fan fiction

en-noun

fan fiction (countable and uncountable, plural fan fictions)

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

Etymology tree
English fanatic
English fancyinflu.
English fan
English fiction
English fan fiction
From fan + fiction.

etymon

In the latest issue of Astounding, our old pal and brother-fan, Milt Rothman makes his professional debut under the pen name: Lee Gregor. And Milt is to be congratulated on the story.... it is definitely pro and not fan fiction.

1939 August 19, Arthur Wilson "Bob" Tucker, Le Zombie, number 11, page 2:

I also want to put in my two-cents-worth on the subject of fan fiction. There has been a strong trend away from fiction in fanzines of late: SPACEWARP stopped using fan fiction shortly before the end; ORB followed suit; WYLIE STAR will switch; most of the new mags are starting out with non-fiction plans. I think fiction is just as important (if not more so) in fmz as articles. Where else will embryo pro-authors get their start?

1950 December, R. J. Banks, “Slurp!”, in Quandry 5, number 5, archived from the original on 2013-07-20, pages 8–9:

Laura, whose ambition is to become a professional writer, has been writing STAR TREK fiction since her early teens, and was recently nominated for a Hugo Award for fan fiction for her series ‘Federation and Empire’.

1975, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Sondra Marshak, Joan Winston, Star Trek Lives!, page 23:

Chris Carter may bar X-Filers Mulder and Scully forever from consummating their deep bond—but it's a common fantasy in the archives of fan fiction, where familiar TV and movie characters populate digital poems, scripts, short stories—even full-length novels—that span hundreds of websites and Usenet discussion groups. Readership figures are elusive, but fanfic's America Online index page has collected a half million hits in the past year.

1997 September 26, Entertainment Weekly, page 84:

The acres of Harry Potter fan fiction have allowed its Millennial audience to rewrite the stories to fit their own values, easing their discomfort (while still luxuriating in the nostalgic setting of the British private-school system, an institution designed to perpetuate elitism).

2020 July 6, Helen Lewis, “How J. K. Rowling Became Voldemort”, in The Atlantic:

Fan fiction writers are just one group now staging revolts against A.I. systems as a fever over the technology has gripped Silicon Valley and the world.

2023 July 15, Sheera Frenkel, Stuart A. Thompson, “‘Not for Machines to Harvest’: Data Revolts Break Out Against A.I.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(uncountable) Fiction, typically amateur, created by fans, incorporating the characters and concepts of a commercial media property, typically without permission from the author or owner.

This can be, as you note below, quite fun and entertaining, but I do think that it is very easy for people to lose track of the fact that all of these "speculations" are just fan fictions that have little to do with what Tolkien actually wrote.

1993 August 2, James Alexander Chokey, “Re: Ents, trees, and all that”, in rec.arts.books.tolkien (Usenet), message-ID <1993Aug2.035026.1049@leland.Stanford.EDU>:

An otherwise strong site is marred by some trashy material. Skip the many bad ER fan fictions here and take the rumors section with a huge grain of salt.

1998, Sam Keenleyside, “Nothing But Net”, in Bedside Manners: George Clooney and ER, →ISBN, page 109:

fan fiction - Sometimes improperly used to mean fan science fiction, that is, ordinary fantasy published in a fan magazine. Properly, the term means fiction about fans, or something about pros, and occasionally bringing in some famous characters stf stories. It may refer to real fans by name (Tucker nudged Brackney, who was nursing a "black eye"), or may be about types, especially Joe Fann.

1944, John Bristol Speer, Fancyclopedia, Fan fiction:

Triode specialized in humorous ‘fan fiction’—stories written about actual personalities in the SF field—and dates from the period in which science fiction fans did not take themselves quite so seriously as nowadays, and those who made religion from an enthusiasm were generally mocked for it.

1984, Michael Moorcock, “Introduction”, in Elric at the End of Time, page 11:

(dated, fandom slang, uncountable) Fiction about fans and fandom created by members of fandom.


terraform

en-verb

terraform (third-person singular simple present terraforms, present participle terraforming, simple past and past participle terraformed)

terraforms (present singular third-person)
terraforming (participle present)
terraformed (participle past)
terraformed (past)

/ˈtɛɹəfɔː(ɹ)m/

From Terra (“planet Earth”) + -form (“having the form of”). Coined by American science fiction author Jack Williamson in 1942 as part of his novella Collision Orbit.

coin

He had been the original claimant of Obania, forty years ago; and Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock, only two kilometers through—by sinking a shaft to its heart for the paragravity installation, generating oxygen and water from mineral oxides, releasing absorptive gases to trap the feeble heat of the far-off Sun.

1942 July, Jack Williamson, “Collision Orbit”, in Astounding Science-Fiction, volume 29, number 5, page 82:

(chiefly science fiction) To transform the atmosphere (or biosphere) of another planet into one having the characteristics of Earth.

maankaltaistaa

transform into one having the characteristics of Earth


couatl

Borrowed from Classical Nahuatl cōātl (“snake”); influenced by Quetzalcoatl.

bor+

So rare as to be considered almost legendary, the couatl is one of the most beautiful creatures in existence.

1993, Doug Stewart, Gary Gygax, Monstrous Manual, page 46:

Winged, feathered serpents of considerable size and power, the couatl seeks to defend its territory against all invaders. Couatls are not malicious by nature, and frequently appoint themselves the guardians of humanoids within their domain, provided said humanoids are willing to offer it the occasional tribute.

2012, Timothy Groves, The Book Of Creatures, page 44:

For this reason, a couatl probably won't use it except to save a seriously wounded ally from imminent death, and in that case, it follows up with a sanctuary spell on its next turn, then spends the remainder of combat closely defending that ally.

2019, Keith Ammann, The Monsters Know What They're Doing:

(fantasy, mythology) A feathered flying serpent with psionic abilities.


clop

Perhaps from German or Dutch kloppen (“to hit, knock”), from Middle Dutch cloppen (“to make a clopping sound”), of onomatopoeic origin. See also clap.

der

(slang) My Little Pony-themed pornography.


clopping

en-noun

clopping (countable and uncountable, plural cloppings)

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

According to an internal study undertaken by bronies themselves, 19.05 per cent of respondents engaged in clopping.

2013 September 9, Thomas Raethel, “The Mysterious World of Bronies”, in Critic, number 22, University of Otago, page 33:

You prove your ability to procreate by tastefully introducing your Mother to your My Little Pony collection and your fervent love of clopping (Urban Dictionary it) and your amazing fedora hat rack!

2014 May, Brian R., “Top 5: Mother's Day Gifts”, in Desire Magazine, page 19:

And the most uncomfortable question bronies get is about “clopping,” that is, masturbating to pony porn.

2015 March 10, Terrence Smith, “Galloping With the Bronies”, in Valley Advocate:

(My Little Pony fandom slang) The act of masturbating to erotic fanart of My Little Pony characters.


damsel in distress

damsel in distress (plural damsels in distress)

Calque of French demoiselle en détresse, from the classic theme in many dramatic forms.

I am not a pretty girl / That is not what I do / I ain't no damsel in distress / And I don't need to be rescued

1995, Ani DiFranco (lyrics and music), “Not a Pretty Girl”, in Not a Pretty Girl:

The damsel-in-distress archetype probably conjures up images of delicate maidens and chivalrous gentlemen. That is precisely what it is designed to do — for white people.

2020 May 27, Ruby Hamad, “A White Damsel Leveraged Racial Power and Failed”, in New York Times:

A young woman perceived as being helpless in a dangerous situation and requiring rescue.

فَتَاة فِي مِحْنَة

young woman perceived as being in a dangerous situation.


Pierrot

French Pierrot, diminutive of Pierre (“Peter”) via diminutive suffix -ot.

Coordinate term: Pierrette

I'll win them by politeness, and... and... show them that I've nothing to do with that Aesop, that buffoon, that Pierrot, and have merely been taken in over this affair, just as they have.

1912, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, translated by Constance Garnett, The Brothers Karamazov, published 1880, Book II, chapter 8:

And he was attending that fancy-dress ball, mark you--not, like every other well-bred Englishman, as a Pierrot, but as Mephistopheles […]
"He said that the costume of Pierrot, while pleasing to the eye, lacked the authority of the Mephistopheles costume."

1934, P. G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves:

The rest of the family then invades the studio, three boys dressed as Pierrots and three girls dressed as Pierrettes.

2019, Karl Toepfer, Pantomime, page 741:

A character from French pantomime; a buffoon in a loose white outfit; a popular choice for a masquerade costume.


angel hair

Sense 1 is a semantic loan from Italian capelli d'angelo.

sl

Angel hair consists of thin, cotton-like fibers that are found at the scene of UFO sightings. The strands look like spider webs (which many skeptics assert is precisely what they are) and have been found on houses, on the ground, in trees, and hanging off electrical wires following a UFO sighting.

2019, Stephen Spignesi, William J. Birnes, The Big Book of UFO Facts, Figures & Truth, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

(ufology) A sticky, fibrous substance reported in connection with UFO sightings and other paranormal manifestations.


burn in hell

en-verb

burn in hell (third-person singular simple present burns in hell, present participle burning in hell, simple past and past participle burned in hell or burnt in hell)

burns in hell (present singular third-person)
burning in hell (participle present)
burned in hell (participle past)
burned in hell (past)
burnt in hell (participle past)
burnt in hell (past)

Ted could die and burn in hell as far as I was concerned.

2011, Joyce Turner, Pain Through A Child's Eyes, →ISBN, page 136:

For some people, salvation is little more than fire insurance— they don't care about this life, they just don't want to burn in hell.

2011, Max Lucado, 3:16 Participant's Guide: The Numbers of Hope, →ISBN:

I was only about eight years old but the message was loud and clear, “If you die without knowing Jesus as your savior, you will burn in hell for eternity!”

2012, Bill Petite, A Rose in the Desert, →ISBN:

(literally) To spend the afterlife suffering in hell.


spin-off

carveout

partial spin-off in a corporate reorganization

tie-in

work of fiction based on an original media property

"Frasier" was a spin-off from the sitcom "Cheers".

The Harry Potter spin-off prequel series Fantastic Beasts has been “parked” by Warner Bros, according to its director David Yates.

2023 October 27, “Fantastic Beasts: JK Rowling franchise has been ‘parked’, director says”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(fiction) A fictional work where the protagonist was introduced in a preceding work or at least shares the same setting, often in a different aspect.


deflector

The blasters are those beams of ravening destruction which take care of recalcitrant meteorites in a spaceship's course when the deflectors can't handle them.

1945 May 13, Murray Leinster, “First Contact”, in Astounding Stories, volume 35, number 3:

Deflectors say there's something there, sensors say there isn't. Density negative. Radiation negative. Energy negative.

1966 September 22, Samuel A. Peeples, Where No Man Has Gone Before (Star Trek), episode 3, spoken by Spock (Leonard Nimoy):

PICARD: If the Romulans have returned to this sector we should know about that. Mister Worf, any further activity?
WORF: Negative, sir.
PICARD: Slow to half impulse.
LAFORGE: Going to one half impulse. ... Now entering quadrant nine-zero-seven, mark three.
PICARD: Shields and deflectors up. Go to Yellow Alert.

1988 March 21, Heart of Glory (Star Trek: The Next Generation) (Science Fiction), Paramount Domestic Television, →OCLC:

(science fiction) A force field; an invisible barrier used as a protective shield.


butterfly effect

en-noun

butterfly effect (plural butterfly effects)

A Sound of Thunder
Chaos: Making a New Science
Edward Lorenz
Lorenz attractor
Ray Bradbury
butterfly effect

Coined by American author and historian of science James Gleick in 1987 in his book Chaos: Making a New Science, whose first chapter bears the title “The Butterfly Effect”, and in which he discusses “the paradox of the butterfly’s wings” potentially making the difference whether a hurricane will or will not arise somewhere else later. Meteorologist Edward Lorenz, the founder of modern chaos theory, had in 1972, at a scientific meeting, presented a paper entitled “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings set off a tornado in Texas?” without using the specific term butterfly effect. Lorenz also notes that representations of the strange attractor now known as the “Lorenz attractor” resemble a butterfly, as well as that correspondents have drawn his attention to Ray Bradbury’s short science fiction story “A Sound of Thunder”, in which a time traveler’s crushing a butterfly in the Late Cretaceous changes the outcome of a present-day presidential election. But the metaphorical butterfly was actually introduced in the title of the 1972 presentation by meteorologist Philip Merilees, who was not familiar with Bradbury’s story.

coinage

Example of butterfly effect: stepping on a bug 4,000 years ago causes a different person to win the presidential election today.

(by extension, science fiction) The notion that small changes in the past via time travel can cause disproportionately large and unforeseeable consequences in the present.


vampirism

en-noun

vampirism (usually uncountable, plural vampirisms)

(mythology) The state of being a vampire.


capitano

capitano (plural capitanos or capitanoes or capitani)

capitanos (plural)
capitanoes (plural)
capitani (plural)

From Italian capitano. Doublet of captain and chieftain.

One of the four stock characters of commedia dell'arte who typically appropriated the name "captain" for himself but was not one; he was often a blowhard and a swaggerer who could maintain his self-important claims only if none of the locals knew him.


fanon

In this way, smaller groups within a fandom agree on readings which may be completely at odds with the canon, but which in time acquire legitimacy as fanon.

2014, Maria Lindgren Leavenworth, Malin Isaksson, Fanged Fan Fiction: Variations on Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, page 53:

Loyalty is one aspect of Slytherin that canon and fanon readings technically agree on, but fans are significantly more sincere about this characterization.

2018, Kali DeDominicis, “Fitting Him for Leather Trousers: Fanon and the Reclamation of Draco Malfoy and Slytherin House”, in Amanda Firestone, Leisa A. Clark, editors, Harry Potter and Convergence Culture: Essays on Fandom and the Expanding Potterverse, page 97:

So in a fandom as old as Austen's, how does fanon get created?

2019, Holly Luetkenhaus, Zoe Weinstein, Austentatious: The Evolving World of Jane Austen Fans, page 24:

(fandom slang) Elements introduced by fans which are not in the official canon of a fictional world but are widely believed to be or treated as if canonical.


knacker's yard

From knacker (“one who slaughters and (especially) renders worn-out livestock (especially horses) and sells their flesh, bones and hides”) + -'s + yard.

CXXV. The Commissioners may license such slaughter-house and knacker's yards^([sic]) as they from time to time think proper for slaughtering cattle within the limits of the special Act. CXXVI. No place shall be used or occupied as a slaughter-house or knacker's yard within the said limits which was not in such use and occupation at the time of the passing of the special Act, [...]

1847 June 21, “[10 & 11 Victoriæ] Cap. XXXIV. An Act for Consolidating in One Act Certain Provisions usually Contained in Acts for Paving, Draining, Cleansing, Lighting, and Improving Towns.”, in A Compendious Abstract of the Public General Acts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: 10 Victoriæ—1847. […], volume XXV, London: Printed by James Holmes, […]; published by E. B. Ince, […], →OCLC, sections CXXV and CXXVI, page 134:

It was a horrible smell of corrupt flesh and mouldy bones, mingling with the sickly steam of from cauldrons in which the anatomized animals were seething down. None save those who have been so unfortunate as to venture upon the confines of a knacker's yard, can possibly conceive the horrible nausea produced by these blended effluvia: it was enough to make the strongest stomach heave and become sick.

1853, George W[illiam] M[acArthur] Reynolds, “Following Up the Clue”, in The Mysteries of the Court of London, volume V (Third Series, volume I), London: Published, for Mr. Reynolds, by John Dicks, […], →OCLC, page 243, column 1:

[T]he market [Smithfield Market] is surrounded by slaughter-houses and knackers' yards, tallow-melting, bone-boiling, tripe-washing, and other offensive trades; [...]

1855, John Timbs, “Markets”, in Curiosities of London: Exhibiting the Most Rare and Remarkable Objects of Interest in the Metropolis; […], London: David Bogue, […], →OCLC, page 500:

The information given when the first animal was presented for slaughter was that lead paint had been consumed and that three other animals of the same herd had died and had been sent to a knackers yard.^([sic])

1955, The Sanitarian: The Official Journal of the Sanitary Inspectors’ Association, volume 63, London: Sanitary Inspectors’ Association, →OCLC, page 406:

In the 1820s, it was estimated that 400 horses a week were slaughtered via licensed horse-butchers (more commonly known as knackers' yards); by mid-century the number had risen to 1,000 horses weekly, and knackers' yards dotted the poorer districts – [...]

2012, Judith Flanders, “The World’s Market”, in The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens’ London, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Dunne Books, →ISBN, part 2 (Staying Alive), page 138:

The area of a slaughterhouse where carcasses unfit for human consumption or other purposes are rendered down to produce useful materials such as glue.

kafilerie

area of slaughterhouse where carcasses are rendered down to produce useful materials

bakutil m (approximation; literally referring to feed manufacturing companies)


never-never land

Morocco is the never-never land of Africa. Captious readers of the war news may, in their comfortable zeal, think the term applicable to other regions of ...

1863, George Smith with William Makepeace Thackeray, The Cornhill magazine, volume 9, page 75:

Exit light / Enter night / Take my hand / We're off to never-never land

1991 July 29, “Enter Sandman”, Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich (music), performed by Metallica:


no shit, Sherlock

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-no shit, Sherlock.wav

A reference to the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, suggesting that the interlocutor has just made an obvious deduction, which they see as a great one.

"No shit, Sherlock. Take another look, see how they come to be bent."

1976, Emmett Grogan, Final Score, page 264:

My copilot uttered, "I think we are headed for the bridge." No shit, Sherlock.

2006, Barry Morgan, Never Tell Them You're Dying, page 127:

I also find it a little bizarre that, in 2019, we are still seeing reports with names like “Rise of the SHEconomy” which point out that investing in female-focussed brands is probably a good idea. No SHEeet Sherlock!

2019 August 31, Arwa Mahdawi, “All the single ladies have been an economic force for a long time – marketers are just noticing”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

The latest line of heat records has been met with a response that climate scientists have made many times before. They say to stop records from tumbling the world needs to stop burning coal, oil, and natural gas. "It's a, 'No shit Sherlock,' moment," Dr Perkins Kirkpatrick said.

2024 June 5, Tyne Logan, Tom Saunders, “As 12 months of record heat stack up, scientists unpack the impacts around the globe”, in ABC News (Australia):

(vulgar, colloquial, sarcastic, somewhat derogatory) A riposte to someone who has just said something obvious.


tired and emotional

en-adj

tired and emotional (comparative more tired and emotional, superlative most tired and emotional)

more tired and emotional (comparative)
most tired and emotional (superlative)

First used by the British satirical magazine Private Eye in 1967, in a spoof diplomatic memo to describe the state of cabinet minister George Brown. It is now used as a stock phrase and euphemism to avoid litigation for libel, and the phrase has spread well beyond the magazine.

In 2008, after what you imagine was a tired and emotional dinner, the novelist Michel Houellebecq and the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy determined to start writing to each other about the things that kept them awake at nights.

2011 December 8, Tim Adams, “Public Enemies by Michel Houellebecq and Bernard-Henri Lévy – review”, in The Guardian:

There's nothing like a singalong with tired and emotional Lib Dems [headline]

2017 September 22, John Crace, “There's nothing like a singalong with tired and emotional Lib Dems”, in The Guardian:

(British, humorous, idiomatic, euphemistic) Drunk.


lizardman

(fantasy) An intelligent man-sized lizard who walks on hind legs and speaks and dresses similar to humans.


half-elf

(fantasy) A person who is half elven and half human by birth.


village idiot

From the saying “Every village has its village idiot”, alleged to be an old Yiddish proverb.

It is true that the Doocot was occasionally appropriated to other purposes than that of a tolbooth for the sorner, the drunken gipsy, the village idiot at the change of the moon, the swearing bluegown, and the contumacious birdnester on the sabbath; […]

1825, The Abduction; Or, the Adventures of Major Sarney: A Story of the Times of Charles the Second, volume II, Charles Knight, page 170:

"So kindly keep the vainglorious enumeration of your pots for the benefit of those village idiots who compose your particular set of boozing companions."

1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 85:

To some, Mr. Cagri was the Internet's village idiot, but others were touched by his warmth or just tickled by the absurdity of the whole phenomenon.

2002 July 4, David F. Gallagher, “Star of 'I Kiss You' Site Moves From Farce to Folklore”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, retrieved 2024-08-13:

A person widely known in their community for their stupidity and ignorant behaviour.


firefox

Calque of Finnish tulikettu or Finnish tulirepo.

A mythical creature in Finnish folklore, a fox with fiery or radiant fur, the reflection of which produces the northern lights.


Qapla'

/q͡χɑpʰˈlɑʔ/

success (n) Qapla'

1985, Marc Okrand, The Klingon Dictionary, Pocket Books, →ISBN, pages 103, 155:

It is hoped that this report . . . will help lead to the reconciliation of the two governments. Qapla'.

1996, Marc Okrand, The Klingon Way: A Warrior's Guide, Pocket Books, →ISBN, page x:

Maltz, we are honored to still be your students. Qapla'.

1997, Marc Okrand, Klingon for the Galactic Traveler, Pocket Books,, →ISBN, page 5:

Qapla!

2000, Brian Proffitt, Add Red Hat Linux 7 to your Windows desktop in a weekend, Prima Tech,, →ISBN, page 133:

Tina shrugged her shoulders, nodding helplessly. She was beat. “Qapla!” she said, grinning back at Leigh. / “Success!” Leigh laughed, translating the word from the alien Klingon language[…]

2000, Jacqueline Guest, Rookie Season, James Lorimer & Company,, →ISBN, page 5:

“Well, in that case, good luck and—er—Qapla'.”

2003, L. A. Graf et al., Day Of Honor: The bestselling Klingon™ saga—complete in one volume!:

Thank you for all the years of patiently being there, especially on those dark and stormy nights when things detonated unexpectedly and I needed rescuing yet again. Qapla'!

2004, Jacqueline Guest, Racing Fear, James Lorimer & Company, 5

2004, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Pam Brady, Team America: World Police, Paramount Pictures
Sean Penn: Qapla’!

Go forth and hack, Qapla!

2005 October 19-21, Andrew Chalmers, “Hurd is where I hide.”, AUUGN 2005: Conference Proceedings, Sydney, page 145

Unable to resist a sudden temptation, he threw out his arm in a Klingon salute. / “Qapla’!” / He vanished into the photo on his phone.

2009, Greg Cox, The 4400: Welcome to Promise City, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 187:

A phrase said to wish fortune on someone, particularly fortune in some form of honourable battle.


ringwraith

From Ringwraith (fantasy character), in J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings; from ring + wraith.

It is twisted out of shape and used for base purposes by the ringwraiths, the bent ones among the intellectuals, for purposes that are transient...

1976, Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, page 192:

...or shandy quaffers at tennis with Joan Hunter-Dunn, even though many of them are mere ringwraiths of the Thomson Empire.

1982, William Ready, Files on Parade: A Memoir, page 231:

This book, then, is a sort of tribute: an ode to the Himalaya of heavy rock, a paganish take on rock and roll, ringwraiths, and the iconic fetish of the gatefold LP."

2005, Erik Davis, Led Zeppelin IV, page 9:

A person who is loyal, as if bound or entranced, to a band, group or organization.


bruiser

(sports) In contact sports, an athlete whose size, strength, and/or aggressiveness make it likely that they will cause athletes on the opposing team to suffer physical punishment.

Bulle

an athlete who likely will cause physical punishment


groundling

From ground + -ling. Compare Old English grundling (“a groundling fish, grundel”).

cog

The BEARDED-LOACH or GROUNDLING. Gobites Barbatula. It is a small fish about five inches long, bearded with six small Threads, three on each side

1681, Nehemiah Grew, Musaeum Regalis Societatis. Or a Catalogue and Description of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal Society and preserved at Gresham Colledge:

When you angle for a trout, you are to do it as deep, that is, as near to the bottom as you can, provided your bait do not drag, although a trout will sometimes take it in that posture: if for a grayling, you are then to fish further from the buttom, it being a fish that usually swims nearer to the middle of the water, and lies always loose; or, however, is more apt to raise than trout, and more inclined to raise than to descend, even to a groundling.

Fertilized groundling (Misgurnus fossilis) and sturgeon (Acipenser Stellatus) eggs were irradiated (10,000 r) at stages from fertilization to middle gastrulation.

1958, Soviet Physics, Doklady, page 464:

Lopashov (1944) extirpated and grafted neural tubes from several species of teleosts—the groundling, Misgurnus fossilis, the loach, Nemacheilus barhatulus, and the perch, Perca fluviatilis — to determine whether pigment cells were of neural crest origin.

1999, Brian K. Hall, The Neural Crest in Development and Evolution, →ISBN, page 82:

Cobitis taenia
Cobitis taenia#Translingual

Any of various plants or animals living on or near the ground, as a benthic fish or bottom feeder, especially:

The spined loach (Cobitis taenia), weather loach (Misgurnus fossilis), or other member of the loaches.

Charadrius hiaticula
Charadrius hiaticula#Translingual

The ringed plover, Charadrius hiaticula.

In the pond behind the garden there were plenty of carp and groundlings.

1922, Ivan Turgenev, chapter XXVI, in Constance Garnett, transl., A House of Gentlefolk, London: Heinemann, page 155:

[…] the ewe called Tiny
 Crossed over and touched her, the others turned anxious looks
 From sniffing the autumn-pinched leaves of the groundling blackberries.

1929, Robinson Jeffers, “The Loving Shepherdess”, in The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, New York: Random House, published 1937, page 219:

Delgard got out the handkerchief again and blew his nose loud enough to alert any bird or groundling within several hundred yards.

2012, David Williams, Planning on Murder, →ISBN:

The poor plodding groundling, helpless and impotent, is swooped upon at will, day and night, completely wiped out at the whim of the low- flying plane, which soars off leaving complete and utter destruction behind it!

1937, Field Artillery Association (U.S.), The Field Artillery Journal - Volume 27, page 342:

He then enlisted in the air force and served as a groundling in North Africa, Sicily, and England.

2010, Erin Bried, How to Build a Fire: And Other Handy Things Your Grandfather Knew, →ISBN:

Present at the Battle of Jutland, he had been recalled for the duration of this war and, being in the area, he had come to see how his little lad was faring in the sky. I was given permission to fall out and join him, gladly setting aside my groundling's bayonet.

2012, Pat Cunningham, The Fear in the Sky: Vivid Memories of Bomber Aircrew in World War Two, →ISBN:

One who is confined to the ground, especially:

(military, slang) A soldier who fights on the ground or serves as ground crew, as opposed to a seaman, pilot, etc.

Simon noticed a groundling look intently at Walsingham's purse and nudge his mate.

2008, John Lambshead, Lucy's Blade, →ISBN, page 184:

One, a short groundling with dark leathery skin and long white hair, said, "It's not your house, Ventl. You, stranger, did you come here to trade?"

2015, Martha Wells, Stories of the Raksura: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below, →ISBN:

It was obvious that the brown-haired groundling had been involved in some heavy hand-to-hand combat recently.

2016, Markus Heitz, Dark Paths: The Legends of the Alfar, →ISBN:

(fantasy) A member of a race that lives primarily underground, such as a dwarf.


oupire

Borrowed from Polish upiór. Doublet of vampire.


space opera

en-noun

space opera (countable and uncountable, plural space operas)

→ Dutch: ruimteopera (calque)

→ German: Weltraumoper (calque)

Coined by fan and writer Wilson "Bob" Tucker in 1941. The term was originally derived from the term horse opera to describe a specific, hackneyed science fiction writing style.

ruimteopera

subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that utilizes serialisation

SUGGESTION DEPT: In these hectic days of phrase-coining, we offer one. Westerns are called "horse operas", the morning housewife tear-jerkers are called "soap operas". For the hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn space-ship yarn, or world-saving for that matter, we offer "space opera"

1941 January, "Bob" Tucker, Le Zombie, number 36, page 9:

(initially derogatory) A subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that emphasizes space travel, romantic adventure, and larger-than-life characters often set against vast exotic settings.

A subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that uses serialization.


retcon

A blend of retroactive + continuity. The term retroactive continuity was popularized by comics writer Roy Thomas, who was known for writing superhero comic books set decades in the past such as All-Star Squadron, and attributes it to an anonymous source.

TLC: What do you say to the Legion fans who have become disenfranchised with the series due to its various retcons and reboots?

2003, Glen Cadigan, The Legion Companion, page 152:

Fans talk of retcon—retroactive continuity—giving information that explains an earlier event, especially seeming plot contradictions or lacunae.

2005, Rhonda Wilcox, Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, page 9:

It's a little trick called retcon, short for "retroactive continuity," […]
Yet I'm unsure even Millar is fully aware of the power given him by the retcon.

2006, Glenn Yeffeth, editor, The Man from Krypton: A Closer Look at Superman, page 155:

A situation, in a soap opera or other fiction, in which a new storyline explains or changes a previous event or attaches a new significance to it.


mindwipe

en-verb

mindwipe (third-person singular simple present mindwipes, present participle mindwiping, simple past and past participle mindwiped)

mindwipes (present singular third-person)
mindwiping (participle present)
mindwiped (participle past)
mindwiped (past)

Whether they were mindwiped upon their return to base, or simply terminated like useless equipment, Deutsch never knew.

2001, Jeffrey A Carver, James A Carver, Eternity's End:

In Adventures of Superman #636, Superman told Wonder Woman and Batman about how the League had mindwiped Dr. Light...

2006, Jeffery Klaehn, Inside the World of Comic Books:

(transitive, science fiction) To erase the memories and personality, while still leaving an intact, living brain and body. This is frequently portrayed as a form of capital punishment, which leaves a viable body into which a different personality or mind can be uploaded.


mindwipe

The mindwipe of Magneto is a necessary action and it is also a wrong one, but it appears to be the only way to save the human population from extinction.

2009, Andrew Terjesen, “Dirty Hands and Dirty Minds: The Ethics of Mind Reading and Mindwriting”, in X-Men and Philosophy:

(science fiction) The act of mindwiping.


beam up

beam up (third-person singular simple present beams up, present participle beaming up, simple past and past participle beamed up)

beams up (present singular third-person)
beaming up (participle present)
beamed up (participle past)
beamed up (past)

(science fiction, transitive) To teleport (someone or something) using a (fictional) device, especially from the surface of a planet to an orbiting starship.

(science fiction, intransitive) To be teleported, or to teleport oneself, in this manner.


tinman

He seemed to feel quite at home at the tinman's, although they were hammering and tapping away there all day, but people said that the gudewife put a dish of porridge up in the garret for him every Thursday evening; and it's no wonder that they got on well and became rich when they had a brownie in the house.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 11:


tinman

In allusion to the character Tin Man from the Land of Oz, who lacked a heart.

An uncaring or heartless man; a man lacking, or seeming to lack, feelings, emotions, or concern for others.

Tinman belongs to a special class of genes. [...] But some genes make proteins that control other genes. Some act like master switches, triggering many different genes to work together to build a structure. Tinman is one such “master gene” for the fruit fly.

2000, Carl Zimmer, “The Hidden Unity of Hearts”, in Natural History, volume 109, number 3, archived from the original on 2009-01-07, pages 56–61:

Drosophila melanogaster
Drosophila melanogaster#Translingual

(genetics) A master gene in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, whose absence causes the fly to develop without a heart.


force field

(physics) A region of space (a vector field) in which a force operates; contains lines of force; a field of force.

(chemistry) A mathematical description of the potential energy of a system of atoms.

(science fiction) An invisible barrier used as a protective shield.


forcefield

Penny's world seemed only to make sense to her as a forcefield of detestations.

2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

(chemistry, physics, science fiction) Alternative spelling of force field


communicator

‘Observation Officer of the Z12Q, attention!’ snapped from the tight-beam headquarters communicator. ‘Cut off those spy rays and report yourself under arrest for treason!’

1934 August 13, Edward Elmer Smith, “Skylark of Valeron”, in Astounding Stories, volume 13, number 6:

Captain, if the Iotians, who are very bright an imitative people, should take that communicator apart...

1968 January 12, David P. Harmon, Gene L. Coon, A Piece of the Action (Star Trek), season 2, episode 17, spoken by Spock (Leonard Nimoy):

(science fiction) A usually portable communications device.


Baker Street

She was looking more like Sherlock Holmes than ever. Slap a dressing-gown on her and give her a violin, and she could have walked straight into Baker Street and no questions asked.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

A street in the City of Westminster, London; the fictional home of Sherlock Holmes was at number 221B.


hivemind

Kevin Kelly (editor)
Out of Control (Kelly book)

From hive + mind, originally applied to beehives. As a metaphor for collective intelligence popularized in Out of Control (1992) by Kevin Kelly.

It traces the growth of homo gestalt with the uniting of six lovely outcasts of society who have psi powers and come together as a hive mind, thus creating a gestalt super-being.

2005, Michael Ashley, Transformations: The History of the Science Fiction Magazine 1950 to 1970, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, page 133:

Though now extinct, the rachni once threatened every species in Citadel space. Over 2000 years ago, explorers foolishly opened a mass relay to a previously-unknown system and encountered something never seen before or since: a species of spacefaring insects guided by a hive-mind intelligence.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Rachni Codex entry:

We have the villainous Borg of Star Trek: a hive mind of individuals robbed of their individuality, communicating with each other not by touch or even speech but by omnipresent computer networks.

2011 February 15, Michael Chorost, “‘World Wide Mind’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(science fiction) A collection of minds somehow linked or unified, possibly as if by telepathy.


time tunnel

(science fiction) A passageway enabling time travel.


vampiress

Here, the vampiress personifies righteous indignation, a one-woman lynch mob.

1975, Angela Carter, “The Art of Horrorzines”, in Shaking a Leg, Vintage, published 2013, page 551:


miniaturize

miniaturize (third-person singular simple present miniaturizes, present participle miniaturizing, simple past and past participle miniaturized)

miniaturizes (present singular third-person)
miniaturizing (participle present)
miniaturized (participle past)
miniaturized (past)

(science fiction) To physically shrink in size, i.e. through the use of a shrink ray.


enchantress

/ɪnˈt͡ʃæntɹɪs/

/ɛnˈt͡ʃæntɹɪs/

/ɪnˈtʃɑːntɹɪs/

/ɛnˈtʃɑːntɹɪs/

From Middle English enchaunteresse, from Old French enchanteresse; equivalent to enchanter + -ess.

His desire for that enchantress led him to financial ruin.


demoness

In Judaism, Lilith abandoned heaven and became the first demoness on Earth.


Bluebeard

Calque of French Barbe-Bleue (literally “blue beard”).

calque

A famous fairy tale written by Charles Perrault in 1697 about a violent nobleman who has the habit of murdering his wives and the attempts of his current wife to avoid the same fate.


Wizard of Oz

The name of a character from the 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, or any of its adaptations, about the journey of Dorothy through the magical Land of Oz in search of a way home.

The goal of Neimo is to provide designers with a "Wizard of Oz" environment to observe and evaluate how users interact with multimodal interfaces.

1992, Wayne D. Gray, William E. Hefley, Dianne Murray, “NEIMO, A MULTIMODAL WIZARD OF OZ PLATFORM”, in Proceedings of the 1993 International Workshop on ..., page 204:

Once a preliminary application design is complete, a wizard-of-oz study can help test and refine the interface.

2006, E. K. Brown, Anne Anderson, Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, volume 11, page 769:

A Wizard of Oz prototype is an incomplete system that a designer can simulate "behind a curtain" (usually by taking the place of a recognizer) while observing the reactions of real end users (see Figure 1).

2007, Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software ..., page 119:

(engineering, social sciences, usually attributive) A person simulating the operation of a supposed intelligent device, usually in an experiment.


wendigo

en-noun

wendigo (plural wendigo or wendigos or wendigoes)

wendigo (plural)
wendigos (plural)
wendigoes (plural)

Borrowed from Ojibwe wiindigoo, from Proto-Algonquian *wi·nteko·wa (“owl; malevolent spirit, cannibalistic monster”). Compare Cree wihtikow, ᐃᐧᐦᑎᑯᐤ (iyhtikow, “greedy person; cannibal; giant man-eating monster”).

der

Through the pine woods of Keewaydin, / Over the snows of Shebandowan, / The Wendigo roams in the winter's frost / And pursues to destruction the hunter. / Yet no man can meet with the Wendigo, / No man can face him or see him; / Only his track in the snow is seen, / And lost is the hunter that sees it. […] The heart that ne'er quailed on the war-path / Turns to stone at the name of the Wendigo.

1905, Ernest Thompson Seton, “The Wendigo: Winter Death”, in Woodmyth & Fable, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 161:

The Windigo is a flesh-eating, wintry demon with a man buried deep inside of it. In some Chippewa stories, a young girl vanquishes this monster by forcing boiling lard down its throat, thereby releasing the human at the core of ice.

1984, Louise Erdrich, “Windigo”, in Jacklight, New York, N.Y.: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, →ISBN:

The noun windigo [Ojibwa wīntikō, Cree wīhtikōw] refers to one of a class of anthropophagous monsters, “supernatural” from a non-Algonquian perspective, who exhibit grotesque physical and behavioral abnormalities and possess great spiritual and physical power.

1988 fall, Robert A. Brightman, “The Windigo in the Material World”, in Ethnohistory, volume 35, number 4, →DOI, →ISSN, →JSTOR, page 337:

A series of ‘wendigo’ killings – a ‘wendigo’ was an evil spirit clothed in human flesh – brought to the attention of Canadian law around the turn of the twentieth century represent the extension of Canadian law to the heart of traditional Indian culture. These killings, however, also represent the extent to which some of the First Nations defied or ignored that law. […] Machekequonabe, an Ojibwa, was found guilty of manslaughter in an 1896 trial for killing what he believed to be a wendigo. […] Furthermore, in additional cases it seems that Indians, in order to protect their religious and cultural beliefs from Canadian law, carefully distorted the facts of homicide cases to conceal that they were wendigo killings.

1998, Sidney L. Harring, “‘The Enforcement of the Extreme Penalty’: Canadian Law and the Ojibwa-Cree Spirit World”, in White Man’s Law: Native People in Nineteenth-century Canadian Jurisprudence, Toronto, Ont., Buffalo, N.Y., London: Published for The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History by University of Toronto Press, →ISBN:

Suddenly, I was certain what I had found had been the rest of the dead girl. I told the others about it, then added, "God Almighty. It must have been eating her." / "I think I know this creature," said Gwennie, and we all looked at her. "It called a wendigo. A most terrible thing." […] / Gwennie shook her head. "It is an evil creature. I hear of it once when I traveled far from here. The Ojibwe brave who told me about creature say it is a beast of the north, of the cold."

2004 September, Michael Jensen, chapter 9, in Firelands, Los Angeles, Calif.: Alyson Books, →ISBN, page 130:

No one is safe in such times, not even the Cree of Mushkegowuk. War touches everyone, and windigos spring from the earth.

2005, Joseph Boyden, Three Day Road: A Novel, Toronto, Ont.: Viking Canada, →ISBN; republished Toronto, Ont.: Penguin Canada, 2008, →ISBN, page 49:

[Abstract, page iv] To close, I demarcate the trend of American television shows to appropriate the wendigo, ascertaining a fundamental misunderstanding of indigenous cultural beliefs by American popular culture. […] [Introduction, page 2] The wendigo is a cannibal monster from the traditional stories of many northern tribes, specifically the Anishinabe stories, and is most often associated with winter and desperate hunger.

2016, Michelle Lietz, Cannibalism in Contact Narratives and the Evolution of the Wendigo (unpublished M.A. dissertation), Ypsilanti, Mich.: Eastern Michigan University, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-07-12, pages iv and 2:

(mythology) A malevolent and violent cannibal spirit found in Anishinaabe, Ojibwe, and Cree mythology, which is said to inhabit the body of a living person and possess him or her to commit murder.

وِينْدِيجُو

malevolent and violent cannibal spirit in Anishinaabe, Ojibwe, and Cree mythology


Cerberus

From Latin Cerberus, from Ancient Greek Κέρβερος (Kérberos), of unknown origin.

(Greek mythology) The giant three-headed dog who guards the entrance to Hades; and one of the many offspring of Echidna and Typhon.


dreamworld

From dream + world. Compare West Frisian dreamwrâld (“dreamworld”), Dutch droomwereld, dromenwereld (“dreamworld”), German Traumwelt (“dreamworld”), Danish drømmeverden (“dreamworld”), Swedish drömvärld (“dreamworld”).

At midnight they left the air-conditioned dream-world and entered the oven of the street.

1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 358:

An imaginary world, such as experienced while dreaming.


dreamland

en-noun

dreamland (countable and uncountable, plural dreamlands)

“Child of earth,” she said, ”dost think we are here in dreamland?” ¶ He answered nothing, and she said, “This is no dream. […]”

1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros, London: Jonathan Cape, page 1:

An imaginary world experienced while dreaming.


Iago

From Welsh, Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician Iago, from Latin Iācōbus (“James”), from Ancient Greek Ἰάκωβος (Iákōbos), from Hebrew יַעֲקֹב (ya‘ăqṓḇ, “Jacob”, literally “he will/shall heel”), from עָקֵב (‘āqḗḇ, “heel”) and the Biblical account of the patriarch Jacob's birth in Genesis 25:26. Doublet of Yago, Jago, James, Jacob, Jacques, Diego, Santiago, and San Diego.

doublet

The villain of William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello; any similar villain or deceitful underling.


hyperdrive

The ship's hyperdrive had failed, leaving them stranded years from any repair base.

(science fiction) A spaceship engine that allows faster-than-light travel by entering hyperspace.


BEM

Incidentally, Mr. Bergey, the BEM's on your latest smear have extremely jovial expressions on their pans to be as tough a bunch of eggs as Friend made them out.

1940 November, Parmer Farrell, “The Reader Speaks”, in Thrilling Wonder Stories, volume 18, number 2, page 120:

This is my first time in active BEM service. They've never let me near the Bugs before.

1997, Lawrence Miles, Alien Bodies, →ISBN, page 89:

(science fiction, fandom slang, often derogatory) A stock character in science fiction; a grotesque creature, often an extraterrestrial, that menaces the protagonists.


hyperspatial

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


Prince Charming

en-noun

Prince Charming (plural Prince Charmings or Princes Charming)

Prince Charmings (plural)
Princes Charming (plural)

Calque of French Roi Charmant (“Charming King”).

calque

She's still unmarried because she is waiting for her Prince Charming... and he may not exist.

She did not listen. She was free in her prison of passion. Her prince, Prince Charming, was with her.

1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter V, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC:

However, I’ll tell you this much . . . and if nothing comes of it you must never breathe a word about it to a living soul. You see, Prince Charming is coming to-night.

1909 September, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “The Prince Comes Back to the Enchanted Palace”, in Anne of Avonlea, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, →OCLC, pages 341–342:

There's always love for sale / A grown up fairy tale / Prince charming always smiles / Behind a silver spoon

1979, “Street Life”, Will Jennings (lyrics), performed by The Crusaders ft. Randy Crawford:

Friends say we app sceptics will download them at a certain age out of desperation. But for now, follow the sound advice of mums and mentors: there’s no rush, relationships don’t define you and you must keep your standards high. Just not Prince Charming high. Carrie Bradshaw will tell you that’s nothing but a fairytale.

2023 April 1, Maddie Thomas, “Even if you’re ‘on the apps’, it feels pretty hard to meet people these days”, in The Guardian:

(by extension) A heterosexual woman's prototypical ideal romantic partner, especially but not necessarily if he embodies common characteristics of the fictional princes, such as being courageous or chivalrous.


Laestrygonian

From Ancient Greek Λαιστρυγόνες (Laistrugónes).

bor

Λαιστρυγόνες

1900, (translated by) George Herbert Palmer, The Odyssey of Homer, Houghton, Mifflin and Company
Before town they met a maiden drawing water, the stately daughter of the Laestrygonian Antiphades.

(Greek mythology) A member of a mythical Greek tribe of man-eating giants.


Brenda

Possibly from Old Norse brandr (“sword”); by folk etymology seen as a feminine form of Brendan. Its use as a nickname for Queen Elizabeth II originated in Private Eye in reaction to a perceived attempt by the royals to appear less distant and upper class.

There is a widespread belief that Brenda plays no part in politics. This is not entirely true. For instance, she has very strong feelings on Rhodesia.

1977, “Loyal News”, in Private Eye, numbers 393-418, page 23:

Windsor, I was always led to believe. But--as with license plates--they don't ever have to use it. Brenda just signs herself Elizabeth R (Regina).

1993 August 10, Jonathan Beasley Murray, “Re: Royal Family's last name?”, in soc.culture.british (Usenet):

That is something that can never be removed entirely from anyone, the cold aloofness that is seen in the royal family is something that has been bred into them, but it doesn't take away their humanity at all. You only had to see the pictures of Brenda visiting the homeless hostel to know that she was bottling back tears.

2002 February 13, Heretic, “Re: Old Gin Slugger is dead.”, in uk.current-events.n-ireland (Usenet):

The problem isn't just Brenda, it is that there will never be agreement on what to replace her with. viz. the House of Lords debacle, the Australian Republican referendum.

2002 November 6, Tom, “Re: "Be careful, Paul..."”, in uk.politics.misc (Usenet):


amphisbaena

From Latin amphisbaena, from Ancient Greek ἀμφίσβαινα (amphísbaina, from ἀμφίς (amphís, “both ways”) + βαίνω (baínō, “I go”)).

der

1971: What do you call that animal that goes backward and forward, head at each end? —'Amphisbaena'. A kind of lizard. It doesn't exist. — Anthony Burgess, M/F (Penguin 2004, p. 109)

(mythology) A mythical serpent having a head at each end of its body, able to move in either direction.


gish

The term originates in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) game, where it originally referred to a Githyanki fighter/wizard combination. Gish is not an official term used in D&D referring to this, but is also used to refer to any character who has a martial/spellcasting combination of abilities.

Most gishes use their magical abilities to increase their own personal combat abilities (known as "buffing").

(fantasy roleplaying games) A character that is skilled in both physical combat and the use of magic.


Elfland

From elf + land, coming from the idea of an elf home (Elfhame) in Old English ballads and Álfheim in Old Norse mythology.

O sweet and far from cliff and scar / The horns of Elfland faintly blowing.

1850, Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Splender Falls:

The land of the elves. Home of the elves.


light elf

Back-formation from light elves, a calque of Old Norse ljósalfar.

Alfheim, where the light elves live. The light elves are as beautiful as the sun or the stars.

2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 20:

(Norse mythology) A member of the race of Ljósalfar, daylight dwelling elves or nature spirits (as opposed to the underground dwelling dark elves or dwarves).

(fantasy) One of a race of elves who live above ground and are radiant.


dark elf

Back-formation from dark elves, a calque of Old Norse dǫkkalfar.

Nidavellir, which is sometimes called Svartalfheim, where the dwarfs (who are also known as dark elves) live beneath the mountains and build their remarkable creations.

(Norse mythology) A member of the race of Dǫkkálfar or Dark Alfs, creatures who live underground.

(fantasy) A member of a race of elves that is evil, has a dark (often greyish or bluish) skin and/or lives in dark places.

temný elf

a member of a race of elves that is evil


superwoman

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

From super- + woman.
From 1943's Superwoman, published by DC Comics in 1943.

(informal) A woman who looks after a home and children as well as being employed in a full-time job.

"How much sleep will you get tonight?" I asked.
"Three to five hours," she replied, making me feel a bit more like I was talking to someone from my own planet and not a bionic superwoman designed by a genetic engineer.

1999, J. Allan Hobson, Dreaming as Delirium: How the Brain Goes Out of Its Mind, page 229:


fictionalize

en-verb

fictionalize (third-person singular simple present fictionalizes, present participle fictionalizing, simple past and past participle fictionalized)

fictionalizes (present singular third-person)
fictionalizing (participle present)
fictionalized (participle past)
fictionalized (past)

a lightly fictionalized account of [X]

(transitive) To retell (something) real (e.g., an event or series of events) as if it were fiction; especially, to do so in a way that departs from reality in any extent from mild to extensive (from minor details to essential substance).

(transitive) To convert (something) real into a novel or other dramatic work.


Shangri-La

→ Japanese: シャングリラ (Shangurira)

→ Mandarin: 香格里拉 (Xiānggélǐlā)

/ˌʃæŋɡɹɪˈlɑː/

From a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton (1900–1954): see the quotation below. A Tibetan origin has been suggested, from ཞང (zhang, “name of a district of Ü-Tsang”) + རི (ri, “mountain”) + ལ (la, “pass”), therefore meaning "Mountain Pass of Zhang District".

affix

He spoke a kind of Chinese that I don't understand very well, but I think he said something about a lamasery near here—along the valley, I gathered—where we could get food and shelter. Shangri-La, he called it. La is Tibetan for mountain-pass. He was most emphatic that we should go there.

[1933 September, James Hilton, Lost Horizon, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, St. Martin's Street, London, published October and November 1933 (2nd printing), →OCLC, page 64:

The length of the journey gives a measure of the anachronism, which as [César] Vallejo said in one of his stories made the hill town a Shangri-La, forgotten by the rest of Peru.

1976, Jean Franco, “Poetry as a Mode of Existence”, in César Vallejo: The Dialectics of Poetry and Silence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN; 1st paperback edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, →ISBN, page 2:

With the fragmented policy-making system which results, America is a Shangri-La for interest groups and lobbyists.

1989, Clive S. Thomas, “Understanding Interest Group Activity in the American States”, in D. K. Adams, editor, Studies in US Politics, Manchester, New York, N.Y.: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 182:

He couldn't believe it when he'd discovered there actually was a town called Bedford Falls. It seemed like fans of the film had all collected there to live out their lives in a self-created 1940s American Shangri-la.

1989, Grant Naylor [i.e., Rob Grant and Doug Naylor], Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN:

Tiki Style was forged in the business of bars and restaurants and celebrated in backyard luaus and at theme parks like Disneyland and roadside attractions such as Tiki Gardens. As these ersatz Shangri-las competed to outdo each other with the latest tropical-inspired styles, the popularity of the neighborhood Tiki lounge soared.

2004, Otto von Stroheim, “Introduction”, in Tiki Art Now!: A Volcanic Eruption of Art, San Francisco, Calif.: Last Gasp of San Francisco; The Shooting Gallery, →ISBN, page 8:

The human species was lucky, because the only time in the development of bacterial populations when diversity is sacrificed for reproductive expediency is during the exponential burst of growth that follows their discovery of an unprotected ecosystem. The two notable instances in which bacteria find these Shangri Las are in test tubes filled with fresh media and in naive animals that have not seen these particular bacteria in recent immunological memory.

2007, J. William Costerton, “Replacement of Acute Planctonic by Chronic Biofilm Diseases”, in Christina Eckey, editor, The Biofilm Primer, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN:

The desire for a better life in a better place, for a land of happiness, is perhaps one of the most basic human desires that has found many expressions in various forms—a paradise, a Golden Age, a Shangri-La, an ideal society or—generically speaking—a utopia.

2015, Zhang Longxi, “In Search of a Land of Happiness: Utopia and Its Discontents”, in From Comparison to World Literature (SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture), Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 103:

A place of complete bliss, delight, and peace, especially one seen as an escape from ordinary life; a paradise.

شَانْغْرِيلَا

a place of complete bliss, delight, and peace


milab

1996, Helmut Lammer Ph.D. Preliminary Findings Of Project MILAB: Evidence For Military Kidnappings Of Alleged UFO Abductees published at The Alien Jigsaw, Mind Control Forums and on many other web sites.
Recently, some UFO abductees have reported that they have also been kidnapped by military intelligence personnel (MILAB) and taken to hospitals and/or military facilities, some of which are described as being underground.

1999, A letter from Dr. Helmut Lammer of the Austrian Space Agency to Dr. Steven Greer of the Disclosure Project, published in Greer, Steven M. Extraterrestrial Contact: The Evidence and Implications. Crossing Point Inc, →ISBN, page 8.
I will send you today a copy of the MILAB (Military Abductions) manuscript for review.

Military Abductions (MILABS)
Abductions conducted by members of the U.S. military for the purposes of either learning what happened to real alien abductees or as part of a military or CIA "mind control" program.

2004, Encyclopedic entry in William J. Birnes The UFO Magazine UFO Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Single-Volume UFO Reference in Print, Pocket Books, page 215

Whatever the answer might be, the idea of military involvement in abductions became a standard feature of the abduction scenario by the mid-1990s and, like the subject of implants, became a specialized focus for an on-going study by a small group of ufologists who formed Project MILAB.

2003, Brenda Denzler, The Lure of the Edge: Scientific Passions, Religious Beliefs, and the Pursuit of UFOs, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 62:

A deceitful military operation performed to convince the targets of the operation that they have had an encounter with extraterrestrial beings, though it is actually a staged ploy.


military abduction

en-noun

military abduction (plural military abductions)

1996 Helmut Lammer Ph.D. Preliminary Findings Of Project MILAB: Evidence For Military Kidnappings Of Alleged UFO Abductees published at The Alien Jigsaw, Mind Control Forums and on many other web sites.
Recently, some UFO abductees have reported that they have also been kidnapped by military intelligence personnel (MILAB) and taken to hospitals and/or military facilities, some of which are described as being underground.

1999 A letter from Dr. Helmut Lammer of the Austrian Space Agency to Dr. Steven Greer of the Disclosure Project, published in Greer, Steven M. Extraterrestrial Contact: The Evidence and Implications. Crossing Point Inc, →ISBN, page 8.
I will send you today a copy of the MILAB (Military Abductions) manuscript for review.

2004 Encyclopedic entry in William J. Birnes The UFO Magazine UFO Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Single-Volume UFO Reference in Print, Pocket Books, page 215

A deceitful military operation performed to convince the targets of the operation that they have had an encounter with extraterrestrial beings which is actually a staged ploy


gonk

A proprietary name of arbitrary formation.

I'm going off to have a gonk.

(New Zealand, military, slang) A sleep; a nap.


luck dragon

A calque of the German term Glücksdrache, coined in The Neverending Story (1983) (translated by Ralph Manheim from the original Die Unendliche Geschichte (1979) by Michael Ende).

2006 July 7, Douglas Sarine (guest), “'Pirates' Any Good? Ask a Ninja, If You Dare”, All Things Considered, National Public Radio
Like literally, the last line of the movie is a new plotline. It's a never-ending story, but with no luckdragon.

“I am Princess Tessiyon Windmere and captain of my ship I am to go back to. And yourself?” said she. / “I am Zandor, I am a luck dragon,” he replied. / “You sure are indeed. It was my luck that saved me, you came.”

2008, Kyann Zorain, The Stones of the Hidden Power: The Fight for Freedom, page 90:

His first magical creature was a bonsai tiger called Jack (of the tabby variety), followed by a small luck dragon named Daisy. Sometimes people mistook Daisy for a spaniel, but you could tell she was a luck dragon because she had big floppy ears.

2009 March 1, Sam Bowring, The Zoo of Magical and Mythological Creatures, Macmillan, preface:

I liked that there was no bright light but the perpetual clouds and drizzle were depressing. It was like The Nothing was coming. Too bad I couldn’t ride a luck dragon out of this place.

2010 March 15, Paul Y. Csige, The Symphony of Leif, CsiMec Incorporated, page 127

A fictitious flying dragon with a giant, elongated, wingless body and commonly a canine head, unfailing in its serendipity.


replicator

Why, this planet was still centuries away from developing such necessities as personal replicators or portable nano-intelligences...

2001, Greg Cox, The Eugenics Wars Vol I: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh (Star Trek), Star Trek, →ISBN, page 76:

either there is not such thing as a concept known as 'spacecraft' (inwhich case, any talk of spacecraft, warp drives, inertial dampers, replicators, and the like would be pointless), or indeed there is.

2001, Judith Barad, Ed Robertson, The Ethics of Star Trek, Harper Perennial, →ISBN, page 74:

The scanner here on Earth will destroy my brain and body, while recording the exact states of all of my cells. It will the transmit this information by radio. Travelling at the speed of light, the message will take three minutes to reach the Replicator on Mars. This will then create, out of new matter, a brain and body exactly like mine. It will be in this body that I shall wake up.

2007, Douglas Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop, Basic Books, →ISBN, pages 301–302:

(science fiction) A technological device that replicates physical objects.


Invisible Pink Unicorn

en-proper noun

Invisible Pink Unicorn (plural Invisible Pink Unicorns)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Invisible Pink Unicorn.wav

If you feel it is the duty of others to refute the claim, and not of yourself to support it, then how about refuting the existence of invisible pink unicorns?

1990 July 17, je kanker moeder, “Re: 'Proof' of God's Existence”, in alt.atheism (Usenet), retrieved 2010-09-30, message-ID <3704@qip.UUCP>:

Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them.

From a quite opposite perspective, an interesting departure of the 1990s (largely on the internet, and still flourishing) is the cult of the Invisible Pink Unicorn, which is at least in part a philosophical tool for examining the nature of religious faith from a skeptical point of view.

2007, Nigel Suckling, Unicorns, Facts, Figures, & Fun, →ISBN, page 94:

(Internet slang, humorous) A unicorn goddess who is simultaneously invisible and pink, used in arguments against faith in an unprovable deity.


straight man

Coordinate term: straight woman

For many years Bud Abbott served brilliantly as Lou Costello's deadpan straight man.

Recently he had successfully concluded a case featuring a poet who wore only latex, lived on liquorice allsorts and worshipped a horse she believed to be the reincarnation of Radclyffe Hall. And she was the straight man.

2010, Caroline Graham, A Ghost in the Machine, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

She was the straight man, he was the comedian, and their audience was “standing room only” when they stepped up to the microphone.

1982 April, Pam Hait, “Sandra Day O’Connor: Warm, Witty and Wise”, in The Ladies' Home Journal, volume 99, page 46:

(idiomatic) A member (of any gender) of a team of comic performers who plays a supporting role by helping to set up jokes and punch lines through engaging in dialog with another comedian playing a more eccentric or otherwise more interesting character; a foil who plays such a role in theatrical comedy.

hétköznapi embert/figurát játszó/alakító komikus

бе́лый кло́ун m (bélyj klóun, literally “white clown”)


mama's boy

He's such a mama's boy that he can't even ask a girl out for a date without his mother's approval.

And now we have plenty of mama’s boys who just want to have fun, who just want to —I don't know— use some women, have fun, have great sex, but they are not able to offer this responsibility in case something happens (!) so that’s why women, they are insecure because sex is something very precious that we have to offer; we women, because it’s our bodies, and our bodies, uhm, we become pregnant and men cannot become pregnant, so we bear all of these risks. And, for us, it’s a huge opening if we say yes to a man, if we give ourselves to a man, it’s not only that we open —uh, I’m sorry for the expression— our legs, but, it’s just that we open our heart and soul and we trust that this man is responsible; and if something happens (!) he will take action, he will be there (!) for us; he will behave... [nodding] like a man.

2020, Alexandra, 8:48–9:45 from the start, in Strong women and weak men, spoken by speaker, Family Code, via YouTube:

(informal, idiomatic, derogatory, Canada, US) A male who has a very close bond with his mother, and may consequently be perceived as soft or effeminate.


mulo

Borrowed from Romani mulo (“dead (man)”).


Beowulf

Learned borrowing from Old English Bēowulf, probably equivalent to bee + wolf, though the first element is uncertain.

lbor

Beowulf is as great a hero as Sigmund.

(poetic) An Anglo-Saxon personal name, usually with reference to the hero of the poem, or to the poem itself.


novum

en-noun

novum (countable and uncountable, plural novums or nova)

In his book Metamorphoses of Science Fiction (1979), Suvin introduced a number of ideas that remain central in sf criticism: cognitive estrangement, the novum and sf's genetic link with utopia.[…]Even more influential in sf theory than cognitive estrangement is Suvin's concept of the novum.[…]Suvin adopts the concept of the novum from the work of Ernst Bloch, for whom the term refers to those concrete innovations of lived history that awaken human collective consciousness out of a static present to awareness that history can be changed. The novum thus inspires hope for positive historical transformations.

2003, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., “7: Marxist theory and science fiction”, in Edward James, Farah Mendlesohn, editors, The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, Cambridge University Press, page 118:

It seems that this ‘point of difference’, the thing or things that differentiate the world portrayed in science fiction from the world we recognise around us, is the crucial separator between SF and other forms of imaginative or fantastic literature. The critic Darko Suvin has usefully coined the term ‘novum’, the Latin for ‘new’ or ‘new thing’, to refer to this ‘point of difference’ (the plural is ‘nova’). An SF text may be based on one novum, such as [...]. More usually it will be predicated on a number of interrelated nova, such as [...]. This ‘novum’ must not be supernatural but need not necessarily be a piece of technology.

2006, Adam Roberts, Science Fiction, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), pages 6–7:

cognitive estrangement
cognitive estrangement

(narratology, science fiction) An innovation which is fictional, but, following the logic of cognitive estrangement (characteristic of science fiction), is afforded plausibility by the assumption that the fictional setting is scientifically consistent.


Gilead

Another wrote: "Just to clarify women who chose not to take their husband's surname or have children with a partner they are not married to will be subject to increased border measures. This is what freedom looks like under a Tory government? Straight out of Gilead."

2018 August 3, Nicola Oakley, Emma Gill, “Parents with different surnames to their kids face questioning at UK airports on family holidays”, in Mirror (UK):

On Tuesday, the ACLU filed an official complaint with Meijer Pharmacy’s CEO for an incident that’s straight out of Gilead.

2018 October 18, Elura Nanos, “‘Good Catholic’ Pharmacist Doesn’t Know Difference Between Miscarriage and Abortion, But He’ll Learn in Court”, in Law & Crime:

"But people often don't understand these things. The same thing would apply, I think, when it comes to feminism, for example: people saying things about women or having views that they shouldn't have. It doesn't mean they're misogynist or straight out of Gilead."

2019 December 22, Barry Egan, quoting Leo Varadkar, “'He makes me laugh. He could get a job writing Christmas cracker jokes'”, in Independent:

(derogatory) An illiberal and oppressive place, especially on matters related to women's rights, reproduction, or sex (from the theocratic dystopia in Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale).


time-travel

Sequels to fish-out-of-water comedies make progressively less sense the longer a series continues. By the time Crocodile Dundee In Los Angeles rolled around in 2001, 15 years after the first Crocodile Dundee became a surprise blockbuster, the title character had been given an awfully long time to grow acclimated to those kooky Americans. Men In Black 3 finagles its way out of this predicament by literally resetting the clock with a time-travel premise that makes Will Smith both a contemporary intergalactic cop in the late 1960s and a stranger to Josh Brolin, who plays the younger version of Smith’s stone-faced future partner, Tommy Lee Jones.

2012 May 24, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, in The Onion AV Club:


Pinocchio

/pɪˈnəʊ.kɪ.əʊ/

Borrowed from Italian Pinocchio, possibly from the rare Tuscan form pinocchio (“pine nut”) or constructed from pino (“pine tree, pine wood”), also similar to Pino, diminutive of Giuseppe (“Joseph”), as is Geppetto (the maker of Pinocchio).


Southern belle

[S]he [Edwina, mother of Tennessee Williams] was indeed Amanda [Wingfield, character in Williams' play The Glass Menagerie] in the flesh: a doughty chatterbox from Ohio who adopted the manner of a Southern belle and eschewed both drink and sex to the greatest extent possible.

2014 November 14, Blake Bailey, “'Tennessee Williams,' by John Lahr [print version: Theatrical victory of art over life, International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 13]”, in The New York Times:

(US) A beautiful, archetypal (especially upper class) white woman of the Southern United States.


nahuelito

(in Argentina, cryptozoology, mythology) A large aquatic creature, similar to the Loch Ness monster, which supposedly lives in Nahuel Huapi Lake, Argentina.


amaru

A double-headed serpent in Inca and other Andean mythology.


trow

From Swedish or Norwegian troll. Doublet of troll, a later learned borrowing.

The Trows are of a diminutive stature, and they are usually dressed in gay green garments.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 261:


romcom

Shortening of romantic comedy. Probably based on the earlier sitcom.


SV

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
w:Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

(fandom slang) Initialism of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.


Grover

A number of places in the United States:

An abandoned town in Fremont Township, Winona County, Minnesota.

Codington County
Codington County#English

An unincorporated community in Codington County, South Dakota.

Marinette County
Marinette County#English


man Friday

man Friday (plural man Fridays or men Friday or men Fridays)

man Fridays (plural)
men Friday (plural)
men Fridays (plural)

From man (“adult male servant”) + Friday, coined by the English writer Daniel Defoe (c. 1660 – 1731) in his novel Robinson Crusoe (1719) as the name of the protagonist Crusoe’s companion and servant; he is rescued by Crusoe from cannibal captives on a Friday. Crusoe frequently refers to him as “my man Friday”.

nb...

of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years, All Alone in an Un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River Oroonoque; having been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein All the Men Perished but Himself. With an Account how He was at Last as Strangely Deliver’d by Pyrates.

This man—our lackey, our servant, our unquestioning slave though he was, was still a gentleman— […] We asked our man Friday’s name.

1869, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XIII, in The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims’ Progress; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company. […], →OCLC, page 119:

Nothing is less true, as far as intellectual initiative is concerned, than the idea that those who are good in obeying will also be good in commanding. Very similar difficulties arise in political parties: the ‘Man Friday’ of the party leader is seldom a capable successor.

1945, K[arl] R[aimund] Popper, “The Principle of Leadership”, in The Open Society and Its Enemies, 4th edition, volume I (The Spell of Plato), London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, published 1962, section V, page 135:

A trusted man whose job is to assist and organize someone else's day-to-day business or personal tasks; a personal assistant, a right-hand man; also, a trusted male companion.


flying brick

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

(informal, chiefly humorous) A fictional character who has superstrength, invulnerability and the ability to fly.


kelpie

The dog breed derives from the name shared by the first two breeding bitches (dam and pup), which name derives from the mythological spirit.

He was a boy in form, and an antediluvian in feature. Some thought he was a mule, between a Jew and an ape; some a wizard, some a kelpie, or a fairy, but most of all, that he was really and truly a Brownie.

1828, James Hogg, The Brownie of the Black Haggs:

(Celtic mythology) A malevolent shapeshifting spirit, most often in the form of a horse, believed to haunt the rivers and lochs of Scotland.


supervillain

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

A fantasy-fiction criminal or evil-doer, often with supernatural powers or equipment, in popular children's and fantasy literature who can present a credible challenge for a superhero.

суперзлодей

a fictional criminal or evil-doer with superpowers


auton

Coined by Robert Holmes in 1969, from a contraction of automaton.

Not far away in the woods the Auton had been standing motionless under a tree. It was shaped like a man but it was not human.

1974, Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion, page 55:

Juan made seven attempts to pervert the auton. One involved twelve hundred years of careful observation, timing the failure of various subsystems, maneuvering the auton into a position where he might take control and get transportation to resources in near space.

1986, Vernor Vinge, Marooned in Realtime:

"The Metrologan Order built the auton that was Ninth. How can you be so sure that she was not so well crafted that she really did have her own will?"

2002, Sean McMullen, Voyage of the Shadowmoon, page 461:

(science fiction) A machine or robot, usually in the form of a living being, designed to follow a precise sequence of instructions.


Alucard

/ˈæləˌkɑː(ɹ)d/

(chiefly fiction) A male given name originating as a coinage, often used in Dracula or vampire-related fiction.


living dead

(fiction, usually with the) The undead; zombies, vampires, etc.


dangler

/ˈdæŋɡlə(ɹ)/

Similarly, participles ending in “ing” often cause danglers in scientific writing: […]

2014, Silvia M. Rogers, Mastering Scientific and Medical Writing: A Self-help Guide, page 43:

(grammar, informal) A dangling modifier, especially a dangling participle.


James Bond villain

en-noun

James Bond villain (plural James Bond villains)


Robinson Crusoe

A Robinson Crusoe economy

(attributive, by extension) Something isolated and independent.


precognitive

en-adj

precognitive (comparative more precognitive, superlative most precognitive)

more precognitive (comparative)
most precognitive (superlative)

Pertaining to the ability to see or predict future events.


precognitive

(science fiction) A precognitive person, a seer.


astronavigation

(science fiction) Navigation through space


Holmesian

So great a protest arose from 20,000 Holmesians, including Queen Victoria and her family, that Doyle revived the character in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), “The Adventure of the Empty House” (1903), and “The Adventure of the Second Stain” (1904).

2005, Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Encyclopedia of Gothic Literature, Facts on File, published 2005, →ISBN, page 179:

After the decision was made, a group of local Holmesians in charge of planning the exhibition decided to re-create the sitting room at 221b Baker Street.

2010, Steven Doyle, David A. Crowder, Sherlock Holmes for Dummies, Wiley Publishing, Inc., published 2010, →ISBN, page 290:

Sunday's episode, the first of three installments, is "A Study in Pink," a nod to the 1887 Doyle novel "A Study in Scarlet" that introduced the Holmes character and a title that could be the equivalent of waving a red flag in front of traditional Holmesians.

2010 October 21, Ellen Gray, “Get clued in on the 'Masterpiece Mystery!: Sherlock' miniseries”, in Philadelphia Inquirer:

A fan of the character Sherlock Holmes; one who studies or enjoys the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.


Tom Sawyer

The verb is a reference to the title character of the novel.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a popular 1876 novel by Mark Twain about a young boy growing up in the Antebellum South on the Mississippi River.


Oscar the Grouch

If I'd had a trash can I'd have looked a lot like Oscar the Grouch.

1989, Linda Gray Sexton, Points of Light, Harper Mass Market Paperbacks,, →ISBN, page 97:

The room was equipped with a drum and drumsticks, two large balls, three large building blocks, a stuffed cloth horse, a train large enough to sit on, and a pop-up “Oscar the Grouch” toy. The procedure lasted ten minutes.

1989, J. Steven Reznick, Perspectives on Behavioral Inhibition, University of Chicago Press,, →ISBN, page 27:

Meanwhile Brooke was sitting on Mother’s lap sucking on her pacifier while Terri build a low enclosed building with two sheep inside and Oscar-the-Grouch coming outside.

1989, Joan J. Zilbach, Children in Family Therapy: Treatment and Training, Haworth Press,, →ISBN, page 166:

“You got a bank at home?”
“Yes, my piggy bank.”
“Ah. What kinda bank is it?”
“Oscar the Grouch. Uncle D gave it to me for my birthday, remember?”

2002, James Earl Hardy, The Day Eazy-E Died, Alyson Publishing, →ISBN, page 78:

You thought something was funny when Dad donned his Oscar the Grouch suit and hopped in the trash can after the evening news, rope in hand.

2002, Jennifer Hanson, “The Real Freshman Handbook”, in A Totally Honest Guide to Life on Campus, Houghton Mifflin Books, page 41:

Nicholas was hopeful that the pop culture displays would give them something to talk about. It didn't. Fran and Ron gave a cursory acknowledgement to Howdy Doody, Oscar the Grouch, and only a brief glace at Dorothy’s ruby-red slippers.

2004, Paul McCusker, The Mill House, Zondervan, page 105

I notice a pair of Oscar the Grouch flip-flops, standing in the last stall.

2003, Laurie Faria Stolarz, Blue Is for Nightmares, Llewellyn Worldwide,, →ISBN, page 82:

Cranky employees harassed by justifiably cranky customers ... Oscar the Grouch would be thrilled. Investors, not so much.

2007, “Tim Beyers, Quick Take: United Undone”, in The Motley Fool:

A cranky, antisocial puppet character who lives in a garbage can, from the children's television show Sesame Street.


kirin

Borrowed from Japanese 麒(き)麟(りん) (kirin), from Middle Chinese. Doublet of qilin.

Synonym of qilin; typically used in Japanese contexts.


jack in

en-verb

jack in (third-person singular simple present jacks in, present participle jacking in, simple past and past participle jacked in)

jacks in (present singular third-person)
jacking in (participle present)
jacked in (participle past)
jacked in (past)

Watchman replaced him in the linkup seat. He jacked himself into the computer.

1970 June, Robert Silverberg, “The Tower of Glass”, in Galaxy Science Fiction, volume 30, number 3, page 141:

Seven days and he'd jack in. If he closed his eyes now, he'd see the matrix.

1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 37:

She couldn't move, not without that extra skeleton, and it was jacked straight into her brain, myoelectric interface.

1986, William Gibson, “Winter Market”, in Burning Chrome, page 129:

(science fiction, transitive, intransitive) To connect a brain directly to a computer.


Regan

A minor city in Burleigh County, North Dakota, United States.


Earthian

en-adj

Earthian (comparative more Earthian, superlative most Earthian)

more Earthian (comparative)
most Earthian (superlative)

Septimus Spink, sole survivor of the Earthian space ship...

1955. Fantastic Universe: Science Fiction, Great American Publications: 1955, page 41

An Earthian metallurgist could tell very easily that 'aluminum' was molybdenum...

1975. Hilary Putnam. Mind, Language, and Reality. Cambridge University Press: 1975, page 226

Nowadays speakers on Twin Earth are well aware (thanks to chemistry) that their word 'water' does not refer to the Earthian stuff.

1997. Diego Marconi. Lexical Competence. MIT Press: 1997, page 174

(science fiction) Of or from the planet Earth.


Earthian

I inquired of one prominent Earthian: "What's of constructing ships and buildings...?"

1940. America: A Catholic Review of the Week, America Press: 1940, page 420

I most likely will be the second Earthian to reach that planet. ...

1955. Fantastic Universe: Science Fiction, Great American Publications, 1955, page 41

(science fiction) A person from planet Earth.


Earthian

According to Fodor's definition, it follows that 'water' in Twin Earthian means XYZ and not H2O.

1997. Diego Marconi. Lexical Competence. MIT Press: 1997, page 102

I thought the females spoke Earthian to you. Improving their Earthian was why they asked for a couple.

2004. Sheri S. Tepper. The Companions. HarperCollins: 2004, page 79

(science fiction, rare) A universal language spoken on Earth.


Earthite

(science fiction, nonstandard) A person from planet Earth.


Earthan

(rare, science fiction, nonstandard) A person or thing from planet Earth; an Earthling.


Earthan

Earthan (comparative more Earthan, superlative most Earthan)

more Earthan (comparative)
most Earthan (superlative)

When, for unknown reasons, gene-splicing with Earthan reptiles had failed to take, scientists had turned to the sea dragons found on the water world of Aquatilis, home planet of the merpeople.

2008, Crystal Jordan, Carnal Desires, page 59:

(rare, science fiction, nonstandard) Of or from planet Earth.


noonday devil

ακηδία ακηδία#Greek

A demon, thought to be active at the noon hour, that inclines its victims (usually monastics) to restlessness, excitability and inattention to their duties. Used as a synonym for acedia (Greek ακηδία (akidía)).


disrupter

(science fiction) An energy weapon in the form of a pistol.


sophont

From sopho- + -ont. First used in the 1966 works by Poul Anderson, coined by his wife Karen Anderson.

Likewise with the psychology of intelligent species. Most sophonts indeed possess basic instincts which diverge more or less from man's. With those of radically alien motivations we have little contact.

I'm honored to meet a sophont of the Soro line in person!

Evil, they argued, could only have meaning on smaller scales, in the hurt that one sophont does to another.

1992, Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep, Tor Books, page 406:

Only one sophont appeared to be involved—and not a sophisticated one.

1997, Spider Robinson, Lifehouse, Baen Books, page 2:

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence

(chiefly science fiction) An intelligent being; a being with a base reasoning capacity roughly equivalent to or greater than that of a human being. The word does not apply to machines unless they have true artificial intelligence, rather than mere processing capacity.


presto change-o

"It doesn't just go one, two, three, presto, change-o, you're cured."

1975, Laura Keane Zametkin Hobson, Consenting Adult, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 85:

1984, Audrey Wood, Presto Change-O, Child's Play, →ISBN:

Then tell them to read the sentence on the front of each flap, open the flap, and read the sentence inside. Presto Change-o! Common nouns are transformed into proper nouns, right before nouns, right before their eyes!

2001, Karen Kellaher, Writing Skills Made Fun: Parts of Speech, →ISBN, page 13:

But then that little psychopath Willie Bosket murdered a couple of subway riders for the hell of it when he was fifteen and -- presto change-o! -- a new law was born.

2006, Peter Blauner, Slipping Into Darkness: A Novel, Little, Brown, →ISBN, page 3:

(informal) Alternative form of presto chango


WIA

(military fiction) Initialism of wounded in action.


hellhound

From Middle English helle hound; equivalent to hell + hound.

From forth the kennell of thy wombe hath crept / A Hell-hound that doth hunt vs all to death:

c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 195, column 2:

Barricading serves not: fly fast, ye Bodyguards; rabid Insurrection, like the hellhound Chase, uproaring at your heels!

1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter X, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book VII (The Insurrection of Women):

(mythology) A demonic dog of hell, typically of unnatural size, strength or speed, with black fur, glowing eyes, and ghostly or phantom characteristics.


tricorder

The name of such a device in Star Trek, from tri- (referring to its three input keys, which by default cover geological, meteorological, and biological functions) + (re)corder

PLEASE TURN OFF ALL CELL PHONES AND TRICORDERS

1999-2003, Matt Groening, opening title screen from the start, in Futurama, FOX Television Network:

(fiction) A fictional futuristic handheld device used for scanning, which may be specialized for medical, technical, or other purposes.


Antarctican

...customs which the Antarcticans might have. How he wished he had made the trip alone, and need not share with Adam the scientific triumphs to come!
Of course she was—the daughter of Morrison, Hull’s companion who had befriended and protected him against the Antarcticans.

1935, Edison Marshall, Dian of the Lost Land, H. C. Kinsey & Company, Inc., pages 53 and 62

Had the US Navy icebreakers been unable to rescue them from the ice in early 1948 her child might have been the first native-born Antarctican.

1956, Walter Sullivan, Quest for a Continent, McGraw-Hill, page 273:

Gonneville departed this enchanted land...taking with him...an “Indian” prince called Essomeric. The land was not, of course, the southern continent, and Essomeric was not an Antarctican. De Gonneville had probably been to southern Brazil.

2001, Kieran Mulvaney, At the Ends of the Earth: History of the Polar Regions, Island Press, →ISBN, page 67:

Recall the exercise at the end of the previous chapter, and imagine that you discover just one Antarctican, and you measure his or her body temperature. If you know the population mean for Antarcticans (perhaps it is 98.6°F), then you have one piece of information about variability.

2004, R. Brooke Lea, Barry H. Cohen, Essentials of Statistics for the Social and Behavioral Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., →ISBN, page 45:

Part of the reason is that there is an indigenous tradition of consuming seals in the north for subsistence, whereas sealing in the south was done almost exclusively for commercial reasons, there being no native Antarcticans.

2006, William L. Fox, Driving to Mars, Shoemaker & Hoard, →ISBN, page 227:

(fiction or hypothetical) A native of Antarctica.


neverland

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

From Never + land. The term was most famously used in J.M. Barrie's Book, Peter Pan, as the name of the fictional island that the Darling children visit with the title character. Compare Utopia, which is semantically Ancient Greek οὐ (ou, “not, no”) + τόπος (tópos, “place, region”).

affix

An ideal or imaginary place; a dreamworld.


Peter Pan

From the eponymous character in the novel Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.

"A Peter Pan if ever there was one. Hopeless at school. Incapable either of competing or co-operating."

A man who acts like a child and does not accept the responsibilities of adulthood.


vila

Borrowed from Serbo-Croatian víla and Slovene vila.

"The Vilas (fairies) live there, and they will certainly put out your eyes as they have put out mine, if you venture on their mountain."

1874, Elodie Lawton Mijatovic, Serbian Folklore:

She is answered, fittingly enough, by a vila, who declares that she is more beautiful than the girl.

1995, Albert Bates Lord, The Singer Resumes the Tale, page 52:

Duly married, the couple lived for some time in peace and contentment, until one day Marko boasted that his wife was a vila, whereupon she put on her wings and flew away.

1998, Mike Dixon-Kennedy, Encyclopedia of Russian and Slavic Myth and Legend, page 302:

(Slavic mythology) A type of female nature spirit in Slavic mythology, similar in some ways to a fairy or nymph.


cloaked

(science fiction) rendered invisible by advanced technology.


dragoness

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

But what really catches my attention about this dragoness is her thick tail, which looks to be twice as thick as a normal dragon tail. And I really don't know how to say this, except to say that this dragoness is seriously luscious. Maybe that's a terrible thing to say because I'm dying and all, but there it is. This is one seriously juicy-looking dragonette.

2018, Gabe Hudson, “What a Fitting Place for me to Die, Here in the Belly of the Beast”, in Gork, the Teenage Dragon, page 202:

(fantasy, especially furry fandom) A female dragon.


dobby

en-noun

dobby (countable and uncountable, plural dobbies)

(chiefly Nottingham) The children's game of tag.


torcher

/ˈtɔːt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

-ɔː(ɹ)tʃə(ɹ)

(science fiction) The pilot of a spacecraft propelled by a torch drive (a spacecraft engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion).


waitron

(dated, science fiction) A robotic or mechanical waiter.


Captain Kirk

From a character in Star Trek, 1960s science-fiction TV series.

1984, Nena, 99 Red Balloons (English version of 99 Luftballons from 1983).
Everyone's a superhero. Everyone's a Captain Kirk.

There may be times when he is undone by his genius and it is the emotion-rich perspective of a Captain Kirk that finally saves the day, but this is the "mystery of being human."

1999, Peter D. Hershock, Reinventing the Wheel: A Buddhist Response to the Information Age, page 90:

Whatever the crisis may be, Captain Kirk is always at the helm making the decisions.

2003, Dan A. Kimball, The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations:

Flight engineer is not exactly a Captain Kirk position, either. But so what?

A heroic person, particularly one with exaggerated bravery and leadership characteristics.


mandragora

mandragora (countable and uncountable, plural mandragoras)

/ˌmænˈdɹæɡ.ə.ɹə/

From Medieval Latin mandragora, from Latin mandragorās.

—though she did not know whether her supposed rival was dead or alive, whether the complaints she at once pitied and resented were those which "poppy and mandragora" might medicine, or "those written troubles of the brain" which were incapable of cure, she contrived to make up for herself a draught of most terrible infliction.

1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXVIII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 56:

The worst fodder for a President is not poppy and mandragora, but strychnine and adrenalin.

1933 January 30, H.L. Mencken, “The Coolidge Mystery”, in H.L. Mencken On Politics, published 1996, →ISBN, page 136:

Mandrake (genus Mandragora); often specifically mandrake root, traditionally used as a narcotic.

(fantasy) A kind of tiny dragon immune to fire.


unbibium

systematic element name
systematic element name

The systematic element name for the (as yet undiscovered) chemical element with atomic number 122 (symbol Ubb).


warp bubble

Coined in 1994 by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre.

(astrophysics, science fiction) A detached region of spacetime which is theoretically capable of moving faster than the speed of light.


supercee

Presumed super- + cee, a respelling of the physics symbol c (denoting the speed of light in a vacuum; an abbreviation of both English constant and Latin celeritas (“swiftness”)).

But Man had always been a restless, persistent creature, and the stars called, and in an incredibly short space of time a highly-ingenious refinement of the theta drive gave him supercee.
“What I can’t understand, Psy, is why in the name of Mira the Terrans couldn’t have been admitted to the Federation as soon as they developed supercee. […]”
Offhand I’d say that the Terrans, when they hit on the secret of star-driving a planet, which isn’t much of a trick once the supercee principle is clearly understood, decided to go off on a hunt round the galaxy for a see-tee system.

1930, Information Access Company, Analog Science Fiction/science Fact, pp63, 73, & 77

1960, AUTHOR UNKNOWN, Astounding Science-fiction, pp70, 72, & 73; presumed to be an earlier work (1930 or earlier), as quotations 2 and 3 also appear in:

^({1})“[…] A couple of … after the last rescue ship had lif … into space and shifted into the … of supercee, the star exploded.”
^({2})“Surely you know the answer to that one,” he said after a moment or two, “or have you forgotten all about a little thing called the decrement effect?” The Psychologist nodded. “Precisely. The decrement effect. The factor that makes supercee — supercee as we know it, that is — inoperable in intergalactic space.” He looked thoughtful. “I don’t think anyone’s yet evolved a satisfactory theory to account for the existence of the effect. The only thing that’s certain is that it’s tied up in some way with gravity fields — or, rather, with the absence of g-fields.” He shrugged.
^({3})“What I can’t understand, Psy, is why in the name of Mira the Terrans couldn’t have been admitted to the Federation as soon as they developed supercee. […]”

1930, Information Access Company, Analog Science Fiction/science Fact, page 72:

The core was virtually unreachable at supercee velocities. So the Lost Star’s bleep has been sounding for eighty years, and no ship has reached her.

1979, Frank Northen Magill, Survey of Science Fiction Literature, Salem Press, →ISBN, page 937:

(rare, science fiction) Faster-than-light travelling speed.


love potion

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

One love potion was composed of the powdered navel string of a new-born baby boy.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 82:

I took my troubles down to Madame Ruth
 You know that gypsy with the gold-capped tooth
 She's got a pad down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
 Sellin' little bottles of Love Potion Number Nine.

1959, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (lyrics and music), “Love Potion No. 9”, performed by The Clovers:

A drink supposed to have the magic power to make the drinker fall in love with a specified person.


Rayne

A surname transferred from the given name, variant of Raine.

A city in Acadia Parish, Louisiana, United States

A township in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, United States.

A village and civil parish in Braintree district, Essex, England (OS grid ref TL7222).


Tatzelwurm

Men had been known to quit work here, claiming that the Tatzelwurms were becoming enraged by all the drilling and explosions.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 736:

(cryptozoology) A worm-like cryptid reported to live in the Alps.


aegipan

From Latin Aegipān, from Hellenistic Ancient Greek Αἰγίπαν (Aigípan), from αἴξ (aíx, “goat”) + Πάν (Pán, “Pan”).

there were passages in Pomponius Mela, about the old African Satyrs and Oegipans, over which Usher would sit dreaming for hours.

1839, Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher:

"No," Shin said, "I don't think that folk who were warned that you were arriving on an ogre would be terrified to learn that an aegipan was part of the group also. Though I'm flattered that you'd consider such a possibility."

2007, David Drake, The Mirror of Worlds:

(Greek mythology) A goat-like creature resembling a satyr, sometimes portrayed as having a fish's tail.