). Small organized gatherings of fans who don't normally get to see each other are also often called cons.
| old fandom
|
|
con
|
Short for consensual.
| general
|
|
concom
|
Short for convention committee.
| Star Trek
|
|
conrep
|
Short for con report.
| general
|
|
con report
|
A fan's personal report of their dealings and meetings at a convention, nowadays often posted to blogs or con-related sites. Sometimes shortened to "conrep."
| general
|
|
consensual
|
In fanfic, this refers to sexual relations or situations (as elements within a story) which are agreed to by all involved fictional parties. Shortened to "con" in subject headers.
| general
|
|
constructive criticism
|
Story feedback that is helpful, useful, and detailed, rather than rude, curt, disparaging, or happy-happy positive. Also called constructive feedback.
| general
|
|
constructive feedback
|
See constructive criticism.
| general
|
|
continuation
|
A fanfic which follows on from the end of a series or movie.
| anime/manga
|
|
convention committee
|
The group of volunteers who plans and manage a convention. Sometimes shortened to "concom."
| Star Trek
|
|
Conventional Couple
|
The pair who's definitely an item in canon, or whom will obviously end up together in the end. Often abbreviated to CC.
| Roswell
|
|
crossover
|
A story which straddles two different fandoms. Can be as close mixing characters from different universes within a genre (ie. Batman/Wolverine) or as wildly disparate as you can imagine (ie. Buffy/Teletubbies). These stories can either be great fun or infamously horrible, depending on the skill of the writer. Sometimes spelled "cross-over" or abbreviated to "C/O" but not with comic fandom.
| general
|
|
Conqueror-Warrior/Slave
|
Refers to all stories which take place in an alternate timeline wherein Xena forgets/pretends/becomes/is a warlord and goes on to conquer kingdoms, etc. Not necessarily Xena The Conqueror, but similar.
| Xena, Hercules
|
|
cosplay
|
"Costume play." To go to a convention or a roleplaying event dressed up as a favorite character; more common in Japan and anime fandom, but you can probably spot 'em at any con.
| anime/manga
|
|
crackfic
|
A fanfic whose concept is so out there, one wonders what the author was snorting when they wrote. Sometimes deliberate, sometimes just WTF?
| general
|
|
cross-gen, crossgen
|
See cross-generational
| Harry Potter
|
|
cross-generational
|
Describes stories featuring pairings with a large age differnce, with the younger character is usually (but not always) underage. In HP fandom, often specifically describes teacher/student relations. Oten abbreviated to cross-gen or crossgen.
| Harry Potter
|
|
CrystalWank
|
Origin of the phrase "my hed iz pastede on yay!" A thread on Fandom_Wank about a woman who passes off Photoshopped photos as her own artwork; said thread ballooned up to a monstrous size and is rather entirely inexplicable...
| journaldom
|
|
CSI
|
"Crazy space incest" -- refers to any story featuring a Simon/River pairing.
| Firefly
|
|
CSM
|
"Cigarette-Smoking Man" (aka Cancerman, the Smoking Man) -- a fannish nickname for Agent Mulder's archnemesis. Noted here because it's not an immediately apparent acronym.
| X-Files
|
|
Cult Of The Pallid Hunter, The
|
Fanficcers who insist upon writing Iolaus as a whimpering, crying, helpless little man subservient to and dependant upon Hercules.
| Hercules
|
|
curtain story, curtainfic
|
A mookily domestic little tale wherein the characters go shopping for furnishings or somesuch. Usually slash, but not always.
| Jossverse, Harry Potter
|
|
CWC
|
"Curse? What curse?" or "Clause? What clause?" A reference to the "curse" that prevents Angel from achieving, er, happiness. CWC is how some ficcers ignore this major plotpoint to have him boink anyone he wants without reverting to his evil self Angelus.
| B:TVS, Angel
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
Dane, 'Dane, dane, 'dane
|
An insult with a fantasy-fan/SCA flavor. See Mundane.
| old fandom
|
|
darkfic
|
A story involving a large amount of death/pain/trauma being inflicted on the characters, often to force out characterization. To quote Elsa Bibat's essay "A Long Strange Walk": "Those who really don't like seeing their favourite characters slaughtered or emotionally and mentally scarred for life are advised not to read anything with a [DARK] tag or warning." In anime/manga a darkfic is especially a tale from a series otherwise considered fairly "light" or comedic, and is also called a shockfic.
| anime/manga
|
|
Dark Jedi
|
A Fallen Jedi Knight seduced by the power of the Dark Side of the Force. I note this here because it is a bone of contention -- some Star Wars fans believe that being a Jedi is akin to religion (if you've turned dark, you've stopped being a Jedi), while others state that once a Jedi, always a Jedi.
| Star Wars
|
|
denialfic
|
AU fics written to prevent or avert tragic canonical events. Also AU fics which rewrite or retcon a storyline that the ficcer simply didn't like. Often created as immediate angry or grief-stricken reactions, these tend to be met with contempt or sympathy depending on the quality, but they're generally not viewed as good writing.
| general
|
|
dldr
|
Stands for "don't like, don't read" -- a controversial fanfic disclaimer note since Suethors latched onto it as a lame defense for crap writing in the form of a shield against criticism.
| general fandom, likely Fanfiction.net
|
|
DSBS
|
See dim-smoky-bar-scenario
| band fandoms
|
|
deathfic
|
A fic where one or more characters die or have just died, usually written to focus on how the remaining characters cope with the loss.
| anime/manga
|
|
delurk, delurking
|
To quit being a lurker by publically posting a story or an introduction. (Personal comments/feedback don't really count as only the person thus addressed will see them.) Also serves as a noun referring to that first public post.
| general
|
|
derivative fiction
|
Creative works that are based on another's ideas. An older and more technical term for fanfiction.
| old fandom
|
|
Deus Ex Machina, deus ex machina
|
Latin for "God From The Machine." According to XxphenixX, "In (Greco)Roman theater, a god would often mystically appear to extricate a character from a difficult situation and/or generally resolve the conflict of the tale; the person playing the god would be held up by stage machinery, hence the 'machina.'" In fandom, this refers to a contrived plot device which resolves an otherwise insurmountable problem, and as such are regarded as the cop-out refuge of a bad writer or an amateur gamemaster.
| general
|
|
Devil's Triangle
|
Another interesting scuffle in Star Wars fandom. This term is used solely by Anakin/Amidala 'shippers who think any sort of love triangle involving those two (ie. Amidala/Obi-Wan) is disgusting and unthinkable.
| Star Wars
|
|
dim-smoky-bar-scenario
|
A tired bandom cliche wherein a character (usually a female self-insert) runs into the fronter of her author's favorite band at a generic dim smoky bar. This supposedly hardcore fan doesn't recognize him until he introduces himself (usually in a deep, seductive voice), making the reader want to scream, "It's [insert name]! You know it's [insert name]!" Invariably leads to poorly-written romance. Term said to have been coined by Raedyn.
| Goo-Goo Dolls, other band fandoms
|
|
dino
|
An oldtimer ("Call me a dino, but I remember back when...").
| general
|
|
dinew
|
Someone who was an dino in another fanficdom but is new to this one. Term coined by Trisha Sebastian.
| comics
|
|
DISC
|
Short for "discussion" -- on some mailing lists or forums this notation is added to a message's subject line to indicate that it is a discussion.
| comics
|
|
disclaimers
|
Information usually placed at the top of a fanfic. Disclaimers can include legal disclaimers (ie. who owns what in the story to follow), dedications, rating, plot summary, and various explanatory author's notes. In Subreality fic, full disclaimers are often placed at the bottom to avoid spoiling surprise guest appearances. Also known in other fandoms as headers or header info, though this can more generically refer to the info automatically placed on top of an e-mail.
| general
|
|
djka
|
Abbreviation of doujinka.
| manga
|
|
doma
|
See dong ma
| Firefly
|
|
dong ma
|
Mandarin Chinese (more or less) for "understand?" or "got it?" Used in Mandarin-heavy Firefly canon, and thus now by fans. Often mistranslated and/or misprounounced as "doma."
| Firefly
|
|
double drabble
|
A vignette exactly 200 words long. See drabble.
| Doctor Who
|
|
doujinka
|
A fan who draws manga (doujinshi). Sometimes shortened to "djka."
| anime/manga
|
|
doujinshi
|
Self-published or non-mainstream published mangas; some have original characters but others are based on pre-existing series and thus count as fanfic. Many doujinshi are created by groups of artists called doujinka.
| anime/manga
|
|
drabble
|
Set by the Birmingham University SF Society as thus: a self-contained vignette of exactly 100 words, no more, no less, with up to 15 more words are allowed for the title. Hyphenated words are in dispute. The term originates from a Monty Python skit: "Drabble. A word game for 2 to 4 players. The four players sit from left to right and the first person to write a novel wins." Drabbles started in British SF fandom in the late '80s. A half-drabble is fifty words long; a double drabble is 200 words long. | Doctor Who
|
|
Dread Canon, the
|
A joking term used on Star Trek fanfic forums. See canon.
| Star Trek
|
|
D/S, D/s, d/s
|
Dominance/submission, with consent implied.
| general
|
|
dusted
|
When a vampire is staked or beheaded in the Buffyverse, it instantly turns into dust. (This was an expensive special effect, but it's better than having to explain all those bodies in the morning.) Thus when a vampire is "killed," it's been dusted.
| Buffy, Angel
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
EBE
|
Extraterrestrial Biological Entity. A term often used in X-Files fanfic instead of "aliens" both for its higher degree of precision and its frequent use on the show.
| X-Files
|
|
ecchi
|
The letter "H" in Japanese -- the first letter of hentai, and thus used to mean "pervert!" or "just a bit of kinky/naughty." Can also refer to material containing softcore eroticism.
| anime/manga
|
|
ETA
|
An abbreviation of "Edited To Add," frequently used by bloggers to draw attention to new content added onto an existing post.
| blogs
|
|
egoboo, ego-boo
|
Short for "ego boost," an old term -- basically any verbal encouragement or support a writer receives, be it spoken or typed. The recently-invented opposite is negoboo.
| APAs/fanzines
|
|
ELF
|
Any story that places Lucas (seaQuest's teen genius) in a bad situation (ie. child abuse, kidnapping, etc) from which he can escape or be rescued for the sake of character development. Variations of this idea can probably be fitted to similar characters in other fandoms.
| seaQuest DSV
|
|
ELOC, eloc
|
E-Mailed Letter Of Comment -- not commonly used. See LOC.
| old fandom
|
|
Elricest
|
Slash featuring Alphonse and Edward, the main-character brothers of Full Metal Alchemist, who share the surname "Elric." This scenario requires the younger brother to be restored to human form, and thus this subgenre tends to be heavy on fluff and angst. Not to be confused with author Michael Moorcock's infamous canon Mary Sue Elric of Melnibone.
| Full Metal Alchemist
|
|
Elseworld
|
Taken from the DC comics of the same name, an Elseworld is an alternate reality or perhaps another timezone -- you may recognize the basic characters, but they are analogues leading different lives. Ie. mutants cropping up in the old West, or Batman living during the Inquisition. See also uber.
| comics
|
|
ep
|
Episode of a TV show.
| general
|
|
erotica
|
A highly subjective term often used to differentiate "tasteful" or "classy" x-rated stories from "trashy porn." As Gloria Leonard says, "The difference between pornography and erotica is lighting."
| general
|
|
Estrogen Brigade
|
a humorous term used by some segments of female fandom who are devoted to a male star, ie. the PMEB (Paul McGann Estrogen Brigade), the DDEB (David Duchovny Estrogen Brigade), or the HJEB (Hugh Jackman Estrogen Brigade).
| several
|
|
EU, E/U
|
See Extended Universe.
| Star Wars
|
|
euchronia
|
To envision a better time, usually in terms of a golden age (versus "eutopia," the envisioning of a better place). Noted here because long-term fans tend to do it. A LOT. ;)
| Star Trek
|
|
Extended Universe
|
Refers to any Star Wars information derived from a source other than the films -- books, comics, toy boxes, computer games, etc. Often abbreviated to EU or E/U.
| Star Wars
|
|
EZB
|
EZBoard, a free service often used to host fic-related messageboards. Feature-laden but loaded with pop-ups.
| general
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
faanfiction
|
Nope, that's not a typo -- this is an old term referring to self-referential fiction about fans and/or fandom itself, usually in the form of satire laden with injokes. See Subreality or metafic for more recent Internet equivalents.
| old fandom
|
|
face-fault
|
An expression of shock or surprise -- the character's mouth hangs open, their face sags, and their eyes go huge and blank. Similar to the "jaw-drop" of American animation.
| anime/manga
|
|
face-plant
|
An expression of shock or surprise -- the character falls down face-first, as if they have literally been knocked over by astonishment. Usually a reaction to monumental stupidity.
| anime/manga
|
|
Factions
|
Divisions among Forever Knight fans, a highly splintered fandom -- ie. those who support particular pairings (slash or het), characters (Knighties, FoD=Friends of Don), traits (Dark Knighties, Dark Perks), icons (Caddywhackers), and even those who refuse to be pigeon-holed (DieHards).
| Forever Knight
|
|
|
|
fake!____
|
Referring to an RPG character or their journal, usually by the player remarking OOC ("Only those interested in fake!Jessica will need to read this"). Not to be confused with "FAKE," which is the name of an anime series.
| LiveJournal RPGs
|
|
fake!fic
|
A fanfic written "by" an RPG character, or rather by their player writing in-character. Usually meant for laughs and not to be taken seriously.
| LiveJournal RPGs
|
|
faker
|
One who plays a celebrity in Must Be Pop.
| LiveJournal
|
|
Falstaff Syndrome
|
See top-heavy.
| comics
|
|
fan
|
Short for "fanatic," the definition of "fan" depends on who you talk to. A mundane on the street will tell you that it means "someone who's really into something," and probably means a sports team or a TV show. However, when we say "fan," we're really using a secret wink-wink geek code that means "person who's into something that requires an operational brain and some creativity," be it sci-fi, fantasy, roleplaying, comics, etc. We're not just fans -- we're fans. And in our own aggressively antiestablishmentarianistic way we're pretty bloody arrogant about it, too. ;)
| general
|
|
fanac
|
Short for "fan activity" -- attending cons, singing filk, writing fanfic, drawing fanart, etc.
| Star Trek
|
|
fanboy
|
See fangirl.
| general
|
|
fandom
|
A collective term used to describe all fans and their activities. Science fiction fandom originates in the 1930s, when the first clubs were created. See also bandom.
| general
|
|
fandom features
|
A recurring element common to a particular fandom, such as poetry (The Abhorsen Trilogy), the DSBS (bandoms), parodies (The Matrix, LotR), etc. Term said to have been coined by Raedyn.
| general
|
|
Fandom Wank, Fandom_Wank
|
A community devoted to mocking the arrogant, pretentious, crazy, and downright stupid throughout fandom forums online. Widely despised. Currently hosted at JournalFen. Often abbreviated to F_W or FW.
| general
|
|
fanfic
|
Short for "fan fiction" or "fanfiction," also called "fic" -- any story written about an existing TV show, book, movies, comic, etc. without permission from the original creators or intention of profit. Here's a really good selection of what various glossaries have to say about this word... NOTE: An older term for fanfic is derivative fiction.
| general
|
|
fanficcer
|
Someone who writes fanfic. Also shortened to ficcer or more generically called "writers" -- called "Writers" (with a capital W) in Subreality fic and "bards" in Xena fic.
| general
|
|
fanfiction university
|
A parody subgenre inspired in other fandoms by Camilla Sandman's Official Fanfiction University of Middle-Earth (OFUM). Hit the site or see OFUM
| Tolkien
|
|
fan fiction, fanfiction
|
See fanfic.
| general
|
|
fangirl
|
See fanboy ;) No, okay, seriously, any childish, obsessed, over-the-top fan who makes more mature fans embarrassed to be associated with them. The kind you see on TV (usually in full costume) every time the local newsteam decides to go cover a convention. Specifically, in ficdom, a writer whose stories are nothing but badly-written wish-fulfilment fantasies.
| general
|
|
fanon
| Information or characterization that has never been confirmed in canon but is accepted as such by fans, ie. Bobby Drake's orientation, Cordelia Chase's nightmares, or Yoda as Qui-Gon's Master. As a reader on CABS pointed out: "Fanon refers to much more than pairings. Mulder's insomnia, his dead fish, his Armani suits are fanon. Methos tossing bottlecaps behind the fridge is fanon because he did it once on the show [but] fans expanded it to ridiculous proportions."
| general
|
|
fanservice, fan service
|
Eye-candy -- gratuitous shots or sequences included simply to make the audience happy. Usually mildly sexual in nature. such as the archetypical shower/bath scene, but could also mean a cameo of a popular character who doesn't really belong in the scene or even in the series.
| anime/manga
|
|
fanzine
|
See zine.
| old fandom
|
|
fb
|
See feedback.
| unknown
|
|
feedback
|
Any comment -- whether it be by e-mail, chat, or live -- from a reader/viewer/listener etc. to a writer/artist/filker about their creative work. Put it this way: most creative types like to "paid" for their hard work in feedback. ;) In other fandoms this is referred to as fb or LOC.
| general
|
|
feedback fic
|
Originally called archive fic, when authors in Buffy fandom wrote off-topic notes in the form of little stories to avoid getting in trouble and make them eligible for archival. In comic fandom, these are usually written to help give other authors feedback -- hence the new name.
| comics
|
|
Feeling The Shot
|
One of two awards for the best in LXG/LoEG fanfic, awarded during July/August and presented on LiveJournal through lxg_fanfiction. See also Golden Nautiloids.
| The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen
|
|
femslash, femmeslash
|
Tales regarding romantic or sexual relationships between female characters. This idea warrants its own term in fandoms where lesbian themes are either very rare or are overshadowed by male/male pairings. See slash.
| slash
|
|
fen
|
The plural of "fan" as used on the convention circuit. For a long time this word was rarely seen online except in the word slashfen, but it's regaining popularity.
| old fandom
|
|
F/F, f/f
|
Denotes a story involving a romantic or sexual relationship between two female characters. In mainstream porn "F" usually indicates an adult woman while "f" indicates one who's underage -- ie. F/F would describe an encounter between two adult women while F/f would be a liaison between an adult woman and a teenage girl, and so on. However, this distinction is not well-known in fanfic and cannot be used as an accurate guide to content. For full details on same-sex themes in fanfic, see slash.
| general
|
|
FIAWOL
|
Short for "Fandom is a way of life." See FIJAGDH.
| old fandom
|
|
fic
|
See fanfic.
| general
|
|
ficathon
|
A group writing challenge: one person picks a topic, everyone participating contributes one story request on that topic, and then the requests are shuffled and passed around so everyone has to write one story for one other person by a certain deadline. Sometimes the names are kept secret, other times they are not.
| general
|
|
ficcer
|
Short for fanficcer -- one who writes fanfic. See fanficcer.
| general
|
|
#fictalk
|
Commic fanfic's IRC room on EFNet until troll problems drove 'em out, still used on occasion. See #subcafe.
| comics
|
|
#fictalkers
|
The old word for the IRC chat regulars, be they in #subcafe or #fictalk.
| comics
|
|
fictive
|
Any character in a fanfic, usually but not always referring to those either created or altered by fanfic writers. More specifically, characters usually called "fictives" when they are outside their usual story, ie. hanging out in the Subreality Cafe. Fictives sometimes get the chance to scold or comfort their writer in metafics.
| Subreality
|
|
Ficworld
|
A major page devoted to Generation X and then X-Force/New Mutants stories. Formerly known as "GenXForce" -- now defunct but often mentioned.
| comics
|
|
FIJAGDH
|
Short for "Fandom is just a goddamn hobby." See FIAWOL.
| old fandom
|
|
filk
|
A fandom-oriented rewriting or parody of an existing song, using the same tune but new words. Can also refer to original tunes written about/within fandom, or to the actual act of turning a mundane song into a filk. Popular after-hours at conventions.
| general
|
|
fillo
|
A pun on the word "illo" -- a piece of fanart which was not designed for a specific story but which can be used as an illustration for any story it happens to suit. Also, any graphic that helps the archivist or editor fill dull blank space.
| old fandom
|
|
First Time
|
A story that chronicles a couple's first romantic and/or sexual encounter. Often tooth-rottingly sweet.
| unknown
|
|
flame
|
to "flame" someone is to viciously insult them or their work in a manner that has little or no redeeming value. Note that "flame" is a general-usage netword, and is not appreciated anywhere...especially not in writing/creative groups.
| general
|
|
flamewar
|
A bitter and often childish fight conducted with written flames, ie. in e-mail, forums, journals, and beyond.
| general
|
|
flangst
|
A strange combination of fluff and angst. I guess you'll know it when you read it...
| Harry Potter, others
|
|
fluff
|
lighthearted, inconsequential. A fluff fic is somewhat like a sillyfic, but more cute than humorous -- it's generally short and sweet. In some fandoms, stories of this type are jokingly called "hhjj" (happy-happy-joy-joy).
| general
|
|
fluffy angst
|
A style of story that starts out terribly dark and gloomy but then works up to a terrifically sweet happy ending. Often overly so.
| general
|
|
Founderfic
|
Tales written about the Hogwarts founders.
| Harry Potter
|
|
fusion
|
A type of crossover wherein the characters in one series, instead of meeting the characters in another series, actually replace them in the continuity. Again quoting Elsa Bibat's essay "A Long Strange Walk": "A fusion is what you would get if you tossed one series in with another in a blender and pressed 'MAXIMUM PUREE.'"
| anime/manga
|
|
FUT
|
Frequently Used Terms. A glossary/FAQ like the one you're currently reading.
| anime/manga
|
|
F_W, FW
|
See Fandom Wank.
| general
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
gack
|
See gank. Not to be confused with Gackt.
| unknown
|
|
Gackt
|
For the last time: yes, he's male.
| JPop
|
|
GAFF
|
See GodAwful Fan-Fiction.
| general
|
|
gafiate
|
From the acronym GAFIA ("Get Away From It All). Once used to describe the act of immersing oneself in fandom to escape the mundane world, this verb has now come to mean the exact opposite: to drop out of fandom completely. It is also possible to gafiate from one fandom to another.
| old fandom
|
|
gank
|
To steal or swipe, but publically and without malicious intent, ie. ganking an LJ icon from a batch offered up for adoption.
| unknown
|
|
gayfic
|
Fanfic centering around characters who are actually known to be gay/lesbian in canon -- a subtle distinction from slash, which generally involves characters who are either declared or assumed to be straight in canon.
| The Sentinel
|
|
GC Elvish
|
See Grey Company Elvish.
| Tolkien
|
|
gen
|
Short for "general" -- denotes a fanfic suitable for all ages and mores, containing no sexual overtones. Used by slash writers to mean "not slash."
| slash
|
|
genderfuck
|
A story in which at least one character's gender is altered -- occasionally via reassignment surgery, but more often through a plot device like alien experimentation, mutation, magic, etc. These tales often involve sex, but not necessarily; the nickname is akin to the term "mindfuck."
| Star Trek zines
|
|
gen fen, genfen
|
Fans who prefer non-slash material, or who oppose slash because they think it violates correct characterization. This term is mainly used by slash fans to describe "the opposition." See fen or slashfen.
| slash
|
|
genre
|
In general usage a genre is a class of story, such as fantasy, sci-fi, romance, etc. Fanfic itself is technically a genre. When specifically used by a fanficcer, however, the word can mean be more specific, denoting stories that can be lumped together by some common concept, setting, style, element, or pairing.
| general
|
|
GFIME
|
"Girl Falls Into Middle-Earth" -- the start of many a bad Mary Sue Legomance. Run, don't walk, away from these fanfics as if your soul depends on it. Which it probably does.
| Tolkien
|
|
GIP
|
"Gratuitous icon post" or "gratuitous image post" -- used in blogs or messageboards to show off new icons or avatars.
| journalling
|
|
glomp, *glomp*
|
An enthusiastic full-body clinging anime-style hug rarely seen in reality but quite often in chat environments. One doesn't tend *glomp* strangers.
| general
|
|
GodAwful Fan-Fiction
|
Often abbreviated to GAFF, this site locates, mocks, and otherwise showcases some of the worst fanfic found online, in many genres. Enjoy.
| general
|
|
Godwin's Law
|
"The first person to mention Nazis, Hitler, or fascists in an argument is immediately declared the loser and the argument is over." Full law explained here.
| Usenet
|
|
Golden Nautiloids
|
One of two awards for the best in LXG/LoEG fanfic, awarded during July/August and presented on LiveJournal through lxg_fanfiction. See also Feeling The Shot.
| The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen
|
|
gomen
|
Japanese for "Sorry!" Has crept into many anime fans' vocabulary.
| anime/manga
|
|
goosex
|
Any erotic tale involving shapeless, liquid, or gelatinous characters (ie. Odo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) using their talents upon/with humanoid characters in inventive ways. Tends to be use as a derogatory term by those who feel it's used to degrade female characters, along the same lines as tentaclefic.
| Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
|
|
Great Game, the
|
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories gave rise to the Sherlock Holmes Literary Society, which in turn inspired the Great Game: a lifestyle wherein fans pretend that Sherlock Holmes was an actual historical personage...and that Doyle was merely Dr. Watson's literary agent. Fans have been "playing along" for longer than you'd think!
| Sherlock Holmes
|
|
the Great Hiatus
|
Refers to the period between May 1891 and April 1894, when Sherlock Holmes was believed dead after his battle with Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls. In reality, the detective was traveling under an assumed name to protect himself from Moriarty's remaining followers.
| Sherlock Holmes
|
|
Grelvish
|
See Grey Company Elvish
| Tolkien
|
|
Grey Company Elvish
|
A pseudo-language, based on Quenya and Sindarin from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, invented by a roleplaying group. Nothing wrong with that, per se, except when aspiring new fanfic writers mistake it for the real deal and scatter it liberally through their writings. Also called GC Elvish or Grelvish.
| Tolkien
|
|
Grey Jedi
|
A concept George Lucas used in reference to Qui-Gon Jinn. Some fans have taken it to mean that Grey Jedi do not see in terms of Light or Dark but rather that all, including the Jedi Council and the Republic, is secondary to serving the Force itself. Noted because it comes up often in some corners of Star Wars fandom.
| Star Wars
|
|
Gratuitous Tactile Moment, Gratuitous Touchy Moment
|
Innocent physical contact between characters, often to prevent injury or to provide support or comfort. Just because it's innocent to the characters, however, doesn't mean that the writer/readers aren't enjoying it -- or that it won't lead to something rather less innocent! Frequently spotted in 'shippy stories, slash, or smarm. Often abbreviated to GTM.
| X-Files
|
|
grrl
|
As Red Monster put it: "Like a girl, only without the sugar and spice. We are not darling little pink-ruffled girls, we are shit-kicking taking-crap-from-no-one grrls." Not a fanfic term, but one often seen so here's the entry for ya.
| general
|
|
GTM
|
See Gratuitous Tactile/Touchy Moment.
| X-Files
|
|
GWLBWLB
|
Girls Who Love Boys Who Love Boys=in other words, female slashfen.
| X-Files
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
H
|
Short for hentai and meaning the same thing as ecchi, H is sometimes used to form warning terms like H-anime, H-doujinshi, and so on.
| anime/manga
|
|
half-drabble
|
A vignette exactly fifty words long. See drabble.
| Doctor Who
|
|
hall of shame
|
A site which features the dregs of fanficdom -- badly written garbage, character assassinations, cliches, and worse. Some see them as flames; some see them as a sharp form of constructive criticism; others merely see them as just desserts.
| general
|
|
hammerspace
|
A pocket dimension where characters in silly stories keep weapons, used to explain how they whip 'em out of thin air. Named after Akane Tendo and her "war mallet," this can be applied to any character who seems to pull a weapon out of mid air. Known to Dirty Pair fic writers as "bikinispace."
| anime/manga
|
|
Hawk's Archive
|
The first major comicfic archive, consisting of all stories on ACFF saved on an FTP site. Long defunct but remembered by dinos.
| comics
|
|
h/c, H/C
|
hurt/comfort -- a style of story in which one character is harmed (physically or emotionally) and another must save them, make them feel better, or both. Though not often seen in comic fandom, this one's been around since the original Star Trek 'zines and is often used to encourage a hopeless romance or set the stage for slash. In Sentinel fandom, stories of this type are jokingly called "owwies."
| general
|
|
headers, header info
|
See disclaimers.
| X-Files, various
|
|
Hermioknockers
|
A term related to Ho!Mione, mainly seen only at the SugarQuill at present but worth mentioning for the humor factor. This refers to fics where the boys suddenly notice that "Hermione had changed over the summer. She now had several interesting curves..."
| Harry Potter
|
|
het
|
Short for "heterosexual" -- denotes fanfic depicting a romantic or sexual relationship between opposite genders.
| slash
|
|
hetyay
|
"Heterosexual smut, yay!" A lesser-seen spin-off of hoyay.
| general
|
|
hhjj
|
"Happy-happy-joy-joy." See fluff.
| unknown
|
|
Ho!Mione
|
Derogatory term for Hermione Granger as distorted by fanficcers who believe that she is tragically repressed and overdue for a sexual awakening...which usually includes hair dye, slutwear, and tattoos/piercings. Ho!Mione cares not for magic nor grades; her only concern is shagging whoever the author fancies (usually Draco). The spawn of canon rape and a disguised breed of Mary Sue. See also Hermioknockers.
| Harry Potter, possibly coined on GAFF
|
|
HOSD
|
See THOSD.
| comics
|
|
host segment
|
Any section of a MSTing wherein the cast is not interacting directly with the movie, script, fanfic, etc. Usually slice-of-life, skits, an ongoing secondary plotline, or all three. Most MSTings follow the original MST3K formula of prologue, epilogue, and several intermissions inbetween.
| MST3K
|
|
HoYay, hoyay
|
"Homoeroticism, yay!" Coined on the Television Without Pity boards to describe a show's slashiness.
| Angel, Smallville, now general
|
|
HSAU
|
High School Alternate Universe. Any chance of this sort of fanfic being worth reading depends on the fandom. For example, Inuyasha or LOTR HSAU=bad. In fact, just about any HSAU=bad.
| unknown
|
|
hubsite
|
A webpage which consisted of organized links to other pages containing fanfic or ficcer resources. Called an "index" in some fandoms.
| comics, others
|
|
*huggle*
|
Somewhere between a hug and a cuddle. Often considered somewhat TOO cute. You don't generally *huggle* someone you don't know.
| general
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
icon
|
A small image used to represent oneself on blog posts. This is sometimes interchangeable with avatar, but the latter is more for messageboards and forums.
| unknown
|
|
iconoclast
|
A writer who only writes about certain characters because nobody else is. A rare term that never really caught on.
| comics?
|
|
iconwhore
|
A fond term for someone who routinely makes icons for a specific someone else upon request, usually out of fondness or a humorous "debt."
| journalling
|
|
ICKYWMB
|
"I Can Kill You With My Brain." A spooky but generally empty threat, like a poker-faced bluff. From a line spoken by River in Firefly canon.
| Firefly
|
|
IDIC
|
"Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations." The Vulcan motto, often used to symbolize fandom's acceptance of all members weird and wonderful.
| Star Trek
|
|
illo, illoe
|
Short for "illustration." So far this term is mainly confined to Senners, but these things tend to spread.
| The Sentinel
|
|
index
|
See hubsite.
| Xena, others
|
|
infoquest
|
A request for information intended to assist with writing a fanfic. An acronym used in subject headers on mailing lists like OTL, often indicating that responses should be sent to the individual rather than to the entire list.
| comics, others
|
|
Inside The Web
|
ITW for short -- a free service that once hosted most fic-related messageboards. Notoriously buggy and now defunct.
| general
|
|
Internet Relay Chat
|
A kind of Internet-based chat service, often used by members of fan communities to congregate and gab. Unlike most instant messanger systems, there are a variety of distinct IRC "networks," and most messages are communicated to an entire "channel" or "room" of people at once. See the Wikipedia article on IRC for more information; many fans hang out on the DalNet network.
| general
|
|
IQ
|
See infoquest.
| comics, others
|
|
IRC
|
The acronym for Internet Relay Chat.
| general
|
|
ITW
|
The acronym for Inside The Web.
| general
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
Japanimation
|
The old term for anime. Considered somewhat offensive, both racially and as a pun; try to avoid using it.
| anime/manga
|
|
jossed, Jossed
|
As in Buffy creator Joss Whedon. A fanfic author's theories on what "really happened" in a canon plothole are "jossed" when the canon source provides information which contradicts those fan theories. Ie. all fanfics dealing with how Angel got out of Hell were jossed when his return was shown in an actual episode.
| Buffy, Angel
|
|
Jossverse
|
Refers collectively to the television "worlds" created by Joss Whedon. This does not imply that Firefly takes place in the same story canon, merely that it is part of the set of Joss-flavored creations.
| Buffy, Angel, Firefly
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
kakkoii
|
Literal meaning in Japanese: "(the) form/appearance (is) good." Modern usage is closer to the American slang term "cool."
| anime/manga
|
|
kawaii
|
Japanese for "Cuuuute!" Has crept into many anime fans' vocabulary -- and beyond.
| anime/manga
|
|
kerfluffle, kerfuffle
|
An argument, often (but not always) about fanstuff and usually in writing. Could count as a small flamewar, except the for the trivializing undertone of "petty bickering over something stupid/pointless."
| LiveJournal, general
|
|
K'immie
|
A joking generic nickname for any immortal ("immie") villain whose name begins with the letter K. A high proportion of bad guys on the show "Highlander" have K names -- Kuyler, Kent, Kern, Karros, Kalas, Kenny, Kristin, Kronos, and Kurgan, just to name a few...
| Highlander
|
|
Kill [fill in the character] Fic
|
A fanfic where the entire point of the story is to murder an unpopular character. Common targets include Wesley Crusher (ST:TNG), Joxer (Xena), and Jar Jar Binks (SW).
| originally Star Trek
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
l337, l33t
|
See leet-speak.
| general
|
|
lay story
|
A Mary Sue PWP -- basically little more than "author's avatar gets canon character into the sack." A very old term which predates the Internet by about ten years.
| Star Trek
|
|
leet-speak
|
Leet/l33t/l337="elite" -- a mutated pidgin typed in letters, numbers, symbols, shorthand, and unique suffixes/tenses. There are sites online devoted to it, but to type it you really gotta BE l33t. In fandom, it mainly serves to annoy those of us who do still speak English. Often parodied.
| general
|
|
Legomance
|
A story centered around a romance between Legolas and the author's self-insertion or Mary Sue. Very common, and invariably bad.
| Tolkien
|
|
LEO, L.E.O. |
"Low Earth Orbit" -- a silly destination for anyone who's had their butt kicked. For example, it's where most anime characters find themselves after being kicked into the air by Akane Tendo.
| anime/manga
|
|
lemon
|
A fic containing gratuitous sex; some sources say it comes from the pornographic "Cream Lemon" anime series. Originally an anime term -- read Yumemisama's full explanation of anime/manga adult story classifications.
| anime/manga
|
|
lemonade
|
A cute 'n' fluffy lemon. Read Yumemisama's full explanation of anime/manga adult story classifications.
| anime/manga
|
|
liek
|
Common misspelling of "like," often deliberately used by people parodying fangirl speak, eg. rapidly typed and vapid. Often paired with other girly silliness for comedic exaggerated effect, ie. "liek omg ;_;"
| general
|
|
lime
|
A fanfic involving non-explicit sexual situations, a tasteful "fade to black." Read Yumemisama's full explanation of anime/manga adult story classifications.
| anime/manga
|
|
lip-synching
|
In fan vidding this specifically means being able to align the movements of a character's mouth to match lyrics or dialogue to create a good vid..
| anime, general
|
|
listdomme, ListDomme
|
A more authoritative listmommy. ;)
| various
|
|
listmom, listmommy
|
The individual, usually female, who maintains, runs and/or moderates a mailing list -- often the person who created the list in the first place. Tougher versions are sometimes jokingly called listdommes. Called mod (moderator) in some fandoms.
| general
|
|
listsib
|
Short for "list sibling" -- regular mailing list participants may use this fond term to refer to fellow members. See also listmom.
| general
|
|
LiveJournal
|
A free online diary system increasing used by ficcers as a broad main avenue for expression, interaction, and backbiting. ;) Individual journals are often called "blogs" -- short for "weblogs." Abbreviated to LJ.
| gjournalling
|
|
LJ
|
See LiveJournal.
| journalling
|
|
LJ-cut
|
A code which, when added to a LiveJournal post, shunts any content past that point behind a clickable link. This saves space on one's reading and cuts down on bandwidth drain if pictures are involved. The code is thus: <LJ-CUT TEXT="whatever you want to type here">
| sites run on the LJ source code
|
|
LOC, LoC
|
Letter of comment, also seen as eloc (e-mailed letter of comment) in some backwater ficdoms -- see feedback. Jessica Ross says: "LoC is way older than the fandoms you name -- LoCs were printed up in the very second zine ever. There's an old, old joke: 'The last fan in the world was alone in the ConSuite. There was a LoC on the door.'"
| ST:TPM, Man From U.N.C.L.E., others -- predates online fandom
|
|
LoEG vs. LXG
|
Both stand for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. However, LoEG=the original graphic novels by Alan Moore while LXG=the film from Fox Studios. The two versions are different enough that the fans feel strongly about which faction they lean towards and, hence, which acronym they prefer.
| The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen
|
|
loli
|
See lolicon
| anime/manga
|
|
lolicon
|
A romance story (usually but not always sexual in nature) in which at least one of the participants is a young girl. The age cut-off is about 15 or so. Sometimes called "roricon," "rorikon," "lolikon," or just "loli." The root comes from the novel "Lolita" and the term follows the same general usage as shotacon -- see also chanslash.
| anime/manga
|
|
lotrips, Lo-trips
|
A slang way of saying "LOTR RPS"=Lord Of The Rings real-people slash. See RPS.
| LOTR
|
|
lurker
|
Member of a mailing list, messageboard, or other forum who rarely if ever directly posts or comments, instead remaining "invisible." Sometimes lurkers are so good that you don't know they're there for years. Some lists tolerate lurkers; others strongly discourage or even ban them to assure that all members "pull their weight" by participating. Please note: most fanfic writers do not like lurkers. If you enjoy a story, send feedback!
| general
|
|
LXG vs. LoEG
|
See LoEG vs. LXG.
| The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
mainstream
|
The one-and-only original unaltered canon version of a character.
| Subreality
|
|
maintext
|
Any canon romantic or sexual relationship between characters which occurs as the writer intended and without need for interpretation. The opposite of subtext.
| Xena
|
|
manga
|
Japanese comic books. Manga (pronounced "MAWN-guh," with a hard "G" as in "gum") makes up forty percent of all publications in Japan and is aimed specifically at men and women as well as at teens. See anime for the animated side of the industry.
| anime/manga
|
|
manon
|
Information from a movie adaptation, generally accepted as more correct than fanon but not as solid as canon from the original source. Usually used to back up a ship or pairing where canon alone cannot provide.
| Harry Potter
|
|
Marauderfic
|
Stories set in the time of Harry Potter's parents, centering around the adventures of his father's cronies. Sometimes refers to later stories about the same characters. See also MWPP.
| Harry Potter
|
|
Marie-Suzette
|
A coy fandom-specific nickname for Mary Sue.
| Les Miserables
|
|
Mary Sue
|
The generic name for any new character (usually female) who's a ego-stroke for the writer: she's beautiful, has amazing skills/powers, gets into a love affair with an existing character, or (usually) all of the above. Mary Sues often convince characters to hook up romantically, especially in slash. Good writers can write good Mary Sues, but this is not the norm. See fangirl and avatar for other variations, or go here for a full explanation.
| Star Trek
|
|
Master, the
|
A fannish nickname for Sherlock Holmes. Not to be confused with the recurring archnemesis from "Doctor Who," though it has been idly speculated in fandom that Sherlock Holmes could have been a renegade Time Lord himself...
| Sherlock Holmes
|
|
MCS
|
Middle Chapter Syndrome -- a disorder which causes writers (mainly of trilogies and longer epics) to write a substandard work in order to get the characters from one heavily plotted section to the next.
| Xena
|
|
ME
|
Abbreviation for Mutant Enemy, the production company responsible for all shows related to "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" plus "Firefly." See MEverse.
| Jossverse
|
|
mediafan
|
A fan whose main focus of fascination is popular media, ie. a particular TV show or movie. A slightly demeaning term used primarily by snobby oldtimers who still think that fandom should be restricted to arguing the mechanics of so-called classic sci-fi and cranking out mimeo'd zines, if you ask me.
| old fandom
|
|
meep, *meep*
|
A shy little noise, often of nervousness, embarrassment, or small startlement.
| general
|
|
megacrossover
|
A crossover involving characters from several different works -- at least four or five.
| anime/manga
|
|
meimei, mei-mei
|
Mandarin Chinese (more or less) for "sister," usually in a fond/protective sense. Used in Mandarin-heavy Firefly canon, and thus now by fans. Pronounced "may-may."
| Firefly
|
|
meme
|
A nonfandom word coined by Richard Dawkins as an analogy to "gene," a meme is a little idea or thought that passes from person to person like a virus. Online, this usually takes the form of quizzes, games, and other interactive "toys" posted quickly and infectiously. Pronounced "meem" -- however, some treat it more as the French word for "same" and pronounce it "mehm."
| psychology, LJ
|
|
MEOW
|
Medical Emergency Of (The) Week.
| Everwood
|
|
meta or META
|
A word of "warning" politely added to the subject line of a post or e-mail to indicate that the message contained therein is ABOUT fanfic or the people who write it, but isn't actually a piece of fanfic itself.
| comics, others
|
|
metafic, metafiction
|
A self-referential story which "breaks the fourth wall" by acknowledging that the characters are not real -- and, often, that they know it. Can be enjoyed in non-fanfic work like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and John Byrne's "She-Hulk" -- often used to humorous effect in fanfic by forcing the writer to face his/her irate fictives. See also Subreality. PS: Here's proof that I didn't invent the term, as some have accused...
| Subreality, others
|
|
meta-MST
|
A MSTing of a MSTing. It happens. These tend to be petty revenge from an abused author.
| MST3K
|
|
MEverse
|
A non-series-specific term for what used to be called the Buffyverse -- the fictional world in which "Buffy The Vampire Slayer," "Angel: The Series," the proposed Buffy animated series, and the defunct Ripper show are set. In short, all Joss Whedon's series except Firefly. All plus Firefly is the Jossverse. See ME for more explanation.
| Buffy/Angel
|
|
MFEO, M.F.E.O.
|
Made For Each Other, Meant For Each Other. Refers to two characters who "ought" to be a couple, and thus a popular rallying cry for 'shippers.
| X-Files
|
|
mirror
|
A tale concerning a set of events already covered in another story...only this time they're being retold or experienced by a different character than in the first version.
| unknown
|
|
Mithril Awards, the
|
A fan-organized contest for Tolkien fanfiction, affilitated with HASA. A good way to get a cross-section of what's been written and what's worth reading. Also noted for the massive flamewars that erupt after every award presentation, without fail. ;)
| Tolkien
|
|
M/M, m/m
|
denotes a story involving a romantic or sexual relationship between two male characters. In mainstream porn "M" usually indicates an adult man while "m" indicates one who's underage -- ie. M/M would describe an encounter between two adult men while M/m would be a liaison between an adult man and a teenage boy, and so on. However, this distinction is not well-known in fanfic and cannot be used as an accurate guide to content. For full details on same-sex themes in fanfic, see slash.
| general
|
|
Mod, mod
|
Short for moderator.
| general
|
|
moderator
|
A person who has full or partial control over posts to a moderated newsgroup, mailing list, LiveJournal community, or other forum. Some moderators have complete control, okaying or denying each message; others merely have the authority to delete rules-breaking posts and negotiate arguments. See also listmom and listdomme.
| general
|
|
mook
|
No relation to the original gangster slang-word for "tough guy" -- "mook" (or "mooky") describes close loving relationships that are Just Plain Cuuuute. The characters involved in said relationships are called "mooks." Mook stories may or may not involve actual sex, and often don't -- the only criteria is that the characters involved be sweet, romantic, and totally in love. As one expert put it, "Angst is allowed, but tragic or otherwise dark stories are not mook." Note: Mook in comic fic is often (yes, yes, not always) associated with slash.
| comics
|
|
mook, mooks
|
Characters involved in a mooky relationship. The originals were Kaylee's "Gem Twins," Jack & Zach. When fans refer to "the mooks," however, they are generally referring to some other currently popular duo -- if you aren't up on the latest gossip in the world of mookiness, you'd have to ask to find out.
| comics
|
|
mooky
|
The state/action of being cute-romantic-awww towards a love interest, especially (but not always) if said love interest is the same gender. See mook.
| comics
|
|
MOTW
|
Monster Of The Week. Any scary beastie that only shows up for one story/episode to drive the plot and to give the characters something to do between blocks of dialogue.
| X-Files
|
|
mouse
|
See anonymouse -- not to be confused with the ReBoot character of the same name.
| Fandom_Wank, most likely
|
|
moviefic
|
Any story set within the continuity of a movie adaptation instead of that of the original source. See movieverse.
| LOTR, Spider-Man, X-Men
|
|
movieverse
|
Refers to the alternate continuity created when a book or comic is translated into a popular film. Movie continuity is usually quite warped, and fans thus created rarely have any grasp of the information behind the popular adaptation; thus stories set therein are often regarded as a different subgenre.
| X-Men, Lord Of The Rings
|
|
MoZ
|
Moment of Zen -- a perfect moment, of some kind, that you've found on the Internet, be if good or WTF? Initially taken from "The Daily Show" but popularized in fandom.
| MST3K
|
|
mpreg
|
Describes a story involving male pregnancy -- found mostly in slash, but has not shown up in comicslash yet. This fairly rare term is not always greeted with open arms.
| anime/manga, Star Wars: TPM, Star Trek: Voyager
|
|
M/s
|
Master/slave, with or without consent. "Slave" is usually lowercase to denote status, and often a slave's name will also be written without capital letters for the same reason.
| kink, general
|
|
MSR
|
Mulder/Scully Romance, used to denote the subgenre of 'shippy fanfic about those two.
| X-Files
|
|
MSTing, msting, misting
|
To subject a fanfic to the same treatment afforded bad movies on the show Mystery Science Theater 3000 -- to dissect it line by line to make fun of it, either speaking via the original MST3K characters or with others. This style is called riffing; individual gags are called riffs. Some call MSTing a form of flaming -- people with an actual sense of humor call it high comedic art. You decide.
| MST3K
|
|
MulderLogic
|
Arriving at an improbable (but usually correct) solution via leaps of logic which appear quite barking mad to anybody else.
| X-Files
|
|
multiverse
|
"Everything everywhere" -- includes all alternate dimensions, other realities, parallel universes, and fandom genres. There is only one multiverse. Period.
| general
|
|
Muggle, muggle
|
A Mundane, with less harsh overtones -- more pitying than suspicious. Derived from J.K Rowling's word for an ordinary human being without magical powers.
| Harry Potter
|
|
mun
|
Short for "mundane" or "human" -- another word for the player behind the character(s) in a journal roleplaying game. Originated in early 2001, popularized by MESPT.
| LiveJournal
|
|
Mundane, mundane
|
A person who's hopelessly mired in reality; a <gasp!> non-fan; anyone who ignores, belittles, oppresses, or is oblivious to fannish pursuits. This term was adopted from Piers Anthony's Xanth series -- or did he adopt it from fandom? Regardless, if a fan calls you a mundane, they're insulting you by calling you worthless. Harry Potter fans use the word Muggle; Ren Faire types will just call you a 'Dane.
| general
|
|
MBP
|
See MustBePop.
| LiveJournal
|
|
MustBePop, Must Be Pop
|
A hugely popular LJ roleplaying game with nearly 1,000 participants at its height. Players (aka "fakers") keep journals portraying a celebrity of their choosing with which to interact with others; participating non-celbs are nicknamed "civilians." Often abbreviated to MBP. The main page is here.
| LiveJournal
|
|
MWPP
|
Stands for "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs" -- refers to any fanfic written about these four characters (the Marauders) in their Hogwarts school days. See also Marauderfic.
| Harry Potter
|
|
my hed iz pastede on yay!
|
A phrase coined during CrystalWank to describe a photo in which Dominic Monaghan's face had obviously been Photoshopped onto another photo. The phrase spread and mutated.
| journaldom
|
|
mythosphere
|
A complete mythical or fictional universe which contains its own geography, history, culture, and possibly even language(s). A mythosphere's characters and the actors/artists who portray them is often humorously called a pantheon.
| Star Trek
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
n00b
|
See newbie.
| general
|
|
NaNoWriMo
|
See National Novel Writing Month.
| general
|
|
National Novel Writing Month
|
Usually abbreviated to NaNoWriMo. November. Participating writers across all genres go stark raving mad for a month. As the site says, "It's all about quantity, not quality..." 'Nuff said.
| general
|
|
NAXIS
|
Not A Kiss In Sight. See Noromo.
| X-Files
|
|
ne, neh, ney
|
In Japanese (and thus in anime fandom), "ne" means "right?" or "isn't it?" However, X-Men fans also use "neh" or "ney" in the same sense, swiped from Cajun character Gambit's manner of speaking. Just an interesting sidenote.
| anime/manga
|
|
negoboo
|
The opposite of egoboo -- criticism or flames. A recently-coined pun.
| Star Wars
|
|
neo
|
See newbie.
| old fandom
|
|
neofan
|
See newbie.
| old fandom
|
|
netiquette
|
Rules of acceptable online behavior. Whether assumed, word-of-mouth, or painstakingly recorded, these rules vary from situation to situation -- and from fandom to fandom. If you're not a "local" (or even if you are!), it's best that you mind your manners.
| general
|
|
newbie
|
A raw newcomer to any online group/place/genre, sometimes less charitably called a "virgin," or in older circles a "neofan" ("neo" for short). Can be meant cruelly or as a simple statement of fact, pendingon context. Sometimes seen as "n00b," a l337 variation. Or, as clarified by White Raven:
"n00b is often [used to] point out that a person is not new but acts like they are. n00b is an insult while newbie, in comparison, is much kinder. n00b is a more polite way of calling someone extremely stupid and annoying without stooping low enough to be profane. It is often used on boards as an insult which isn't going to be blocked for language."
| general
|
|
nextgen |
See Next Generation.
| anime/manga
|
|
next generation |
A tale focusing on the children/descendants of canon characters. Also called nextgen.
| anime/manga, Roswell
|
|
ng
|
Newsgroup -- an old traditional type of messageboard found on Usenet, a text-only sideline to the Internet.
| old fandom
|
|
nm, (nm), NM
|
"No Message." See (nt).
| general
|
|
noncon, non-con
|
Non-consentual sexual act. The jury is still out on the shades of meaning here -- some say non-con is just another word for rape, while others see the two terms as subtly different.
| general
|
|
nonshipper
|
A fan who opposes a popular pairing, preferring to view them in a non-romantic light. Also can mean a fan who doesn't care if said characters get it on or not, especially in fandoms heavily focused on said pairing. Ie. Mulder/Scully (X-Files), Harm/Mac (JAG), Clark/Lex (Smallville). See also noromo.
| X-Files
|
|
non-standard MST
|
Any MSTing that uses a cast, characters, and/or setting that never appeared on MST3K itself. Improbable crossovers within the show itself count, such as Mike&Joel.
| MST3K
|
|
Normalverse
|
See Asylumverse.
| Buffy
|
|
Noromo, NoRomo, NoRoMo
|
"No Romance." Noromos are opponents of the M/S (Mulder/Scully) 'shippers in X-Files fandom. M/S is one of the most widespread and deeply entrenched 'ships online, so the Noromos are also fairly well known and the term could be applied to other such opposition groups. Also called nonshippers, platonics, or NAXIS (Not A Kiss In Sight).
| X-Files
|
|
NSFW
|
Not Safe For Work -- denotes material, usually pornographic, that would not be safe to view on an office/school computer. Click at your own risk.
| General, origin unknown
|
|
nt, (nt), NT
|
When spotted on the subject line of a message on a messageboard, this stands for "No Text" -- meaning that there's no message attached to the subject line, the subject line is all of that person wanted to say, so don't bother clicking it to read more because there ain't any. Also seen as (nm) -- "No Message."
| general
|
|
Nuzgul, nuzgul
|
Another name for plotbunny. Origin uncertain, but apparently a deliberate misspelling of "Nazgul."
| Tolkien
|
|
NWS
|
Not Work Safe -- denotes material, usually pornographic, that would not be safe to view on an office/school computer. Click at your own risk.
| General, origin unknown
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
oakum
|
Historically, a substance used for plugging leaks in a ship's hull -- in fandom, a term for a story or idea that explains a missing scene or, less often, fills a plothole. See also spackle.
| Master & Commander
|
|
OAV
|
Original Animation Video -- an anime production sold direct to video. Not a fanfic term but comes up fairly often in anime fanfic discussions.
| anime/manga
|
|
OBHWF
|
See One Big Happy Weasley Family.
| Harry Potter
|
|
OC, oc
|
See original character.
| general
|
|
OFC, ofc
|
See Original Female Character.
| general
|
|
OFUM
|
Camilla Sandman's Official Fanfiction University of Middle-Earth, where badfic authors are kidnapped to a university in the fictional universe in question and subjected to educational torments by canon characters. A subgenre which has inspired fanfiction universities in other fandoms.
| Tolkien
|
|
old-school
|
A Harry Potter story set when Harry's parents attended Hogwarts.
| Harry Potter
|
|
OMC, omc
|
See Original Male Character.
| general
|
|
OME, ome
|
Abbreviation for "Oh my Eru," a substitution for "OMG" ("oh my God"). Eru Iluvatar is the over-god of JRR Tolkien's Middle-Earth.
| Tolkien
|
|
OMWF, OMwF
|
See Once More With Feeling.
| Buffy
|
|
Once More With Feeling
|
The much-adored-by-Buffy-fans musical episode. Also used for any multi-filk parody in the same style (ie. as was done with LOTR characters). Often abbreviated to OMWF or OMwF.
| Buffy
|
|
One Big Happy Weasley Family
|
A tongue-in-cheek fan theory that, eventually, every other character will marry into the Weasley clan and all will be well. A better explanation can be found here. Usually abbreviated to OBHWF.
| Harry Potter
|
|
One True Pairing
|
The belief that a given fandom only contains one "real" couple, and that any other 'shipping is preposterous. Usually abbreviated to OTP and nowadays often used humorously. An OTP with three members is an OT3.
| unknown
|
|
onna
|
Japanese word for "woman," often used in a derogatory or exasperated tone of voice by male anime characters like Vegeta of DragonBall Z or WuFei of Gundam Wing.
| anime/manga
|
|
OOC, ooc
|
See out of character.
| roleplaying
|
|
ops
|
An IRC chatroom term -- someone "with ops" has an @ next to their name. An op has more control over the room's security, ie. channel options, banning, kicking, etc. In registered rooms there are often rules and politics about who gets op status.
| IRC
|
|
original character
|
Any character who was created by a fanfic author, rather than being from the original canon material. Often abbreviated to "OC" or "oc."
| general
|
|
Original Female Character
|
Any female character who was created by a fanfic author, rather than being from the original canon material. Often abbreviated to "OFC" or "ofc." Also seen as Annoying Original Female Character (AOFC) and other such bastardizations.
| general
|
|
Original Flavor
|
A fic intended to be as close to the series it is based on in content, tone, etc. as possible.
| anime/manga
|
|
Original Trilogy
|
Denotes fics which take place in or near the first three Star Wars movies (the middle three by Lucas' timeline). Often abbreviated to OT.
| Star Wars
|
|
Orligasm
|
Exaggerated hormonal over-reaction to Orlando Bloom or photos thereof. Usually accompanied by squeeing.
| LOTR, then POTC & Troy
|
|
ose
|
The filk equivalent of angst -- the chief intangible quality of a depressing song. Think of the term in this way: "That filk was nothing but ose, ose, and more ose." Get it?
| filk
|
|
OT
|
Denotes an off-topic message on a mailing list or messageboard -- see also meta.
| general
|
|
OT
|
See Original Trilogy
| Star Wars
|
|
OT3
|
A "perfect relationship" involving three characters, not two. Sometimes miswritten as 3TP, which makes no sense really. See OTP.
| LOTR/PotC
|
|
otaku
|
A Japanese word denoting a fanatical anime/manga fan. The word has a negative connotation in Japan thanks to otaku who committed crimes and blamed them on their hobby; in the West, some fans use this term to make themselves sound cooler than the stereotypical fanboy.
| anime/manga
|
|
OTL
|
See Outside The Lines.
| comics
|
|
OTP
|
See One True Pairing.
| unknown
|
|
out of character
|
For a fictional creature, acting in a manner not consistent with his/her/its established personality. This can be on purpose for a plot device or, more often, merely due to bad acting/writing. Often abbreviated to OOC or ooc.
| roleplaying
|
|
Outsider
|
A member of Outside The Lines.
| comics
|
|
Outside The Lines
|
Outside The Lines, comic fanfic's major distribution/evaluation mailing list.
| comics
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
pairing
|
Any combination of characters who are romantically and/or sexually involved, either from established continuity or (more likely) desired together by fans. Very rarely, a fanfic "pairing" can be a threesome or more; however, trios (or more) where those involved are not all interested in each other (ie. Logan and Cyclops vying for Jean's attentions) are referred to as triangles. Some writers are fanatical about their favorite pairings, snubbing or actively flaming anyone who dares to disagree. In comicfic, this term is mainly seen in moviefic, and is almost interchangeable with 'shipping.
| general
|
|
pantheon
|
All important characters in a particular mythosphere, plus the actors who play/voice them and/or the artists who portray them.
| Star Trek
|
|
pastede on yay!
|
A purely silly phrase used to indicate delight in something stupid or fake, usually in the form of "my/his/her [noun] iz pastede on yay!" See my hed iz pastede on yay!
| journaldom
|
|
pastiche
|
Material that imitates previous works of other writers, often with satirical intent. Most fandoms are not old enough nor distinctive enough for this -- you might see it in "classical" fandoms such as Sherlock Holmes or Lord Of The Rings.
| general fandom
|
|
pepper-jack cheese
|
A lame detail included in a fanfic because it's peculiar to the author. Coined after a story wherein the author insisted that Hermione loved pepper-jack cheese because she (the author) did. Commonly seen in Mary Sue stories.
| Harry Potter, others
|
|
PGP
|
See Post-Gauda Prime
| Blake's 7
|
|
phan
|
Same meaning as "fan," but confined to this one particular fandom. Usually more specifically only refers to an Erik/Phantom shipper.
| Phantom Of The Opera
|
|
phangirl
|
Same meaning as "fangirl," but confined to this one particular fandom. Usually more specifically only refers to an Erik/Phantom shipper.
| Phantom Of The Opera
|
|
phantastic
|
"Fantastic," literally -- used only in Phantom Of The Opera fandom.
| Phantom Of The Opera
|
|
pimp
|
To shamelessly promote a fanfic, picture, author, artist, archive, link...anything, really, that you think others ought to see. See also rec.
| general
|
|
Pit, the
|
See the Pit of Voles
| Mooncalf's blog
|
|
Pit of Voles, the
|
A not-so-flattering nickname for Fanfiction.net (renowned for its vast seething collection of bad fanfic), as coined in this blog entry. Usually shortened to "the Pit."
| Mooncalf's blog (see link)
|
|
platonic, platonics
|
See Noromo.
| X-Files
|
|
plotbunnies
|
Ever get hit with a story concept that doesn't really go anywhere but you have to write it? You've just been attacked by a plotbunny! Possibly inspired by John Steinbeck: "Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen."
| general
|
|
politics
|
The catty, cliquey goings-on within the web of interpersonal relationships which inevitably evolve in any close-knit fandom.
| general
|
|
politislash
|
Slash about political figures, be it written, drawn, discussed, iconned, or merely suggestively pointed out in news photos. For the most part this is silly satirical fun.
| general
|
|
popslash
|
Slash fanfic or roleplaying games centering around hot celebrities and popular bands/musicians, usually adult in mature. A good example of the RPG genre is mustbepop on LiveJournal. A fandom unto itself.
| popslash
|
|
pop-up fanfic
|
Ever seen "Pop-Up Videos" on VH1, where they "pop up" facts about a video while it's playing? Someone did the same to a fanfic once, creating a gentle sort of MSTing. However, some writers who are afraid of their work being MSTed are also afraid of being "pop-upped," so they place warnings against both in their disclaimers. Why? Ya got me.
| comics
|
|
Post-Gauda Prime
|
A subgenre of stories set after the tragic final episode "Blake," which mostly took place on the planet Gauda Prime. Since all characters were (highlight for spoilers) implied dead or captured by the bad guys, these tend to be either darkfic or denialfic. Often abbreviated to PGP.
| Blake's 7
|
|
POTC, PotC
|
An acronym for "Pirates of the Caribbean." Noted here because it was also later used as a joking acronym for "Passion Of The Christ," for the absurd coincidence.
| Pirates Of The Caribbean
|
|
POV
|
Point Of View -- specifically in fanfic, a type of story told first-person from a character's point of view. Has migrated into comic ficdom with X-Men movieverse fic. | Star Wars
|
|
Powers That Be, The (TPTB)
|
The people who control the canon material, be it comic or TV show. In other words, the people who hold the rights to the stuff we like to write fanfic about, and who could probably squash us like bugs if we pushed it. So far, so good. ;) This term lies somewhere between respect and sarcasm, and usually does not include writers/creators beloved by the fans. TIIC (The Idiots In Charge) can be used if you're feeling particularly sarcastic. Note: This term can also be applied to any nebulous agency or persons who "hold the reins" in a story. Most commonly used in X-Files fic, but seen almost everywhere.
| Star Trek, Xena, others
|
|
PPC
|
See Protectors Of The Plot Continuum.
| Tolkien
|
|
pre-series
|
A story that takes place prior to the timeframe of the series in question.
| Star Trek
|
|
preservation
|
Saving a fanfic for posterity, usually on a website. A variation of archive.
| Foxtrot, Calvin & Hobbes
|
|
pre-slash
|
A story which explores the potential for a same-sex romantic relationship without actually initiating it or dragging it out into the open. Tends to be PG/PG-13, and not very commonly used. See slash.
| slash
|
|
pro MSTing
|
A MSTing which gets its source material from something somebody got paid for -- movie script, TV show, published book or poem, etc. Unfortunately, due to paranoia, most pro MSTings have been removed from the net.
| MST3K
|
|
pr0n
|
A safer way to type "porn" on public forums that would have the word filtered out, or as a cheeky general reference to it. The third "letter" should be the number 0. A joke that evolved out of misspellings -- pronounced "prawn," hence many related visual gags involving mating prawns...
| General, origin unknown
|
|
Protectors Of The Plot Continuum
|
A writing society devoted to "removing" Mary Sues from the stories they infest -- mainly LOTR. Hubsite is located here.
| Tolkien
|
|
punted
|
Kicked out of a chatroom or off of AIM, either by another person or (more commonly) by a service error.
| chat
|
|
pups
|
See sockpuppets.
| online RPGs
|
|
pups, the
|
See the Puppies
| popslash
|
|
puppets
|
See sockpuppets.
| online RPGs
|
|
puppies, the
|
Cute nickname for the pairing of Sirius Black + Remus Lupin. *twitch* I just record this stuff, folks.
| Harry Potter
|
|
Puppies, the
|
Fannish nickname for the members of *NSYNC. Derived from a reference in Synchronik's "On The Bus" series, "Puppies In A Box" was one of the best-known early popslash sites (late 2000); many newbies were directed there as a "gateway" into *NSYNC fic. The site is now down, but referring to *NSYNC as "the Puppies" or "pups" is still common.
| popslash
|
|
PWP
|
"Plot? What Plot?" or "Porn Without Plot" -- the nickname for a story which was written purely for the sake of creating pointless sexual escapades.
| general
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
RACC
|
rec.art.comics.creative, the newsgroup home to stories about original comic-type characters.
| comics
|
|
RACMX
|
rec.art.comics.marvel-x-books -- the discussion newsgroup that ACFF split away from, itself a spin-off of the newsgroup rec.arts.comics.marvel I believe.
| comics
|
|
rarepair
|
A pairing not usually seen in its respective fandom. Sometimes damn creative, sometimes a thought-provoking stretch, and sometimes requiring bleach in the eyes afterward to erase the images. But always fun. ;)
| Harry Potter
|
|
Ratboy
|
Turncoat agent Alex Krycek. Noted here because it's not an immediately apparent nickname.
| X-Files
|
|
ratings
|
An author- or archivist-applied system which lets readers know what they're in for before they start reading a story. Not all archives or mailing lists require ratings, but most of the good ones do -- ratings are increasingly becoming a solid component of good fanfic etiquette, and at very least authors are expected to warn readers if a story contains explicit adult content. Using the American movie guidelines as a template, most fanfic can be rated as follows:
- G: Good clean fun for all ages.
- PG: Mild implied sexual innuendo, mild bad words, or violence or serious (though not quite mature) topics.
- PG-13: Some violence, bad language, obvious sexual innuendo, implied sexual relations. Also may include some mature topics such as suicide, homosexuality, drug/alcohol advocacy, rape aftermath, details of childbirth, etc. depending on the mores of the fandom involved.
- R: Just-short-of-explicit sex, graphic torture or violence, rape. Not recommended for minors.
- NC-17: explicit erotica, excessively gory violence. Often illegal for underage readers.
- X: the same as NC-17 but only in reference to sex. No longer used by some fandoms.
- XXX: Pure graphic badly-written porn -- rarely seen and not encouraged in fanfic circles.
Note: Due to bitchiness on the part of the MPAA, many sites are now setting up their own rating systems.
| general
|
|
RAYOR
|
Read At Your Own Risk -- a slightly cheeky disclaimer joke.
| origin unknown
|
|
Real Life
|
The dread eternal reason why fans vanish, authors stop posting, and archivists fall behind in their duties. Often abbreviated to RL.
| general
|
|
real-people fic
|
Fanfic written about the actors or creators behind a fandom -- often abbreviated to RPF. Also called actorfic where appropriate. See also real-people slash.
| unknown but recent
|
|
real-people slash
|
Slash written about the actors or creators behind a fandom -- often abbreviated to RPS. Also called actorslash where appropriate. A form of real-people fic. See also lotrips.
| unknown but recent; esp. in LOTR and entertainment genres like boyband and wrestling
|
|
rec
|
Noun (recommendation) or verb (recommend), this usually indicates something you'd like others to read. Like pimp, but more dignified-sounding and usually only referring to readable materials like fanfics or books.
| journalling
|
|
relationshipper
|
Originally, a fan/writer who fervently believes that Mulder and Scully "belong together" -- "shipper" for short. This term has now popped up in other ficdoms about other characters -- for the comics explanation, see 'shipping below.
| X-Files, migrated to Buffy then beyond
|
|
resfic
|
"Resurrection fic" -- in which an author brings a beloved but canon character back to life. Often just improbable wish-fulfilment.
| unknown
|
|
retcon
|
Short for "retroactive continuity," a retcon is a plotline wherein the writer or TPTB decide to pretend that an existing plot happened differently than originally portrayed...or simply never existed/happened at all. A retcon is also the name for a plot written to replace and erase the original version. Retcon is also a verb -- to tamper with or wipe out previous ideas/plots is called "retconning."
| comics, others
|
|
revenge fic
|
A) A story in which the fictional characters which an author has inflicted misery and suffering upon return the favor on the author. The term is originally from anime, but has also surfaced in other fandoms, including Star Trek and MST3K.
B) A story written as a "return volley" at someone whom an author feels insulted them or their work -- basically a flame in story form. Choice B) is the meaning usually meant in comic fanfic.
| anime, others
|
|
Rice out(TM)
|
To Rice out(TM) is to make an ass of oneself by reacting to negative feedback by insisting that one's creative work is superior in all aspects. To be fully worthy of the term, the author should throw down in public and insult both reviewers and readers alike. Inspired by a notorious hissyfit thrown on Amazon.com by the inimitable (and apparently too-good-for-an-editor) Anne Rice. The (TM) is vital because, as we all know, Ms. Rice is very protective of her trademarks...
| Suikoden
|
|
riff
|
A joke or sarcastic comment made in immediate response to something one is watching, hearing, or reading. Can be said aloud or written down. To continuously riff a story or movie/show is to be riffing. See MSTing.
| MST3K
|
|
riffing
|
See riff.
| MST3K
|
|
RL
|
The acronym for Real Life.
| general
|
|
ROG
|
"Really Old Guy" -- Methos, the nigh-mythical eldest immortal. Noted here because it's not an immediately apparent acronym.
| Highlander
|
|
romantic friendship
|
Another way of saying smarm.
| Xena
|
|
romantic, romantics
|
See 'shippers.
| X-Files
|
|
round robin
|
A story written in installments by various writers, usually impromptu. Often abbreviated to RR.
| general
|
|
RR
|
See round robin.
| general
|
|
RPS
|
See real-people slash.
| slash
|
|
R.S.T.
|
Resolved Sexual Tension -- see U.S.T.
| X-Files
|
|
R/T
|
Rape/torture. Be careful -- in some fandoms this can be a common theme in H/C.
| unknown
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
sailing a ship
|
To enthusiastically tout a Harry Potter pairing like a member of a fanclub. "Ship" is a pun on relationshipping, but many give their "club" nautical names to carry out the joke. Usually goodnatured, but serious fanwars have broken out between larger factions. See ships, Harry Potter.
| Harry Potter
|
|
SC
|
See Subreality Café.
| Subreality
|
|
SCA, SCAs
|
Subreality Cafe Awards. Coined in 2000 by Paradoqz, this vote was a CBFFA counterpart which only catered to Subreality-related stories. No relation to the Society for Creative Anachronism.
| Subreality
|
|
scanning
|
Making the new lines of a filk align properly with the emphasis and rhyme scheme of the original song to make the parody easily singable. A bad filk or a clumsy line therein is said to "not scan."
| filking
|
|
schmoop
|
A story rife with overt romanticism -- flowers, chocolates, candles, cutesy pet names, and little to no plot. Sometimes spelled "shmoop."
| slash
|
|
SD
|
See superdeformed
| anime/manga
|
|
seinen-ai
|
Probably derived from shounen-ai, seinen-ai literally means "young man's love" and is specifically used in reference to relationships between men (as opposed to "boys"). Usually used to designate non-lemon male/male fanfic, as opposed to the smuttier yaoi.
| anime/manga
|
|
self-infliction
|
A parody of the self-insertion genre where the self-inserted author screws things up and/or generally suffers a lot of pain.
| anime/manga
|
|
self-insertion
|
A fanfic where the author includes him/herself as a character; also a noun referring to the character in question. Sometimes abbreviated to SI, and often a Mary Sue.
| general
|
|
semi non-con
|
Story contains shaky consent issues -- one character may not have been interested in a sexual act, but ends up enjoying it (against their will); or, they started off having fun but the experience got frightening or unpleasant. Often also involves psychological torment.
| general
|
|
shmoop
|
Alternate spelling of schmoop.
| slash
|
|
shockfic
|
See darkfic.
| anime/manga
|
|
Shadowlands
|
A genre created by Alicia McKenzie in which the culmination of the X-Men's "Twelve" plotline resulted not in Cyclops' death but in a shattering of the walls between realities, resulting in a deadly patchwork multiverse where anything can happen as the shards of possibilities drift randomly. Mainly a comic-book genre but by its very nature is expanding into others, ie. Buffy and X-Files.
| comics
|
|
'ship
|
Short for "relationship" -- uses to denote which pair of characters are romantically involved in a given story. See 'shipping for more details.
| general
|
|
'shipping
|
short for "relationshipping" -- a 'shipper is someone who believes that a chosen pair of characters "belong together," and who diligently reads and/or writes tales to that effect. The term originated in the X-Files fanfic, but has migrated over to comicfic in full force with the advent of the X-Men movie and a subsequent boom in Logan/Rogue 'shipping.
| general
|
|
ships, Harry Potter
|
HP fandom is unique in that they have a huge array of canon characters plus a (usually) tongue-in-cheek obsession with not only shipping every single possible permutation but giving each such pairing its own unique nickname! A well-detailed list is maintained here.
|
|
|
shockfic
|
See darkfic.
| anime/manga
|
|
shota
|
See shotacon
| anime/manga
|
|
shotacon
|
A romance story (usually, but not always sexual in nature) in which at least one of the participants is a young boy. The age cut-off is about 15 and can overlap territory covered by the term shounen ai, which is generally considered sweeter, less graphic, and more acceptable. Sometimes spelled "shotakon" in correct Romanization, or abbreviated to "shota"; "Shota" (or "Shouta") is a boy's name in Japanese. The female equivalent is lolicon. See also chanslash.
| anime/manga
|
|
shoujo ai
|
The female version of shounen ai -- see below, or read Yumemisama's full explanation of anime/manga adult story classifications. See also lolicon.
| anime/manga
|
|
shounen ai, shonenai
|
A label for stories which deal with sweet, non-graphic romance between two guys, a milder term than yaoi. The female version is shoujo ai. See also
shotacon and yaoi, or read Yumemisama's full explanation of anime/manga adult story classifications.
| anime/manga
|
|
SI
|
Short for self-insertion.
| anime/manga
|
|
Siku, Sikudhani McCoy
|
See X-S.
| comics
|
|
sillyfic
|
A term which refers to "lighthearted, usually short pieces written for the sake of amusement or to lower the angst-level of current fanfic traffic flow," to quote Indigo.
| general
|
|
Silm
|
Short for "The Silmarillion."
| Tolkien
|
|
skit
|
A short humorous satire, often written in dialogue-only play format. These parodies often poke fun at a canon episode or scene, but can also take place around fan ideas.
| Xena
|
|
slash
|
A type of fic, often written by women, involving romantic or sexual involvement between two characters of the same gender. The term originates from early Star Trek fandom, namely "Kirk/Spock" stories -- the term "slash" comes from the slash (/) placed between the names of the characters involved. Also called alternative fiction in Xena ficdom. Pure sweet fluffy romantic slash is sometimes called mook. Powerfully emotional male/male relationships with no sexual element are sometimes called smarm. Also, as slash is traditionally about male characters, F/F stories are often called femmeslash.
| general
|
|
slashfen
|
An older but still-used term which denotes slash fans ("fen" being the convention-circuit plural of "fan").
| general
|
|
slashy
|
A playful term in regards to slash overtones -- also used to denote subjectively-perceived sexual tension between canon characters, ie. "Ooo! Did you see the slashy look Bobby gave Remy on page two of that Uncanny issue last week?!?"
| general
|
|
smarm
|
A type of story starring characters, usually of the same gender, who care and worry about each other a LOT. Not sexual or slashy, but rather a noble not-too-macho-to-admit-I-love-my-buddy brotherly-love kinda thing. Often found hand-in-hand with h/c, smarm sometimes does lead to slash and is often associated with it. Notes: Senners have fought hard over the "degeneration" of smarm into near-smut. It's called romantic friendship by Xena bards. And there's a rating scale, too. ;)
| Due South, The Real Ghostbusters, The Sentinel
|
|
SMT
|
"Sadistic Mulder Torture" -- a cheerfully burgeoning subgenre which delights in inflicting horrible things, preferably physical AND psychological, upon everybody's favorite deadpan FBI agent. It even has its own dotcom...
| X-Files
|
|
smut
|
Porn! But in a light amused "yeah, gimme some of that" sort of way.
| general
|
|
Snacky's Law
|
"The first person in an argument to invoke any comparison to 'those popular girls who were mean to me everyone in school,' loses." Inspired by Godwin's Law, coined by DeadJournal's Snacky -- full explanation here.
| general
|
|
snark
|
To snarl rudely; to be sarcastic, impatient, or downright bitchy for little good reason. A person who snarks is being snarky.
| general
|
|
snarky
|
Someone who's snarking an awful lot. See snark.
| general
|
|
sockpuppets
|
1) Alternate identities created online, for privacy reasons at best and for trolling at worst. Sockpuppets can often be caught by matching their IP addresses.
2) Characters played in an online roleplaying game. As far as I know, the term was first applied to RPG characters by Ann Larimer in early 2002, in regards to MESPT and then the adjoining Slashpuppets game. Usually abbreviated to puppets or pups.
| Internet (1), online RPGs (2)
|
|
songfic
|
A story based entirely around the lyrics of a song. Thanks to a flood of sappy, pointless songfics in other genres, these are generally regarded as a Very Bad Thing. As long as a story would not completely collapse without the song to provide support, a story can be named after a song or even include a few lyrics to set the mood and not be considered songfic. The worst consist little more than the song itself...and the very worst are ones that seek deep personal meaning in a hot pop-song of the moment.
| general
|
|
SOTA
|
Sign Of The Apocalypse -- something indicating the world is coming to an end. Something bad.
| MST3K
|
|
spackle
|
Named for the paste used to fill cracks in a wall, this is a story that tries to "fill in the holes" in canon, supplying missing scenes/motivation and trying to make sense of TPTB's often dizzying leaps of illogic. Also used as a verb. A similar substance is oakum.
NOTE: This term seems to have been coined in 1999 by Greywolf the Wanderer, when he posted his zine story "Dark Star" online with this summary: "I always loved The Enterprise Incident, but it's got plot holes ye could drive a logging truck thru. Consider this my best attempt to spackle the bastards."
| Star Trek
|
|
Sparklypoo
|
A tongue-in-cheek fifth House created in fanon for Mary Sues who attend Hogwarts. Their colors are pink and silver, and their mascot is a rainbow winged unicorn. Immortalized here.
| Harry Potter
|
|
spatulate
|
This is in reference to a certain Japanese character who uses cooking utensils in her martial arts. When you "spatulate" someone, it means to flip them over like a pancake -- using a spatula, of course. Don't ask.
| anime/manga
|
|
specs
|
See speculative fiction.
| Vampire Chronicles
|
|
speculative fiction
|
1) A long-established alternate term for "science fiction" among those who prefer to project a more serious/literary image.
2) What Anne Rice fans call fanfiction. Increasingly rare or pushed underground because Anne Rice is allegedly a possessive sue-happy bi-- er, a little over-protective of her works. Often shortened to "specs."
| old sci-fi, Vampire Chronicles
|
|
*splorf*
|
A comedic surprised or shocked exclamation, like coughing up milk through your nose.
| general
|
|
spoiler, spoilers |
A piece of information which can reveal (and thereby "spoil") an important plotpoint in a movie, show, issue, etc. that the reader has not yet seen/read. This term is rapidly going mainstream. See spoiler warning.
| general
|
|
spoiler warning
|
A good poster or chatter always takes their audience into consideration and warns them if they're about to mention a spoiler (see above). This is done by a) telling listeners/readers that there are spoilers coming so they can decide to stop reading before it's too late, and b) in the case of a messageboard post, adding a page's worth of blank space or gibberish to force readers to scroll down to read the actual text, ensuring that the spoiler is not spotted by mistake by a casual browser.
| general
|
|
spork
|
A disposable plastic utensil which is part fork, part spoon, often spotted in cafeterias or cheap fastfood joints. Not a fanfic term, but it comes up a lot -- I think writers find it both a funny word and a funny thing to threaten each other with -- so here it is. :)
| general
|
|
Spuffy
|
Fanfic featuring Buffy and Spike as a couple. The term predates the actual canon relationship, and is the most infamous of Buffy fandom's "conjoining pairing names" which set a trend for other related fandoms.
| Buffy
|
|
squee, *squee!*
|
A loud high-pitched squeal of pleased delight. At first only associated with annoying fangirls, but now more or less a fan-universal constant.
| general
|
|
squick
|
To be "squicked" is to have been disturbed at a personal gut level, often but not always in regards to sex. (Ie. walking in on naked parents squicks most people. ;) Usually used in a humorous way, as if to indicate that you understand it doesn't gross out other people but man does it push one of your your "eww" buttons!
| general
|
|
Sturgeon's Law
|
"Ninety percent of everything is crap" -- a paraquote by author Theodore Sturgeon, who once said, "Sure, ninety percent of science fiction is crud. That's because ninety percent of everything is crud." Scholars disagree on what word Sturgeon actually used. Can be applied to fanfic and often is.
| science fiction
|
|
#subcafe
|
The Dalnet IRC chatroom where comicficcers hang out and avoid Real Life. ;) See #fictalk.
| comics
|
|
Subreality
|
An imaginary borderland between reality and fantasy where writers can meet their characters and the casts of various fanfics from any genre can mingle for a beer and a nap between chapters. Adopted into several genres and used as the setting of many metafics.
| comics, Doctor Who, Reboot, others
|
|
Subreality Cafe
|
Aka SC -- the between-dimensional hangout for comic-book fanfic characters (and, increasing, their writers) -- see also This Time Around.
| Subreality
|
|
subtext
|
In literary analysis, "subtext" refers to any element of plot that is implied rather than clearly stated. In fandom, this term is usually used to label any canon action, dialogue, or imagery which imply sexual attraction between two characters, usually of the same gender. Subtext generally exists only in the minds of viewers (calm down already, you Mulder/Krychek fangirls! ;), but in rare cases *coughxenacough* it can be pretty darn blatant. The opposite is maintext.
| Xena
|
|
-Sue/-Stu
|
When combined with a name, this represents a canon character who has been so distorted by fanfic that they have been rendered non-canonical. See also canon rape. Common Jossverse examples (provided by Phillip Eagle):
Spike-Stu: Never really hurt anyone who wasn't as bad as he was. Incredibly sensitive and emotional, and spends most of his time weeping over how badly that judgemental bitch Buffy treats him.
Xander-Stu: Gets some kind of random magical power-up that makes him a badass superhero who will never play second-fiddle to any girl again. Alternatively, a weepy victim broken by hideous paternal sexual abuse who has to be rescued and sexually healed by Spike.
Lilah-Sue: A strong-minded, sexually-irresistible rolemodel for any professional woman who was mistaken for a villain by sexist!Angel but has actually transcended that nasty patriarchal dichotomy of good and evil...
| Jossverse
|
|
sue, Sue (v.)
|
To insert one or more Mary Sues into a fandom (usually via fanfic) or to saddle a canon character with an annoying original character. Can also be used to allege that a canon character is being over-idealised to Sue/Stu proportions. Example: "Some things should just not be Sued."
| LiveJournal (marysues), PPC
|
|
Suethor
|
Someone who writes Mary Sues -- "Sue" + "author." See also Suvian or sue (verb).
| LiveJournal
|
|
superdeformed
|
An exaggerated style of drawing characters with large stylized heads, huge eyes, and tiny stubby bodies, often used for a single moment/scene for comedic effect. See also chibi.
| anime/manga
|
|
superfan
|
An active fan who has gained wide recognition for contributions to fandom. See also BNF.
| Star Trek
|
|
Suvian
|
Someone enjoys Mary Sues in any form and who defends them (often hysterically) as legitimate characters. See also Suethor.
| LiveJournal
|
|
sweatdrop, *sweatdrop*
|
Indicates embarrassment or nervousness -- from the old manga trick of drawing an overly-large stylized drop of sweat on or near a character's head when they're anxious or freaked out.
| anime/manga
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
tag
|
A comment in a journal thread or a live chat that furthers a roleplaying scenario. Also used as a verb.
| online RPGs
|
|
Tapestry Syndrome
|
A serious condition in which a writer has so many ideas for stories that he/she can't possibly start them all, let alone finish them! Named after a writer who seemed to be permanently suspended in this strange state....
| comics
|
|
TBC
|
See "To Be Continued."
| general
|
|
TCBOO
|
"There Can Be Only One."
| Highlander
|
|
TCP
|
See The Common People.
| comics, Gundam Wing
|
|
TDC
|
See The Dread Canon.
| Star Trek
|
|
teh
|
Common misspelling of "the," often deliberately used by people parodying fangirl speak, eg. rapidly typed and vapid. Also used in conjunction with other words (often humorously distorted) to form descriptives -- ie. if something is stupid, it might be jokingly called "teh stupid."
| general
|
|
tenshi ai
|
A fairly recent variant of shounenai where the leads (often romantic) are androgynous angels (tenshi=angel + ai=love). Examples include CLAMP's "Wish" and Yuki Kaori's "Angel Sanctuary."
| anime/manga
|
|
tentaclefic
|
Any erotic tale involving characters or monsters who use tentacles (often phallic) to mate with or simply ravish humanoid characters, the latter usually being female. Often violent, this is a popular anime/manga kink, but it's also often used as an example of exploitative PWP. Me, I stay out of the argument. :) See also goosex.
| anime/manga
|
|
Terrible Trio, the
|
Harry Potter, Ron Weaselly, and Hermione Granger -- the three main characters in the Harry Potter books, and thus the center of attention in many fanfics.
| Harry Potter
|
|
*theirloveisso____*
|
A fill-in-the-blank term used to describe a 'shipped couple, canon or not. *theirloveissotrue*, *theirloveissoangsty*, etc. Usually silly or punny. Origins discussed here.
| popslash, now general
|
|
Thinkerism
|
A word or sentence so mangled by typos (or insanity) that it defies comprehension. Named for the completely mad works of Dr. Thinker. Famous examples include "Out pooped Sailor Mercury" and "Gyra famous on Ami."
| MST3K
|
|
This Time Around
|
An imaginary bar where Doctor Who fanfic characters hang out between stories -- a spin-off of the Subreality Cafe.
| Doctor Who
|
|
THOSD
|
The House Of Strange Dimensions -- sometimes abbreviated to HOSD. A Subreality-related round robin set on a messageboard at CFAN. See RR or Subreality for more details.
| Subreality
|
|
Three-Pipe Problem
|
Initially, a conundrum requiring enough silent contemplation time as to permit the smoking of three pipes' worth of tobacco; in "The Red-Headed League," this was stated as fifty minutes. Generally, any problem which requires a great deal of thought.
| Sherlock Holmes
|
|
TIIC
|
"The Idiots In Charge." See The Powers That Be
| unknown
|
|
Tim Tam, Tim-Tam
|
Australian chocolate-coated chocolate biscuit (cookie if you're American) with chocolate filling -- known for its highly addictive nature and the ability to cure all. Universal bribery material. Introduced by Rossi.
| comics
|
|
tinhat
|
Someone who clings to a delusion and acts like any other argument is a conspiracy to lead them astray from the Truth. Think of those tinfoil hats that crazies wear to ward away alien mind control. Often used specifically for a certain sect of 'shippers who take delusions of a particular LOTR actor pairing a little too far.
| LOTR
|
|
TMI
|
"Too Much Information." Almost always in regards to sex or other intimate bodily functions, ie. "Last night my boyfriend and I [fill in the blank]--" "Ack! TMI!" Used outside of fandom but useful within it, which is where many ficcers first heard it.
| general
|
|
top-heavy
|
describes a story with an overly long title. Also known in some circles as the Falstaff Syndrome after a writer notorious for his long titles, who's probably going to hit me for including this. ;)
| unknown
|
|
TOR.n, TORn
|
TheOneRing.net -- a major center of news/interaction for Tolkien fans.
| Tolkien
|
|
trailer vid
|
A kind of vid or AMV where the audio track, rather than a song, is that of a movie trailer. Also can denote vids made with the audio of TV/radio commercials, or using the opening sequence of a different show entirely.
| anime, Jossverse
|
|
trawling
|
Dredging through the Internet looking for information or images. This is often miswritten at trolling, which is something entirely different.
| general
|
|
triangle
|
A plot situation often spotted in soap operas, wherein three characters are involved with each other but not all together (ie. Bobby and Logan vying for Rogue's attentions). More than three can be involved in a triangle, but three is the classic conflict number.
| general
|
|
troll
|
Someone who's a foul jerk just for the thrill of ruining other people's day, as seen on newsgroups, messageboards, chatrooms, mailing lists, and beyond. Trolls are not tolerated long.
| general
|
|
trolling
|
Deliberately posting in such a way at to provoke anger, outrage, disgust, and general shouting chaos. Not to be confused with trawling -- these words are often misused interchangeably.
| general
|
|
trufan
|
Self-referential term used by hardcore fans, usually of old-school sci-fi or the original Star Trek. Though this can be a proud hard-earned label, it also has negative connotations: trufen tend to be pedantic, defensive, and scornful of anyone who isn't excruciatingly well-versed in the "classics." Needless to say, many trufen scoff at fanfic.
| sci-fi
|
|
trufen
|
The plural of trufan.
| sci-fi
|
|
TPTB
|
See The Powers That Be.
| unknown, mainly TV media
|
|
TrekSmut
|
A general goodnatured term for sexual or romantic tales that feature Star Trek characters. This term was invented in March 1995 to avoid loaded words like "porn" or "erotica."
| Star Trek
|
|
TTIOT
|
"The Truth Is Out There." A common sign-off among X-Files ficcers, for obvious reasons.
| X-Files
|
|
twink
|
A person or character who twinks. Not a nice thing to call someone. See twinking.
| general
|
|
twink
|
An enthusiastic underage male participant in a pornographic story. This has absolutely nothing to do with fandom's version of the word; however, I was informed that it would be a good idea to note the difference. I agree.
| gay porn
|
|
twinking
|
Adding convenient new powers to characters (often to one's own self-insertion) whenever convenient. Often spotted in young roleplayers and often associated online with Mary Sues. A person or character who twinks is a twink.
| roleplaying
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
uber
|
A type of story involving "new" characters who physically and/or psychologically resemble canon characters. In Xena ficdom, the term mainly covers tales of two canon descendents of Xena and Gabrielle -- Mel and Janice. See also Elseworld.
| Xena, others
Xena
|
|
UC
|
See Unconventional Couple.
| Roswell
|
|
UF
|
See Unnamed Faction
| Forever Knight
|
|
Uffish
|
Another term for slash -- taken from the acronym UF and a pun off of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwock" ("As in uffish thought he stood"). See Unnamed Faction.
| Forever Knight
|
|
UGLI
|
See Unwanted Gratuitous Love Interest
| CSI
|
|
Unconventional Couple
|
Any fan-promoted romantic pairing that has little to no precedent in the original source material. Often abbreviated to UC. Interesting note, according to Lisay: "[UC] began in the Buffy fanfic list UCSL or UnConventionalShipList over six years ago when someone noticed the subtext between Xander and Larry (BtVS's first openly gay character). Before the subsequent fragmenting of the fandom, UCSL was the one of the biggest Buffy ficlists because all UC ships were allowed there, slash or het. The first Spuffy fic written was posted on this list (during the airing of S2)."
| Buffy, Roswell
|
|
Unnamed Faction
|
Another term for slashfen -- originated in an Oscar Wilde poem extolling "the love that dare not speak its name." Abbreviated to UF or Uffish.
| Forever Knight
|
|
Unusual Setting
|
The anime fanfic term for an Elseworlds story.
| anime/manga
|
|
Unwanted Gratuitous Love Interest
|
Often abbreviated to UGLI -- a character who interferes with a 'ship preferred by the user of the term. Character Sofia Curtis is a commonly referred-to UGLI.
| CSI
|
|
urple
|
1) Described as a vile mix of pink and purple, urple is often used to mock the overall color combination of a Mary Sue, as they are prone to combining hideous shades. Originally a typo, urple became a proper term in OFUM and is now common in the PPC and GAFF communities. See also wilver.
2) Urple can also describe flowery, over-wrought language, replacing the "purple" in "purple prose" to be even more winceworthy.
| Tolkien
|
|
U.S.T.
|
Unresolved Sexual Tension -- a term for perceived "chemistry" between characters who are not romantically involved in canon or are prevented from pursuing the possibility by circumstances (ie. career, danger, both same gender, etc.). Think Mulder & Scully. See also R.S.T.
| X-Files
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
vanilla
|
In kink vernacular this refers to sexual practices which are considered conventional and unremarkable -- in fanfic this can be used as a disparaging term for boring, unimaginative erotica.
| general
|
|
-verse
|
A suffix added to any fandom title to indicate the general body of canon work, the "world" created by the original creators. Examples: HPverse, Potterverse, Jossverse.
| general
|
|
verse
|
An abbreviation of "universe" popularized by Firefly canon, particularly notable in River's line "Nothing in the verse can stop me."
| Firefly
|
|
(The) Very Secret Diary Of...
|
Originally a popular diary-style parody by HP BNF Cassie Claire written for various LOTR characters, leading to numerous well-known phrases. Quickly adapted for other fandoms, such as "Very Secret Diary Of Captain Jack Sparrow" (PotC) or even mocking real celebrities, such as Buffyfic author Annie Sewell Jennings's "Very Secret Diary of George Bush." The originals are often called the VSDs.
| LOTR
|
|
vids
|
Fan-made music videos created for any media fandom -- TV, movie, cartoon, etc. Anime music videos are often abbreviated to AMVs.
| anime, general
|
|
vidder
|
One who vids (makes music videos as a hobby), usually using fan-oriented materials as a focus and other fans as an audience. See vid or AMV.
| anime, general
|
|
vidding, vid-making
|
The act of making a music video, usually fannish in nature. See vid or AMV.
| anime, general
|
|
vid-fic
|
Similar to a songfic -- a fanfic in which lyrics are used, but the surrounding text describes scenes or events if describing an outline for a music video.
| anime
|
|
vignette
|
A very short story dealing with a single brief period of time, a single subject (an event, an emotion, a relationship, etc.), and often only a single character. Rarely action-oriented, vignettes are usually involve a character's internal dialogue as they muse over something that's already happened, debate something yet to be faced, or simply "enjoy the moment." By necessity, drabbles are always vignettes.
| general
|
|
VSDs
|
See Very Secret Diary Of....
| LOTR
|
| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
|
WAFF
|
"Warm And Fuzzy Feeling" -- describes any cute sappy pointless fic, sometime but not always involving g-rated romance. Most Rogue/Gambit fiction can be placed in this category. Anime WAFFs, however, almost never involve romance.
| anime/manga
|
|
WAFFy, WAFFish
|
See WAFF
| anime/manga
|
|
Wai!
|
Short for kawaii, which Japanese for "cute." A girlish exclamation of adoration/happiness. Often describes chibi or superdeformed characters.
| anime/manga
|
|
wangst
|
A combination of "wank" and "angst," wangst is woe-is-me misery so floridly exaggerated that, as Maria put it, "you'd like to punch the angsty character/person's lights out and see if they have something similar to spine." Symptoms include deliberately attempting to starve to death, sobbing oneself to sleep, cutting, Evanescence lyrics, and so forth.
| LiveJournal (deleterius)
|
|
wank
|
Self-important arrogance -- usually in reference to humorless elitist fans with massively bloated egos, but the meaning is becoming blurry. See Fandom_Wank. Of course it means something far dirtier in British English, but you ought to know that by now. :)
| general
|
|
Warlord/Slave
|
Tales which revolve around a relationship between two main characters in which one of the characters assumes a "warlord" persona while the other is their servant or slave. Often seen in XC stories.
| Xena, Hercules
|
|
wb, WB
|
"Welcome back," usually used in chat after someone returns from being away (see AFK & BRB) or from being punted.
| general
|
|
wilver
|
A technically impossible color, combining silver with...well, anything else, really. So named because Mary Sues tend to claim their hair, eyes, etc are shades like lavender-silver, mauve-silver, and so forth. See also urple.
| Tolkien
|
|
wingfic
|
A genre of fanfic, usually AU, where a character has or suddenly grows wings, usually angelic. Tend to be either sugary, angsty, or both; whether these are worth reading tends to depend on the fandom and the skill of the author.
| LOTR RPS (Elijah Wood)
|
|
WIP
|
"Work In Progress" -- a story whose ending has not yet been written or a rough draft which has not been thoroughly betaread.
| general
|
|
Wishverse
|
A subgenre based around the premise of a Buffy episode ("The Wish") which presented a dark A/U in which Buffy had never come to Sunnydale and evil prevailed. Stories are either set before everyone died or after (conveniently ignoring canon). Sometimes abbreviated to WV. Another canon-established Buffy AU is the Asylumverse; in Angel, there's the Birthdayverse.
| Buffy
|
|
WNF
|
"Well-Known Fan" -- see BNF.
| old fandom
|
|
woobie
|
A character, usually male and good-looking, who is constantly be in a state of woe, misery, or sheer unlucky suckitude to a degree that fans want to figuratively scoop him up and cuddle him. This causes friction when fans of normally "unwoobie" characters (ie. Lucius Malfoy) go wildly out of the canon way to concoct ways to make him/her a woobie and thus deserving of much mooshy sympathy.
| Smallville (?)
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WV
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See Wishverse.
| Buffy
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| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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XC
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See Xena The Conqueror.
| Xena, Hercules
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Xena The Conqueror
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A popular alternate timeline inspired by the premise of the Hercules episode "Armageddon Now" -- where Hercules never existed and Xena never saved Gabrielle from slavers, going on instead to become the ruler of the known world. Gaby usually shows up to oppose Xena's tyranny. See also C-W/S and Warlord/Slave.
| Xena, Hercules
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X-S
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Aka Growing Up X -- a popular multi-writer series created by Darqstar and concerning the life of one Sikudhani "Siku" Edna McCoy, a child adopted as an infant by Hank "Beast" McCoy and raised by the X-Men.
| comics
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| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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yaoi
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Erotic tales or images of male/male (gay) encounters, usually for adults only -- the Japanese version of hardcore slash. Yaoi is an acronym for the Japanese phrase "Yama nashi, imi nashi, ochi nashi" ("Without climax, without meaning, without resolution"), though some fans joke that it stands for"Yamete! Oshiri ga itai!" ("Stop! My ass hurts!"). ;) The female equivalent is yuri. See also shonen ai, or read Yumemisama's full explanation of anime/manga adult story classifications.
| anime/manga
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Yed, yed
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Playful yet respectiful abbreviation which denotes the editor of a fanzine ("Ye Editor").
| sci-fi
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yiffy
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Containing sexual content, usually gratuitous and a little silly or exaggerated. Derived from the sound a fox makes ("yiff!"), as people who claim the fox as their totem in furrydom are often fondly stereotyped as ditzy sluts.
| furry
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yuri
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Indicates stories dealing with female/female (lesbian) pairings, usually intended for adults only -- the male equivalent is yaoi. See also Yumemisama's full explanation of anime/manga adult story classifications.
| anime/manga
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| ? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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zine, 'zine
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Short for "fanzine" which itself is a corruption of "magazine" -- a collection of fan-oriented information or fanfic printed in magazine form, usually sold for cost-of-printing. A dying breed, 'zines pre-date the Internet by at least about twenty years but are still in circulation; you can find 'zines offered via mail-order from websites and at conventions.
| old fandom
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