fangirl

English

Doctor Who fangirls cosplaying the TARDIS

Etymology

fan +‎ girl

Noun

fangirl (plural fangirls)

1. (fandom slang) A female fan who is obsessive about a particular subject (especially, someone or something in popular entertainment media).

   Synonyms: fanne, femfan, femme fan

   Coordinate term: fanboy

   • 2016, Kathleen Smith, The Fangirl Life: A Guide to All the Feels and Learning How to Deal, Penguin, →ISBN:

     It's often an all or nothing world for the fangirl who has yet to learn to bridle the imagination. She is notorious for being incapable of passively enjoying stories.

Derived terms

• fangirlish
• fangirlism

Translations

someone devoted to a single subject

• Esperanto: zelotino
• Finnish: fanityttö
• Russian: фанатка (ru) f (fanátka)

Verb

fangirl (third-person singular simple present fangirls, present participle fangirling, simple past and past participle fangirled)

1. (intransitive) To behave like a fangirl; to be obsequious, star-struck, boy crazy, etc.
   • 2015, Tyler Oakley, Binge, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

     I bought the magazines, ran home after work, filmed myself flipping through the pages—half legitimately fangirling over the boys, half making fun of people like myself who fangirl over the boys.

   • 2024 February 29, Jack King, “Why everyone you know is suddenly a Letterboxd head”, in GQ‎^[1]:

     Letterboxd, armed with the tri-colour microphone which has become their viral go-to, recently attended the red carpet of the BAFTAs. As one TikToker put it, on seeing the famous mic, Paul Mescal fangirled.

Anagrams

• farling, flaring