Tanj

An all-purpose expletive, tanj is an initialism for “There ain’t no justice!” Also, tanjit .

The full phrase dates to the 19th century, at least. Among many other appearances in the macrocosm, several “Moon Mullins” newspaper comic strips used it as a title in 1924; Fred Hall and Arthur Fields wrote and recorded a novelty song, “Oh, Gee! There Ain’t No Justice” in 1929; and numerous books, songs and films have made use of it since.

Larry Niven coined the acronym and introduced its use as an epithet to science fiction in his 1970 novel Ringworld:

“Tanj!” The curse seemed more than usually appropriate. There Ain’t No Justice! That such a voice should belong to a two-headed alien of indeterminate sex!

It has also been adopted by techdom.

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Fanspeak

1970—

This is a fanspeak page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was coined, whether it’s still in use, etc.