The word "粉丝" is formed through a direct phonetic borrowing and semantic shift. It originally refers to a type of fine, thread-like noodle made from starch. The modern slang meaning of "fan" or "enthusiast" (of a celebrity, hobby, etc.) comes from the similarity in pronunciation between the English word "fans" and the Chinese word for these noodles. The existing, familiar food term was adopted to represent the new, foreign concept purely based on sound, creating a vivid and memorable homophone that has become entrenched in everyday language.