Fanboy Is Officially a Word After 89 Years

Fanboy, a word used quite often here on beyond has been added to the latest edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. In fact I don’t think you can find a console, or blackberry vs iphone discussion thread these days without running into the term. Fanboy, along with other geeky terms such as malware, webinar, netroots and pretexting have been added in this years edition.

While the term fanboy is usually associated with Apple customers (mac fanboys, iphone fanboys) it was actually first seen in an english publication by Merriam-Webster in 1919. It took nearly 90 years for the term to be used frequently enough to be added into the dictionary:

Main Entry: fan·boy
Pronunciation: \ˈfan-ˌbȯi\
Function: noun
Date: 1919
: a boy who is an enthusiastic devotee (as of comics or movies)

“As soon as we see the word used without explanation or translation or gloss, we consider it a naturalized citizen of the English language,” said Peter Sokolowski, an editor-at-large for Merriam-Webster. “If somebody is using it to convey a specific idea and that idea is successfully conveyed in that word, it’s ready to go in the dictionary.”

An idea just popped into my head after reading that above quote. With so many members here on beyond that frequent other forums, would it be possible for us to come up with a new word and have it added into a future revision of the dictionary? Can the dictionary be gamed? ;)