egoscan

English edit

Etymology edit

Noun edit

egoscan (plural egoscans)

(dated, fandom slang) A brief search of a publication for one's name.
- 1996 January 19, Fred A. Levy Haskell, “Re: E-mail and Posting”, in rec.arts.sf.fandom‎^[1] (Usenet), message-ID <falh.822035840@maroon.tc.umn.edu>:
  *blush* I peek my nose in to r.a.sf.f for the first time in ages, and get a BINGO on the egoscan! Wowie zowie!
- 2005 December 10, Chris Garcia, “ChatBack”, in Vegas Fandom Weekly‎^[2], volume 2, number 2 (whole number 56), page 11:
  Nice to see my article on running into all the wonderful Vegans down in LA. I must admit to doing an egoscan to see how it turned out, and of course, it was wonderfully done.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:egoscan.

Verb edit

egoscan (third-person singular simple present egoscans, present participle egoscanning, simple past and past participle egoscanned)

(dated, fandom slang) To quickly search a publication for one's name.
- 1975, Elliot Weinstein, The Fillostrated Fan Dictionary, page 43:
  Egoscan: To check through a fanzine for references [...] concerning oneself.
- 1996 April 18, Elayne Wechsler-Chaput, “Re: Who Reads Letters Columns?”, in rec.arts.comics.misc‎^[3] (Usenet), message-ID <4l5sok$50c@panix.com>:
  Every now and then I egoscan, as more and more people have been asking my permission to use excerpts from my reviews in their letters column.
- 2013 March, Robert Runte, “Left-Over Pieces”, in Broken Toys‎^[4], number 14, page 10:
  Bit disappointed by the lack of mention in this issue. I haven't actually read any issue of Broken Toys since my own letter in #2 (the rest remains on my 'to be read' shelf, which I have only recently realized is short for "to be read when I retire") but thanks to the wonders of the "find" command, took the liberty of egoscanning the last ten issues and did not find myself mentioned once.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:egoscan.

Usage notes edit

This term originally referred to reading a fanzine but has since come to refer to using search engines too.

Related terms edit

References edit

Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “egoscan”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 49.