Fan Fiction vs. Fanfiction

When the dictionary doesn’t reflect the world

A couple weeks ago, I picked a fight with the dictionary.

The Oxford dictionaries also list “fan fiction,” but Merriam-Webster has a better Twitter presence, so I went after them.

This was not a particularly considered fight. I did no research beforehand and had no evidence to back up my side-eye. I just saw that Merriam-Webster listed the word as “fan fiction” and my blood boiled. I would never spell the word that way, with an internal space, and I was sure other fanfiction writers would agree.

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