Dictionary

original character en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (slang) A fictional character created by an author or artist, usually one from a fanwork that is not present in the official canon.
   • I currently have a document of My Little Pony story ideas that is, at the time of this writing, over 250 pages in length. It consists of over 400 premises for stories categorized with more than thirty-five different color-coded tags, a timelime of events spanning over 400,000 years and fourteen pages, over 49,000 words of headcanon, and forty-one original characters. 2013, Peter Berg, "Hobbyhorsing", in Anne Jamison, Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World, BenBella Books (2013), unnumbered pages
   • The genre of the Mary Sue similarly deals with subjectivity: in this often-derided genre, an impossibly beautiful original character, an avatar of the author herself, inserts herself into the narrative and saves the day. 2014, Karen Hellekson, “Fan fiction”, in Marie-Laure Ryan, Lori Emerson, Benjamin J. Robertson, editors, The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media, The Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 189:
   • What must be remembered also is the K/Sers' penchant for "making do": when asked why they do not create original characters who could be women as well as men, they most often respond that they are just "working with what's out there." 2014, Constance Penley, “Future Men”, in Karen Hellekson, Kristina Busse, editors, The Fan Fiction Studies Reader, University of Iowa Press, →ISBN, page 178:
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see original, character.

Forms

Deriveds

OCify

Hyponyms

fankid (specific fandoms) · fursona (specific fandoms) · fantroll (specific fandoms) · gemsona (specific fandoms) · ponysona (specific fandoms) · trollsona (specific fandoms)

Synonyms

OC

Translations (3)

ko 오리지널 캐릭터 (a fictional character in a fanwork) · ja オリジナルキャラクター (a fictional character in a fanwork) · cmn 原創角色 /原创角色 (a fictional character in a fanwork)