What does fanboy mean?
A fanboy is a person — typically male — whose enthusiasm for a particular brand, franchise, celebrity, or pastime goes well beyond ordinary fandom into uncritical, sometimes combative devotion. The word is most at home in discussions of technology and video games, where rival camps of devoted followers (for instance, partisans of competing game consoles or smartphone makers) accuse each other of biased, irrational advocacy. Calling someone a fanboy is usually a criticism, suggesting they cannot evaluate products or ideas objectively; however, people also apply the label to themselves in a self-deprecating or proudly ironic way, acknowledging their own partiality with good humor. The term arose from the older slang 'fan', itself short for 'fanatic', which emerged in late nineteenth-century American sports culture. Its close relative fangirl performs the same role for women, though contemporary usage increasingly treats both labels as gender-neutral shorthand for excessive enthusiasm.
nounA male fan who is excessively enthusiastic about a particular hobby, franchise, celebrity, or piece of technology, often to the point of uncritical devotion or aggressive defense of it.
- An overly enthusiastic and uncritically devoted male fan of a brand, franchise, celebrity, or hobby, especially in technology, gaming, or pop culture.
"He's such an Apple fanboy that he queues overnight outside the store for every new iPhone release."
"The comment section quickly descended into a console fanboy argument about which system had better graphics."
"As a lifelong Star Wars fanboy, he owned every figurine ever released for the franchise."
Standard pluralization; commonly seen in collective phrases like 'console fanboys'.
"The forum was overrun by fanboys arguing over specs no one else could notice."
'Fan' didn't always mean devotee — it began as 19th-century American baseball slang for 'the fanatic', and fanboy is its internet-age descendant.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of fanboy
Fanboy derives from 'fan', an American English clipping of 'fanatic' that appeared in nineteenth-century baseball slang to describe devoted spectators. The compound combines this root with 'boy', reflecting its original application to young male enthusiasts. It gained wide currency in the late twentieth century, particularly through comic-book fandom and later internet culture, alongside the parallel formation fangirl. As a relatively recent compound, it has no cognates beyond the shared root 'fan'.
Related word forms
How fanboy is actually used
Fanboy is informal and frequently pejorative when used of others, implying blind loyalty and irrational defensiveness; self-described use tends to be ironic or affectionate. The gendered counterpart fangirl exists, though some modern usage applies fanboy loosely regardless of gender.
Easily confused with fanboy
Fangirl is the equivalent term for an obsessive female fan, whereas fanboy specifically denotes a male fan.
A stalker fan engages in intrusive, potentially dangerous pursuit of a celebrity, while a fanboy is merely an overzealous enthusiast.