fanmag

English

Etymology

Blend of fan (“admirer or aficionado”) +‎ magazine.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfæn.mæɡ/

Noun

fanmag (plural fanmags)

1. (dated, fandom slang) Magazine produced by amateurs for readers with a specific shared interest.
   • 1940 April, Wilson "Bob" Tucker, “Cullings”, in Le Zombie‎^[1], number 27, page 3:

     LeZ plans, in the future, to print these Cullings regularly, from foreign fanmags, or American mags of small circulation, in the belief that you might otherwise not see the material.

   • 1941 March, Leslie A. Croutch, “Clippings from Canada”, in Futurian War Digest‎^[2], volume 1, number 6, page 4:

     Arthur Widner Jr., editor of the Strangers Club's FANFARE, is plugging the word "fanzines" to take the place of the Philadelphian's "fanag" and the usual "fanmag". Incidentally, FANFARE is the neatest, most legible, and cleanest of any hectographed fanzine I have yet seen. In two colors too, into the bargain.

   • 1941 April 6, Futurian Observer‎^[3], number 33, page 1:

     The first issue of a fanmag from the southern-most post of Australian science fiction is good.

   • 1952 November, Algis Budrys, Planet Stories, volume 5, number 9, page 111:

     The advertising value of fanzines to promags is negligible, for the simple reason that anyone in sufficient contact with STF to read fanmags knows all about the prozines.

   • 1955 January, Bob Stewart, “Abstractions”, in Abstract‎^[4], number 9, page 38:

     People who put out worthless fanmags and try and soak the unwary fan 25¢ for them, people who sell back issue magazines at outrageous prices, people who put out offset, super-duper printed professional type fanzines ... all give me a large pain in the neck.

Usage notes

Replaced in common usage by the term fanzine.

Synonyms

• fanzine

References

• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “fanmag”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 57.
• Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2024), “fanmag n.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.