confan

English

Etymology

con (“convention”) +‎ fan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɒnfæn/

Noun

confan (plural confans or confen)

1. (dated, fandom slang, sometimes derogatory) A science fiction fan primarily interested in conventions.
   • 1959, Richard Eney, Fancyclopedia II‎^[1], Fan:

     Depending on the extent to which a given fan indulges in anything more than local club activity he may be distinguished as an actifan (as opposed to passifen); stress on crifanac rather than congoing, among actifans, is the chief extensional distinction between trufans and confans.

   • 1995 May 30, Moshe Feder, “Re: TAFF T-Shirts”, in rec.arts.sf.fandom‎^[2] (Usenet), message-ID <D9Dpzt.569@dorsai.org>:

     Wake up fandom, not everyone here is large. If the equal rights of the slim are not recognized we could find ourselves in a mud-slinging contest that will make the zinefan vs. confan fight look like a sand-box squabble.

   • 2004, Arnie Katz, The Science Fiction League of Extraordinary Fuggheads‎^[3], page 14:

     "Ah, Meyer, you forget that we are in confan country," he said with less enthusiasm than I'd expected. "Some of these people dream about situations like this. A con in trouble. An intrepid confan rises to the occasion, takes over the con and saves the day. It's a File 770 front pager."

Usage notes

Where a person is specified as a confan it is often in opposition to being a zinefan (fan of fanzines) within science fiction fandom.