neofan

English

Alternative forms

• neo (clipping)

Etymology

neo- +‎ fan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈniːəʊfæn/

Noun

neofan (plural neofans or neofen)

1. (dated, fandom slang, science fiction) A newcomer to science fiction; a fan who is extremely new and inexperienced with the genre; a beginner.

   Synonyms: fanling; see also Thesaurus:beginner

   • 1950 October, Lee Hoffman, “Chaos”, in Quandry‎^[1], archived from the original on 7 June 2011, page 5:

     COMING NEXT ISH: A department devoted to the BNF of tomorrow. 'Twill be the neofan of today who is the Tucker or Laney of tomorrow. So QUANDRY, the BNZ of tomorrow, will bring you biografies^[sic] of lesser known fen.

   • 1988, Sharyn McCrumb, Bimbos of the Death Sun:

     I heard a couple of neofans boasting that they were going to have breakfast with him!

   • 2005 June, Ruth Davidson, “President's Message”, in National Fantasy Fan‎^[2], volume 5, number 2, page 4:

     Huzzah! Hopefully we'll get some fans, neo-fans and even fanlings to join us.

   • 2006 May, Arnie Katz, “The Thin Veneer”, in confuSon‎^[3], volume 1, number 4:

     For a while there, if three fans were swapping apazines, it’s a good bet that I was one of them. Not that I set a record for number of apas. Bruce Pelz, Robert Lichtman and a few other fans had made “omniapan-ism” fashionable among impressionable neofen like me. Bruce was not only in a lot of groups, but it seemed like he was Official Editor of half of them.

References

• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “neofan”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 129.
• Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2024), “neofan n.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.