Fanspeak is made up of acronyms, blended words, obscure in-jokes, puns, coinages from science fiction novels or films, and archaic or standard English words used in specific ways relevant or amusing to the science fiction community.
Most[citation needed] of the terms used in fanspeak have spread to members of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Renaissance Fair participants, fantasy football players, and internet gaming and chat fans, due to the social and contextual intersection between the communities.
Common examples of widespread usages are:[citation needed] A few fannish terms have become standard English, such as fanzine, short for "fan magazine", coined by Russ Chauvenet in 1940, which swiftly replaced the older term fanmag.
Conversely, some fannish terms have been made obsolete by changes in technology (the decline of the mimeograph has doomed corflu for "correction fluid"), cultural changes (a femmefan [female fan] is no longer unusual) or the mere passage of time (slan shack for "a house where a bunch of fans live together" has faded, since fewer young fans have read Slan by A. E. van Vogt).
Like other forms of jargon, fanspeak serves as a means of inclusion and exclusion within the fannish community.