So perhaps you, young fanthing, have strayed into fandom recently. First, you were agog at what you found: People! Like you! Who make up stories in their heads about the people on the same shows you do! And sometimes set them to music! And talk about them all day long. You have arrived, and it is like the messy, exuberant homecomings you always suspected were just a titch overrated in all the high school movies, but now it's you, surrounded by the coolest people on the planet and they LIKE YOU. Fandom rocks.

And then you discover less cool things, but even before your very first flamewar, you're going to come across acronyms you may not understand, and well, nudity is only required some of the time. Doctor Merlin understands the confusion of coming across new erms in a new land. Consider this a quick guide to understanding all the alphabet soup, both acronyms and words or expressions you might not know.

OTP: One True Pairing. (This is also known as a 'ship -- short for "relationship" -- which was used in the X-Files fandom way back when that was one of the few big online fandoms around.) Your OTP is the couple for whom your little heart is set aflutter whenever they are so much as in frame together. Some OTPs are or become canon. Some are implied by a particular reading of the canon. Some OTPs are crossovers. (McGonagall / Greebo FTW!) No one can dictate to you what your OTP is or ought to be, and the word "one" is often a misnomer anyway. Pair to your heart's content and be joyful about it.

OT3: One True Threesome. Because sometimes, two just isn't enough.

BNF: Big Name Fan. If there's someone in your fandom that people in other fandoms have heard of, for good or ill, that's a BNF. If there's a fan in your fandom that every single person in your fandom knows, same kind of thing. Some BNFs attract cults of personality around them and use their influence to make things happen in and around the fandom. Some are well-known because they're the ones who wrote the stories and built the websites and organized the conventions and moderated the mailing lists. BNF is a morally-neutral state, despite the connotations; it's what the individual fan does that matters.

MOF: Master/Mistress of Fandom. This is what a BNF was called back in the old days. You may come across this from time to time, especially from fans who date back to the 'zine era.

'Zine: Fanzine. Magazine written, produced and published by fans, for fans. Usually full of well-edited fanfic and good fanart. Run off of photocopiers and mimeographs. Still exist, but fallen by the wayside in popularity as the Internet allowed larger numbers of fans to share their work with the world.

SMOF: Secret Master/Mistress of Fandom. Just like a MOF, but nobody knows your name. There are many people who work just barely behind the scenes getting things written and coded and run, without whom your personal pocket of fandom would collapse, but they don't get the glory.

GOH: Guest of Honor. When you're at a convention, this is probably the person you shelled out the cash to see.

TL;DR: Too Long; Didn't Read. Posted as a reply to anything long that the replier wants to be seen as too cool to have read. Often used as a slang term for "boring".

OMG: Oh My God/Goddess/Goodness/Gosh/Golly. Exclamation.

ZOMG: See above. Z is used either for sarcasm or emphasis, depending on context.

WTF: What the Fuck/Frack/Frell. Also known as "Bzuh?" Exclamation of confusion.

OMGWTFBBQ: Exclamation of extreme confusion.

OMGWTFPOLARBEAR: The writer has just watched Lost.

Slash: Term used to describe a male/male relationship in fanfiction. Name comes from the Star Trek fandom, where Kirk/Spock and K/S eventually were just referred to by the slash mark between the names. Originally used to refer to any non-canon relationship, though that use has fallen out of favor recently.

Femslash (also femmeslash): Term used to describe a female/female relationship in fanfiction.

Yaoi: Slang term in Japanese used to refer to a male/male relationship.

Yuri: Slang term in Japanese used to refer to a female/female relationship.

"But what are your thoughts on yaoi?": Not an actual invitation to share your thoughts on yaoi. Used as a FW in-joke (sometimes overused) as a synonym for "tl;dr".

FW: Fandom Wank. Community of fans currently meeting at Journalfen, whose purpose in life is to point and laugh when fans act stupid or self-important. If you are reported on FW too many times, or in too spectacular a fashion, you will become a well-known fan and not in the good way.

LJ: Livejournal. Much of fandom congregates on this blogging service, due to the ease of communication involved. Much of fandom has also migrated away in various waves as TPTB at LJ have screwed their users over at various times. Has Open Source software and has spawned several clone sites.

JF: Journalfen. A Livejournal clone.

IJ: Insanejournal. A Livejournal clone.

GJ: Greatestjournal. A Livejournal clone.

TPTB: The Powers That Be. The people in charge of whatever you like. Sometimes they wear suits and neckties, and sometimes they're exactly like us except they get paid to tell these stories. Also, a reference to the possibly good but mostly absent beings overseeing the Buffyverse.

TPB: Trade paperback. When comics come out, sometimes the monthly books are collected into a set. That's a trade. Please see LJC's post for more information.

FF.net: Fanfiction.net. Also "The Pit of Voles". The largest fanfiction archive in the world. Started by Xing Li as a senior design project. Open to absolutely everyone, and thus, filled with much bad fiction as well as good. Lost many BNFs when the archive stopped allowing mature-rated material to be hosted on the site.

AFF.net: AdultFanfiction.net. Not affiliated with FF.net, home to much mature-rated fanfiction.

J/K: Just kidding. Sometimes people will say "J/K" out loud in normal conversation. This means they are giving you permission to smack them upside the head. (Probably. This is one of those social situations you should ask about when it comes up.)

TTFN: Ta-ta for now.

TTYL: Talk to you later. Both mean "Bye!"

There are also a plethora of acronyms for various television series, and book and movie series. Some overlap. (It was a very good day when Supernatural fandom settled on SPN, because the Sports Night confusion was giving me headaches.) Certain pairings in certain fandoms get acronyms, portmanteaus, or oddball names like "The Government Stole My Toad." When in doubt, ask.

What are your favorite acronyms and fannish phrases?