Fangirl, Huh?

I was going to write a nice little post about how Nerds are all-awesome; however, that did not work out too well...  (Want to see the gif set that inspired the post originally?  Click here.)  Instead, I think I shall define some words in dire need of defining.  They are as follows:

• Fangirl
• Fangirl
• Fandom
• Ship(ping)
• OTP
• Canon
• FEELS

Okay, stop.  Breathe.  This won't be too hard.  Oh, wait.  You weren't freaking out?  Whoops.  Didn't think my heartbeat was that loud...
I don't know how many of you (eight or nine...) are on Tumblr or anything like that, but let me tell you: no one is ever really there to explain these terms to you.  You're welcome; Merry Christmas.  It's just something you pick up.  It's the slang of the fangirl world.  Look, there I go using a word that has yet to be defined.  The point is, unless you're seriously considering throwing the rest of your life away by sitting on your butt all day long wasting countless hours on Tumblr and reading fanfiction, these words won't really come in handy.  Especially considering every normal person has no clue what's being said.  That's when you're really in a pickle because by the time you start using these terms in normal, everyday conversation, you've forgotten the correct, universally understood term.  So, at long last, here goes...!

Fangirl
Really this is just a term for a female fan of anything.  (Without the italics,) this can also be fitted to the male gender: fanboy.

Fangirl
Fangirl encompasses all genders.  We're They're the extremists.  The ones who freak out over the smallest touch between two characters, details, release dates, merch(andise), actors/actresses, shooting locations, etc.  Be warned: context clues are really what are gonna tell you which version is being used.

Fandom
The best way I can explain this is a kingdom of fans.  Let's use the ILL (I Love Lucy) fandom.  The "royalty" would be Ball, Arnaz, Vance, and Frawley because they are the main stars of the show.  The fans of the show make up the kingdom's people.  But there are also fandoms for ships/OTPs (see below), in which case (still with ILL), the Ricardos would be your "royalty."

Ship(ping)
Shipping is the act of being for the relationship between two people/characters.  It could be male/female, male/male, female/female, or other...things depending on the...extremeness...Yeah there are some BAD fanfics out there...This is the tricky one.  Once you learn this word and fully understand it, you'll start using it in everyday conversation.  An example for you:  "Oh, Lucy and Desi.  I totally ship it!" or "Oh, Betty Haynes and Bob Wallace: ship it!"  Yes, it is completely acceptable to use this term for real people/couples.  At which point couple names come in handy.  (Jaggie, Brangalina, etc.)

OTP
One True Pairing.  Now, remember this one.  It's so important.  OTP really goes hand-in-hand with shipping.  I guess OTP was originally intended to be your TOP ship from all your fandoms, but no one on Tumblr follows the rules.  Ergo, it is very much acceptable to have multiple OTPs from multiple fandoms.  Want some examples?  Psych OTPs: Shules, Carlowe; CH OTPs: Lucy/Ricky, Nick Charles/Nora Charles, Betty Haynes/Bob Wallace, etc.  There are also BrOTPs, which are like bromances (brotherly romance, but definitely not incest.  See: Shawn and Gus (Shus).)

Canon
Canon relates to OTPs and shipping and refers to established couples (or couples already together) within a show/movie/book.

FEELS
The worst one, the most taxing one.  FEELS are feelings, plain and simple.  However, they aren't especially used in the same context.  FEELS for the fangirl world (the really obsessive fangirls, in case you didn't catch that) are feelings so strong that you basically have an attack.  Like a feelings seizure.  This especially occurs when OTPs (especially when not canon) share a cute moment or something really surprising happens.  Common responses for Tumblr users especially include "I can't" and "asd;klfalskd," or something to that affect.  It basically just indicates that we they are unable to properly function after what they just watched.

Lastly, I did not list this, but I did mention it a few times.  Fanfiction.  I don't know if there's anyone who does not know what FF is, but in case you do not...
Fanfiction is stories written by fans of a show/book/movie, or sometimes even a song/band.  Often it's a good way to get through a hiatus or to get some much needed OTP moments not provided on the show.  Some important terms to know, especially if you read on fanfiction.net are OOC (out of character), AU (alternate universe), A/N (author's note), R&R (read & review), songfic (FF written based on a song with the lyrics moving the story along), one-shot (mostly one page stories, also known as shorts), crossover (where a story is written combining two different shows, etc.), fluff (cute scenes between characters that really doesn't have a plot), slash (FF with same-sex pairings).

For those of you who stayed on to read everything, I hope this helped clear up any language issues you've been having.  I know this isn't really related to the purpose of this blog, but I feel this really needed to be done.  And remember: URBAN DICTIONARY IS YOUR FRIEND!