Slang
What does Stan mean?
An intense fan: defends, streams, tracks — and sometimes attacks — in the name of an idol.
Definition
Stan blends fan and stalker from Eminem’s track on The Marshall Mathers LP, released 23 May 2000: a fan who writes letters and explodes. It can be pride or a charge, depending on who is talking.
In the 2010s the proper name became a verb and a troop. There is the one who organises streaming and the one who attacks a rival; the stamp covers stan Twitter, K-pop and Swifties. To say I stan is to pick a side — and, for some, to admit the excess.
Origin
English takes the character Stan (Stanley). The rhyme with fan/stalker is coincidence, according to manager Paul Rosenberg. On 29 October 2000 NME already wrote “thousands of potential Stans.” Nas uses stan as an insult on Ether (2001): “a fan, a phony, a fake… a Stan.” Urban Dictionary logs it in 2006. The Outline cites an April 2008 tweet (“I stan for santogold”) as an early verb.
History
From the video (Devon Sawa, Dido) the name moved to Tumblr and Twitter, where the troop took the stamp. Oxford Dictionaries Online took it in early 2016; the press mixed that with the OED, which only published the entry in June 2018 (“overzealous or obsessive fan”). Merriam-Webster added noun and verb in 2019.
How it emerged
The obsessive fan already existed; a short nickname was missing. The track gave a proper name; Nas made it an insult noun; the feed made it a verb (I stan). The troop took the stamp and dropped the murder in the lyrics.
Usage examples
I stan this season.
The group's stans knocked down the trend.
Translations
- pt stan / fã hard
- en stan
- es stan
Synonyms
- hardcore fan
- stan Twitter
- Eminem
Acronyms
- STAN