A cape or vestment worn over the shoulders in religious ceremonies, or in fandom contexts, fan-created stories or theories that become widely accepted as unofficial canon.
From Old French 'fanon,' possibly from Germanic *fanōn. In modern fandom, 'fanon' is a portmanteau of 'fan' + 'canon,' created in internet culture to describe fan interpretations that gained semi-official status.
The word 'fanon' is a beautiful example of how internet culture creates new words—fans invented it to describe the grey area between official stories and fan fiction, and now it's used everywhere from anime communities to academic discussions of how stories evolve through collective interpretation.
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