TANSTAAFL

(For other uses see the disambiguation page TANSTAAFL

An initialism for There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Pronounced "tan-staffle." It has been popular as a fannish catchphrase since it appeared in Heinlein's novel, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Heinlein may have been first to initialize it, but he did not originate the phrase.

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