Meanwhile, reports are in that John Varley has died. We have a lot of quotations from him in the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction, and he is credited as being the originator of four terms: cryosuspension, cyborg (v.), cyborged, and nearside (n.) […]

New entry for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: William Gibson's "Raygun Gothic". Will be adding other retrofuturistic style terms in the near future. Would be grateful for any pre-2008 examples _not_ referring to the original story. https://sfdictionary.com/view/3043/raygun-gothic

While we're publishing massive antedatings of Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction entries from proto-SF sources, here are two for _Lunarian_ adj. from Daniel Defoe (yes, that one): https://sfdictionary.com/view/2329/lunarian

I'm happy to announce a 112-year antedating of _Jovian_ 'an inhabitant of Jupiter' for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction, from Miles Wilson's proto-SF _History of Israel Jobson_ (1757): https://sfdictionary.com/view/140/jovian

If you need a break from <waves arms at everything>, you can distract yourself w/two new fandom entries in the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: "newfan" & its frequent plural "newfen"! Both from 1945 onwards, the former now rare. https://sfdictionary.com/view/3036/newfan […]

Helpful comment of the day, found in a test: like($date, qr/^20/, "get_end_date will return a (probably current) date if nothing is passed in"); # N.B. this test will fail in 77 years

New entry for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: "Encyclopedia Galactica", prominently (though not originally) in Asimov's Foundation series, but also in HHGTTG, Carl Sagan, _Contact_, & more. We love reference works of all kinds! […]

New entries for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: the "retro-futurism" terms, chiefly to support upcoming entries. Mostly based on the OED entries (though "-futurist" is an antedating). 1980s onwards. https://sfdictionary.com/view/3045/retro-futurism […]

For you conspiracy-theory fans, a very important new entry for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: "medbed", in use regularly since the late 1980s: https://sfdictionary.com/view/3049/medbed (We do not discuss the conspiracy-theory stuff; that's not our jam.)

New entry for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: "Mercurian", a language/dialect spoken on Mercury or by Mercurians. Like many of the language-of-our-solar-system terms, it was common mid-century, but is now rare. From 1914, but antedatings welcome! […]

Took a look at the details of a software package I've been happily using for years, and discovered to my not-inconsiderable surprise that it's written in _Pascal_.

Today's new mid-century human/robot anxiety word for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: "usuform", Anthony Boucher's term for a robot that, you know, does stuff, rather than one that looks like a human. No longer in use. https://sfdictionary.com/view/3046/usuform

Terrific antedating for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction, for _xenocide_, from 1973 to 1964, thanks to @ausir. Also brought it up to date with a 2020 quote. https://sfdictionary.com/view/2216/xenocide

Important new Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction entry: _clanker_ 'a robot', which, despite the 50 articles last week claiming this is a 2005 Star Wars thing, has been in use since the '50s, from major authors such as Tenn, Saberhagen, Pohl, Rucker, &c […]

New entry for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: "terrestrial" adj., in reference to Earth. We hadn't bothered with this before. Quotes from (translated) Jules Verne onwards. Cf. many earlier examples in non-SF contexts: not always easy to tease apart […]

New entries for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: _metahuman_, as noun and adjective. Inspired by discussion of the new #superman movie. From 1970s, with non-SF antecedents. https://sfdictionary.com/view/3042/metahuman https://sfdictionary.com/view/3041/metahuman

My correspondent is a non-native English speaker, but I think he's onto something here.

Spectacular Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction antedating of "jump gate", otherwise associated chiefly with Babylon 5. @ausir found a 1966 example from Poul Anderson in Galaxy, antedating 1993. https://sfdictionary.com/view/250/jump-gate

New old-skool entries for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: "interspace" as noun and adj. (in rather different meanings) both from the 1920s, both now rare. https://sfdictionary.com/view/2769/interspace https://sfdictionary.com/view/3038/interspace

Important new fandom entries for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: Bob Tucker–related terms, referring to the use of real people's names in a work of fiction. _Tuckerism, -ization, -ize, -ized_. 1950s onward. https://sfdictionary.com/view/1890/tuckerism […]

New #nanotechnology entry for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: "gray goo", which I've been sitting on for years because of bibliographical issues. https://sfdictionary.com/view/2591/gray-goo (Basically, this is always credited to K. Eric Drexler's _Engines of Creation_, but it […]

Today in website upgrades:

Important additions from (modern) fandom for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: "fix-it", adj. & n., from 1999 and 2001 respectively. Cites from LiveJournal, Tumblr, the Fanfic Symposium, &c. https://sfdictionary.com/view/2394/fix-it https://sfdictionary.com/view/3031/fix-it […]

New entries for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: "universe-wide", as both adjective and adverb. From 1930s and 1950s respectively; joining existing entry pairs "galaxy-wide" and "planet-wide". https://sfdictionary.com/view/2777/universe-wide […]

A new entry for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction in no one's favorite category: languages of solar system bodies! Today's entrant "Ganymedian". As with the others, fairly rare, mostly mid-20th C. https://sfdictionary.com/view/2632/ganymedian

Historical #Dictionary of #sciencefiction#dictionarynew entry: I've been sitting on the complex "fan service" for two years, during which time other dicts. have finally entered it, but ours is earlier ;-) Enjoy! https://sfdictionary.com/view/2650/fan-service

After a substantial amount of work, I am pleased to announce new Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction entries for the #fandom sense of _alternate universe_, & for its shortened form _AU_. 1977 & 1993 respectively. Feedback welcome! https://sfdictionary.com/view/3027/alternate-universe […]

A matched set of 3 new entries for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction! For "earthport", "marsport", & "moonport", (usually capitalized as the name of) spaceports in those places. 1930s–. https://sfdictionary.com/view/3029/earthport https://sfdictionary.com/view/3030/marsport […]

New entries for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: a pair of obsolete early fandom terms, "stfan" and "stfandom". https://sfdictionary.com/view/1383/stfan https://sfdictionary.com/view/1889/stfandom Sorry for being slow with recent updates, but <waves hands at the world>.

I'll be getting back to posting new entries for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction soon; meanwhile, for no particular reason, I've just cleaned up the entry for "disaster novel/fiction" (e.g. Ballard, Wyndham &c.), & pushed it back from 1975 to 1949 […]

Today's debugging story: https://www.pewresearch.org/decoded/2025/03/21/how-a-glitch-in-an-online-survey-replaced-the-word-yes-with-forks/

We'll have a few new fan-related entries for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction this week, starting with "superfan", 1939 and onwards in genre use (earlier in baseball): https://sfdictionary.com/view/2707/superfan The 1914 baseball example also antedates the OED (and […]

Two new medical entries in the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: "medikit", a first-aid kit or an automated medical device (1952), and "med(i)bot", a medical robot (1977). Lots of prominent authors. https://sfdictionary.com/view/2454/medikit https://sfdictionary.com/view/2570/medbot

Happy Valentine's Day! Today's new Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction entry: _romantasy_. Primarily an extremely recent publishing category blending #romance and fantasy, but examples go back to 2008, with much earlier antecedents. https://sfdictionary.com/view/2940/romantasy

New entry for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction! "mundane", referring to a person lacking supernatural powers. (There are 2 other noun senses already in.) First in 1977 from the first Xanth novel (anything earlier?); also Babylon 5 & a great one from Naomi Novik […]

Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction news: New entries for _military SF_ (split off from, & more common than, the full form _military science fiction_ (2-year antedating)) & _MilSF_. All links: https://sfdictionary.com/view/2947/military-sf https://sfdictionary.com/view/242/milsf […]

New entry for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: "extra-terrestial", a variant of the more common "extra-terrestrial" (we already had "terrestial"), from about the same time (1850s), and still popping up every now and then. https://sfdictionary.com/view/2023/extra-terrestial

A nice antedating for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: "space cadet", popularized by Robert Heinlein's 1948 novel and the 1950s franchise "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet". We'd had 1943, but now there's a 1941 from Dick Calkin's Buck Rogers cartoon strip […]

Non-SFnal antedating of "robotic" in the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction (and of the OED), thanks to the indefatigable Fred Shapiro, in reference to a tennis-playing machine invented by René Lacoste to help prepare for a match with Bill Tilden (1927)! […]

This is a really important antedating for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction, but it's so embarrassing that I've missed it before that I'm leaking it out on a Friday night.... "neutronium", by 3 full years to 1927, from Hugo Gernsback of all people […]

Terrific antedating in the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction of _sapient_ 'an intelligent alien', consciously coined by the Society of Theoretical Anthropology in 1958; thanks to a reader for sending this in, from a short-lived science/futurist journal! […]

New entry for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction! _stun-gun_ as a verb, from the late 1940s, and still current. Quotes from E. C. Tubb, Lin Carter, Ron Goulart, William Shatner, David Weber, &c. https://sfdictionary.com/view/2918/stun-gun

New fandom entry for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction! The famous _slan shack_, a commune of fans. From the early 1940s, esp. in reference to the first one called this, in Battle Creek, Michigan. https://sfdictionary.com/view/2243/slan-shack

New fandom entry for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: "fanarchy", for the opposition to organized fandom. We'd added _fanarchist_ a few years ago, but skipped _fanarchy_, which is very slightly earlier. This is now remedied. https://sfdictionary.com/view/2917/fanarchy

New entry for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction! "feghoot", for a very short story with a groaner pun as the punchline, after the protagonist of a series of such stories written by Reginald Bretnor. Now used beyond SF. https://sfdictionary.com/view/2008/feghoot

New Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction entry! "neuronic", of incapacitating (but not fatal) weapons. Coined by Asimov (as "neuronic whip," also used in the Star Wars universe); regularly used thereafter (quotes from Milton Lesser, Lin Carter, N. Spinrad, &c) […]

New Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction entries, on this busy day on the Internet! "planet-hopper", in two senses, with quotes from Budrys, Leigh Brackett, Andre Norton, Douglas Adams, &c. https://sfdictionary.com/view/2910/planet-hopper https://sfdictionary.com/view/2915/planet-hopper

Yet more Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction administrative news: Every quotation from Galaxy Magazine (there are 240) is now linked to its original source.

Small but important antedating of "spy ray" for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction: This is very common in the '30s and '40s, & is used constantly by E. E. "Doc" Smith, & rare after the 1950s. Turns out Jack Williamson got there first, with a 1932 use […]

Trivial antedating for the Historical #dictionary of #sciencefiction , but all antedatings are important: "holovision" for 3D video is now found slightly earlier in the context of actual (if theoretical) TV technology than in SF proper. https://sfdictionary.com/view/483/holovision