'Fen' originated in the 1940s or 1950s in science fiction fandom, and was simply a collective noun for fans, a humorous play on other irregular English plurals. It might have originally been a typo made in a fanzine that got picked up as slang, but I don't recall for sure. It was used by the convention-going, zine-writing fans for themselves, and was not considered negative.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2014-06-25 12:06 am (UTC)