Fortean

Meanings

Noun

• A follower or admirer of Charles Fort.
• One who investigates anomalous phenomena.

Adjective

• Of or pertaining to anomalous phenomena.
• Of or pertaining to Charles Fort.

Origin

• Fort + -ean, named after Charles Hoy Fort (1874–1932), an American writer and investigator of anomalous phenomena. The word was coined by American journalist Ben Hecht (1894–1964) in a review of Fort’s book The Book of the Damned (1919) in the Chicago Daily News in 1920.