Ratboy

English

Etymology

From rat +‎ boy. Coined by fans as a humorous reference to the character's amoral and duplicitous nature.[1] Popularized on alt.tv.x-files, the main Usenet newsgroup for the show,[2] where it is first attested in 1994.

Proper noun

Ratboy

  1. (X-Files fandom slang) The fictional character Alex Krycek from The X-Files.
    • 1996, Susan J. Clerc, “DDEB, GATB, MPPB, and Ratboy”, in David Lavery, Angela Hague, Marla Cartwright, editors, Deny All knowledge: Reading the X-files, page 37:
      Do you know who Ratboy is?
    • 2014, Deborah Kaplan, “Construction of Fan Fiction Character Through Narrative”, in Karen Hellekson, Kristina Busse, editors, Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet‎, page 143:
      But this Krycek—self-consciously multivoiced, focalizing as a fan reader through his obsession with Mulder, Ratboy yet sympathetically damaged—is carefully constructed as a recognizable source character interpreted in a new light.
    • 2016, Natalie Clubb, The X-Files: The Official Collection - The Agents, The Bureau, and The Syndicate‎, page 144:
      Given his credentials, Ratboy seems like the perfect candidate for the job.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Ratboy.

References
  1. Brian Lowry, Chris Carter, & Sarah Stegall, The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files (1995), page 88
  2. Paul Cornell, Martin Day, & Keith Topping, X-treme Possibilities: A Comprehensively Expanded Rummage through Five years of the X-files (1998), page 47
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