actifan n.

someone who is actively involved in fandom

Now rare.

[< active + fan]

Fancyclopedia


SF Fandom

  • 1941 J. Gilbert & H. Jenkins Among the Hams & Pros in Fantasite (vol. 1, iss. 4) July 20 page image Joseph Gilbert Harry Jenkins, Jr.

    Bonfire: #1. Well mimeod with hectoed cover. Official organ of the NFFF, which every actifan should join.

  • 1942 H. Jenkins Jr. Letter in Super Science Stories May 136/2 page image Harry Jenkins, Jr.

    Thought-variant stories…draw popular acclaim as well as response from the actifan.

  • 1944 J. B. Speer Fancyclopedia 6/1 Jack Speer bibliography

    A flood of new fans came into fandom, usually thru the Triumvirs’ activities, and many remained and became actifans.

  • 1947 Startling Stories Jan. 107/1

    If there are any fans in North Carolina, would you please get in touch with me at 200 Williamsboro St., Oxford, N. C. If you even read StF you'll do. You don’t have to be an actifan, just so you read StF. Y’see, we're trying to form a statewide organization of fans and fannes in North Carolina to give StF a wider range in the Old North State, and generally improve fen conditions here.

  • 1950 ‘R. Phillips’ Club House in Amazing Stories Nov. 151/2 page image Rog Phillips

    One thing about this ’zine, published for the International Science Fiction Correspondence Club, is that it improves with each issue, or so it is fondly hoped. Circulation increases, but it could grow more if enough fans hear of it. ISFCC is international in more than its name and merits actifan attention.

  • 1956 R. Bloch Some of Best Fans are Friends in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Sept. 55/2 page image Robert Bloch bibliography

    Anyone who dips into an assortment of typical fanzines will find a bewildering array of neologisms and ‘running gags.’ He will learn the distinction between acti-fans (a portmanteau word which means just what you might suspect) and fake-fans (a term of mild contempt directed at those harmless parasites who hang around the fringes, reading but never writing for fanzines, attending conventions but seldom participating in the program or in the social activities). He will also encounter the neo-fan (a newcomer to the field) and the insurgents (the fun-loving crowd, who often delight in baiting those who take their hobby more seriously).

  • 1958 R. M. Holland Ghu’s Lexicon 3

    ACTIFAN—Active fan. One who proves that misery really does love company by attempting to spread and intensify the disease as much as possible. He organizes and officers fan clubs, publishes or writes for fan or pro zines, writes innumerable letters, etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum.

  • 1958 R. M. Holland Ghu’s Lexicon 3

    LETTERCOL — A letter column. One of the favorite haunts of the actifans. Many fanzines have them, but in prozines they are practically standard equipment. A prozine without a letter column is a fakezine, and no trufan will buy one.

  • 1959 D. Eney Fancyclopedia II 56 Dick Eney bibliography

    This is a matter of degree, and depending on the extent to which a given fan indulges in anything more than local club activity he may be distinguished as an actifan (as opposed to passifen); stress on crifanac rather than congoing, among actifans, is the chief extensional distinction between trufans and confans.

  • 1960 ‘A. Boucher’ in D. Knight In Search of Wonder Introd. p. viii, Anthony Boucher

    Successively or simultaneously, damon knight has been a science fiction fan, even an actifan (the uninitiated will have no trouble with that fannish word if they'll simply pronounce it aloud), an editor, a critic and a creative writer.

  • 1972 Haverings (#51) 4 page image

    Comments on fanzines received:… Useful for the actifan.

  • 1995 Dragoncon: FASFiC? or ComicCon? in rec.arts.sf.fandom (Usenet newsgroup) 15 July

    Worldcon site selection as administered is generally only voted on by a minority, I do believe, of Worldcon attendees. Most of those who vote are very probably actifen.


Research requirements

antedating 1941

Research History
Fred Galvin submitted a 1947 cite from "Sergeant Saturn" in Startling Stories.
Fred Galvin submitted a 1959 cite from Dick Eney's "Fancyclopedia II".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1950 cite from Rog Phillips (quoting Ed Noble, Jr.) in Amazing Stories.
Fred Galvin submitted a 1958 cite from Ralph M. Holland's "Ghu's Lexicon".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1956 cite from Robert Bloch's "Some of My Best Fans Are Friends".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1960 cite from Anthony Boucher in Damon Knight's "In Search of Wonder".
Fred Galvin submitted a cite for the phrase "active fan" from the October 1942 Astonishing Stories.
Jesse Sheidlower submitted a 1942 cite from a letter to Super Science Stories.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 1941 cite from Fantasite.

Last modified 2021-03-19 12:20:42
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.