English

Noun

neofan ‎(plural neofans or neofen)

1. (dated, fandom slang, science fiction) A newcomer to science fiction; a fan who is extremely new and inexperienced with the genre; a beginner.
   • 1950 October, Hoffman, Lee, “Chaos”, in Quandry, page 5:

     COMING NEXT ISH: A department devoted to the BNF of tomorrow. 'Twill be the neofan of today who is the Tucker or Laney of tomorrow. So QUANDRY, the BNZ of tomorrow, will bring you biografies^[sic] of lesser known fen.

   • 1988, McCrumb, Sharyn, Bimbos of the Death Sun:

     I heard a couple of neofans boasting that they were going to have breakfast with him!

   • 2005 June, Davidson, Ruth, “President's Message”, in National Fantasy Fan, volume 5, number 2, page 4:

     Huzzah! Hopefully we'll get some fans, neo-fans and even fanlings to join us.

Synonyms

• See Wikisaurus:beginner

Derived terms

• neo

References

• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007) Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-530567-8, page 129
• neofan n. at the OED Science Fiction Citations Project