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<blockquote data-quote="mythusmage" data-source="post: 2592358" data-attributes="member: 571">The oldest reference to 'filk' songs appeared in a mimeographed fanzine from the 1940s. Mimeograph being a method of printing in which the letters were punched out of a sheet of waxed paper. This was done using a manual typewriter, and it meant correcting errors (typoes) was a pain. As I recall, the publisher was infamous for his typoes. &quot;Filk&quot;, for instance, was what you got when you typoed &quot;folk&quot; on a qwerty keyboard. So &quot;filk songs&quot; was supposed to be &quot;folk songs&quot;.Fandom, being a contrary bunch even then, decided to adopt &quot;filk&quot; for science fiction folk songs and song parodies with a science fiction theme. Later fantasy and roleplaying games were taken into the fold.The same chap also got the idea that &quot;fan&quot; came from the same source &quot;man&quot; does, and gets pluralized the same way. One man, many men. One fan, many fen. This was gleefully adopted by fandom at the time, and is still used by some fen today. So if you read something like, &quot;There were fen in the fen.&quot; you know you're dealing with a fan.This all I picked up a long time ago, and I have entirely spaced the poor chap's name. Sorry about that. One of the older science fiction writers such as Fred Pohl might be able to help, if you can get in contact with them.Hope this helped.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="mythusmage, post: 2592358, member: 571"] The oldest reference to 'filk' songs appeared in a mimeographed fanzine from the 1940s. Mimeograph being a method of printing in which the letters were punched out of a sheet of waxed paper. This was done using a manual typewriter, and it meant correcting errors (typoes) was a pain. As I recall, the publisher was infamous for his typoes. "Filk", for instance, was what you got when you typoed "folk" on a qwerty keyboard. So "filk songs" was supposed to be "folk songs". Fandom, being a contrary bunch even then, decided to adopt "filk" for science fiction folk songs and song parodies with a science fiction theme. Later fantasy and roleplaying games were taken into the fold. The same chap also got the idea that "fan" came from the same source "man" does, and gets pluralized the same way. One man, many men. One fan, many fen. This was gleefully adopted by fandom at the time, and is still used by some fen today. So if you read something like, "There were fen in the fen." you know you're dealing with a fan. This all I picked up a long time ago, and I have entirely spaced the poor chap's name. Sorry about that. One of the older science fiction writers such as Fred Pohl might be able to help, if you can get in contact with them. Hope this helped. [/QUOTE]

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