fanwank
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fanwank
Where it comes from
From fan + wank. See fan (“fanatic, enthusiast”). British writer Craig Hinton claimed to have coined the term in the context of Doctor Who fandom.
noun fanwanks
- Explanations invented by fans (of a film franchise, television series, etc.) to gloss over mistakes in continuity. Its just fanwank with no support in the lore - and not even good fanwank. As you said yourself, Malal does not exist in 40k - and he's never existed. And no, that's not a joke in the vein of 'I've never seen a stealth aircraft' either.
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Elements added to a television program or similar entertainment that appeal to avid fans but are of little interest to outsiders.
Fan-producers seem to have integrated 'fanwank' into the new series, but not in a way that reproduces the show's 1980s history, or alienates non-fans.
Similar: fanservice
verb fanwanks · fanwanking · fanwanked
- Of fans, to invent explanations to gloss over mistakes in continuity. See above on Charlie's Angels. They never seemed to have lives of any sort and weren't interesting to me; they always seemed like soft porn for the guys, but a lot of girls fanwanked and fanficced them into more, so I guess they could qualify.
Talk about this word "fanwank." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/fanwank. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026. fanwank. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 7, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/fanwank "fanwank." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/fanwank.Cite this
@misc{fanwank_2026,
title = {fanwank},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/fanwank},
urldate = {2026-11-07}
}
