Nineteen years ago, Eminem released his seminal Marshall Mathers LP. In addition to being the rapper’s first No. 1 record and solidifying his status as one of hip-hop’s brightest stars, the album included some of his biggest hits. Like “Stan,” the nearly seven-minute-long, Dido-assisted epic rapped from the perspective of an obsessed fan who is upset over the Detroit rhymer not responding to his fan letters. The imitative “Stan” eventually kills his pregnant girlfriend out of frustration to which Em eventually responds, though tragically too late. In the years since its release, the song has become one of the most popular in Eminem’s repertoire, and the word “stan” has become a stand-in term for obsessive fan behavior.
On Tuesday, Merriam-Webster took steps to commemorate the song’s enduring pop cultural legacy by announcing that “stan” is one of the 640 new words they had added to their database. According to the dictionary maker, the word can be used as both a noun and a verb. As a noun, Stan means “an extremely or excessively enthusiastic and devoted fan.” As a verb, it means, “to exhibit fandom to an extreme or excessive degree: to be an extremely devoted and enthusiastic fan of someone or something.”
Merriam-Webster’s decision comes two years after the Oxford English Dictionary added the word to their official database.
(Via XXL Mag)
