Dear Slim, You Can Officially Find The Word “Stan” In The Oxford Dictionary.

Ambrosia For Heads

stan – noun, informal

An overzealous or obsessive fan of a particular celebrity.
‘he has millions of stans who are obsessed with him and call him a Rap god’

verb, informal

Be an overzealous or obsessive fan of a particular celebrity.
‘y’all know I stan for Katy Perry, so I was excited to see the artwork for her upcoming album’

Thanks to Eminem, the above can be found in the pages of Oxford’s English dictionary. “Stan,” a term popularized by the Rap God’s 2000 single of the same name, has been added to our ever-growing language depository. Back in 2015, Oxford took to its blog to pen an argument for the word’s inclusion in its dictionary, at the time arguing “the song has led to the ironic trend of devoted fans referring to themselves as stans, who ‘stan for’ or ‘stan’ celebrities…Giving a group of people a name unites individuals around the globe and has paved the way for stan related hashtags on Twitter and even Stan Wars websites where rival fandoms fight to prove who reigns supreme.”

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year Speaks Volumes About 2015 (Audio)

Two years later, and stans do, indeed, have their own place in linguistic history. However, in a tweet shared with Ambrosia for Heads, Oxford dictionaries confirms that “stan” is not, in fact, a new addition – just a recently unearthed one.