Dictionary

fringefan en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈfɹɪnd͡ʒfæn/

Etymology

From fringe + fan.

Meanings

1. (dated, derogatory, slang, sometimes) A science fiction fan primarily interested in a specific subset of fandom; a partial fan on the fringe of fandom.
   • It got next to no prozine publicity and Los Angeles newspapers ignored it, so the fringefans didn't know about it. 1969, Harry Warner, Jr., All Our Yesterdays, page 263:
   • I repeat my contention that absence of critical sense is one of the marks of the fringefan, and introduce the corollary (observable from the earliest days of anything recognizable as fandom) that argumentativeness is one of the common denominators of the [trufan] (I hate that term but it carries a useful sense). 1983 January 7, csin!cjh, “Re cursing ministers”, in net.sf-lovers (Usenet), message-ID <bnews.csin.246>:
   • Oh, I do enjoy Ansible as well <grovel>. However, I wasn't sure that was a True Fanzine (tm) - after all, it's read by (shock, horror) media fans, filkers, and other such fringefen. It also uses Modern Technology, not Traditional Ways Of Producing Fanzines (not that the email version of DR is exactly traditional either!)... 1995 June 11, Chris Croughton, “Re: LL Reconsidered?”, in rec.arts.sf.fandom (Usenet), message-ID <802799304snz@keris.demon.co.uk>:
   • Some were undoubtedly fakefans and fringefans, and there was I'm sure a strong surviving increment of Trekkies, as well as a high proportion of what might be called Jedites. 1985, Algis Budrys, Benchmarks, page 253:
   • Depends on what you want from a con, but I imagine that the name GoH attracts the fringefen who would not come otherwise, and those people pay enough money so the con can book all the function space it wants to. 1994 June 3, Brad Templeton, “Re: What Are Cons For?”, in rec.arts.sf.fandom (Usenet), message-ID <CqssD6.755@clarinet.com>:

Forms

Meronyms

Trekkie · Whovian · Trekker