Filk Discography Wiki

Commonly encountered words and phrases in filk. Some come from the greater sf fandom, while others are unique to filk.

Adopted filk
A song from outside the filk community that has become popular within it. See also found filk.
Bardic
A circle where the turns are based on one's position in the room. See Bardic.
BNF
Big-Name Filker, a person famous in filk. Formed from Big-Name Fan, used in the general sf fandom.
Chaos
A circle where performers take turns in any order. See Chaos.
Cheeryose
Formed from "cheery" and "ose", usually meant as a song that sounds cheerful but has a downbeat message or theme.
Circle
A turn-taking format of performing songs. See Filk circle.
Con
Any large and planned gathering of fans, usually held over two or more days.
Dead dog
The activities held after the formal end of a con.
Fen
Plural of fan, formed analogously from "man" and "men".
Filker up
Expression used in circles to signal that another filker is about to perform. Effectively a call for quiet.
Filk hog
Someone who takes up more than their fair share of time in a circle.
Follower
A song which in some way connects to an earlier song in the circle, sung by a different filker.
Found filk
A song from outside the filk community that has filkish themes. Often used synonymously with adopted filk.
Frank Hayes Disease
Forgetting the lyrics of a song while performing it. Named after Frank Hayes, who was infamous for doing this.
Housefilk
An informal gathering of filkers for an evening or day, held in someone's home.
Instafilk
A very quickly written filk, written and sometimes performed in the same situation where the idea arose.
Listener
A filk fan who seldom or never performs or writes songs. Many listeners are still hugely valuable members of our community.
Mundane
The world and life outside filk or fandom.
Open filk
A space open and available for use for filk circles or other filkish activities. Most commonly used at gencons.
Ose
From morose and the phrase "ose, ose, and more-ose". A downbeat and sad song, usually in minor key.
Pegasus
The filk awards given out at Ohio Valley Filk Fest.
Zoomfilk
A filk gathering held online, usually using the Zoom videoconferencing service.

Credits[]

This glossary draws from the Filk FAQs developed by Kay Shapero and Debbie Ohi.