Fanons

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

  1. Widely accepted or popular ideas and beliefs developed by a community, especially within fan cultures, that are not part of the original official narrative ; collectively held assumptions and interpretations generated by fans that extend or modify canonical content ; unofficial, fan-created content and explanations embraced as part of the lore by a fan group despite lacking formal endorsement
  2. Ideas and interpretations created and shared by enthusiasts that shape the understanding of a fictional world beyond the original story ; common fan-made concepts and story elements that are adopted and repeated within a fanbase but are not officially recognized ; community-generated expansions and background details accepted informally as part of the fictional universe by fans
  3. Concepts and story details invented by fans that become widely believed and integrated into the shared understanding of a fictional setting ; informal, non-canonical elements and background narratives embraced by fans to enrich characters or plots ; collectively created fan lore and assumptions that are treated as real or true within a fan community though not included by the original creators

Etymology: "Fanon" is a blend of "fan" and "canon," and the fan half is the surprise: the older word has nothing to do with fandom. Its ancestor is a liturgical cloth. Medieval Latin "fanō" came from a Frankish ""fano," which traces back to Proto-Germanic ""fanô," meaning a piece of cloth. Old French turned it into "fanon," and in Middle English it named a maniple, the strip of embroidered linen a priest once draped over his left forearm during Mass. The same root gave English "fane," a temple or shrine, and "vane," a weathervane, both doublets of this word. The "canon" half pulls in the sense of an authoritative body of rules. Fan culture borrowed "canon" to mean the official, accepted storyline of a series, and "fanon" was coined to name everything fans collectively treat as true beyond that canon: headcanon, shared assumptions, and fan-made extensions. So the modern word is a deliberate piece of wordplay, in which the old liturgical cloth gave the stem and fandom supplied the new meaning.

Synonyms: plumage, feathers, ornaments, decorations