Inverse of "being a fan of"?

"Y has 1250 fans" means there are 1250 X for which X is fan of Y. If there are 12 Y for which the "X is a fan of Y" relationship holds for a given X, what's a word or phrase to say "X has 12 __" ?

Similarly, if "X is a fan of Y", then what's the equivalent way of saying this with Y as the subject and X as the object ("Y __ X") ?

Solution 1:

"Y has 1250 fans" means there are 1250 X for which X is fan of Y. If there are 12 Y for which the "X is a fan of Y" relationship holds for a given X, what's a word or phrase to say "X has 12 __" ?

As Jeffrey Kemp and ShreevatsaR pointed out in an answer and a comment, there is not really one distinct answer to this question. But there are lots of possible words you could use depending on the context. For example

X has twelve idols

or

X has twelve heroes

or

X has twelve favourite stars

Solution 2:

I don't think English has any word which is the inverse of "fan" - apart from the phrase "is a fan of".

"X is a fan of 12 people"

"Y has a fan in X"

Solution 3:

Remember that fan derives from "fanatic," which usually implies exclusivity, so it's hard to truly be a "fan" of 12 unrelated people or things.