trufan n.

a science fiction fan who adheres to the ideals and practices of fandom

Plural trufans, trufen.

Fancyclopedia


SF Fandom

  • 1954 B. Shaw & W. Willis Enchanted Duplicator xviii. 26 page image Bob Shaw Walt Willis bibliography

    This, he knew, must be the Tower of Trufandom—and on its top The Enchanted Duplicator! [...] On either side of him were numerous parks and gardens, great and small, and of varying types of beauty, and in them walked shining, godlike figures whom he knew to be the Trufans. Now and again one of them would notice Jophan, and come to greet him and wish him well, and with each encounter his eagerness grew to reach the Tower and become one of their number.

  • 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 R. Eney Fancyclopedia II 164 Dick Eney bibliography

    In connection with TAFF a furor arose over the definition of a Trufan, the active faction insisting that a trufan exhibit his quality by some sort of fanac—crifanac for choice—while others maintained that nomination to or interest in so stefnistic an enterprise as TAFF was sufficient to prove fannishness.

  • 1972 R. Nelson Introduction to Time Travel for Pedestrians in H. Ellison Again, Dangerous Visions 139 Ray Nelson bibliography

    You and I were there, and George Young and all those other truefans, and we were all underage and we were all (except you, who don’t drink) drinking beer and playing the electric bowling machine, and the manager came around and started asking for I.D. cards, and you had on a suit and tie and a large, literary-looking pipe, and when they came to you, you said, ‘They're all right. I'll vouch for them.’

  • 1977 S. Wood Propellor Beanie in Algol Spring 43/1 page image Susan Wood

    Trufen reprint Walt Willis columns; superfan Hughes recently printed a new Willis column presenting the Irish Legend’s return to fandom, at the 1976 Eastercon, after an 11-year gafiation.

  • 1979 Science Fiction Review Jan. 31/1

    But it has come to our Noble Editor’s attention that SFR is sold in enough bookshops and the GALAXY ads have netted enough ‘outside’ customers that a large percentage of you, Dear Readers, are not Trufans, or even aware of what fandom is, beyond the vague sense of the term.

  • 1991 L. Niven, J. Pournelle, & M. Flynn Fallen Angels 89 Larry Niven Michael F. Flynn Jerry Pournelle bibliography

    Without Tremont J. Fielding—3MJ as he was known to all trufans—and his sprawling mansion, Minicon might not have come off at all.

  • 2012 C. Doctorow Pirate Cinema xxii. 305 page image Cory Doctorow bibliography

    If my imaginary interrogators wanted proof of my Scot Colford trufan status, they’d just have to look at the passwords they forced out of me: I’d made them up by taking the first letter of each word from some of Scot’s best-ever speeches, then rotating them forward one letter through the alphabet.


Research requirements

antedating 1954

Earliest cite

W. Willis & B. Shaw 'The Enchanted Duplicator'

Research History
Leah Zeldes submitted a cite from a 1978 reprint of Walt Willis' and Bob Shaw's "The Enchanted Duplicator"; Geri Sullivan verified the cite in the 1954 first edition.
Fred Galvin submitted a 1958 cite from Ralph M. Holland's "Ghu's Lexicon".
Malcolm Farmer submitted a 1979 cite from Darrell Schweitzer's "Occasionally Mentioning Science Fiction".
Jeff Prucher submitted a 1972 cite from Ray Nelson's introduction to "Time Travel for Pedestrians".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1959 cite from "Fancyclopedia II".
Imran Ghory submitted a cite from a 1978 article, "Star Trek Lives: Trekker Slang" by Patricia Byrd.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2012 cite from Cory Doctorow.

Besides any antedatings, we would be interested to see any cites for this term outside SF fandom.

Last modified 2021-03-01 23:00:59
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.