gafiate

English

WOTD – 16 December 2015

Etymology

From GAFIA (“getting away from it all”) +‎ -ate.

Pronunciation

• Noun: IPA^(key): /ˈɡæfiˌɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Verb: IPA^(key): /ˈɡæfiˌeɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

gafiate (plural gafiates)

1. (dated, fandom slang, science fiction) A science fiction fan who has become inactive in the fandom community.
   • 1962, J. Baxter, Xero:

     Westlake's piece is so reminiscent of the old days of fandom, when no gafiate felt he had actually departed until he had alienated everybody on his mailing list.

   • 1993 October, It Goes On The Shelf‎^[1], number 10:

     Herman Stowell King, a long-time gafiate (we first met in the 60s) and collector, turned up in the local Sunday paper with a well-written review of Whitley Streiber's The Forbidden Zone.

   • 1996 November, Andy Hooper, “Walking into Midnight”, in Science-Fiction Five-Yearly‎^[2], number 10, page 37:

     Perhaps the disappearance of the vast majority of the copies Dan mailed out in 1981 granted him limited immunity; he did just run for TAFF and win last year, hardly the act of an over-the-hill gafiate.

Verb

gafiate (third-person singular simple present gafiates, present participle gafiating, simple past and past participle gafiated)

1. (dated, fandom slang, science fiction) To leave the mundane world and enter the science fiction fandom community.

   She gafiated the moment she first picked up a pulp magazine.

2. (fandom slang, science fiction) To drop out of fandom community activities, with the implication of "getting a life".
   • 1959, Richard "Dick" Harris Eney, Fancyclopedia II‎^[3]:

     QUANDRY (Hoffwoman) The famous fanzine published by Lee Hoffman of Savannah Ga. before she gafiated for the first time.

   • 1976 November, Harry Warner, Jr., “In One Lustrum and Out the Other”, in Science-Fiction Five-Yearly‎^[4], number 6, page 11:

     He was quite active in the 1940's, vanished for a long while, then reappeared in the 1960's to put out lots of issues of this fanzine with the help of his wife, only to gafiate a second time as abruptly and totally as anyone ever has quit fandom.

   • 2003 December 3, Marian Rosenberg (brucianna), “Re: Fandom”, in alt.polyamory‎^[5] (Usenet), message-ID <4VPxb.514513$6C4.365955@pd7tw1no>:

     And I didn't so much gafiate as move to Asia.

Coordinate terms

• fafiate

Derived terms

• degafiate
• ungafiate

Translations

to drop out of fandom community activities

Related terms

• GAFIA
• get away from it all

References

• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “gafiate”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 74.
• Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2024), “gafiate v.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.