Fandom slang is the oldest continuously running dialect on the internet. Shipping comes from 1990s X-Files mailing lists, Slash Fiction from 1970s Star Trek zines, and Mary Sue from a parody published in 1973. Newer words like Blorbo and Poor Little Meow Meow are Tumblr's contribution from the 2020s. This glossary covers 50 of them, from Canon to blorbo, with where each came from.
The through-line is that fandom has always needed vocabulary for two things: what the source material says (canon) and what fans wish it said (everything else). Nearly every word here falls on one side of that line.
The platforms matter too. Zines and mailing lists produced the 1970s to 1990s layer. LiveJournal and FanFiction.net produced the 2000s layer. Tumblr produced the affectionate absurdities of the 2010s and 2020s, and Stan Twitter produced the vocabulary of praise and combat. Each generation kept the older words and added its own, which is why a single AO3 comment section can contain slang from five decades without anyone noticing.
The foundations
1. Canon
What officially happens in the source material. Borrowed from the biblical sense (the accepted books) via Sherlock Holmes fandom, which used "the Canon" for Conan Doyle's stories a century ago. Status: immortal. Canon
2. Fanon
What fans collectively agree happens, whether or not canon supports it. A character's coffee order, a backstory, a pairing. Coined in the late 1990s. Status: alive. Fanon
3. Headcanon
Your personal fanon: a belief about a character you hold without evidence. LiveJournal-era, 2000s. Status: alive. Headcanon
4. AU
Alternate universe. A fic where the characters are in a coffee shop, a high school, or medieval Europe. Zine-era term, huge on AO3. Status: alive. AU
5. Fanfic
Fan fiction. Star Trek zines in the 1960s and 70s, FanFiction.net in 1998, AO3 in 2009, Wattpad throughout. Status: immortal. Fanfic
6. AO3
Archive of Our Own, the fan-run fanfic archive that launched in beta in 2009 and won a Hugo Award in 2019. Its tag system is a language of its own. Status: alive. AO3
7. OC
Original character, one the fan invented. Status: alive. OC
8. Self-insert
A story where the author writes themselves in. Status: alive, less embarrassed than it used to be. Self-Insert
9. Y/N
"Your name", the placeholder in reader-insert fanfic. Wattpad made it standard in the 2010s; TikTok POV videos in 2020 made it a meme. Status: alive. Y/N
10. Mary Sue
An idealised, flawless self-insert character. From Paula Smith's 1973 Star Trek parody "A Trekkie's Tale". Now overused as a criticism of any competent female character. Status: alive, contested. Mary Sue
11. Lore
The accumulated backstory of a fictional world. Now applied to streamers, YouTubers and your friend's ex. Status: alive. Lore
12. Lore drop
A sudden reveal of backstory. Status: alive. Lore Drop
13. Canon event
An unavoidable formative moment. From Across the Spider-Verse (June 2023), now used for any rite of passage. Status: alive. Canon Event
Shipping
14. Ship
To want two characters together, from "relationship". X-Files fans in the mid-1990s called themselves "relationshippers", then "shippers". Status: immortal. Shipping
15. OTP
One true pairing, the ship you care most about. LiveJournal, early 2000s. Status: alive. OTP
16. Slash
Same-sex pairings, from the slash in "Kirk/Spock" in 1970s zines. Status: alive, though "ship" has absorbed much of it. Slash Fiction
17. Crack ship
A pairing so unlikely it's a joke, until someone writes 80,000 words about it. Status: alive. Crack Ship
18. Ship war
Fans of rival pairings fighting, sometimes for years. Status: alive. Ship War
19. Rule 34
If it exists, there is porn of it. From a 2003 webcomic, codified by 4chan around 2006. Status: immortal. Rule 34
20. Rule 63
For every character there is a gender-swapped version. Status: alive. Rule 63
21. Waifu
A favourite female character, from "mai waifu" in the anime Azumanga Daioh (2002). Status: alive. Waifu
Tumblr's contribution
22. Blorbo
Your favourite character, described in a way that is deliberately silly. From a 2021 Tumblr post about "blorbo from my shows". Status: alive, Tumblr's signature word. Blorbo
23. Poor little meow meow
A morally awful character that fans nevertheless want to protect. Tumblr, around 2021. Status: alive. Poor Little Meow Meow
24. Scrunkly
A character who is small, odd and lovable. Tumblr, 2021. Status: alive. Scrunkly
25. Comfort character
The character you return to when things are bad. Tumblr and TikTok, around 2020. Status: alive. Comfort Character
26. Babygirl
A grown man, often a villain, described as babygirl. Tumblr, 2022, with Pedro Pascal as the reference case. Status: alive. Babygirl (Men)
27. Cringefail
A character who is embarrassing and fails at everything, lovingly. Tumblr, 2021. Status: alive. Cringefail
28. Feral
Losing composure over a character or a plot point. Status: alive. Feral
29. Unhinged
Chaotic, and praised for it. Status: alive. Unhinged
30. Reblog
Tumblr's share button, the mechanism that carried fandom culture from 2007 onward. Status: alive. Reblog
31. Dash
The Tumblr dashboard, your feed. Status: alive. Dash (Tumblr)
32. Hellsite
Tumblr, affectionately. Status: alive. Hellsite
33. Problematic fave
A favourite you know you shouldn't have. Tumblr, around 2014. Status: alive. Problematic Fave
34. Callout post
A post exposing someone's bad behaviour, a Tumblr genre from around 2014 to 2015. Status: alive, moved to Twitter. Callout Post
35. Anti
Someone who is against a ship or character, aggressively. Status: alive. Anti
36. Discourse
Fandom argument, said with dread. Status: alive. Discourse
37. Tone indicators
/s, /j, /gen, added to clarify intent, from 2020 Twitter. Status: alive in some corners. Tone Indicators
Stan Twitter's contribution
38. Stan
An obsessive fan, from Eminem's 2000 song, then a verb by around 2008 and a whole platform culture by 2015. Status: alive. Stan
39. Stan Twitter
The K-pop, pop and Marvel fan networks that run Twitter's trending topics. Status: alive, weakened since 2023. Stan Twitter
40. Fan war
Rival fandoms fighting. Status: alive. Fan War
41. Fancam
A fan-shot video of one performer, posted as a reply to anything. K-pop, 2019. Status: dying. Fan Cam
42. Mother
A woman you admire. "Mother is mothering" when she does something well. Ballroom culture via Stan Twitter, around 2021. Status: alive. Mother
43. Ate
Did something perfectly. Status: alive. Ate
44. Serve
To present something impressive. Status: alive. Serve
45. Gagged
Stunned. Status: alive. Gagged
46. Icon
Someone iconic, applied generously. Status: alive. Icon
47. Understood the assignment
Did exactly what was needed. Twitter, 2021. Status: dying. Understood the Assignment
Anime fandom
48. Weeb
An obsessive fan of Japanese culture, from 4chan's "wapanese" filter around 2005. Status: alive. Weeb
49. Peak fiction
The best story ever, in anime Twitter's inflated register. Around 2022. Status: alive. Peak Fiction
50. Truck-kun
The truck that hits protagonists to send them to another world in isekai anime. Status: alive. Truck-kun
The tagging language
AO3 deserves its own paragraph because its tags are a dialect within the dialect. "Slow burn" means the couple takes 100,000 words to kiss. "Fix-it" means the author is repairing a canon death. "Enemies to lovers", "fake dating" and "only one bed" are tropes so standard that they are tagged like ingredients. "Dead Dove: Do Not Eat" warns that the fic contains exactly what the tags say it does, from a 2013 Tumblr post citing an Arrested Development joke. "Not beta read, we die like men" means nobody proofread it.
Readers filter by these tags the way other people filter by price, and the phrasing has leaked outward: "slow burn" and "enemies to lovers" are now used to describe television and, occasionally, real relationships. When a Netflix show is marketed with trope language, that language came from an archive volunteers built in 2009.
Two more words that surface constantly: "sending me", meaning a post is making someone laugh helplessly, and "main character", the person a story or a room revolves around, borrowed from fiction and now applied to anyone with too much confidence in a public place. Sending Me Main Character
How fandom words leak out
Fandom is where general internet slang goes to get invented. "Stan" started as a song, became fandom Twitter's word, and is now in Merriam-Webster. "Canon" and "lore" are used for real people. "Ate", "serve" and "mother" came from ballroom culture through Stan Twitter into TikTok. The next batch is already forming on Tumblr and AO3 tags; give it three years.
For the platform-specific vocabulary, see Reddit slang explained and the Discord slang glossary.
FAQ
What does canon mean in fandom?
Canon is what officially happens in the source material. Fanon is what fans collectively believe, and headcanon is what one fan personally believes.
What is a blorbo?
Your favourite character, described affectionately and a bit absurdly. The word comes from a 2021 Tumblr post about "blorbo from my shows".
What does Y/N mean?
"Your name". It is the placeholder in reader-insert fanfic, where the reader is the protagonist. TikTok POV videos turned it into a meme in 2020.
Where does "ship" come from?
From "relationship". X-Files fans in the mid-1990s who wanted Mulder and Scully together called themselves relationshippers, then shippers.
What is a Mary Sue?
An idealised, flawless character, usually an author self-insert. The term comes from a 1973 Star Trek fanzine parody.
