ARMY

See also: army and Army

English

Etymology

From an acronym/backronym based on army ("Adorable Representative for MC Youth"), suggesting a large, devoted fanbase.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

ARMYs showing their enthusiasm for the group at a concert in California.

ARMY (countable and uncountable, plural ARMYs)

1. (fandom slang, uncountable) The fandom of the K-pop boy band BTS.
   • 2018, Adrian Besley, BTS: Icons of K-Pop, page 170:

     ARMY are clever, too: they urged fans not to buy J-Hope's mixtape Hope World on its release date, having worked out that delaying by a day would result in a higher ranking in the Billboard charts.

   • 2019, Jeeheng Lee, BTS and ARMY Culture, page 163:

     In this manner, ARMY gives charity in the name of BTS, and BTS responds by returning charity back to society in the name of ARMY.

   • 2020, Becca Wright, The Unofficial BTS Fan Book: For the Bangtan ARMY, page 25:

     The BTS boys love telling ARMY how important they are to them—without ARMY's unwavering love and support, BTS wouldn't be where they are today.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:ARMY.
2. (fandom slang, countable) An individual fan of the K-pop boy band BTS.
   • 2018 December, Ashley Chen, “BTS film rallies a large army”, in The Union, page 13:

     Entering the theater, I expected the room to be filled with ARMYs decked out in their BTS merchandise.

   • 2019, Jeeheng Lee, BTS and ARMY Culture, page 160:

     It began when an ARMY tweeted something along the lines of: “If there are so many of us everywhere in the world, shouldn't we make a change and help people?”

   • 2020 February 2, Rachel Anne Macarandang, “BTS To The World”, in BusinessMirror, page 4:

     As of this writing, the Philippines is not included in the tour but Filipino ARMYs are hoping the group will eventually perform in Manila for a fourth time.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:ARMY.

Anagrams

• Mary, Mayr, Myra, Yarm, mary, yarm