My thought is from a different direction: how many fandom have words for other normal activities? I know sex is the most personal and stigmatized activity of humankind, but what about as ambiguous as "understanding something"? In 1961 the science fiction community was introduced to "Grok" (meaning to understand something completely and intuitively; literally "to drink deeply") in Stranger in a Strange Land; a book so controversial the unabridged version wasn't released until 1992! Today "Grok" is on page 551 of my Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary.
Hot Rodders describe attractive women, among other things, in terms only they fully understand. Monty Python fans do the same. Ditto with Trekkies, Star Wars fans, comic book fans, and even "normal" people within a clique-like occupations (medicine, business, television & radio, engineers, scientists, etc.) use similar jargon. The military has more slang than you can imagine!
Do I like the word "yiff"? Not really, I only use it to annoy my friends. What I am saying is that all fandoms and social groups have their own lingo, some as ambiguous and well meaning as "grok" and some with as a taboo of meaning as "yiff". (Which itself, as many here probably know and have mentioned, wasn't originally taboo, it was closer to a simple onomatopoeic greeting that was corrupted long before I knew of it.)
People have called me Furry for years...but more Robin Williams than Robin Hood.
My thought is from a different direction: how many fandom have words for other normal activities? I know sex is the most personal and stigmatized activity of humankind, but what about as ambiguous as "understanding something"? In 1961 the science fiction community was introduced to "Grok" (meaning to understand something completely and intuitively; literally "to drink deeply") in Stranger in a Strange Land; a book so controversial the unabridged version wasn't released until 1992! Today "Grok" is on page 551 of my Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary.
Hot Rodders describe attractive women, among other things, in terms only they fully understand. Monty Python fans do the same. Ditto with Trekkies, Star Wars fans, comic book fans, and even "normal" people within a clique-like occupations (medicine, business, television & radio, engineers, scientists, etc.) use similar jargon. The military has more slang than you can imagine!
Do I like the word "yiff"? Not really, I only use it to annoy my friends. What I am saying is that all fandoms and social groups have their own lingo, some as ambiguous and well meaning as "grok" and some with as a taboo of meaning as "yiff". (Which itself, as many here probably know and have mentioned, wasn't originally taboo, it was closer to a simple onomatopoeic greeting that was corrupted long before I knew of it.)
People have called me Furry for years...but more Robin Williams than Robin Hood.
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