Fap

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Fap

In the context of sex and gender, the word fap is an onomatopoeic representation of male masturbation. It is used widely as a sound effect in sexually explicit manga, a Japanese cartoon format. FAP also is used as an acronym for unrelated terms such as familial adenomatous polyposis, First Amendment Project, and FORTRAN Assembly Program.

The use of fap to describe male masturbation was popularized by the Internet-based manga Web comic Sexy Losers. On April 28, 1999, episodes one through four were launched in the traditional four-koma (vertical panes) format. Episode three featured the first use of the term. The author, a Canadian known only by his first name, Clay, credits the manga novel Heartbroken Angels by Masahiko Kikuni (2000) as the inspiration for his series. Others ascribe the use of the word to commercial translations of the novel. In the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first century, the term had not yet made its way into dictionaries of American slang and continued to be associated with the Internet community.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kikuni, Masahiko. 2000. Heartbroken Angels. Vol. 1. San Francisco: Viz Media.

                                       Christine R. Rainey

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