Tanstaafl

(For other uses see the disambiguation page TANSTAAFL.)

Tanstaafl, an initialism for There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, pronounced "TAHN-stah-ful," has been popular as a fannish catchphrase since it appeared in Robert A. Heinlein's 1966 novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Heinlein may have been first to initialize it, but he did not originate the phrase, which likely dates to the Great Depression.

It was a byword of the Ann Arbor sf club the Stilyagi Air Corps, for obvious reasons.

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Fanspeak

1966—

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.