bodice ripper

/ˈbɒdɪs ˌɹɪpə/

/ˈbɑdɪs ˌɹɪpɚ/

From the fact that the female protagonists in such novels would often have their bodices (blouses or corsets) removed with some force before sexual activity commenced.

My aunt would bring a stack of torrid bodice rippers with her to the beach, and would unfailingly blush if disturbed in her reading.

Publishers call them hot historicals as opposed to either the virginal variety Barbara Cartland writes or to the bodice rippers "because that's usually what happens to the heroines," Price explained.

1978 February 8, Charitey Simmons, “Dizzying passion ruffles the pages of the ‘hot’ historical novel”, in Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill.: Tribune Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, section 2, page 4:

The name "bodice ripper" was derived from the frequent rapes and sexual assaults that the heroines experienced. "Bodice-ripper" heroines were portrayed to be stronger and more active characters than gothic heroines. Editors of category romances, noting the popularity of the "bodice rippers," have borrowed the longer lengths, the overt sexuality and the assertive heroine from these romances.

1984, Margaret Ann Jensen, “Rivals and Writers”, in Love’s $weet Return: The Harlequin Story, Bowling Green, Oh.: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, →ISBN, page 66:

Soon bodice-rippers, the gothics, the "romance" novel advanced from paperback to hardback, from supermarket racks to book club selections.

1993, William O’Rourke, “Catholics Coming of Age”, in Signs of the Literary Times: Essays, Reviews, Profiles 1970–1992, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 48:

This book is the last stage of a long and varied journey that began with the first UK screening of The Piano. Never having been an ardent fan of conventional ‘bodice rippers’ or nostalgic fossilisations of a past we never had, I was surprised by my reaction to the costumes.

1997, Stella Bruzzi, “Introduction: Clothing and Cinema”, in Undressing Cinema: Clothing and Identity in the Movies, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2009, →ISBN, page xiii:

Indeed, Travis had been a model as a college student, working his way through John Jay Criminal College, posing for the bodice-ripper covers of romantic novels.

1999 January, Joanna Elm, chapter 17, in Delusion (A Tor Book), mass market edition, New York, N.Y.: Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN, page 136:

These novels became known as "bodice rippers" because they were much more sexually explicit than earlier romances had been. Instead of experiencing a delicious kiss or a mystical wedding night at the end of the story, heroines in the bodice rippers were regularly ravished by the hero. Some feminist critics objected to these books as a romanticization of rape, but readers identified strongly with the heroine's powerlessness as a woman in a rigidly patriarchal society. Unlike the sweet virgins of earlier romances, the heroines of the bodice rippers were notoriously feisty.

1999, Paulette Richards, “Literary Contexts”, in Kathleen Gregory Klein, editor, Terry McMillan: A Critical Companion (Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers), Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 23:

Grazia [Deledda] discovered early that a short story appeared in the last pages of each magazine; these tales were of a decidedly Romantic bent, much like today's supermarket bodice-rippers.

2006, Jan Kozma, “Translator’s Introduction”, in Marianna Sirca, translated by Jan Kozma, Grazia Deledda, Madison, Teaneck, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; Cranbury, N.J.: Associated University Presses, →ISBN, page 9:

[M]y mother chased her dream of becoming a character in one of those frontier romance novels—buckskin bodice rippers, she called them—that she so adored.

2015, Seamus McGraw, “Sundance”, in Betting the Farm on a Drought: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change, Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 5:

They stubbornly hung on to the idea that Outlander was a Harlequinesque bodiceripper that would only appeal to middle-age bored housewives.

2016 February 26, Beth Wesson, “Selling Outlander to the Masses … Or Selling Out?”, in My Outlander Blog, archived from the original on 2018-03-05:

(informal) A romantic novel, usually in a historical setting, with frank depictions of sexual activity, especially one in which the female protagonist is seduced; (by extension) a film, television programme, etc., featuring such activity.

racconto erotico

sexually explicit romantic novel, usually in a historical setting


top banana

He was hilarious, and remained the top banana on the tour for years.

(idiomatic, dated) The principal comedian in a vaudeville or burlesque show.


Cookie Monster

In the first four years I worked at QVC I was a cookie monster and ate myself up twenty-two pounds — that's a lot of chocolate chips.

1995, Kathy Levine, It's Better to Laugh, page 25:

The cookie monster program would lock up your terminal and endlessly prompt you to "Give me a cookie (or "I WANT A COOKIE" or some variation), and no matter what you typed, it would always insist it wanted a cookie.

2002, Laura Lemay with Rafe Colburn, Sams teach yourself Perl in 21 days, page 20:

A gene involved in cell division which is named because it makes the cells look like a `whole bunch of cookie monster eyes'.

2008, Paul W. May, Molecules with Silly Or Unusual Names, page 150:

In his Cookie Monster voice, he screamed, "Bing-go! Jack-pot! Koo-key!"

2009, Denise Dietz, Throw Darts at a Cheesecake, page 182:

A blue creature from the children's television show Sesame Street who is intensely fond of cookies.


starship

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-starship.wav

A type of spacecraft capable of traveling to the solar systems of other stars.

星際飛船

a spacecraft capable of traveling to other stars


meta

Clipping of metanalysis or metacommentary.

Many metas on Tumblr incorporate GIFs of scenes they are referencing as well as screencaps.

2014, Jay Schnorrer, "Adding to Narration and The Johnlock Conspiracy – The Meaning of Digital Media for BBC's Sherlock", paper submitted to Freie Universität Berlin (link)

Fans create their own stories and media representation through fan fiction. They challenge the feminism in the [Sarah J. Maas] books through discussions and metas.

2018, Sarah Leiser, "Throne of Fans: Examining the Roles of Feminism, Platform and Community in an Online Fandom", thesis submitted to the University of Denver, page 84

It wasn’t until I dug into post-season-3 Sherlock meta in January of 2014 that I started to encounter "the Discourse."

2020, Elizabeth Minkel, quoted in "Under the Radar: A Conversation about Tumblr in the Public Sphere", in A Tumblr Book: Platform and Cultures (eds. Allison McCracken, Alexander Cho, Louisa Stein, and Indira Neill Hoch), page 64

(fandom slang) Metanalysis or metacommentary focused on media, fandom, or related topics, typically presented as an essay or dialogue.


deathtrap

A plot device where a villain in a story puts a hero in an elaborate dangerous situation for the purposes of attempting a sadistic murder.


slick

From Middle English slicke, slike, slyke, from Old English slīc (“sleek, smooth; crafty, cunning, slick”), from Proto-Germanic *slīkaz (“sleek, smooth”),
from Proto-Indo-European *sleyg-, *sleyǵ- (“to glide, smooth, spread”). Akin to Dutch sluik, dialectal Dutch sleek (“even, smooth”), Old Norse slíkr (“sleek, smooth”), Old English slician (“to make sleek, smooth, or glossy”).

cog

I spent two fucking days locked up in that hotel room, miserable and hating myself and drenched in my own slick!

2017, "Tessa on Ice", quoted in Marianne Gunderson, "What is an omega?: Rewriting sex and gender in omegaverse fanfiction", thesis submitted to the University of Oslo, page 41

For his ruts, Castiel orders slick from a single donor, who is, unbeknownst to him, Dean, who lives at the Roadhouse and is in contact with many of his colleagues and rescuees.

2019, Tessa Barone, "Just Go Find Yourself a Nice Alpha: Gender and Consent in Supernatural Fandom's Alpha/Beta/Omega Universe", thesis submitted to Oregon State University, page 32

She observed another parallel to menstruation, namely the abundance of 'slick' that Omegas produce when they go into heat, which mainly functions as an anal lubricant.

2019, Chris van der Vegt, "The Second Genders: Utopia and Dystopia in Stranger Things Omegaverse Fanfiction", thesis submitted to Utrecht University, page 23

(fandom slang) In omegaverse fiction, the copious, lubricating bodily fluid produced by an omega in heat.


lightsaber

From light + saber; coined by American filmmaker George Lucas for the Star Wars film franchise. First mentioned in the film Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope) which was released on 25 May, 1977.

coined

[Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker] Your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

1977 May 25, George Lucas, Star Wars, spoken by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness):

Wielding his flashlight like a lightsaber, Kyle sent golden shafts slicing through the swirling vapors.

2004, Rob N. Hood, Beyond the Wind, Binghamton, N.Y.: Southern Tier Editions/Harrington Park Press, →ISBN, page 1:

This was the era of Star Wars, the reinvention of science fiction with the homely Luke Skywalker. But even Luke had the Force and a tie-fighter. The Doctor was a humanist, and his spacecraft was an obsolete phone box redolent of bobbies with whistles. He would never resort to lightsabre against villains, preferring to confront them with jelly babies.

2006 September, Steve Tomkins, “Icon of the Month No. 82: Dr Who”, in Simon Jones, editor, Third Way, volume 29, number 7, Harrow, London: Third Way Trust, →ISSN, page 24:

Poster Power / Get the scheme behind the scene with Star Wars Blueprints: The Ultimate Collection. This boxed set includes five double-sided posters with blueprints of the Death Star, R2-D2, and C-3PO, lightsabers and blasters, Darth Vader and the Millennium Falcon.

2008 November, “Collecting”, in Boys' Life, volume XCVIII, number 11, Irving, Tx.: Boy Scouts of America, →ISSN, page 52:

(science fiction) A sword having a blade made of a powerful beam of light or energy.


Jedi

Coined by American filmmaker George Lucas as early as 1973 (in the manuscript Journal of the Whills) and first used in his 1977 film Star Wars. Said to have been adapted from Japanese 時代劇 (jidaigeki, “‘period drama’ motion pictures about samurai”), or perhaps inspired by the words Jed (King) and Jeddak (Emperor) in the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which Lucas had considered adapting to film. Another potential influence on the word "Jedi" is Hebrew ידיד (yadíd, “beloved; male friend”). In his book The Secret History of Star Wars, Michael Kaminski suggests that Lucas may have been influenced by this term when creating the name for his knights. Kaminski notes that Lucas has cited Jewish mysticism as an inspiration for his work, and that he may have been drawn to the idea of his heroes being beloved protectors.

der

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Jedi.

(Star Wars) One of a fictional order of beings from the Star Wars universe who are gifted with heightened awareness of the Force.


Jedi

(Star Wars) Jedi (a fictional order of beings)


narcissist

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-narcissist.wav

From Narcissus (“a character in Greek mythology who became obsessed with his own reflection”) + -ist.

af

(colloquial) An egoist; a person full of egoism and pride.


fata

From Vulgar Latin Fāta (“goddess of fate”), from the plural of Latin fātum (“fate”). Compare Catalan, Occitan, and Portuguese fada; French fée; Spanish hada.


biter

From Middle English biter, bitere, equivalent to bite + -er. Cognate with West Frisian biter (“biter”), Dutch bijter (“biter”), German Low German Bieter (“biter”), German Beißer (“biter”).


exorcism

en-noun

exorcism (countable and uncountable, plural exorcisms)

From Old French exorciser, from Late Latin exorcizō, from Ancient Greek ἐξορκίζω (exorkízō, “to ward off, to charge under oath, adjure”), from ἐξ (ex) + ὅρκος (hórkos).

der

The ritual act of driving out evil spirits from persons, places or things that are possessed by them.

悪魔払い

あくまばらい, akuma-barai, あくまはらい, akuma-harai


lifeboat

(science fiction) An emergency vehicle carried aboard a spaceship.


faerie

en-noun

faerie (countable and uncountable, plural faeries)

A deliberately archaic spelling of fairy (attested since the 1300s in spellings like fairye, fayre), based on Old French faerie, used in 1590 by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene.


アニメ

→ English: anime

→ Malay: anime

→ Spanish: anime, ánime

→ Portuguese: anime, animé, animê

→ Russian: аниме (anime)

→ Hindi: ऐनिमे (ainime)

→ Burmese: အာနီမေ (anime)

→ Turkish: anime

Anime
Daijirin
Daijisen
Kyōsuke Kindaichi
Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors
ja:アニメ
ja:松村明

Clipping of アニメーション (animēshon), itself borrowed from English animation.
Not directly related to French animé (“animated”).

(animation, anime) anime, Japanese animation


scrooge

From the character Ebenezer Scrooge in the Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol.

A miserly person; a person with an excessive dislike of spending money or other resources.

A person who is grumpy about the Christmas holidays.


scrooge

en-verb

scrooge (third-person singular simple present scrooges, present participle scrooging, simple past and past participle scrooged)

scrooges (present singular third-person)
scrooging (participle present)
scrooged (participle past)
scrooged (past)

So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged, then he scrooged again[.]

1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, London: Wordsworth Classics, published 1993, page 12:

(UK, US, dialect) To crush or press; to squeeze (past, into, together, etc.).


muppet

muppet (nominative singular)
muppety (nominative plural)
muppeta (genitive singular)
muppetów (genitive plural)
muppetowi (dative singular)
muppetom (dative plural)
muppeta (accusative singular)
muppety (accusative plural)
muppetem (instrumental singular)
muppetami (instrumental plural)
muppecie (locative singular)
muppetach (locative plural)
muppecie (singular vocative)
muppety (plural vocative)

Unadapted borrowing from English muppet.

Muppet (puppet in the style of Jim Henson's Muppets)


salamander

/ˈsæləˌmɑːndə/

From Middle English salamandre, from Anglo-Norman salamandre, from Latin salamandra, from Ancient Greek σαλαμάνδρα (salamándra), of uncertain origin (per Beekes, likely Pre-Greek); possibly of Iranian origin, see Persian سمندر (samandar) for more information.

“Not a chance, Ranger,” Bob Mason was speaking. “This little cuss is a salamander. He's been travelling through fire all day and there isn't a blister on him. …”

1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter XI, in The Understanding Heart:

"There is a vulgar error," says the author of the Brief Natural History, p. 91, "that a salamander lives in the fire. Yet both Galen and Dioscorides refute this opinion; and Mathiolus, in his Commentaries upon Dioscorides, a very famous physician, affirms of them, that by casting of many a salamander into the fire for tryal he found it false. The same experiment is likewise avouched by Joubertus."

1849, John Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain: Chiefly Illustrating the Origin of Our Vulgar and Provincial Customs, Ceremonies, and Superstitions, volume 3, page 372:

(mythology) A creature much like a lizard that is resistant to and lives in fire (in which it is often depicted in heraldry), hence the elemental being of fire.


verisimilar

en-adj

verisimilar (comparative more verisimilar, superlative most verisimilar)

more verisimilar (comparative)
most verisimilar (superlative)

/ˌvɛɹɪˈsɪmələ/

/ˌvɛɹɪˈsɪməlɚ/

/ˌvɛɹəˈsɪməlɚ/

From Latin vērisimilis, prop. vērī similis (“having the appearance of truth”), from vērī, genitive of vērus (“true”) + similis (“like, similar”); see very and similar.

(fiction) Faithful to its own rules; internally consistent.


weather balloon

en-noun

weather balloon (plural weather balloons)

(ufology, sarcastic) a skeptical explanation to debunk a UFO sighting that a believer regards as silly, illogical or disingenuous


faun

From Middle English fawn, from Latin faunus.

(Roman mythology) A woodland creature with pointed ears, legs, and short horns of a goat and a fondness for unrestrained revelry.


faun

fauni (adjective)
faun (nominative singular)
faunowie (nominative plural)
fauny (derogatory nominative plural)
fauna (genitive singular)
faunów (genitive plural)
faunowi (dative singular)
faunom (dative plural)
fauna (accusative singular)
faunów (accusative plural)
faunem (instrumental singular)
faunami (instrumental plural)
faunie (locative singular)
faunach (locative plural)
faunie (singular vocative)
faunowie (plural vocative)
fauny (derogatory plural vocative)


gafiate

From GAFIA (“getting away from it all”) + -ate (noun-forming suffix).

af

Westlake's piece is so reminiscent of the old days of fandom, when no gafiate felt he had actually departed until he had alienated everybody on his mailing list.

Herman Stowell King, a long-time gafiate (we first met in the 60s) and collector, turned up in the local Sunday paper with a well-written review of Whitley Streiber's The Forbidden Zone.

1993 October, It Goes On The Shelf, number 10:

Perhaps the disappearance of the vast majority of the copies Dan mailed out in 1981 granted him limited immunity; he did just run for TAFF and win last year, hardly the act of an over-the-hill gafiate.

1996 November, Andy Hooper, “Walking into Midnight”, in Science-Fiction Five-Yearly, number 10, page 37:

(dated, fandom slang, science fiction) A science fiction fan who has become inactive in the fandom community.


gafiate

en-verb

gafiate (third-person singular simple present gafiates, present participle gafiating, simple past and past participle gafiated)

gafiates (present singular third-person)
gafiating (participle present)
gafiated (participle past)
gafiated (past)

From GAFIA (“getting away from it all”) + -ate (verb-forming suffix).

af

She gafiated the moment she first picked up a pulp magazine.

(dated, fandom slang, science fiction) To leave the mundane world and enter the science fiction fandom community.

QUANDRY (Hoffwoman) The famous fanzine published by Lee Hoffman of Savannah Ga. before she gafiated for the first time.

1959, Richard "Dick" Harris Eney, Fancyclopedia II:

He was quite active in the 1940's, vanished for a long while, then reappeared in the 1960's to put out lots of issues of this fanzine with the help of his wife, only to gafiate a second time as abruptly and totally as anyone ever has quit fandom.

1976 November, Harry Warner, Jr., “In One Lustrum and Out the Other”, in Science-Fiction Five-Yearly, number 6, page 11:

And I didn't so much gafiate as move to Asia.

2003 December 3, Marian Rosenberg (brucianna), “Re: Fandom”, in alt.polyamory (Usenet), message-ID <4VPxb.514513$6C4.365955@pd7tw1no>:

(fandom slang, science fiction) To drop out of fandom community activities, with the implication of "getting a life".


sidekick

From side + kick, which in the late 19th and early 20th century was a slang term for the front side pocket of a pair of trousers, known as the pocket safest from theft. Thus, by analogy, a "side-kick" was a person's closest companion.

So even though he had – no question – the best lines in Friends, he was never what he would have been in an earlier era: the sidekick.

2023 October 29, Zoe Williams, “‘An ironic, self-deprecating metrosexual’: how Matthew Perry captured the spirit of the age”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(authorship, figuratively) In literature, theatre/theater, etc., a good foil of the protagonist, a character who helps emphasize the traits of the main character.


sorcerer

/ˈsɔːsəɹə(ɹ)/

From Middle English sorcerere, from Old French sorcier, from Early Medieval Latin sortiārius, derived from Latin sortem (“fate, fortune”), from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind”).

Pope Joan, who once occupied the throne of the Vatican, was reputed to be the blackest sorcerer of them all.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 105:

"Well, sorcerer?" growled the Norman. "Nay, not well," replied Catweazle shivering miserably, "I have the bone-ache."

1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 7:

(mythology, folklore, fantasy) A magician or wizard. Sometimes specifically male.

yshtës

magician/wizard drawing upon natural powers


aingeal

head

aingeal m (genitive singular aingil, nominative plural aingil)

aingil (genitive singular)
aingil (nominative plural)
nominative (indefinite)
aingeal (indefinite singular)
aingil (indefinite plural)
vocative (indefinite)
a aingil (indefinite singular)
a aingeala (indefinite plural)
genitive (indefinite)
aingil (indefinite singular)
aingeal (indefinite plural)
dative (indefinite)
nominative (definite)
an t-aingeal (definite singular)
na haingil (definite plural)
genitive (definite)
an aingil (definite singular)
na n-aingeal (definite plural)
dative (definite)
leis an aingeal (definite singular)
don aingeal (definite singular)
leis na haingil (definite plural)

From Old Irish aingel, from Late Latin angelus, from Ancient Greek ἄγγελος (ángelos, “messenger”).


Anime

de-noun

Anime m (strong, genitive Animes or Anime, plural Anime or Animes)

Animes (genitive)
Anime (genitive)
Anime (plural)
Animes (plural)
Anime (nominative singular)
Anime (definite nominative plural)
Animes (definite nominative plural)
Animes (genitive singular)
Anime (genitive singular)
Anime (definite genitive plural)
Animes (definite genitive plural)
Anime (dative singular)
Anime (dative definite plural)
Animes (dative definite plural)
Anime (accusative singular)
Anime (accusative definite plural)
Animes (accusative definite plural)

anime (A style of art that originated in Japan)


Baloo

The use as a proper noun stems from its use as the name of a bear in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. The character was named from the Hindi word भालू (bhālū, “bear”).


Basilisk

Basilisk m (weak, genitive Basilisken, plural Basilisken)

Basilisken (genitive)
Basilisken (plural)
Basilisk (nominative singular)
Basilisken (definite nominative plural)
Basilisken (genitive singular)
Basilisken (definite genitive plural)
Basilisken (dative singular)
Basilisken (dative definite plural)
Basilisken (accusative singular)
Basilisken (accusative definite plural)

basilisk, cockatrice (mythical creature)


Beast

Plebes spend their first summer at Cadet Basic Training — Beast Barracks — where they get soldierized.

2014, David Lipsky, Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point, page 8:

I was able to keep up with the herd and evade the Beast. Cadet Basic Training ended with a rigorous twenty four-hour exercise that included a twelve-mile, rite-of-passage road march to West Point […]

2019, Conrad Taylor, PATH to FREEDOM: My Story of Perseverance:

(US, military, slang) A cadet's basic training at West Point.


Böse

Böse m (weak, genitive Bösen, plural Bösen)

Bösen (genitive)
Bösen (plural)
Böse (nominative singular)
Bösen (definite nominative plural)
Bösen (genitive singular)
Bösen (definite genitive plural)
Bösen (dative singular)
Bösen (dative definite plural)
Bösen (accusative singular)
Bösen (accusative definite plural)

From Middle High German bōse, from Old High German bōsi. Cognate with English boast.


Borg

* As a Danish and Norwegian surname, from various places derived from Old Norse borg (“stronghold”).
* As a north/Low German surname, this is the Low German form of the surname Burg.
* As a Jewish surname, from Yiddish בורג (burg, “credit”), from Middle High German borgen (“to lend, borrow”), from Old High German borgēn.
* As a Maltese surname, from the noun borġ (“tower, stronghold”), distantly related to the first two senses above.


Borg

en-verb

Borg (third-person singular simple present Borgs, present participle Borging, simple past and past participle Borged)

Borgs (present singular third-person)
Borging (participle present)
Borged (participle past)
Borged (past)

Borg (Star Trek)
en:Borg (disambiguation)
en:Star Trek

From the Star Trek franchise, in which the Borg are a cyborg race intent on converting all other life into their own kind; apparently a clipping of cyborg, from cybernetic + organism.

We already do it and they tell us they're going to Borg us with fucking stuff into our brains and we won't have to talk to each other.

2001, Rick C. Hodgin, GeekNews
Intel wants to Borg us!

(slang) To turn into a cyborg, to implant machinery into people with the intent of controlling or assimilating them.


Elvish

These difficult runes are written in Elvish.


Duo

An unincorporated community in West Virginia


Dickens

From Dicken, a medieval diminutive form of Dick + the patronymic suffix -s.

A surname originating as a patronymic, notably borne by Charles Dickens, English novelist.

A small city, the county seat of Dickens County, Texas, United States.


Dickens

Dickens (nominative singular)
Dickensa (genitive singular)
Dickensowi (dative singular)
Dickensa (accusative singular)
Dickensem (instrumental singular)
Dickensie (locative singular)
Dickensie (singular vocative)


Donner

First attested in the 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”. Named from Dutch donder (“thunder”), and perhaps influenced by the German form Donner.

A Visit from St. Nicholas
Santa Claus's reindeer


Caro

A mythological figure from the comarca of Safor in the Valencian Community said to have the head of a bearded man and the body of an owl.


Chaos

From Latin chaos (“chaos”), from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).

19521 Chaos
Chaos (Warhammer)
Chaos (cosmogony)

Chaos warrior, Chaos daemon

(fantasy, science fiction) In the Warhammer franchise, a demonic antagonist that sends demons, monsters, warriors, and beasts to wage war on the games' setting.


Faun

de-noun

Faun m (strong or mixed, genitive Fauns or Faunes, plural Faune or (rare) Faunen or Fauni)

Fauns (genitive)
Faunes (genitive)
Faune (plural)
Faunen (plural rare)
Fauni (plural)
Faun (nominative singular)
Faune (definite nominative plural)
Faunen (definite nominative plural rare)
Fauni (definite nominative plural rare)
Fauns (genitive singular)
Faunes (genitive singular)
Faune (definite genitive plural)
Faunen (definite genitive plural rare)
Fauni (definite genitive plural rare)
Faun (dative singular)
Faune (dative singular)
Faunen (dative definite plural)
Fauni (dative definite plural rare)
Faun (accusative singular)
Faune (accusative definite plural)
Faunen (accusative definite plural rare)
Fauni (accusative definite plural rare)

Der junge Faun war sehr glücklich auf seiner Sommerwiese.

1924, Thomas Mann, Der Zauberberg [The Magic Mountain], volume 2, Berlin: S. Fischer, page 514:

The young faun was very happy in his summer meadow.


Fee

Fee (genitive)
Feen (plural)
Fee (nominative singular)
Feen (definite nominative plural)
Fee (genitive singular)
Feen (definite genitive plural)
Fee (dative singular)
Feen (dative definite plural)
Fee (accusative singular)
Feen (accusative definite plural)

Middle High German fei(n)e. Borrowed from French fée, from Latin fata.


Hobbit

Hobbit m (strong, genitive Hobbits, plural Hobbits)

Hobbits (genitive)
Hobbits (plural)
Hobbit (nominative singular)
Hobbits (definite nominative plural)
Hobbits (genitive singular)
Hobbits (definite genitive plural)
Hobbit (dative singular)
Hobbits (dative definite plural)
Hobbit (accusative singular)
Hobbits (accusative definite plural)

hobbit (a member of a fictional race of small humanoids with shaggy hair and hairy feet)


Heldin

Heldin f (genitive Heldin, plural Heldinnen, masculine Held)

Heldin (genitive)
Heldinnen (plural)
Held (masculine)
Heldin (nominative singular)
Heldinnen (definite nominative plural)
Heldin (genitive singular)
Heldinnen (definite genitive plural)
Heldin (dative singular)
Heldinnen (dative definite plural)
Heldin (accusative singular)
Heldinnen (accusative definite plural)

From Held (“hero”) + -in (feminine suffix).


Draco

Borrowed from Latin Dracō, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek Δρᾰ́κων (Drákōn). Doublet of dracone, dragon, and dragoon.

Draco
Draco (constellation)
Draco (lawgiver)
Draco Dwarf

(Greek mythology) One of Actaeon's hounds.


Held

Held m (weak, genitive Helden, plural Helden, feminine Heldin)

Helden (genitive)
Helden (plural)
Heldin (feminine)
Held (nominative singular)
Helden (definite nominative plural)
Helden (genitive singular)
Helden (definite genitive plural)
Helden (dative singular)
Helden (dative definite plural)
Helden (accusative singular)
Helden (accusative definite plural)

From Middle High German helt (genitive heldes), from Old High German helid, from Proto-West Germanic *haliþ (“hero”).
Cognate with Old English hæleþ (English health), Old Saxon helið (Dutch held), West Frisian held, Old Norse halr, hǫlðr (Norwegian Nynorsk hauld). Outside of Germanic, possibly also related to Ancient Greek κέλωρ (kélōr), Tocharian B kālyśke (“boy”).


Hansel

A fictional character in the German fairy tale Hansel and Gretel.

Хензел

fictional character in Hansel and Gretel


Joker

...grinning like the Joker, Batman's nemesis, a character described in the story as being a favorite of Douglas's.

2007, Joe Layden, The Last Great Fight, page 217:

He started to laugh that maniacal laugh that sounded like the Joker on speed.

2008, Deborah Eden, The Destroyer, page 82:

I would've liked to have learned more, but the lady working the booth was a monstrous titan with dyed black hair, about ten rings on each hand, and a mouth like the Joker (Jack Nicholson version), and she spooked me.

2011, Steve Hely, How I Became a Famous Novelist, page 185:

Wide and taut, fixed and immobile. Like the Joker from Batman, he thought. Or one of his victims.

2014, Tania Carver, The Doll's House, page 22:

He looks like the Joker, the Latino one, what was his name? Cesar Romero.

2015, Manuel Luis Martinez, Drift: A Novel, page 16:

A fictional villain of DC Comics, noted for his insanity and cunning, who either wears clown makeup or is disfigured to appear as such, and who is archenemy of Batman.


Krypton

(fiction, DC Comics fictional milieu) A fictional planet, the native world of Superman, named after the element krypton.


Hulk

Jack Kirby
Marvel Comics Universe
Stan Lee

The name of a character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for the Marvel Comics Universe, it has since entered the everyday English lexicon. The name itself is most likely derived from the word hulk (“large person or thing”), which predates the character. See the Wikipedia link at the bottom.

Fry: How can you say Lars is more mature than me?
Leela: Well, for one thing, his checkbook doesn't have the Hulk on it.

2007 November 27, Ken Keeler and David X. Cohen, “Bender’s Big Score”, Futurama, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

A fictional Marvel Comics character who gains superhuman strength when he becomes angry.


Hulk

A person resembling, especially physically, the Hulk in the Marvel Comics Universe.


Hulk

Hulk (fictional Marvel Comics character)


Hamlet

François de Belleforest
Hamlet
Hamlet (disambiguation)#Places
Hamlet (name)
Saxo Grammaticus

From Latin Amlethus, as written by 13th-century Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, and borrowed into English by way of François de Belleforest's French Hamlet, originally rendered as Hamblet in English. Ultimately from Old Danish Amlethæ, corresponding to Old Norse Amlóði (“fool”), claimed to be suggestive of the way that Hamlet acts in the play, from ama (“to annoy”).

The eponymous main character of William Shakespeare's play, whose father's ghost, murdered by Hamlet's uncle, exhorts him to seek revenge.

A number of places in the United States:

An unincorporated community in Marin County, California.

A town in Starke County, Indiana, named after John Hamlet.

A village in Hayes County, Nebraska, so-named as it was regarded as a hamlet.

An unincorporated community in Clatsop County, Oregon, regarded as a hamlet.

An unincorporated community in Raleigh County, West Virginia, so-named for its small size.


Kraken

Borrowed from Norwegian kraken (Bokmål entry; Nynorsk entry), definite singular of krake (“wooden drag/grapnel”) (Bokmål entry; Nynorsk entry), both from Old Norse kraki (“wooden drag/grapnel”, literally “crookie: something with crooks/hooks”), from Proto-Germanic *krankaz (“crooked”).

der

(Norse mythology) A colossal sea monster that attacks ships and sailors, often portrayed as a giant octopus or squid.


Manga

de-noun

Manga m (strong, genitive Manga or Mangas, plural Manga or Mangas)

Manga (genitive)
Mangas (genitive)
Manga (plural)
Mangas (plural)
Manga (nominative singular)
Manga (definite nominative plural)
Mangas (definite nominative plural)
Manga (genitive singular)
Mangas (genitive singular)
Manga (definite genitive plural)
Mangas (definite genitive plural)
Manga (dative singular)
Manga (dative definite plural)
Mangas (dative definite plural)
Manga (accusative singular)
Manga (accusative definite plural)
Mangas (accusative definite plural)

Borrowed from Japanese 漫画(まんが) (manga), from Middle Chinese 漫 (MC manH, “free, unrestrained”) + 畫 (MC hweaH|hweak, “drawing”).

(comics) manga (comic originating in Japan)


Matrix

From the 1984 novel Neuromancer and popularized in the 1999 movie The Matrix.

“The matrix has its roots in primitive arcade games,” said the voice-over, “in early graphics programs and military experimentation with cranial jacks.” […] “Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts … A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. […]”

1984, William Gibson, chapter 3, in Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 51:

Now some folks want to claim that we're in the Matrix right now (or that the physical world is an illusion).

2009 September 23, possum, “Re: In which the Trollpa evinzes hizzelf aza profezzional nuizzance”, in talk.religion.buddhism (Usenet), message-ID <64c3fc87-b24c-4339-9e04-b4ecaa1497f7@a6g2000vbp.googlegroups.com>:

2017, Chuck Lorre Productions #557 (post-episode text), "The Recollection Dissipation", The Big Bang Theory
Recent events have made it abundantly clear that the fabric of the universe is unraveling. Reality as you know it, the matrix if you will, is dissolving.

(science fiction) A simulated reality to which many humans are connected. In some works created by sentient machines to subdue humans.


Monster

Monster n (strong, genitive Monsters, plural Monster)

Monsters (genitive)
Monster (plural)
Monster (nominative singular)
Monster (definite nominative plural)
Monsters (genitive singular)
Monster (definite genitive plural)
Monster (dative singular)
Monstern (dative definite plural)
Monster (accusative singular)
Monster (accusative definite plural)

Borrowed in the 18th century from English monster. Doublet of Monstrum.


Hans

From German Hans, a medieval short form of Johannes (“John”), from Latin Jōhannēs, Iōhannēs (a variant of Jōannēs, Iōannēs), from New Testament Ancient Greek Ἰωάννης (Iōánnēs), a contraction from Hebrew יוֹחָנָן (yôḥānān) (Yohanan, Yokhanan), (perhaps) from a short form of Hebrew יְהוֹחָנָן (yəhôḥānān), meaning "YHWH is gracious".
First recorded in Norway in the 14th century.

der

Hebrew יוֹחָנָן (yôḥānān)

Hebrew יְהוֹחָנָן (yəhôḥānān)

Hansel, the boy in the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel.


Hans

From German Hans, a medieval short form of Johannes (“John”). First recorded in Sweden in 1356.


Mutant

de-noun

Mutant m (weak, genitive Mutanten, plural Mutanten, feminine Mutantin)

Mutanten (genitive)
Mutanten (plural)
Mutantin (feminine)
Mutant (nominative singular)
Mutanten (definite nominative plural)
Mutanten (genitive singular)
Mutanten (definite genitive plural)
Mutanten (dative singular)
Mutanten (dative definite plural)
Mutanten (accusative singular)
Mutanten (accusative definite plural)

Er sagt, er glaubt nicht, dass ich eine Mutantin bin, aber manche Mutanten erkennt man schwer.

2019, Oliver Plaschka, Pilgerzug der Posbis (Perry Rhodan Neo), number 191, Perry Rhodan digital, →ISBN:

(genetics, science fiction) mutant (that has undergone genetic mutation)


Nymphe

Nymphe f (genitive Nymphe, plural Nymphen)

Nymphe (genitive)
Nymphen (plural)
Nymphe (nominative singular)
Nymphen (definite nominative plural)
Nymphe (genitive singular)
Nymphen (definite genitive plural)
Nymphe (dative singular)
Nymphen (dative definite plural)
Nymphe (accusative singular)
Nymphen (accusative definite plural)


Muppet

Diane Sawyer
Elmo
Jim Henson
Kevin Clash
Muppet

Coined by Jim Henson as an alteration of puppet. Henson had claimed the word was a blend of marionette + puppet, but later recanted.

One of a group of established puppet characters acting as a sort of repertory company on The Muppet Show, and/or appearing on Sesame Street.


Hydra

[ˈhaɪ̯d͡ʒɹə]

From Latin Hydra, the mythical serpent, originally from Ancient Greek ὕδρα (húdra), from Proto-Indo-European *údreh₂ (“aquatic”). Doublet of otter.


Hydra

Hydra (nominative singular)
Hydry (genitive singular)
Hydře (dative singular)
Hydru (accusative singular)
Hydro (singular vocative)
Hydře (locative singular)
Hydrou (instrumental singular)

From hydra, from Ancient Greek ὕδρα (húdra).

[…] místo každé uťaté hlavy vyrostly Hydře dvě nové.

1996, Antonín Rükl, “Hydra”, in Souhvězdí, Praha: Aventinum, →ISBN, page 126:

[…] instead of every cut-off head two new heads grew up to Hydra.

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) Hydra, a mythological serpent with seven heads

Alfa Hydrae – Alphard, 2,0 mag, je nejjasnější hvězda v Hydře.

Alpha Hydrae – Alphard, 2.0 mag, is the brightest star in the constellation of Hydra.

(astronomy) Hydra, a spring constellation of the northern sky

Měsíce Hydra, Nix a Styx obíhají ve vzájemné rezonanci, protože za jeden oběh Hydry oběhne Nix právě jeden a půlkrát a Styx dokonce dvakrát.

2015 June 12, Petr Lála, “Historická událost: sonda New Horizons zblízka prozkoumá záhadné Pluto”, in Technet.cz:

The moons Hydra, Nix and Styx orbit in mutual resonance, as Nix makes exactly one and half an orbit and Styx even two orbits during one orbit of Hydra.

Poloostrov Argolský, k němuž přiléhá ostrov Hydra (Hydrea), omezuje záliv Nauplijský[…]

1904, “Řecko”, in Ottův slovník naučný, volume XXI, Praha: J. Ottl, page 359:

The Argolid Penninsula, which the island of Hydra (Hydrea) closely borders with, closes the Argolic Gulf […]

Hydra, one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Aegean Sea


Hydra

From Latin hydra, from Ancient Greek ὕδρα (húdra).

(Greek mythology) Hydra (mythical serpent)


Hydra

Hydra (nominative singular)
Hydry (genitive singular)
Hydrze (dative singular)
Hydrę (accusative singular)
Hydrą (instrumental singular)
Hydrze (locative singular)
Hydro (singular vocative)

(Greek mythology) Hydra (mythological serpent with many heads, slain by Hercules as one of his twelve labours)


Protagonist

Protagonist m (weak, genitive Protagonisten, plural Protagonisten, feminine Protagonistin)

Protagonisten (genitive)
Protagonisten (plural)
Protagonistin (feminine)
Protagonist (nominative singular)
Protagonisten (definite nominative plural)
Protagonisten (genitive singular)
Protagonisten (definite genitive plural)
Protagonisten (dative singular)
Protagonisten (dative definite plural)
Protagonisten (accusative singular)
Protagonisten (accusative definite plural)

protagonist (main character in a literary work or drama)


Batman

The province is named after its capital city, and the city is named after a nearby river, Batman River. See Ottoman Turkish باطمان for more information.

The capital city of Batman Province, Turkey.


Batman

From bat + man; originally the Bat-Man. By surface analysis, Bat- + man.

You’re afraid of being ashes. You’re afraid of being forgotten. And you will be forgotten, Joker. Because of me. I am vengeance! I am the night! I am Batman!

2015, Batman: Arkham Knight, spoken by Batman (Kevin Conroy), Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, via Rocksteady Studios:

“But next time—” Night vanished before the guard could finish—just kind of disappeared like Batman—which Viv found almost as annoying as the fact that he'd dragged her down a well. He didn't think he had to explain himself?

2015, Sarah Cross, Tear You Apart, Carolrhoda Lab, →ISBN, page 68:

I watched through squinted eyes as the driver-side door opened and a man stepped out wielding a Maglite, his other hand placed on his Batman-like utility belt. What all did they keep in those things? Surely the pistol, a few clips, handcuffs, ...

2019, Sean Johnson, Strange Like Me, page 212:

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Batman.

A fictional hero and the main protagonist of DC Comics, noted for his intellect and stealth, who uses a bat-themed costume and equipment (including a belt with an array of utilities) and is assisted by his sidekick Robin.


Batman

Holy guacamole, Batman!

Holy nostalgic flashback, Batman! Aly and AJ Michalka, the actor-musician sister duo known for dominating Radio Disney in the late aughts (they’ve also released some very good music since then), just sent us straight back to our tweens by wearing none other than iconic mall brand Limited Too.

2024 July 1, Elizabeth Logan, “Aly & AJ in the New Limited Too Collection Has Me Checking What Year It Is”, in Glamour:

An intensifier for interjections created with the adjective holy, in imitation of dialogue between Batman and his sidekick Robin.


Batman

en-verb

Batman (third-person singular simple present Batmans, present participle Batmanning, simple past and past participle Batmanned)

Batmans (present singular third-person)
Batmanning (participle present)
Batmanned (participle past)
Batmanned (past)

He laughed, Batmanned back up to his last piece of gear and hammered a 5/8-inch angle piton into the crack with an ascending ring like any nail met with a hammer.

2014, Ken Wylie, Buried, →ISBN, page 140:

(slang, mountaineering) Alternative form of batman (etymology 3)


Batman

Southeastern Anatolia Region
Southeastern Anatolia Region#English

Batman (a province of the Southeastern Anatolia Region, Turkey)

Batman (a city, the provincial capital of Batman, Turkey)


Batman

Unadapted borrowing from English Batman.


Muggle

From mug (“contemptible or stupid person; gullible or easily cheated person”) + -le (diminutive suffix), coined by British author J. K. Rowling in her 1997 book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

suffix

The magical and the muggle are separated by a river, wide and deep. I could see across, but I couldn't get across, [...].

2005, Christine Wicker, Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic is Transforming America, New York, N.Y.: HarperSanFrancisco, →ISBN, page 194:

Once again, THE magic-working Karmidee, marginalized by THE Muggle-ish Normals, are threatened by a coup in THE city's government [...]

2005 April 1, “Kirkus Reviews, review of Charlotte Haptie, Otto and the Bird Charmers”, in Dow Jones:

In her second outing as a witch — the first being Practical Magic (1998) — Nicole Kidman plays Isabel, a witch who's trying to settle down to the Muggle life of a suburban housewife.

2005 August 19, Felix Cheong, “Age-old sexism still pervades films about witches and wizards”, in Channel NewsAsia:

It could all be deadly earnest if she didn't have a sense of humor. My favorite sentence is a chapter title: "Every time you hear a bell, a Muggle has turned magical."

2005 September 30, Jeffrey Weiss, “Review of Christine Wicker, Not in Kansas Anymore”, in The Dallas Morning News:

As it was nearing Halloween, we were able to join a potions class where we could change liquids into myriad colours with the addition of substances like dragon spit (muggle’s lemon juice).

2007 November 11, Lesley Oldfield, “Family break a eureka moment”, in Sunday Sun, Newcastle upon Tyne: Reach plc, →ISSN, →OCLC:

There's another guy playing [Bob] Dylan as a formal poet facing some kind of muggle inquisition, but this is the movie's briefest and least consequential thread.

2007 November 21, Gary Thompson, “Dylan divided by six”, in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, →ISSN, →OCLC:

This video game won’t appeal to muggles.

[...] I have finally worked out that the word ECNALUBMA in back-to-front writing translates as 'get out of my way, you Muggle motorist'.

2003 May 14, “There are too many flashing lights nowadays for a knight of the road …”, in Nursing Standard:

Some activists might know little of this ‘exterior’, such is their facility to move between activist spaces and places without having to encounter the ever-increasingly one-dimensional world in which the ‘muggles’ live.

2005, David Harvie, Ben Trott, Keir Milburn, editors, Shut Them Down!: The G8, Gleneagles 2005 and the Movement of Movements, Leeds, West Yorkshire: Dissent!; Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: Autonomedia, →ISBN, page 343:

But to me, remembering what it was like to be a beginner is also an exercise in humility. I see a lot of people wanting to push ahead, faster, in all directions, and I find this to be… woefully out of step with even the Muggles who know me, […]

2021 October 31, Ace Admiral [username], “Why is no one talking about the tip of the spear?: An^([sic]) reading of the asexual academy through Skopos Theory”, in A Hand-Painted China Plate at a Barbeque, WordPress, retrieved 2021-11-02:

(by extension) A person who lacks a particular ability or skill; a non-specialist; also, a person who is not a member of a group; an outsider or cowan.

At some point when you're out geocaching, you'll run into Muggles. The trouble with Muggles is they have no idea what the sport of geocaching is all about. If they see you find a cache, they might get into the cache after you leave—to see what you were up to.

2004, Joel McNamara, Geocaching for Dummies (For Dummies), Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, →ISBN, page 125:

Try not to let the muggles see you find a Cache.

2006, Wisconsin Natural Resources, Madison, Wis.: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 89:

Use Stealth. Commonly used in a place with a high muggle-to-geocacher ratio.

2010, Paul Gillin, Dana Gillin, “Appendix A: Glossary”, in The Joy of Geocaching […], Fresno, Calif.: Quill Driver Books, →ISBN, page 235:

Each time we made a find [Teresa] Hinton would check there were no muggles, or non-geocachers, around before taking the container from its hiding place.

2016 February 16, Selina Powell, “The hidden world of geocaching in Marlborough”, in Marlborough Express (reproduced on Stuff), Blenheim, New Zealand: Stuff, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-05-16:

Caches can be hidden in a disguised container, or very small package, and one element of difficulty is hiding caches in urban locations, where the hunter will have to avoid being spotted by ‘muggles’ – the name given to those unaware of the sport. Muggles will be surprised at the scale of the secret game taking place under their noses.

2018 February 6, Joseph Smith, “The ‘dead drop’ in Stokes Croft may be more than it appears”, in Bristol Post, Bristol, Somerset: Reach plc, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-02-10:

(geocaching, specifically) A person not involved in the pastime of geocaching.


Scrooge

The fictional character Ebenezer Scrooge.


Pony

Ellipsis of My Little Pony, a cartoon media-franchise based on anthropomorphic equines.


Sapphire

I asked her once how a little girl who didn't have blue eyes ended up being called Sapphire. She pursed her lips for a few seconds, clearly wondering how she could get away with not telling me.
'My older brother is called Mistral,' she said in the end. 'My younger sister is Blaze. I'd say I was the lucky one.'
As I say, hippy parents.

2015, Sharon Bolton, Little Black Lies, Corgi Books, →ISBN, page 179:

A female given name from English from the precious stone.


Snark

Coined by Lewis Carroll as a nonce word in The Hunting of the Snark (1874). According to Beatrice Hatch, Carroll created this word as a blend of snail + shark.

A fictional animal in Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark.

A ketch built by Jack London named after Lewis Carroll's poem The Hunting of the Snark


Standard

"I felt that I had to come," she said, as if she could tell from my face that I still wasn't getting it. She spoke Standard, with no real accent. She was dressed in pragmatic, sexless human clothes; if we hadn't been face-to-face, she could have passed for a human.

1996, Joan D. Vinge, Dreamfall, New York, N.Y.: Warner Books, →ISBN, page 150:

universal language
universal language#Noun

(science fiction, fantasy) Denoting the name of a universal language in various works.


Ritter

de-noun

Ritter m (strong, genitive Ritters, plural Ritter, feminine Ritterin)

Ritters (genitive)
Ritter (plural)
Ritterin (feminine)
Ritter (nominative singular)
Ritter (definite nominative plural)
Ritters (genitive singular)
Ritter (definite genitive plural)
Ritter (dative singular)
Rittern (dative definite plural)
Ritter (accusative singular)
Ritter (accusative definite plural)

From Middle High German ritter, from Middle Dutch ridder, Flemish byform of rîder, from rîden + -er (equivalent to German reiten + -er).
In Middle High German, both ritter and rīter (whence modern Reiter) were used in the sense of “horseman”, “mounted man-at-arms”, as well as for the (emerging) rank of “knight”, and, by generalisation, any member of the lower nobility. Gradually, both forms were separated semantically (a vocabulary of 1487 has two distinct entries: miles: ritter vs. equester: reitter), and in early modern German a third (similar, though unrelated) form Reuter, from Dutch, was introduced. In this period, Ritter was the term for the class of the German lower nobility, Reuter was the normal word for a cavalryman, and Reiter was rare but sometimes used for “horseman”. From the 18th century, Ritter was gradually replaced by Kavalier, especially with individual noblemen, whereas the collective Ritterschaft remained in use for the class as a whole. Accordingly, Ritter becomes increasingly limited to the historic or romantic/poetic “medieval knight”.

Endlich erschien eines Tages ein wohlgewappneter Ritter und schwor, dass er den Kampf mit dem Drachen aufnehmen wolle.

Finally one day a well-armed knight appeared, who swore that he would take up arms against the dragon.


Shylock

Possibly derived from Hebrew שלח (Šélaḥ, the grandson of Shem), or Old Saxon [Term?] (“white-haired”), referring to goldsmiths and scriveners. It may also be derived from Michael Lok and an archaic meaning of shy (“untrustworthy”).

(fiction) A moneylender (Jewish stereotype) in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.


Tachyon

Tachyon n (mixed, genitive Tachyons, plural Tachyonen)

Tachyons (genitive)
Tachyonen (plural)
Tachyon (nominative singular)
Tachyonen (definite nominative plural)
Tachyons (genitive singular)
Tachyonen (definite genitive plural)
Tachyon (dative singular)
Tachyonen (dative definite plural)
Tachyon (accusative singular)
Tachyonen (accusative definite plural)

Die Existenz von Tachyonen konnte bis jetzt noch nicht bewiesen werden.

The existence of tachyons has not yet been proven.


Oz

After the fictional land in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

etymid

fictional place envisioned by L. Frank Baum

Ellipsis of Land of Oz, the fictional setting created by L. Frank Baum for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and other works. The term has been extended from the original country of Oz to the entire fictional world of Oz. Subsequently used as a setting by other authors and artists.


Luna

From Middle English lune, luna (“the moon”), from Latin lūna/Lūna, from Proto-Indo-European *lówksneh₂. Doublet of Roxane.

Luna that ne'er shines by day.

1868, George Villiers Duke of Buckingham, Edward Arber, The Rehearsal: With Illustrations from Previous Plays, Etc, page 129:

He has but little prudence, no apprehension of consequences, and none of that melancholy which in tempraments of Luna and Venus is generally felt, and from which he is saved by the combination of Mars and Mercury.

1896, The Era Almanack, Dramatic & Musical, page 22:

The different visible shapes of Luna are called her phases.

1909, Govind H. Keskar, Combined Introductory Astrology, page 14:

Lagrange point L1 is the perfect location for humanity's next major space station, the natural gateway to the moon. This one-of-a-kind point in space is located on the direct line between Earth and Luna about 200,000 miles from Earth, or conversely, a mere 39,000 miles above the geometric center of Luna's nearside.

2011, Charles Lee Lesher, Aldrin Station - Rise of Luna:

(chiefly science fiction or poetic) The name of Earth's moon; Moon.


Te

From Coptic ⲧⲏ (tē), from Egyptian d-wA-t:dwAt (“dwꜣt”). Doublet of Duat.

der

<i class="Latn mention" lang="egy">dwꜣt</i>

(Egyptology, Egyptian mythology) The realm of the dead in Egyptian mythology.


Tux

Coined by James Hughes as a short form of Torvalds Unix (after Linus Torvalds), perhaps also influenced by tux, referring to the tuxedo that penguins are sometimes humorously said to be wearing.

A cuddly cartoon penguin, the official Linux mascot.


Siren

la-noun

Sīrēn f (genitive Sīrēnis); third declension

Sīrēn (canonical feminine)
Sīrēnis (genitive)
Sīrēn (nominative singular)
Sīrēnēs (nominative plural)
Sīrēnis (genitive singular)
Sīrēnum (genitive plural)
Sīrēnī (dative singular)
Sīrēnibus (dative plural)
Sīrēnem (accusative singular)
Sīrēnēs (accusative plural)
Sīrēne (ablative singular)
Sīrēnibus (ablative plural)
Sīrēn (singular vocative)
Sīrēnēs (plural vocative)

Asturian: serena, sirena

Catalan: sirena

English: Siren, siren

desctree

French: sirène
→ Persian: سیرن (siren)
→ Portuguese: sirene
→ Turkish: siren

→ Galician: sirena

German: Sirene

Irish: Síréana

Italian: sirena, serena

Old French: sereine

Old Galician-Portuguese: serẽa
Galician: serea
Portuguese: sereia

→ Portuguese: sirena

Romanian: sirenă

Spanish: sirena, serena, serea

(Greek mythology, mythology) a siren, one of the mythical birds with faces of virgins, that dwelt on the southern coast of Italy, where, with their sweet voices, they enticed ashore those who were sailing by, and then killed them.


Termagant

/ˈtɜɹməɡənt/

PIE word
 *tréyes
From Middle English Termagaunt (“fictitious deity represented as being worshipped by Muslims; any pagan god”), from Anglo-Norman Tervagant, Tervagaunt, Tervagan, and Old French Tervagant, Tervagan (possibly with the addition of Anglo-Norman -aunt, Old French -ant (suffix forming past participles of verbs, some of which were used as nouns); modern French Tervagant (historical)); further etymology uncertain, one common suggestion being that it is from Latin ter (“three times, thrice”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”)) + vagāns (“rambling, wandering”) (the present active participle of vagor (“to ramble, roam, wander”), from vagus (“rambling, roaming, wandering”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Hwogos) + -or (inflected form of -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). Medieval French chansons de geste named Termagant as one of three deities supposedly worshipped by Muslims, the others being Apollin and Mahound, and the name may allude to the wandering of the moon (the crescent moon being a common symbol of Islam) in the form of the mythological goddesses Selene in heaven, Diana on earth, and Proserpina in the underworld.

der

For nations tvvaine inhabite there and dvvell / Of ſundry faith, together in that tovvne [Jerusalem], / The leſſer part on Chriſt beleeued vvell, / On Termagant the more, and on Mahovvne.

1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The First Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC, stanza 84, page 18:

"Now, in faith," said Wamba, "I cannot see that the worshippers of Mahound and Termagaunt have so greatly the advantage over the people once chosen of Heaven."

1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter VII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 82:

(archaic, historical) A fictitious deity with a violent temperament who featured in medieval mystery plays, represented as being worshipped by Muslims or (less commonly) other non-Christians.

ترماغنت

fictitious deity with a violent temperament represented as being worshipped by Muslims or other non-Christians


Tellus

Borrowed from Latin tellus (“Earth, globe, world”), from Proto-Italic *telnos, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *telnos ~ *telnes-, from *telh₂- (“flat ground”), but reshaped after rūs. Otherwise, could derive from Etruscan 𐌕𐌖𐌋𐌀𐌓 (tular, “earth”).

bor+

"Greetings, oh guests from Tellus! I feel more like myself, now that I am again in my trappings and have my weapons at my side." He attached a timepiece to the wrist of each of the guests, with a bracelet of the blue metal. "Will you accompany me to fourth-meal or aren't you hungry?"

1958, Edward E[lmer] Smith, The Skylark of Space, revised edition, Pyramid Books, page 121:

(literary, now chiefly science fiction) The planet Earth.


Tonto

From Spanish tonto (“fool, idiot”), the Spanish name for the tribe, a calque of Western Apache kounʼnde (“wild rough people”). The fictional character (described as Comanche or Potawatomi) either from Potawatomi or named after Tonto Basin, Arizona.

cal

(fiction) The Native American sidekick of the Lone Ranger.


Robin

* (masculine given name): From Middle English Robin, from Old French, diminutive of Robert
* (feminine given name): From the bird, robin
* (given name): From Germanic

"We'll name her Robin," her mother said, and it was as though at her words something of that spring and the bird's song and his gay and friendly and impudent spirit entered into the child.

1949, Adela Rogers St. John, Never Again, and Other Stories, Doubleday, page 25:

A female given name from the Germanic languages, also associated with the bird robin.


Sol

(poetic, science fiction) The Sun, the star orbited by the Earth.


Superman

en-proper noun

Superman (countable and uncountable, plural Supermen)

DC Comics
Dragon Con
Jerry Siegel
Joe Shuster

From super- + man. The character, created by Jerry Siegel (1914–1996) and Joe Shuster (1914–1992), first appeared in DC Comics’ Action Comics #1 dated June 1938. The ice-cream flavor is named in reference to the red, yellow and blue of the superhero's costume.

[…] hoping against hope that she, with something like Superman's X-ray vision, might see through the photograph and behind it to the truth about Harris's architecture.

2000, Lisa Germany, Harwell Hamilton Harris, Univ of California Press, →ISBN, page vii:

But here's the big question: can this rip-snorting derivative lay 210 bhp down through its front wheels without forcing you to maintain Superman levels of grip on the steering wheel? Yes.

In fact, everyone was used to her Superman-like strength. She made her way through the circuit of machines Mr. Connors had marked for them and ended up at the squat station. As she was placing the weight on the bar, she noticed[…]

2010, Michael Sullivan, The Alliance, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 149:

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Superman.

A fictional comic-book superhero with superhuman strength and speed, X-ray vision, and the ability to fly.

سُوبَرْمَان

a fictional character with superhuman powers


Superman

Unadapted borrowing from English Superman. In Brazil, displaced Super-Homem as the official name in the 1990's.


spacy

en-adj

spacy (comparative spacier, superlative spaciest)

spacier (comparative)
spaciest (superlative)


Yahoo

Century Dictionary
Gulliver's Travels
Jonathan Swift
Yahoo (Gulliver's Travels)

Coined by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels. According to the Century Dictionary, "[a] made name, prob[ably] meant to suggest disgust".

I therefore often begged his Favour to let me go among the Herds of Yahoos in the Neighbourhood, to which he always very graciouſly conſented, being perfectly convinced, that the Hatred I bore thoſe Brutes, would never ſuffer me to be corrupted by them; […]

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Relates Several Particulars of the Yahoos. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), pages 271–272:

(fiction) One of a race of brutes, who look and act similar to men, inhabiting the same land as the civilized Houyhnhnms.


TS

ちなみに、なぜ日本で「TS」が一般的になったかというと、私が「yaysの性転換の館」開始時に、性同一障害に関するサイトから「TS」という用語を拝借してきて盛んに使っていたのも一因かもしれません。

2000, Yaesu, 八重洲メディアリサーチ [Yaesu Media Research], archived from the original on 2000-09-19:

By the way, as for why 'TS' became popular in Japan, it might be because when I started 'Yays Gender Transformation Mansion,' I borrowed the term 'TS' from websites related to gender dysphoria and used it extensively.

F氏「ＴＳの定義についての明記なんですが一体ＴＳの定義って・・・・？例の決まりあるあの一言でいいのかな？「このサイトは男性が女性、あるいは女性が男性に変化するようなことを主題として扱っているサイトです〜」

2000 May 28, Mr. F, “TS学入門 [Introduction to TS Studies]”, in TS-WEEK, archived from the original on 2006-06-06:

"Regarding specifying the definition of TS... what exactly is the definition of TS? Is it enough to have that one specified phrase like, 'This site deals with themes where men become women, or vice versa'?"

ＴＳＦという言葉が使われ始める前（１９９９，２０００年頃）には、Ｔｒａｎｓｓｅｘｕａｌの略語であるＴＳという言葉が、前述のＴＳＦの意味と同様の意味を表す言葉として用いられていました。この用法は、八重洲性転換の館（現：八重洲メディアリサーチ）の主催者である八重洲さんの提案によるものです。なお、今でも多くの人がＴＳＦと同じ意味でＴＳという言葉を使っています。

2015 June 4, F_TSF, “ＴＳＦとは [What is TSF?]”, in TSFのF [blog], archived from the original on 2015-08-10:

Before the term TSF came into use, the abbreviation "TS," standing for Transsexual, was used to convey a similar meaning around 1999-2000. This usage was proposed by Yaesu-san, the organizer of Yaesu Gender Transformation Mansion (now: Yaesu Media Research). Many people still use the term "TS" with the same meaning as TSF.

(fiction) genderswap; genderbend; sex change


TS

TSする (canonical)
tī-esu suru (romanization)
TSし (stem)
TSした (past)
TSし
ティーエスし
tīesu shi
TSする
ティーエスする
tīesu suru
TSすれ
ティーエスすれ
tīesu sure
TSせよ (imperative literary)
TSしろ (colloquial imperative)
ティーエスせよ (imperative literary)
ティーエスしろ (colloquial imperative)
tīesu seyo (imperative literary)
tīesu shiro (colloquial imperative)
TSされる (passive)
ティーエスされる (passive)
tīesu sareru (passive)
TSさせる (causative)
TSさす (causative)
ティーエスさせる (causative)
ティーエスさす (causative)
tīesu saseru (causative)
tīesu sasu (causative)
TSできる (potential)
ティーエスできる (potential)
tīesu dekiru (potential)
TSしよう (volitional)
ティーエスしよう (volitional)
tīesu shiyō (volitional)
TSしない (negative)
ティーエスしない (negative)
tīesu shinai (negative)
TSせず (continuative negative)
ティーエスせず (continuative negative)
tīesu sezu (continuative negative)
TSします (formal)
ティーエスします (formal)
tīesu shimasu (formal)
TSした (perfective)
ティーエスした (perfective)
tīesu shita (perfective)
TSして (conjunctive)
ティーエスして (conjunctive)
tīesu shite (conjunctive)
TSすれば (conditional hypothetical)
ティーエスすれば (conditional hypothetical)
tīesu sureba (conditional hypothetical)

美少女にTSしたい。

(fiction) to undergo a genderswap, genderbend, or sex change


Vulcano

(astronomy, historical) Vulcan (planet previously theorised to exist in orbit between Mercury and the Sun)

Vulcano (a small volcanic island north of Sicily)


hellish

hellish (comparative more hellish, superlative most hellish)

more hellish (comparative)
most hellish (superlative)

Fauſtus is gone, regard his helliſh fall, / Whoſe fiendful fortune may exhort the wiſe, / Onely to wonder at vnlawful things, […]

1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC, signature [F3], recto:

I woke up from a hellish noise coming from the house next door.

(hyperbolic) causing great pain, discomfort or distress


shuck

(European folklore) A supernatural and generally malevolent black dog in English folklore.


mastermind

→ German: Mastermind

At long intervals some master-minds appeared, looking upon each advance in practical science as a retro-gradation in the true utility.

1840, Edgar Allan Poe, The Colloquy of Monos and Una:

His first outside hire wasn't an electronics whiz or a mechanical mastermind, but a young industrial designer, a creature hitherto unknown at DEKA.

2003, Steve Kemper, chapter 2, in Code Name Ginger: the Story Behind Segway and Dean Kamen's Quest to Invent a New World, →ISBN, page 34:

A person with an extraordinary intellect or skill that is markedly superior to his or her peers.


PK

en-noun

PK (countable and uncountable, plural PKs)

1906, Association of Professors and Researchers in Religious Education, Religious Education
The traditional community image of the pk (preacher's kid) and the social control function of gossip in relation to the minister's wife underline the interlocking nature […]

I was a typical PK (preacher's kid), full of mischief, full of life and insatiable curiosity.

1998, Dr. H. Beecher Hicks, Jr., My Soul's Been Anchored: A Preacher's Heritage in the Faith:

And after all, I was a PK (preacher's kid) and no one wanted to play with a PK in any case! It might be catching, like the measles!

2005, Warren L. Braun, Was It a Miracle?:

(US) Initialism of preacher's kid, pastor's kid or priest's kid: the child of a clergyman and/or clergywoman, especially Protestant.

preacher's kid

(parapsychology) Initialism of psychokinesis.

(ice hockey) Initialism of penalty kill(ing).

(biochemistry) Initialism of protein kinase.


MAC

MAC (countable and uncountable, plural MACs)

(science fiction) Initialism of magnetic accelerator cannon.


Judas

From Middle English Iudas, from Latin Iudas, from Ancient Greek Ἰούδας (Ioúdas), from Hebrew יְהוּדָה (y'hudá). Doublet of Judah.

(biblical) One of the twelve original Apostles of Jesus, known for his role in Jesus' betrayal into the hands of Roman authorities.

[…] you should as well reject those Deuterocanonici of the new testament as the epistle to the Hebrewes, Judas epistle and the Apocalyps […]

1615, John Ainsworth, The Trying Out of the Truth […] , page 122:

The Catholique (or General) Epistle of the Apostle JUDAS

1675, Francis Roberts, Clavis Bibliorum: The Key of the Bible […] , page 573:

St. Peter writes against those that had the doctrine of Balaam, 2 Pet. ii. 15, 16. St. Judas did the same, Jud. v. 11.

1778, John James Bachmair, The Revelation of St. John Historically Explained […] , page 11:

(biblical, archaic) Alternative form of Jude, the penultimate book of the Bible and its ascribed author, Jude the Apostle.


Judas

The door was slammed in his face, and the Judas clicked shut, leaving him alone in the draughty street, now smelling of night and approaching snow.

1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 706:

At the top of the stairs was a heavy door with a peephole. Flick banged on it and stood where her face could be seen through the judas.

2001, Ken Follett, Jackdaws, Dutton, →ISBN, page 359:

Short for Judas-hole (“small hole for spying”).


middle-earth

(fiction) Alternative letter-case form of Middle-earth: the setting of the Lord of the Rings mythos.


Martial

From Latin Martialis (“Roman cognomen”), from martiālis (“belonging or dedicated to the Mars, the Roman god of war, or to war”), from Mārs (“the god Mars; the planet Mars”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship from nouns).

Saint Martial was the first bishop of Limoges, circa 250

A male given name from Latin, narrowly applied to certain historic persons (but some of its foreign cognates are modern given names).

An Anglicized cognomen or given name of the Roman poet Marcus Valerius Martialis, born in Spain in the first century AD and noted for his epigrams.


Martial

For, having found out by a careful series of observations, the parts of Mars' orbit where the planet entered upon its various seasons, he [William Herschel] noted that, soon after mid-winter of the northern hemisphere, the northern white spot attained its greatest dimensions, while the southern was reduced to a tiny oval of light; whereas half a Martial year later, the southern spot was at its largest, and the northern a mere speck when compared with its winter appearance.

1869 February 6, “The Planet of War”, in E[neas] S[weetland] Dallas, editor, Once a Week, volume III, number 58 (New Series), London: Bradbury, Evans, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 74, column 1:

(astronomy, obsolete) Alternative letter-case form of martial (“of or relating to the planet Mars”)


Martial

The Martials, if there be Martials in any sense in which there are terrestrials on our own planet, may have no eyes at all; their whole civilisation, if they have say, may depend on senses of which we have absolutely no trace, […]

1892, The Spectator: A Weekly Review of Politics, Literature, Theology, and Art, volume LXIX, London: F. C. Westley, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 218, column 2:

(chiefly science fiction, obsolete) Alternative letter-case form of martial (“inhabitant of the planet Mars; Martian”)


unobtainium

unobtainium (countable and uncountable, plural unobtainiums)

From unobtain(able) + -ium (suffix typical of names of atomic elements), modelled after uranium and titanium.

suffix

Coordinate term: adamantium

Thus the invention of high temperature fuels will enable us to consider cores which are radiation cooled; such cores would be surrounded by large tanks (cooled by water) which in turn would be penetrated by beam holes. The beam holes themselves would probably have to be made of "unobtanium". (This "unobtanium" is a word coined at Atomics International to describe the material needed to make reactor projects feasible.) In between the radiation cooled reactors and the water cooled reactors is a regime suitable for liquid metal (including boiling liquid) cooled reactors. Once again "unobtanium" is needed.

1962, Charles N. Kelber, “Research Reactors”, in Earl W. Phelan, editor, Current Trends in Nuclear Power: A Symposium Sponsored by the University of Arizona in Cooperation with Argonne National Laboratory: Tucson, Arizona, February 26 – March 12, 1962, Argonne, Ill.: Argonne National Laboratory, →OCLC, page 17, column 2:

In order to illustrate some of the features of data processing under ideal conditions, a set of simulated data was generated and is presented in the last four columns of Table II. The hypothetical material is called Unobtainium.

[1978 September, Lynn C. Rogers, Ahid D. Nashif, “Computerized Processing and Empirical Processing of Viscoelastic Material Property Data and Preliminary Constrained Layer Damping Treatment Design”, in The Shock and Vibration Bulletin (Bulletin; 48, part 2 (Isolation and Damping, Impact, Blast)), Washington, D.C.: The Shock and Vibration Information Center, Naval Research Laboratory, →OCLC, page 26, column 2:

The names of materials presently used in aerospace applications are familiar: magnesium, aluminum, titanium, and so on. Propulsion scientists call the ideal material for turbine engines "Unobtainium," because it does not exist.

As early as 1969, during the initial Phase A studies, Lockheed had taken the initiative in proposing a two-stage fully-reusable design with both stages built of aluminum and using silica tiles for thermal protection. [...] Though that company indeed was in the forefront in developing such tiles, they were items for laboratory research. A design that specified their use had no more intrinsic credibility than one that proposed to use the miracle metals Unobtanium and Wishalloy.

1999, T[homas] A. Heppenheimer, “A Shuttle to Fit the Budget”, in The Space Shuttle Decision: NASA’s Search for a Reusable Space Vehicle (The NASA History Series; NASA SP-4221), Washington, D.C.: Office of Policy and Plans, NASA History Office, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, →OCLC, page 331:

This is not a Tom Tomorrow Bike, made of NASA unobtainiums and employing warp drives that have yet to be invented. It could be built as soon as the production technology is put on the line and powered-up, because all the vehicle technology is proven, off-the-shelf stuff.

2002 February, Kevin Cameron, “Supercharged: It’s Good to B-King”, in Cycle World, volume 41, number 2, New York, N.Y.: Hachette Filipacchi Magazines, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 38, column 2:

A fictional material or component which, if it existed, would enable one to easily solve a hard problem.

難得素

fictional component or material which would enable one to easily solve a hard problem


Essex girl

(British, derogatory) A stereotype of a young woman from Essex, characterized as vacuous, promiscuous, and materialistic.


martial

From Middle English martial, marcial, mercial, mercialle (“relating to war, warlike; military; for use in fighting or warfare; brave, hardy; combative, fierce; ruthless, vicious; domineering, overbearing”), from Middle French martial (modern French martial (“martial”)), or directly from its etymon Latin mārtiālis (“of or pertaining to Mars, the Roman god of war”), from Mārtius (“of or pertaining to Mars”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship). The English word is cognate with Italian marziale (“martial”), Portuguese marcial (“martial”), Spanish marcial (“martial”).

der

The Martials, if there be Martials in any sense in which there are terrestrials on our own planet, may have no eyes at all; their whole civilisation, if they have say, may depend on senses of which we have absolutely no trace, [...]

(chiefly science fiction, obsolete) Synonym of Martian (“inhabitant of the planet Mars”)


H

Coordinate term: M (“Muslim”)

(India, Hinduism, Internet slang) Abbreviation of Hindu; mostly used by Indian Muslim netizens primarily towards Hindutva supporters.


Oliver Twist

en-adj

Oliver Twist (comparative more Oliver Twist, superlative most Oliver Twist)

more Oliver Twist (comparative)
most Oliver Twist (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Oliver Twist.wav

From the name of the main character in the eponymous novel by Charles Dickens.

Cockney rhyming slang
Cockney rhyming slang


lamia

From Latin lamia, from Ancient Greek Λάμια (Lámia).

Apollonius […] by some probable conjectures, found her out to be a serpent, a lamia, and that all her furniture was like Tantalus' gold described by Homer, no substance, but mere illusions.

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition III, section 2, member 1, subsection i:

(Greek mythology) A monster preying upon human beings, who sucked the blood of children, often described as having the head and breasts of a woman and the lower half of a serpent.


lamia

la-noun

lamia f (genitive lamiae); first declension

lamiae (genitive)
lamia (nominative singular)
lamiae (nominative plural)
lamiae (genitive singular)
lamiārum (genitive plural)
lamiae (dative singular)
lamiīs (dative plural)
lamiam (accusative singular)
lamiās (accusative plural)
lamiā (ablative singular)
lamiīs (ablative plural)
lamia (singular vocative)
lamiae (plural vocative)

desc

→ Translingual: lamia (used in names of fish)

→ English: lamia (learned)

→ Galician: lamia (learned)

→ Italian: lamia (learned)

From Ancient Greek λάμια (lámia), Λάμια (Lámia).


Q

In comparing Q 10:10–11 and Mark 6:11, there is no reliable way to determine which exact form of the saying is more primitive, the third person account of Mark or the direct speech recorded in Q.

2006, Brian Han Gregg, The Historical Jesus and the Final Judgment Sayings in Q, Mohr Siebeck, →ISBN, page 103:

(theology, Christianity) The hypothetical common source (logion collection) of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (from German Quelle (“source”)); all the non-Marcan shared material in those gospels (not always considered a single document)


DD

NB - Pronunciation of Norwegian Bokmål «DD».ogg

NB - Pronunciation of Norwegian Bokmål «Donald Duck».ogg

First initials of the name Donald Duck (“Donald Duck”).

Donald Duck
Donald Duck#Norwegian_Bokmål


metamorphose

en-verb

metamorphose (third-person singular simple present metamorphoses, present participle metamorphosing, simple past and past participle metamorphosed)

metamorphoses (present singular third-person)
metamorphosing (participle present)
metamorphosed (participle past)
metamorphosed (past)

/ˌmɛtəˈmɔːˌfəʊz/

/ˌmɛtəˈmɔɹˌfoʊz/

/ˌmɛtəˈmɔɹˌfoʊs/

From French métamorphoser, from Old French metamorphose, from Latin metamorphōsis; see metamorphosis.

(of a moth or insect, intransitive) To undergo metamorphosis.


Bisounours

Blend of bisou (“kiss”) + nounours (“teddy bear”).


rota

rote (kind of guitar, the notes of which were produced by a small wheel or wheel-like arrangement; an instrument similar to the hurdy-gurdy)


rota

(historical, military) rota (infantry or cavalry unit in Poland in the 16th–17th c.)

(historical, military) rota (row of soldiers in formation in Poland in the 18th c.)


rota

(firefighting) group of rescuers or firefighters consisting of two people


rota

rota (nominative singular)
roty (nominative plural)
roty (genitive singular)
rot (genitive plural)
rocie (dative singular)
rotom (dative plural)
rotę (accusative singular)
roty (accusative plural)
rotą (instrumental singular)
rotami (instrumental plural)
rocie (locative singular)
rotach (locative plural)
roto (singular vocative)
roty (plural vocative)

(law, Roman Catholicism) tribunal of appeal functioning under the Roman Curia


mogwai

From Cantonese 魔怪 (mo1 gwaai3), 魔鬼 (mo1 gwai2).

(Chinese mythology) A kind of demon held to be harmful to humans.


zombify

en-verb

zombify (third-person singular simple present zombifies, present participle zombifying, simple past and past participle zombified)

zombifies (present singular third-person)
zombifying (participle present)
zombified (participle past)
zombified (past)

She managed to flee the sorcerer who had attempted to zombify her and enjoyed relative prosperity in Jamaica.

1994, A History of Literature in the Caribbean: Hispanic and Francophone Regions, Arnold, et al:

(transitive, fiction) To turn into a zombie (a member of the living dead or undead).


Japanimation

en-noun

Japanimation (countable and uncountable, plural Japanimations)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Japanimation.wav

(anime, dated) Synonym of anime (“Japanese animated cartoons”).


pulp

en-adj

pulp (comparative more pulp, superlative most pulp)

more pulp (comparative)
most pulp (superlative)

From Middle English pulpe, from Latin pulpa.

The Nightwing annual had what felt like a very 'pulp-ish' plot, and the Superman annual was great, with a very pulp plot and a^([sic]) incredible Doc Savage tribute cover.

1997 July 22, Eric Gimlin, “Re: Annual theme '98”, in rec.arts.comics.dc.universe (Usenet), message-ID <33D504B4.105@swbell.net>:

Rather than Asimov I might suggest Stanley Weinbaum (since he died young and early in his career, he is far more "pulp" than Asimov - and remarkably readable - there is a LANCER collection of some of his short stories).

2003 January 3, Mark Wheatley, “Re: PULP 2003 READING”, in alt.pulp (Usenet), message-ID <3E159FC7.70409@insightstudiosgroup.com>:

(fiction) Of or pertaining to pulp magazines; in the style of a pulp magazine or the material printed within such a publication.


AMC

Air Mobility Command
w:Air Mobility Command

(US military) Initialism of Air Mobility Command.


héroe

es-noun

héroe m (plural héroes, feminine heroína, feminine plural heroínas)

héroes (plural)
heroína (feminine)
heroínas (feminine plural)

Borrowed from Latin hērōem, from Ancient Greek ἥρως (hḗrōs).


uplift

en-verb

uplift (third-person singular simple present uplifts, present participle uplifting, simple past and past participle uplifted)

uplifts (present singular third-person)
uplifting (participle present)
uplifted (participle past)
uplifted (past)

извисявам

to raise something or someone to a higher level

—genetically uplifted the ancestors of the saurs, and culturally—at least—uplifted the kraken. We are used to thinking of these species as wise and ancient, which indeed they are, but the octopods are their 'Elder Race.'

2003, Ken MacLeod, Engine City, New York, N.Y.: Tor, →ISBN, page 79:

To raise something or someone to a higher physical, social, moral, intellectual, spiritual or emotional level.

(science fiction) To raise (a nonsentient species) into sentience.


secret admirer

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-secret admirer.wav

I received a Valentine's card from my secret admirer.

One who admires another romantically but purposely remains anonymous to the extent that the subject of the admiration is unaware of the admirer's identity.


hypnosis

en-noun

hypnosis (countable and uncountable, plural hypnoses)

Derived from hypn(otic) + -osis (“state”, “condition”, nominal derivational suffix).

suffix

A trancelike state, artificially induced, in which a person has a heightened suggestibility, and in which suppressed memories may be experienced.


ARV

alien reproduction vehicle
alien reproduction vehicle#English

(ufology) Initialism of alien reproduction vehicle.


BW

Pokémon Black and White
w:Pokémon Black and White

(fandom slang) Initialism of Pokémon Black and White.


klingon

klingon (nominative singular)
klingonit (nominative plural)
klingon (accusative nominative singular)
klingonit (accusative nominative plural)
klingonin (accusative genitive singular)
klingonit (accusative genitive plural)
klingonin (genitive singular)
klingonien (genitive plural)
klingonia (partitive singular)
klingoneja (partitive plural)
klingonissa (inessive singular)
klingoneissa (inessive plural)
klingonista (elative singular)
klingoneista (elative plural)
klingoniin (illative singular)
klingoneihin (illative plural)
klingonilla (adessive singular)
klingoneilla (adessive plural)
klingonilta (ablative singular)
klingoneilta (ablative plural)
klingonille (allative singular)
klingoneille (allative plural)
klingonina (essive singular)
klingoneina (essive plural)
klingoniksi (singular translative)
klingoneiksi (plural translative)
klingonitta (abessive singular)
klingoneitta (abessive plural)
klingonein (instructive plural)
See the possessive forms below. (comitative)
klingonini (nominative singular)
klingonini (nominative plural)
klingonini (accusative nominative singular)
klingonini (accusative nominative plural)
klingonini (accusative genitive singular)
klingonini (accusative genitive plural)
klingonini (genitive singular)
klingonieni (genitive plural)
klingoniani (partitive singular)
klingonejani (partitive plural)
klingonissani (inessive singular)
klingoneissani (inessive plural)
klingonistani (elative singular)
klingoneistani (elative plural)
klingoniini (illative singular)
klingoneihini (illative plural)
klingonillani (adessive singular)
klingoneillani (adessive plural)
klingoniltani (ablative singular)
klingoneiltani (ablative plural)
klingonilleni (allative singular)
klingoneilleni (allative plural)
klingoninani (essive singular)
klingoneinani (essive plural)
klingonikseni (singular translative)
klingoneikseni (plural translative)
klingonittani (abessive singular)
klingoneittani (abessive plural)
klingoneineni (comitative plural)
klingonisi (nominative singular)
klingonisi (nominative plural)
klingonisi (accusative nominative singular)
klingonisi (accusative nominative plural)
klingonisi (accusative genitive singular)
klingonisi (accusative genitive plural)
klingonisi (genitive singular)
klingoniesi (genitive plural)
klingoniasi (partitive singular)
klingonejasi (partitive plural)
klingonissasi (inessive singular)
klingoneissasi (inessive plural)
klingonistasi (elative singular)
klingoneistasi (elative plural)
klingoniisi (illative singular)
klingoneihisi (illative plural)
klingonillasi (adessive singular)
klingoneillasi (adessive plural)
klingoniltasi (ablative singular)
klingoneiltasi (ablative plural)
klingonillesi (allative singular)
klingoneillesi (allative plural)
klingoninasi (essive singular)
klingoneinasi (essive plural)
klingoniksesi (singular translative)
klingoneiksesi (plural translative)
klingonittasi (abessive singular)
klingoneittasi (abessive plural)
klingoneinesi (comitative plural)
klingonimme (nominative singular)
klingonimme (nominative plural)
klingonimme (accusative nominative singular)
klingonimme (accusative nominative plural)
klingonimme (accusative genitive singular)
klingonimme (accusative genitive plural)
klingonimme (genitive singular)
klingoniemme (genitive plural)
klingoniamme (partitive singular)
klingonejamme (partitive plural)
klingonissamme (inessive singular)
klingoneissamme (inessive plural)
klingonistamme (elative singular)
klingoneistamme (elative plural)
klingoniimme (illative singular)
klingoneihimme (illative plural)
klingonillamme (adessive singular)
klingoneillamme (adessive plural)
klingoniltamme (ablative singular)
klingoneiltamme (ablative plural)
klingonillemme (allative singular)
klingoneillemme (allative plural)
klingoninamme (essive singular)
klingoneinamme (essive plural)
klingoniksemme (singular translative)
klingoneiksemme (plural translative)
klingonittamme (abessive singular)
klingoneittamme (abessive plural)
klingoneinemme (comitative plural)
klingoninne (nominative singular)
klingoninne (nominative plural)
klingoninne (accusative nominative singular)
klingoninne (accusative nominative plural)
klingoninne (accusative genitive singular)
klingoninne (accusative genitive plural)
klingoninne (genitive singular)
klingonienne (genitive plural)
klingonianne (partitive singular)
klingonejanne (partitive plural)
klingonissanne (inessive singular)
klingoneissanne (inessive plural)
klingonistanne (elative singular)
klingoneistanne (elative plural)
klingoniinne (illative singular)
klingoneihinne (illative plural)
klingonillanne (adessive singular)
klingoneillanne (adessive plural)
klingoniltanne (ablative singular)
klingoneiltanne (ablative plural)
klingonillenne (allative singular)
klingoneillenne (allative plural)
klingoninanne (essive singular)
klingoneinanne (essive plural)
klingoniksenne (singular translative)
klingoneiksenne (plural translative)
klingonittanne (abessive singular)
klingoneittanne (abessive plural)
klingoneinenne (comitative plural)
klingoninsa (nominative singular)
klingoninsa (nominative plural)
klingoninsa (accusative nominative singular)
klingoninsa (accusative nominative plural)
klingoninsa (accusative genitive singular)
klingoninsa (accusative genitive plural)
klingoninsa (genitive singular)
klingoniensa (genitive plural)
klingoniaan (partitive singular)
klingoniansa (partitive singular)
klingonejaan (partitive plural)
klingonejansa (partitive plural)
klingonissaan (inessive singular)
klingonissansa (inessive singular)
klingoneissaan (inessive plural)
klingoneissansa (inessive plural)
klingonistaan (elative singular)
klingonistansa (elative singular)
klingoneistaan (elative plural)
klingoneistansa (elative plural)
klingoniinsa (illative singular)
klingoneihinsa (illative plural)
klingonillaan (adessive singular)
klingonillansa (adessive singular)
klingoneillaan (adessive plural)
klingoneillansa (adessive plural)
klingoniltaan (ablative singular)
klingoniltansa (ablative singular)
klingoneiltaan (ablative plural)
klingoneiltansa (ablative plural)
klingonilleen (allative singular)
klingonillensa (allative singular)
klingoneilleen (allative plural)
klingoneillensa (allative plural)
klingoninaan (essive singular)
klingoninansa (essive singular)
klingoneinaan (essive plural)
klingoneinansa (essive plural)
klingonikseen (singular translative)
klingoniksensa (singular translative)
klingoneikseen (plural translative)
klingoneiksensa (plural translative)
klingonittaan (abessive singular)
klingonittansa (abessive singular)
klingoneittaan (abessive plural)
klingoneittansa (abessive plural)
klingoneineen (comitative plural)
klingoneinensa (comitative plural)

Klingon, Klingonese (fictional language)

A Klingon (member of a fictional alien race)


klingon

fr-adj

klingon (feminine klingonne, masculine plural klingons, feminine plural klingonnes)

klingonne (feminine)
klingons (masculine plural)
klingonnes (feminine plural)


klingon

Klingon (artificial language from the Star Trek franchise)


klingon

(science fiction) Klingon (a member of the Klingon species in Star Trek)

(science fiction) Klingon (artificial language from the Star Trek franchise)


klingon

klingon (indefinite nominative singular)
klingons (genitive indefinite singular)
klingonen (definite nominative singular)
klingonens (definite genitive singular)
klingoner (indefinite nominative plural)
klingoners (genitive indefinite plural)
klingonerna (definite nominative plural)
klingonernas (definite genitive plural)


Neptunian

From Latin Neptūnius (“of or pertaining to the Roman god Neptune”), from Neptūnus (“the Roman god Neptune”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nebʰ- (“to become damp, cloudy”)) + -ius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns); analysable as Neptune + -ian. The English word is cognate with French neptunien (“pertaining to the Roman god Neptune, pertaining to the sea, pertaining to Neptunism, Neptunian; proponent of Neptunism, Neptunist”), German Neptunier (“proponent of Neptunism, Neptunist”).

cog

Near-synonym: Poseidonian

The Tomb disburd'ning, whence the Ghoſt aroſe / Of great Achilles; Such when Thracian Foes / (The Prelude of thy Fates, Troy!) he o'rethrew, / And the white hair'd Neptunian Cycnus [i.e., Neptune's son] ſlew.

1679, Lucius Annaeus Seneca [i.e., Seneca the Younger], translated by Edward Sherburne, Troades: Or The Royal Captives. A Tragedy, Written Originally in Latin, […], London: Printed by Anne Godbid, and John Playford, for Samuel Carr, […], →OCLC, act II, scene i, page 21:

(Roman mythology) Of or pertaining to Neptune, the Roman god of fresh water and the sea, the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon.


Neptunian

We are not ourselves, bigotted Neptunians or Vulcanians: we perceive difficulties whichever theory be adopted: and provided the earth be but stable under us, we are not anxiously jealous for the dignity of the trident-wielding power, or for the honour of the hammer-working deity.

1807 October, “View of the Mineralogy, Agriculture, Manufactures, and Fisheries, of the Island of Arran, […] by the Rev. James Headrick. pp. 395. Price 10s. 6d. Constable and Co. Edinburgh: Murray, London, 1807. [book review]”, in The Literary Panorama. Being a Review of Books, Magazine of Varieties, and Annual Register, volume III, London: Printed by Cox, Son, and Baylis, […], [f]or C[harles] Taylor, […], published March 1808, →OCLC, column 57:

Its [obsidian's] origin is warmly contested between the Neptunians and Plutonians, many of the latter denominating it a vitreous lava.

1813, John Mason Good, Olinthus Gregory, Newton Bosworth, “OBSIDIAN”, in Pantologia. A New Cyclopædia, Comprehending a Complete Series of Essays, Treatises, and Systems, Alphabetically Arranged; […], volumes VIII (MID–OZO), London: Printed for G. Kearsley; [et al.], →OCLC, column 1:

As to the two theories, neither will suffice alone. The neptunian is utterly inadequate to explain the phenomena of basalt; nor can a vulcanist account for the appearance of an hydrophane.—We need both explanations. Those geologists who have travelled in the north of Europe, are generally neptunians; those who have made their observations in the south of the same regions, are generally vulcanists.

1817 April, “Art. IV.—An Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology, being an Introduction to the Study of Those Sciences, […] By Parker Cleaveland, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and Lecturer in Chymistry and Mineralogy in Bowdoin College, &c. &c. Boston, 1816. Large 8vo. pp. 668.”, in The Analectic Magazine, volume IX, Philadelphia, Pa.: Published by Moses Thomas, →OCLC, pages 312–313:

(geology, historical) A proponent of Neptunism.


Neptunian

From Neptune (“eighth planet in the solar system”) + -ian.

suffix

I need not say that from Neptune the earth is completely invisible, as well as Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter. Saturn is a little star which departs from the sun up to 18°. For the Neptunians the solar system appears to be composed of the sun, Saturn, Uranus, their own world, and the planet which doubtless gravitates beyond Neptune.

1894, Camille Flammarion, “The Planet Neptune and the Frontiers of the Solar Domain”, in J[ohn] Ellard Gore, transl., Popular Astronomy: A General Description of the Heavens: … Translated from the French with the Author’s Sanction, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 470:

We learn the energy quotient of a bogus Earthling, note how much it varies from that of a genuine one, and then proceed to carefully single out every Neptunian. It will take time, no doubt, but not perhaps as long as we think, as the percentage of Neptunians to Earthlings is small.

1952, John Russell Fearn, chapter 12, in Quorne Returns (The Golden Amazon Saga; book 6), [Rockville, Md.]: Wildside Press, published 2013, →ISBN, page 102:

Pretend that you are a visitor to Earth from the planet Neptune. When you return home you will want to describe Earthlings to your fellow Neptunians. [...] Good luck! Or as Neptunians say, "Urk bliff!"

2001, Justin McCory Martin, “March”, in Marvelous Month-by-month Writing Prompts: 250 Knock-their-socks-off Writing Prompts to Inspire Super Writing All Year Long!, New York, N.Y.: Scholastic Professional Books, →ISBN, page 43:

Since Neptune had been the chosen planet to help Earth work through its current series of crises, Neptunians were key beings at this time. Each visit to Earth was a specific mission for those who were chosen to travel there.

2001 April 12, Patricia Ann Pich, “Neptune”, in Out of this World: A Fairy Tale for Children of All Ages, [Bloomington, Ind.]: 1stBooks, →ISBN, pages 5–6:

(chiefly science fiction) An (imaginary) inhabitant of the planet Neptune.


Jovian

en-adj

Jovian (comparative more Jovian, superlative most Jovian)

more Jovian (comparative)
most Jovian (superlative)

From Latin Iovis, genitive of Iuppiter, analysable as Jove + -ian.

(astronomy) Pertaining to the planet Jupiter.

Near-synonym: Zeusian

He did not admit of equals. But as a patron he was superb. With his Jovian air, his colossal condescension, his amused smile, his general suggestion of the god descending to the mortal, he could be quite overpowering in his amiability.

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

(Roman mythology) Pertaining to the Roman god Jove or Jupiter (the counterpart of the Greek god Zeus); Jove-like; befitting Jupiter.


Jovian

(chiefly science fiction) An imaginary inhabitant of the planet Jupiter.


annum

From Latin per annum (“yearly”), from annus (“year”).

(uncommon, science fiction) A "year" determined by the revolution of an extraterrestrial planet.


DP

en-noun

DP (countable and uncountable, plural DPs)

displaced person
displaced person#English

dynamic programming
dynamic programming#English

(computer science) Initialism of dynamic programming.


DP

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl
w:Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

(fandom slang) Initialism of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.


Initialism of one true threesome coined by analogy with OTP (“one true pairing”).

And you don't have to limit your favorite ship to two characters — if there's a third involved, they can be your OT3.

2015, Sam Maggs, The Fangirl's Guide to the Universe: A Handbook for Girl Geeks, page 31:

For some, each member of the triangle cares deeply for the other two, like Elena/Damon/Stefan and Scott/Allison/Isaac—both the most popular OT3s in their respective fandoms.

2017, Charity A. Fowler, "Negotiating Desire: Resisting, Reimagining and Reinscribing Normalized Sexuality and Gender in Fan Fiction", dissertation submitted to Virginia Commonwealth University, page 286

Not only are male characters often presented as unapologetically bisexual (or, in some sense, post-sexual), but OT3 partnerships are not uncommon.

2018, Lucy Neville, Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys: Women and Gay Male Pornography and Erotica, page 237:

(fandom slang) One true threesome; a polyamorous ship involving three characters that is a personal favorite of a fan.


ESP

ESP (countable and uncountable, plural ESPs)

We don't know how they decide if they should keep a name, because Bennie and Scotty don't actually talk. But they agree on everything, maybe through ESP.

2010, Jennifer Egan, “Ask Me if I Care”, in A Visit from the Goon Squad:

Rubio accused Christie of having to be dragged back to New Jersey under pressure to handle the storm. Christie retorted, “Is that one of the skills you get as a United States senator? ESP?”

2016 February 6, Kyle Cheney, “11 most explosive moments of the GOP debate”, in Politico:

extrasensory perception
extrasensory perception#English

(parapsychology) Abbreviation of extrasensory perception.

Near-synonym: wallhack

(by extension, video games) A cheat program that provides extra information that is not attainable during regular gameplay, such as player positions, equipment status, etc.

Environmental Sample Processor
w:Environmental Sample Processor

(ecology) Initialism of Environmental Sample Processor.

email service provider
w:mailbox provider

(Internet) Initialism of email service provider.


ESP

超感覚的知覚 超感覚的知覚#Japanese

Synonym of 超感覚的知覚 (chōkankakuteki chikaku, “extrasensory perception”); ESP


magic realism

magic realism (usually uncountable, plural magic realisms)

Calque of German Magischer Realismus, first referring to the anti-expressionist artistic movement New Objectivity (1925), later applied to literature, especially in Latin America where it is known as realismo mágico.

Perhaps the best news to come out of the nominations was the brightened box-office prospects for such films as Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild, a dazzling piece of magic realism pieced together from just $1.8m, some rusty bathtubs and whatever Louisiana bric-a-brac its youthful collective of film-makers could lay their hands on; […]

2013 January 11, Tom Shone, “Oscar nominations pull a surprise by showing some taste – but will it last?”, in The Guardian:

A literary style or genre that combines naturalistic details and narrative with surreal or dreamlike elements.


jinx

From jynx in the transferred sense “a charm or spell”.