OTP

About

OTP is an acronym for “one true pairing,” a term used to describe a favorite couple consisting of characters from various fandoms as part of a practice known as “shipping”.

Origin

According to the Fanlore Wiki,^[7] the earliest known use of the term “one true pairing” was featured in a 1984 summary of the zine Alternaties #2, which discussed various Star Trek pairings.

“This zine has something for everybody…The stories are mostly Spock-centric, so if you love a certain Vulcan, this one’s for you!…And boy, does he get around -- we have Kirk/Spock, Spock/McCoy, Spock/Chapel, Spock/and various others, including T’Pring…And of course, more Kirk/Spock, because we all know that’s our one true pairing!!!…Variety is the spice of life -- and this zine is extremely spicy.”

Spread

On October 14th, 2002, the acronym was used in a LiveJournal post discussing the concept of “pairings.”^[2] On September 27th, 2003, Urban Dictionary^[1] user Erin submitted an entry for OTP, defining it a romantic pairing of characters that have been shipped. On September 29th, 2008, a page for “One True Pairing” was created on the Fanlore Wiki.^[7] On December 29th, 2012, YouTuber Troye Sivan uploaded a music video titled “We’re My OTP” about the practice of shipping and writing fanfiction on the Internet (shown below). Within three years, the video gained over 2.3 million views and 20,700 comments.

On May 5th, 2013, the Tumblr^[6] blog OTP Prompts was launched. On July 5th, a page for “One True Pairing” was created on TV Tropes.^[3] On April 29th, 2014, YouTuber Tyler Oakley uploaded a video titled “Who is My OTP,” in which he revealed that two Twitter users engaging in an argument were his OTP (shown below).

Related Terms

One True Threesome

“One true threesome” or “3TP” is a label used in reference to a person’s favorite trio group in a fandom.^[4]

BrOTP

“BrOTP,” a portmanteau of “Bro” and “OTP,” is a term used to label a person’s favorite non-romantic fandom pairing.^[5]

Search Interest

External References