fanfic

Fiction written by fans about someone else's characters — fanfic — from 1960s zines into the internet's largest body of writing, and the record's entry for the form that trained a generation of novelists and is still apologised for. It shouldn't be.

Archive of Our Own — the fanfiction archive built by fans, run by volunteers, tagged with more precision than any library, and the winner of a Hugo Award in 2019. The record's entry for the site, and for 'AO3 tags' as a genre of joke about specificity.

'Alternate universe' — a fanfiction in which the characters are the same and everything else is different: a coffee shop, a high school, a world where nobody died. From fanfiction into general use for any 'what if'. The record's entry for the universe as a genre tag.

A person in a fandom who is against a character, a ship, or a celebrity — an anti — and, in fandom discourse, the side that believes some fiction should not be written. The record's entry for the opposition as an identity, filed for the word.

Performed superbly, with no crumbs left. Sometimes extended to 'ate and left no crumbs', which is the same thing said by someone who has not.

A grown man — usually a middle-aged actor or a murderous fictional character — called 'babygirl' by the internet with total sincerity, as the 2022–23 way of finding a man both attractive and pathetic. The record's entry for the pet name that crossed every line and became a category.

A beloved character, described by someone who has never seen the show — 'my blorbo from my shows' — as Tumblr's 2021 word for the specific character a friend will not stop talking about. The record's entry for the noun that means 'your guy', and for the tenderness in it.

A post listing someone's wrongs, with evidence, for the community to judge — the callout post — from Tumblr fandoms into every platform. The record's entry for the trial by thread, and for the receipts folder that every callout requires.