Canon?

What the hell does canon mean? I hear stuff like "canon pairing"....actually, "canon pairing" is the only thing I heard...but all the same, what does it mean?

It's when pirates fire off two cannons in succession aimed at the same point on the hull of an enemy ship, with the goal of inflicting a maximum amount of damage to a critical section of the hull, preferably at the waterline.

in fiction, canon refers to the 'official' events and characters of the fictional universe, often as specified by the original writer.  fanfiction would be considered non-canon, as could many 'filler' anime episodes.

>>1
Canon is basically ideas/facts/etc from the 'official' story. Basically, "Canon story" is the official story you read or watch in the manga/anime; "Canon Pairings" is pairings (couples) that are hinted or that really happen on the official story.
For example, on the canon story of naruto there is the canon pairing of Naruto and Hinata (even if Naruto is dumb as fuck and doesn't notice it... *cough*)...

...that or im going with >>2.