Twilight sparkle knows magic is at the center of every atom. I mean strong and weak forces? Popicock!
Tonight we are going to learn some etymology!
"The
internet is capable of surprising feats of etymology: and the brony community
is no exception. The term “brony” was thought up somewhere on /b/, 4chan’s
notorious random board, and is a mixture of the terms “/b/”, “bro” and “pony”.
The original spelling, lost for a while to internet feuding, was /b/rony. When
the /b/ronies were pushed from 4chan, the backslashes were dropped, and the
term became just “bronies”, and the stragglers that remained on 4chan (because
banning methods are not perfectly effective) took to calling themselves
“ponyfags” instead. 4chan also has other terms for bronies, corresponding to
other boards on the site. These terms are “/co/lts” on the /co/ board and
“nor/mlp/eople” on the newly-created /mlp/ board. These two terms aren’t used
very frequently these days… perhaps they weren’t as catchy as “brony.” Because
the term “brony” has the stem bro-, it was eventually argued that the term
refers to male fans specifically and needed a counterpart to describe females.
This is where the term “pegasister” came from, despite counterarguments that
the term “brony” should be considered gender neutral, and inclusive of both
male and female fans. “brony” can now be used as either gender neutral or in reference to male fans
specifically, though many people still have preferences. “pegasister” has
indeed come to refer to female fans of the show specifically. All this
etymological evolution took place in just under a year, and by now the terms
appear to have stabilized."
So have you seen any brony terminology develop during your time as a brony? This large quote does not take in to account many other terms related to the community, like "brohoof"; how would you analyze those terms etymologically? And furthermore where do you stand concerning the whole argument that spawned the term "pegasister"? Do you consider "Brony" gender-neutral? Do you think a word for female bronies was necessary, even just as a practical matter? Or is "pegasister" just an extra and unnecessary label to you?
