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word fanatic-fan

12 replies

Emil__BG said on May 18, 2005 19:05:

discussion for non fans and fans about the meaning of word fan in your countries..

it’s a quite positive meaning in my coutry

tevensso (moderator) said on May 18, 2005 19:11:

Fan is a positive word in Sweden, while fanatic usually isn’t.

Emil__BG said on May 18, 2005 19:24:

it’s the same here but word fanatic is very rarely use and no one conecting it seriusly with word fan.. ;-)

it’s very positive and nice to say to someone “i’m your fan”

Santi said on May 18, 2005 20:03:

Well, I guess it depends who you talk with, doesn’t it?
If you talk to someone who calls himself “fan” of course for those people it has to be something positive. You wouldn’t seriously call yourself something negative...
If you don’t want to make the connection between the words fanatic and fan... well, that’s your choice, but it’s more than clear that they are related.
Many people that call themselves fans have really fanatic ways, like for example “fans” here who defend Roxette as if it was a religious believe. Now, that’s serious fanatism and it’s hard to have a conversation with some of those fans. Don’t tell me this is not true...

Probably if you talk to someone who is outside of pop-biz fan movements, they will find it something negative to call someone “fan”. Think of older and wiser people. These may even be “fans” of some sports club for example, but I bet they prefer to call themselves “supporters” rather than “fans”. The word “fan” has a immature implication, like there’s something still missing in your life.

So you can survey the implications and meanings of the word “fan” among as many people as you like, but keep in mind that this forum is composed by around 80% of people who call themselves fans and don’t think they’re called anything bad. So I can tell you the results already and I can tell you also that they have no scientific meaning whatsoever because the population is strongly biased :)

Regards ;)

ally77 said on May 18, 2005 21:29:

I suppose fan is normal, and fanatic is somone a little crazy over something...

Sparvogamarie said on May 19, 2005 09:05:

It depends on how you say it...it’s ok to say “I’m a big fan of...” or “I’m a total fanatic about...” and it doesn’t mean your crazy. For example it’s quite common for someone to say they are a sports fanatic. If it’s being said in a negative way then you would usually say obsessed fan or crazed fanatic.

Emil__BG said on May 20, 2005 06:32:

Thank you tevensso ,ally77 ,Sparvogamarie !
Thank you my dear unrational hooligans!!!
;-))))))

ally77 said on May 21, 2005 12:38:

I do get emabarrsed though when I am a fan of Roxette in Halmstad.... people look at you like your nuts...

MiracleMan said on May 21, 2005 17:25:

I think it’s pretty much the same in the US. Fan has a milder connotation than fanatic, which implys a singleminded, over-the-top obsession for something.

When people want to portray someone as not having a rational grip on things, they call them fanatics.

Mitya said on May 24, 2005 13:53:

my neighbour considers me a fanatic (in the negative way)

Emil__BG said on May 27, 2005 19:58:

Mitya– Yeep –for other people the man who writes even in the offtopic forum of FAN site like TDR is fanatic,no metter what he or she thinks. But that’s OK for me ,words of people with bad manners-ill-bred mans are not important.
Being a fan or “fanatic” to music band is very common thing even in the “real” world.
What’s not very common and even impossible in the “real” word is pretending to be someone else or somethnig else for a long,long time.
So fanatic is nothnig compare to the nicknames for people who spend all day writing in some internet forums just trying to hurt feelings of people in such forums pretending to be their soul-mates (or at least a person with good education and manners) ;-)
So much lies in the internet,so much ego hiden behind the monitors..
But thats another story..
Love is all we .....must give ;-))
And the word fan for me is symbol of that..

Santi said on May 27, 2005 20:47:

Thank you Emil...

However I recommend you to check your dictionary and try to make a difference between the words love, lover, fanism, fanatism and fan. As you would say there’s “a fine line from pleasure to pain”.

Mitya said on May 28, 2005 11:15:

Santi, of course lover is not the same as fan. But love and fanatism? Don‘t fans love what they are fans of?

Emil, I see what you meant. Yes, a number of people now use all these chats and forums as a way to let go their irritation or dissatisfaction, finding in a chat/forum persons they they dislike and just telling them all they think about them; on the other hand it‘s even good cos it‘s “virtual”, I mean better that real “phisical” quarrel.