Shipping Glossary

A list of terms with definitions used in shipping and associated fandoms. It is common in fandom to find widespread use of slang terms about shipping as a whole, as well as terms specific to individual fandoms.

A

 *  - Often shortened to AU, Alternate Universe is a concept, typically in fanfictions where characters are imagined to be in different scenarios. For instance, the characters in a medieval fantasy might be put in a modern universe (Modern AU).
 *  - A genre of fanfiction typically dedicated to being sad, angry, or just associated with negative feelings.
 *  - A person who hates a ship to the point that part of the hatred is their obsession. Some will get to the point where they threaten content creators.
 *  - Not romantically attracted to anyone.

B

 *  - Romantically attracted to people of either gender.
 *  - a love triangle, one of the corners of which represents a canonical or potential homosexual attraction.
 *  - The term for slash between characters who are friends, or more often, partners in canon.
 *  - The term used when describing you ship a pairing platonically, or as friends.

C

 *  - Another word for official. Used to refer to a pairing or another aspect of the series that is considered to be true to the story-line.
 *  - Ships between a person and an inanimate object.
 *  - A character is a fictional invention who does not exist in real life.
 *  - A pairing that is considered to be way out there or impossible. Usually between characters who have never met each other or barely interacted.
 *  - A paring between characters from different medias who have never interacted.

D

 *  — A fic of 100 words, has come to usually denote a short fic of 100, 200 or 500 words or so.

E

 *  - Ships that are canon at the end of the series.
 *  - The term for same-sex ships between characters who are canonically enemies, or antagonists.

F

 *  - The community that surrounds a TV show/movie/book etc. Fanfiction writers, artists, poets, and cosplayers are all members of that fandom. Fandoms often consist of message boards, livejournal communities, roleplaying, people and much more.
 *  - Fanfiction is when someone takes either the story or characters (or both) of a certain piece of work, whether it be a novel, TV show, movie, etc., and create their own story based on it. Sometimes people will take characters from one media and put them in another, which is called a cross-over.
 *  - Short/slang form of fanfiction.
 *  - The opposite of canon. It is the collection of concepts and ideas that is normally used in fanfictions or fandom, but doesn't exist in the official canon work.
 *  - A creative work created by one or more fans, generally intended for other fans.
 *  - derived from 'female slash' refers to relationships between two female characters. Also occasionally called F/F, Femmeslash, Girlslash, or Ladyslash.
 *  - A type of fanfiction with a happy ending, or a joyful plot.
 *  - A Japanese term for female fans who enjoy any media works or fanworks with romantic relationships between men, primarily Yaoi.

G

 *  - A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.
 *  - Gender is the range of physical, mental, and behavioral characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity.
 *  - A ship that you once supported and perhaps still do that went down in the ocean, drowning all on board. Basically, you've given up hope of it becoming canon.

H

 *  - A fan's personal interpretation of canon. This can include the habits of a character, the backstory of a character, or the nature of relationships between characters.
 *  - A pairing of characters or real-life people, where one side is male and the other female. The word "Het" is derived from the word, "Heterosexual".
 *  - Using romantic/sexual metaphors to write relationships between characters of the opposite gender.
 *  - Romantically attracted only to people of the opposite gender.
 *  - Socializing with the opposite sex
 *  - Using romantic/sexual metaphors to write relationships between characters of the same gender.
 *  - Romantically attracted only to people of the same gender.

K

 *  — Racist fandom.

L

 *  - A fanfic, or One Shot including sexual intercourse or sexual interactions. Also known as smut.
 *  - Feel a deep romantic or sexual attachment to someone.

N

 *  - A ship that one dislikes or hates.

O

 *  - ship intentionally created and promoted by the authors, frequent result of ship bait.
 *  - One True Pairing. Meaning your favorite combination of characters in a fandom.
 *  - A play on OTP, and means "one true threesome".
 *  - Means "one true foursome"

P

 *  - The characters who make up the central focus of a fanwork.
 *  - Relationship which is non-romantic.
 *  - A relationship between three or more characters which is deeper and more long-lasting than a one-time threesome/moresome sex scene. In a polyamorous relationship, anyone can have any type of attraction (sexual, romantic, sensual, platonic, etc.) towards anyone else in the relationship.
 *  - The combination of two or more words to create a new word.

Q

 *  - Creators purposefully putting romantic subtext or between same-sex characters into the work without the intention of making the couple Canon, with the intention of drawing in a queer audience. Most of the pairings will have moments that can easily parallel different sex couples in the work. The word is often debated as too whether or not it is being used correct by the fanbase, as it is hard to tell when the writing is intentionally doing this or not.

R

 *  - A ship that is extremely uncommon or unpopular within its fandom and doesn't have many fanworks.
 *  - Typically taken part on message boards, email or on Tumblr. In group roleplays, users make their own character and play them in a set of rules laid down by forum moderators/admins. In fandoms, these are typically set within a specific fandom. Occasionally, these roleplays are in a ship-based scenario.
 *  - A feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.

S

 *  - A ship that became canon.
 *  - Someone who takes part in shipping. A fan is called a 'shipper' when they support a relationship, whenever it's canon or not. It is a common joke to say that you "sail" on a certain ship.
 *  - Intentionally created potential pairing to attract the attention of shippers.
 *  - when a viewer interprets the smallest, most ambiguous canonical evidence in favor of their ship of choice.
 *  - A depression caused by the end of one's favored ship. For instance, when a fan becomes upset when a fictional relationship breaks up.
 *  - Derived from the word relationship, is the belief that two characters, fictional or non-fictional, would be interesting or believable (or are, or will be, or should be) in a romantic relationship. It is considered a general term for fans' emotional involvement with the ongoing development of romance in a work of fiction.
 *  - The emotion you feel when a ship that you really love and support, usually your OTP, has an amazing ship moment that makes you feel compellingly lovestruck with your ship and result in thinking about it and adoring it for a minimum of a day. Being shipstruck can also occur when you engage in supporting activities for your ship for a specified amount of time.
 *  - A essay about a certain ship and why people ship it. These used to be popular on LiveJournal back in the 2000's and were often posted to the ship manifesto livejournal or dreamwidth.
 *  - A heated disagreement between two or more groups of shippers. Ship wars span a long time and involve many people in their fandom.
 *  - A pairing that is described in the story, but is not the main focus. Side pairings can vary in "screen time" and importance; a "secondary" pairing might have almost as much plot relevance as the "main" pairing, or it might be better described as a "background" or "minor" pairing that is only mentioned incidentally.
 *  - Slash refers to relationships between two male characters. Occasionally, two female characters can be categorized under slash. However, femslash has become a more popular term for this. Slash ships are recognizable by the slash, '/' between the characters.
 *  - A fan of slash ships, usually those who write male/male fanfiction. Some fans of slash who also read or write in other genres prefer not to identify as slashers, seeing the term as meaning fans who are only interested in slash pairings.
 *  - Commonly used to describe relationships between characters of the same gender that can easily be read as sexual or romantic, or texts that contain homoerotic subtext supporting slash pairings.
 *  - ambiguous moments between the characters, which can be read as a hint of a romantic attraction between the characters.
 *  - Typically describing fan written works that include sexual intercourse or sexual interactions.

W

 *  - When a fan ships two characters who really shouldn't be together.

Y

 *  - slang meaning 'boys love' or homosexuality that is used in Japanese culture.
 *  - slang meaning 'girls love' or homosexuality that is used in Japanese culture.

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