How did I go all this time not knowing the origin of the word "slash"??? Many thanks for enlightening me
Yeah learning fandom things! :D
I (obviously) adore learning anything related to the history of transformative works, including when and how our language develops. You don’t realize how much the terminology provides—both intentional and unintentional—gatekeeping until you speak/write as a fan with someone not immersed in that culture, let alone a specific fandom with their own language attached. Even something as presumably straightforward as “shipping” has a broad-stroke history of:
‘Relationship’ becomes the basis for ‘relationshippers’ (thanks, X-Files)
Which gets cut down to ‘shippers’
Which turns into the verb ‘ship’
Which starts pulling from those nautical definitions, resulting in communication like this
We all know the Jack GIF isn’t here to describe a literal boat.
All of which is gonna get you a “Wait what?” from anyone who doesn’t hear that word on the daily and hasn’t stopped questioning how strange it might sound.
Anyway yeah geek rant over tldr language is awesome
