Prompted by the question: " How did kool-aid come to be the drink of fanboys? "
Wikipedia's explanation on "Fanboy (disambiguation)" provides:
A fanboy is a person considered to belong to one or more fandoms to a
point of obsession.
Wiktionary says:
(fandom slang) Someone (normally male) who is utterly devoted to a
single subject or hobby, often to the point where it is considered an
obsession.
While the general term "fan" derives from "fanatic", its current usage, in the US at least, has waned to be roughly synonymous with "admirer" or "someone who is fond of –."
Are the terms "fanboy" and "fangirl" gender-specific synonyms of "fan" or are they supposed to convey the same "fanatic" intensity that "fan" once had? Are "fanboy" and "fangirl" intended to be used in a derisive way?
Best Answer
In my opinion it's mostly a difference in the degree of admiration and/or devotion:
A fan of a band might have most of their records and visit their concerts when they happen to be somewhere near him.
A fanboy has all of their records (including those bootleg records and a few unreleased ones) and goes to all of their concerts, even if they are on a different continent.
Actually "fanboy" might start earlier than that, but that's the basic idea.
Often the term fanboy also implies that the devotion to the topic of his fandom is blind and unreflected. A commonly used term is "Apple fanboy" for people who will praise all Apple products for being perfect and not listening when someone makes a reasonable argument that some little thing that came from Apple is less than perfect.
The implication here is that discussion with a "fanboy" about his topic has become impossible because he's beyond the realm of reason.
I don't know if "fan" was ever meant to indicate such a level of devotion.