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'Fanboy' enters MW dictionary
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 8th July 2008
We did a google search for 'Fanboy' and this is what came up - just be thankful we cropped above the crotch.
'Fanboy' joins words such as 'w00t' that have transcended from niche slang and jargon status, to official words recognised by authoritative bodies. Also joining the MW dictionary from the world of computer jargon is 'Malware' - defined as "software designed to interfere with a computer's normal functioning."
Fanboy itself isn't associated with computer gaming directly however, despite that being the most regular modern usage. Instead, Merriam Webster defines a fanboy as "a boy who is an enthusiastic devotee, such as of comics or movies" - a definition which opens up all sorts of questions about the gender allocation (fangirl?), age implication (fanman?) and origin of the word. Though no source is cited by Yahoo, the word is defined as first being recorded in 1919.
Merriam-Webster has added a bunch of none-tech words to the dictionary too, such as 'Soju' (a Korean rice vodka), 'Racino' (racetrack with slot machines available) and 'Dwarf planet' (celestial body that orbits the sun and has a spherical shape, but is too small to disturb other objects from its orbit.)
Our favourite addition however has to be 'Mondegreen', which was first recorded in 1954 and means "a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung. From the mishearing in a Scottish ballad of "laid him on the green" as "Lady Mondegreen.""
What do you think to the latest additions? Should slang such as 'w00t' and 'fanboy' be added to the dictionary, or does the process of making them official remove their slang status and mean they will inevitably decline? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
Comments (27)Stats: 0.029 seconds
What was it?
Having seen GWAR live, fat people in stupid clothes fail to remove my appetite, and I forgot my lunch today >.>
It looks like he's half proud, half scared, and half bad at maths.
He's anxious for this shoot to be the final step in his (hopefully successful) courtship/seduction of Steve Jobs.
Throw some Ds on that bitch, and then superman that hoe!
What about him?
Ham sandwich.
Scary pic (I was to scared to google for the original), but interested (in a truly nerdy way) to find that fanboy dates that far back.
Of course, you realise that above is the only acceptable occurrence for "fanboy" and "date" to appear in the same sentence?
What about "The date of the great fanboy massacre was 21st December 2012"?
This would be something that annoys me a times, people saying "should of..." instead of "should have..." The "of" being a mishearing of the 've shortening of have. (Should have -> Should've -> Should of)
The use of w00t won't decline for a long time yet, it's taken a similar status as "cool"
No, but there was a fruit cup and a couple of Tracker bars.
You know, before Samuel Johnson's "A Dictionary of the English Language" in 1755.. there were no "spellings".. Standardization was aided by the dictionary's release.. but it really doesn't matter.
Appears you can't spell correctly either ;) its Merriam-Webster not mirriam-webster...
mondegreen... I will totally use that word now in daily conversation..
When do the spectator tickets go on sale?
Non-standard features can be part of a word, definitely.