[Michael Juster]

*"Dudes" used here, of course, in the non-gender-specific sense of the term.



Another opportunity for all you hipsters to school grandpa:

Is it "fan-boy/fan-girl," "fanboy/fangirl" or "fan boy/ fan girl"?

Dr. Grammarfuss anticipates being grateful.

[Shaun J. Russell]

I've only ever seen it as "fanboy" and "fangirl."

It's usually used in a mildly pejorative way, I believe (rather like "nerd" or "geek").

[Michael Cantor]

My instinct is to go with the hyphenated one with nothing else to go on, but it really revolves entirely on context. Depending on what the rest of the poem (or essay rebutting Heidegger - whatever) looks like, how quirky or non-quirky it is, what kind of punctuation you my or may not be using, whether the narrator (if there is one) is decidedly and deliberately young or old or hip or not - plus any number of other factors I can only imagine, and might get one or both of us arrested - the choice should, if possible, reflect its surroundings. As I said, I prefer the hyphenated one, but do not believe that God would strike you dead (maybe a hernia) if the totality of the piece led to one of the other choices.

[Orwn Acra]

A fan boy is a catamite
a fan-boy is a hyphenite,
a fanboy is the word writ right.

[Hannah Craig]

You could always go with fanboi.

[Ned Balbo]

Hi, Michael--If you Google "Entertainment Weekly" & "fanboy," you get links to EW articles that employ the term. In my quick browse, I only saw "fanboy." In addition, I find "fanboy" in this New York Times headline: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/ny...boys.html?_r=0

Hope this helps!

[Michael Juster]

OK, thanks everyone. I was pretty sure it was fanboy/fangirl, but I didn't want to make an old guy blunder.