fannish adj.

of or relating to a dedicated or obsessive fan

Fancyclopedia


SF Fandom

  • 1901 Inter Ocean (Chicago) 28 July 19/1

    The week just ended was full of excitement for the local fans, who are beginning to enjoy life in real fannish fashion.

  • 1915 Motography 5 June 922/1

    But we have not observed, and do not believe, the sane and normal picture show visitor, however 'fannish' he may be, ever loses his identity or sense of time and place in an excess of emotional concentration.

  • 1948 Fantasy Book (vol. 1, no. 3) 64 (advt.) page image

    Tucker (Wilson, that is, of Chinese Doll and To Keep or Kill fame) will have his latest guessing game out about the time you read this. As with his preceding hits, it’s fantasy, flavored with fannish happenings worked into the (hot) plot to tickle the risibilities of the cognoscenti.

  • 1949 C. R. Tanner Letter in Startling Stories Sept. 144/1 page image Charles R. Tanner bibliography

    Most of the old fannish activities of former years will be continued, and there’ll be a couple of new things to surprise the fans with. The response of the fans and readers to the request for membership in the Convention Committee has been surprising.

  • 1959 R. H. Eney Fancyclopedia II 15 Dick Eney bibliography

    No less important to fannish than mundane drinking, this useful beverage is even given divine honors by the sect of Beeros, and worshipped either as Beer or Bheer.

  • 1959 R. H. Eney Fancyclopedia II 47 Dick Eney bibliography

    VanC walked thru the glass door of the Downey (Cal.) public library one day in 1950, winning fannish notoreity [sic] and a mention in the local paper.

  • 1961 National Fantasy Fan Feb. 6

    Guy E. Terwilleger has advised me that an unexpectedly heavy load of school duty is forcing him to gafiate from all fannish activity, and to resign as Director of the NFFF.

  • 1977 B. Ash Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1978) 275/3 Brian Ash bibliography

    Fanzines fall into various classes. Fannish fanzines deal with fandom itself, often scurrilously (since the passing of the gentlemanly approach of First Fandom).

  • 1987 G. Wolfe From House on Borderland in Horrorstruck Nov.–Dec. 20/2 Gene Wolfe

    From club meetings came meetings between clubs, at which members of the Outsiders might s.m.o.f. (this fan verb is derived from S ecret M asters o f F andom and indicates the forging of fannish political deals) with Insiders, and at which everyone discussed favorite stories and story concepts far into the night.

  • 1988 S. McCrumb Bimbos of Death Sun xi. 141 Sharyn McCrumb bibliography

    People will write up stories in fan magazines describing the incident, and it will become part of fannish history.

  • 1991 L. Niven, J. Pournelle, & M. Flynn Fallen Angels 131 Larry Niven Michael F. Flynn Jerry Pournelle bibliography

    You should see my collection of fannish art.

  • 1994 Interzone Apr. 64/1

    The new book…concerns Doctor Who and marks the 30th anniversary of the television show which boasts a level of fannish adulation second only, perhaps, to the likes of Star Trek and The Prisoner.

  • 2001 Science Fiction Chronicle July 37/3

    We love Fred Pohl. We have the same fannish attachments and passion and dream and desire to get close to these people by any means.

  • 2019 H. Luetkenhaus & Z. Weinstein Austentatious 3

    We fit into Jenkins’s current generation: a group of scholars for whom their fannish identity is not separate and who do not feel the need to maintain a distance from the thing they study.


Research requirements

antedating 1901

Research History
Jeff Prucher submitted a 1986 cite from Gary Wolfe's "Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1959 cite from Fancyclopedia 2.
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a letter by Charles Tanner in the September 1949 Startling Stories.
Jeff Prucher submitted a cite from a 1995 reprint of Gene Wolfe's 1987 essay "From a House on the Borderland".
Jeff Prucher submitted a 1990 cite from a book review by Donald Hassler in Extrapolation.
Enoch Forrester submitted a 1991 cite from Peter David's "Q-in-law".
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from Fantasy Book vol. 1 no. 3: this magazine has a 1948 copyright notice but no publication date; we would like to confirm its publication in 1948.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2019 cite in reference to Jane Austen.

Last modified 2021-02-10 21:14:08
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.