Palookaville

From palooka (“a stupid or oafish person”) + -ville. Popularized in On the Waterfront (1954).

suffix

But what holds it is the working-class poetry of Derek Ahonen’s script, with the “broken down dreams” and a “gutter full of empty stomachs” of a hard-boiled era of soulful stiffs and dreamers going nowhere. It’s the speeded-up sound of a return trip to Palookaville.

2010 March 15, Jason Zinoman, “Dreams Die Hard, Even in Palookaville”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Ram’s descent plays out against a backdrop of New York as Palookaville, full of free-floating hostility and natives who spout movie-bred clichés.

2012 September 7, Rachel Saltz, “Living in a Material World”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US) An imaginary town, the natural home of the mediocre and incompetent.


gender bender

(by extension) An event where people are encouraged to dress in the clothes of another sex, even if they would normally not.

(fantasy) A person capable of changing their physical sex.

(fantasy) An instance of someone's physical sex being changed, usually via magic.


Fu Manchu

The first book with the character was The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu, from 1913.

A series of books by British author Sax Rohmer about a villain that sports a Fu Manchu moustache, and other media based on them, such as comic books and movies.


Uranian

en-adj

Uranian (comparative more Uranian, superlative most Uranian)

more Uranian (comparative)
most Uranian (superlative)

Aphrodite Pandemos
Aphrodite Urania
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
Louvre
Plato

From Latin Ūrania (“muse of astronomy in Greek mythology”) + -an (suffix forming agent nouns). Ūrania is derived from Ancient Greek Οὐρᾰνῐ́ᾱ (Ourănĭ́ā, “muse of astronomy”), from οὐράνιος (ouránios, “of or relating to the sky, celestial, heavenly”) (from οὐρανός (ouranós, “the sky; heaven, home of the gods; the universe”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁wers- (“rain”)) + -ιος (-ios, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘pertaining to’).
The alternative form Ouranian is derived from Ancient Greek οὐράνιος (ouránios).
Adjective sense 2 (“homosexual”) and the noun sense (“a homosexual”) refer to Plato’s work Symposium (c. 385–370 B.C.E.), where the goddess Aphrodite, in her heavenly aspect Aphrodite Urania (see adjective sense 3) is described as inspiring a noble form of affection between older and younger men. Compare German Urning (“a homosexual, Uranian”), Urnigtum (“homosexuality”), also referring to Aphrodite Urania, coined by the German writer Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825–1895) in 1864. By the 1900s, the use of the word in this sense had largely been supplanted by homosexual (see further at that entry). The term is no longer mainstream and is almost never used in modern contexts, though it has enjoyed a slight revival as a term for "gay man" as an analogue to lesbian.

der

/jʊˈɹeɪnɪən/

Hence is that secret pardon we bestow / In the true instinct of the grateful heart, / Upon the Sons of Song. The good they do / In the clear world of their Uranian art / Endures for ever; while the evil done / In the poor drama of the mortal scene, / Is but a passing cloud before the sun; [...]

1853, Edward Bulwer[-]Lytton, “The Ideal World”, in The Poetical and Dramatic Works of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart., volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, stanza IV, page 317:

Hail thou! sole Muse that, in an age of toil, / Of all the old Uranian sisterhood, / Art left to light us o'er the furrowed soil, / Of this laborious star!

1859, Owen Meredith [pseudonym; Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton], “Epilogue”, in The Wanderer, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, part III, stanza I, page 424:

At first sight the winds would appear to be if anything Ouranian powers of the upper air, yet it seems that sacrifices to the winds were buried, not burnt.

1903, Jane Ellen Harrison, “The Anthesteria. The Ritual of Ghosts and Spirits.”, in Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: At the University Press, →OCLC, page 67:

[T]hose deities which are called ‘chthonic’ or earthly are, as a matter of fact, not in any sense deities of the earth. They are, in one of their aspects associated with the ‘underworld,’ but that underworld is but a segment of their cycle; they are deities of the underworld not because they appertain to the earth or are in any sense a personification of it, but because they are, on the contrary, heavenly bodies which, in the course of their cycle, pass under the earth. They are therefore just as much ‘uranian’ as are the Olympians.

1927, Robert Briffault, “The Great Mothers”, in The Mothers: A Study of the Origins of Sentiments and Institutions, volume III, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, pages 146–147:

If he [the Hindu god Varuna] cannot be classed exclusively among the "gods of the sky" he nevertheless has qualities proper to the ouranian divinities. He is visva-darsata, "everywhere visible", he "separated the two worlds", the wind is his breath; [...]

1991, Mircea Eliade, “The ‘God who Binds’ and the Symbolism of Knots”, in Philip Mairet, transl., Images and Symbols: Studies in Religious Symbolism, Mythos paperback edition, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, pages 96–97:

Conversely, Kenneth Anger's only widely released film since 1972, Lucifer Rising (1980), uses a megalithic temple (not Stonehenge) and a number of ancient Egyptian sites in a Crowleyan ritual hymn to chthonian and ouranian deities of power and light.

2002, P. Adams Sitney, “The End of the 20th Century”, in Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde 1943–2000, 3rd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 417:

(comparable, literary, poetic) Celestial, heavenly; uranic.

uranien

celestial, heavenly — see also celestial, heavenly

To have altered my life would have been to have admitted that Uranian love is ignoble. I hold it to be noble – more noble than other forms.

1898 February 18?, Oscar Wilde, “Letter to Robert Ross”, in Merlin Holland, Rupert Hart-Davis, editors, The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, published 2000, →ISBN, page 1019:

His [Plato's] Philosophical Eros is not the Uranian Eros which possessed the nation, and the Uranian doctrine is not primarily either philosophical or paederastic. It is a value attached to the masculine which included philosophy as masculine and paederasty when not anti-masculine, but was itself the idea and form of virtue.

1930, Arthur Lyon Raile [pseudonym; Edward Perry Warren], “The Uranian Idea”, in A Defence of Uranian Love, part the second (The Uranian Eros), [London]: Privately printed, →OCLC, pages 19–20:

Before these ideals would once again become available to "homosexuality" as a positive social identity, however, the Uranian modality of male love would be rejected by the avant-garde itself as an outworn fashion.

1994, Linda [C.] Dowling, “The Higher Sodomy”, in Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 134:

[Edward] Carpenter was disappointed by these meetings with [Walt] Whitman but began to integrate a positive homosexual view into his socialist writings. Carpenter saw the Uranian (homosexual) spirit to be more enlightened than that of the common man and believed that Uranians were the new prophets of the coming social revolution.

2003, Chuck Stewart, “Biographical Sketches”, in Gay and Lesbian Issues: A Reference Handbook (Contemporary World Issues), Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 138:

Through Veiled Eyes [by John Moray Stuart-Young, published in 1908] was produced by a specialist Uranian publisher for circulation to a specialist Uranian readership, and it required the audience to identify with an adult narrator who spends the bulk of one summer "grooming" an English boy for physical intimacy. This is the sexual scenario most likely to inspire public violence in contemporary Britain, [...] Set in the context of Uranian art, however, it is possible to regard this as a desire fated to be celibate, if only by the status of the angelic love object in the real world as a "real boy, grubby, ink-stained, insolent, uncomprehending of Uranian passion and rebuffing its smallest manifestations." Such a forgiving perspective is one of the few options available to literary critics wishing to avoid the discomfort of drawing biographical conclusions from the material produced by Uranian authors such as Stuart-Young.

2006, Stephanie Newell, “‘Uranian’ Love in West Africa”, in The Forger’s Tale: The Search for Odeziaku (New African Histories), Athens, Oh.: Ohio University Press, →ISBN, page 86:

(comparable, literary, archaic) Homosexual; also, pederastic; relating to a man's erotic love for adolescent boys; (specifically) of poetry: conveying appreciation for young men.

For assuredly are there two Venuses; one, the eldest, the daughter of Uranus, born without a mother, whom we call the Uranian; the other younger, the daughter of Jupiter and Dione, whom we call the Pandemian;—of necessity must there also be two Loves, the Uranian and Pandemian companions of these goddesses. [...] [T]he attendant on the other, the Uranian, whose nature is entirely masculine, is the Love who inspires us with affection, and exempts us from all wantonness and libertinism.

a. 1822, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Banquet. Translated from Plato.”, in Mrs. Shelley [i.e., Mary Shelley], editor, Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments, … In Two Volumes, volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, published 1840, →OCLC, page 86:

That this is indeed the general tendency of his [Pausanias of Athens'] speech is made clear by two remarks that follow immediately upon his differentiating the Pandemian from the Uranian gods. [...] But what is true for Aphrodite seems to be a contradiction in terms: she is both one and two and all gods must be praised—both Uranian and Pandemian—and yet only the Uranian ought to be praised [...].

2010, Steven Berg, “Pausanias: Noble Lies and the Fulfillment of Greekness”, in Eros and the Intoxications of Enlightenment: On Plato’s Symposium (SUNY Series in Ancient Greek Philosophy), Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Athens and Enlightenment), page 27:

(not comparable, Greek mythology, Roman mythology) Of Aphrodite Urania, the heavenly aspect of the Greek goddess of beauty and love Aphrodite and her Roman counterpart Venus, as contrasted with the earthly aspect known as Aphrodite Pandemos: heavenly, spiritual.

Graced by nurses (art's nurse highly grac'd him) / Who fed him with pure marrow of the Muses; / And when he list, with moisture to refresh him, / He drunke cleare Helicon: cleare from abuses, / He bent his mind to pure Vranian vses, / Vranianie him did to heau'n vpreare: / And made to man, him demi-god appeare.

1600, Cyril Tourneur, The Transformed Metamorphosis, [London]: Printed by Valentine Sims, […], →OCLC; republished in John Churton Collins, editor, The Plays and Poems of Cyril Tourneur: […] In Two Volumes, volume II, London: Chatto and Windus, […], 1878, →OCLC, page 213:

Actually, this little girl-child should have been as happy as a lark. But, she wasn't. This is because her Bengali genes had her continually wish to be a Sarasvati, or Uranian Muse, to all the males who came within her ambit – incessantly inspiring them to great works of Art or Scientific discoveries.

2007, Vivek Iyer, chapter 8, in Samlee’s Daughter: A Novel, Great Britain: Polyglot Publications, →ISBN, section I:

(not comparable, Greek mythology, dated) Relating to Urania, the Muse of astronomy.


Uranian

Aphrodite Pandemos
Aphrodite Urania
Louvre
Voyager 2

/jʊˈɹeɪnɪən/

[T]he fury of a fiery hot-brained Marsian, may kindle immediate and incessant wrangling and feuds; whilst a quiet placid Uranian, in his turn, may yet at times be excessively annoyed, ay, worried and tormented, by the tardiness, listlessness and inactivity of his dronish companion.

1839, A Fantastical Excursion into the Planets, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, page 172:

And obviously, since the year of the Uranians lasts 84 of our years, the continuance of the sun above the horizon would last for many years. [...] And as with the summer day, so with the winter night, years elapse before either comes to an end. For upwards of 20 years, in a latitude corresponding to that of London, the Uranians—if there are any—never see the small Uranian sun.

1872, Richard A[nthony] Proctor, “Uranus and Neptune, the Arctic Planets”, in Other Worlds than Ours: The Plurality of Worlds Studied under the Light of Recent Scientific Researches, 3rd edition, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, pages 171–172:

(chiefly science fiction) An inhabitant of the planet Uranus.


helicopter parent

en-noun

helicopter parent (plural helicopter parents)

From the tendency to hover over their children's lives, like a helicopter.

A parent who pays an inordinate amount of attention to their children and often makes decisions, particularly educational ones, normally the province of the student.


Narnia

Named by C. S. Lewis after the Latin name of the Italian town of Narni.

(fantasy) A land in which a series of seven children's books, The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis are set.


extrasensory

extrasensory perception
extrasensory perception

Of or relating to extrasensory perception.

mimosmyslový

of or relating to extrasensory perception


extrasensory perception

/ˌɛkstɹəˈsɛnsəɹi pəˈsɛpʃən/

The supposed ability to obtain information without the use of normal sensory channels.


retrocognition

retrocognition (usually uncountable, plural retrocognitions)

/ˌɹɛtɹəʊkɒɡˈnɪʃən/

(parapsychology) extrasensory knowledge of past events.


fanfic

fanfic (countable and uncountable, plural fanfics)

Russian: фа́нфик (fánfik)

Ukrainian: фанфі́к (fanfík)

Etymology tree
English fanatic
English fancyinflu.
English fan
English fiction
English fan fiction
English fanfic
Clipping of fan fiction.


destroyer

/dəˈstɹɔɪ.ɚ/

From destroy + -er. Designating a warship, it is ellipsis of torpedo-boat destroyer, the longer term appearing at the end of the 19th century and the shorter form early in the 20th.

(military, nautical) A larger warship with guided missile armament, usually intended for air defence or anti-ship roles. Often, but not always, larger than a frigate and smaller than a cruiser.

(science fiction, by extension) A starship of comparable role.


sentient

en-adj

sentient (comparative more sentient, superlative most sentient)

more sentient (comparative)
most sentient (superlative)

From Latin sentiēns (“feeling, perceiving”), present active participle of sentiō.

Not even a microbe? I don't want to blow up something that could evolve into a sentient species in a couple of billion years.

2002, André Bormanis, “Silent Enemy”, in Star Trek: Enterprise, season 1, episode 12, spoken by Jonathan Archer:

Lemoine has been placed on “paid administrative leave” after publishing a transcript of conversations with LaMDA which he claims support his belief that the chatbot is sentient and comparable to a seven- or eight-year-old child. […] While Lemoine no doubt genuinely believes his claims, LaMDA is likely to be as sentient as a traffic light.

2022 June 14, Toby Walsh, “Labelling Google’s LaMDA chatbot as sentient is fanciful. But it’s very human to be taken in by machines”, in The Guardian:

After more than 25 years as an artificial intelligence researcher[…]Dr. Goertzel knew he had finally reached the end goal: Desdemona, a machine he had built, was sentient. But a few minutes later, he realized this was nonsense.

2022 August 5, Cade Metz, “A.I. Is Not Sentient. Why Do People Say It Is?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(loosely, chiefly science fiction) Possessing human-like awareness and intelligence.

բանական

science fiction: possessing human-like awareness, knowledge and intelligence


sentient

The merpeople and the sentients who lived on the beach often hitched rides on these creatures, steering them by pressure on exposed nerve centers.

1965, Philip José Farmer, The Maker of Universes:

(loosely, chiefly science fiction) An intelligent, self-aware being.


cockatrice

First attested 1382 as Middle English cocatrice (“basilisk”), from Old French cocatriz, from Late Latin calcātrīx (“she who treads upon something”), from Latin calcō (“tread”), from calx (“heel, hoof”).

der

“Peace reigns in happy Luxor. The lion lies down with the lamb, and the child, if it will, may harmlessly put its hand into the cockatrice’s den.”

c. 1910, Joseph Walker McSpadden, The Spell of Egypt:

(mythology) A legendary creature about the size and shape of a dragon or wyvern, but in appearance resembling a giant rooster, with some lizard-like characteristics.

For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 8:17:

(fantasy, folklore) A snake or serpent that appears to be hatched from a rooster, or cock's, egg.

this little cockatrice of a king

1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:

(obsolete, figurative) Any venomous or deadly thing.


bara

Short for barazoku, from Japanese 薔薇族 (barazoku, literally “rose tribe”), the name of Japan's first modern gay men's magazine, named after a post-World War II term for gay men.

bor

(Internet slang) A genre of homoerotic media, usually manga and often pornographic, made by gay men for gay men in Japan.


sector

Sector (Star Trek)
Sector (instrument)
sector

(science fiction) a fictional region of space designated for navigational or governance purposes.


momma's boy

(chiefly US) Alternative spelling of mama's boy


seven-league boots

en-noun

seven-league boots pl (normally plural, singular seven-league boot)

The Count strode away as if he had secured seven-league boots, and in less time than it seemed possible, though it was an age to Lady Anne (...), he returned with two bank of England notes in his hand, which he put into the bailiff's, saying,—"There's your money for yourself and all. You have proper behavour, and will make no say of this littel matter."

1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XL, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 211:

(folklore, fairy tale) A pair of boots enabling the wearer to cross seven leagues at one stride.


DPP

Pokémon Diamond, Pearl
w:Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

(fandom slang) Initialism of Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum.


sleeper

(science fiction) A pod or similar device containing a person in cryosleep.


drow

drow (countable and uncountable, plural drow)

A Shetlandic and Orcadian alteration of trow, most likely influenced by an unattested Norn *drog (“malevolent [undead] being”). Trow is derived from Norn troll, or otherwise from Old Norse trǫll. L-vocalisation occurred in the early 15th century in Middle Scots, so "trolly knolls" probably became *trowie knowes around this time. The supposed Norn *drog would have been derived from Old Norse draugr.

der

(fantasy roleplaying games, countable) A member of a fictional race of dark elves in various fantasy settings, such as Dungeons & Dragons.

constructed language
constructed language

(fantasy roleplaying games, uncountable) A fictional constructed language spoken by the Drow.

(rare, mythology, countable) A trow; a member of a race of folkloric beings from Orkney and Shetland; cognate to the Scandinavian troll.


Mephistopheles

Apparently a corrupted Greek compound. The Greek particle of negation (μη (mi)) and the Greek word for love or loving (φίλος (fílos)) are the first and last terms of the compound but the middle term is more doubtful. For the middle term, three meanings have been noticed and three different etymologies have been proposed: 1) not loving light (φως (fos); the old form of the word being Mephostopheles), 2) not loving Faust, 3) akin to mephitic, a term which refers to the poisonous vapors arising from the earth in certain places destructive to human life.

Poison in my idle mind makes quick work for the Mephistopheles, / Who quickly makes his excuses

1989, Tim Smith (lyrics and music), “Fast Robert”, in On Land and in the Sea, performed by Cardiacs:

A fiendish person, especially one who tricks someone into following a destructive or disastrous course of action; a tempter.


mummy's boy

(chiefly UK) Alternative spelling of mama's boy


steampunk

en-noun

steampunk (countable and uncountable, plural steampunks)

From steam + -punk, by analogy with cyberpunk, coined by science-fiction writer Kevin Wayne Jeter (born 1950) in a 1987 letter to the magazine Locus in response to a review of his book Infernal Devices published the same year (see the quotation below).

Black Rock Desert
Burning Man
Greenbelt, Maryland
Nevada

There's railroad trains, a lot of steam-driven stuff, but that's about it. More ‘steam punk’, I suppose.

1987 May, James Blaylock, Locus, volume 20, number 5 (#316 overall), page 57:

It is also the vision of steampunk, a subculture that is the aesthetic expression of a time-traveling fantasy world, one that embraces music, film, design and now fashion, all inspired by the extravagantly inventive age of dirigibles and steam locomotives, brass diving bells and jar-shaped protosubmarines.

2008 May 8, Ruth La Ferla, “Steampunk moves between 2 worlds”, in The New York Times:

The [Arboath North Signal Box] locking room's collection of chains, pulleys and wires resembles the inside of a piano, stretching to the 72-levered frame above. Lovers of steampunk will find it especially pleasing.

2021 November 3, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Boxes with functions across the centuries”, in RAIL, number 943, page 57:

(uncountable) A subgenre of science fiction that depicts advanced technology combined with Victorian style and aesthetics, such as steam-powered machines and vehicles, visible gears and screws and people dressed in 19th-century attires.


horror movie

(chiefly Canada, US) A motion picture which entertains by horrifying or frightening the audience.

grilfliek

motion picture which horrifies or frightens


confidant

Heaven made you love me for no other end, / But to become my confidant and friend: / As such, I keep no secret from your sight, […]

1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe, William Miller, published 1808, page 223:

One in thought and purpose, linked by the necessity of combating one hostile fate, a power antagonistic ever, - a power we lived to evade, - we had no confidants save ourselves.

1895, Kenneth Graham, The Golden Age, London, page 5:

Bankman-Fried’s confidants were along for the ride. At his side was Caroline Ellison, Alameda’s CEO and his on-again, off-again lover.

2023 September 30, Victoria Bekiempis, “‘Dark’ donations, free love and the fall: the Sam Bankman-Fried trial is here”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

A person in whom one can confide or share one's secrets: a friend.


Capulet

Surname of the heroine Juliet's family in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, from the Italian Capuleti.

It goes without saying that she knew nothing whatever of the bad relations subsisting between her father and her sweetheart. She did not know her Romeo was a Montague still less that to him she was a Capulet.

1913, Annabella Bruce Marchand, Dirk, a South African, page 198:

Still, despite Marshall's impression of a kind of Montague-Capulet feud, George Catlett did succeed in marrying Laura Emily, the daughter of Dr. Jonathan Bradford, and his sister, Margaret, married Laura's brother, Thomas.

1963, Forrest C. Pogue, George C. Marshall: Education of a general, 1880-1939, page 8:

She playfully called herself a tragedienne, much like Juliet Capulet, and she thought of Timmy as her Romeo Montague.

2004, Scott Casper, Cardinal Sin: Tales of Alaska, War, and More, page 161:

That said, Capulet's skepticism has a sound rationale. She needs only one kind of thing, caloric fluid, to explain the movement and behavior of heat. Montague has posited two kinds of things, heat itself and heat radiation, each popping up to do the job it is good for and then conveniently metamorphosing into the other when that's what's needed instead.

2020, Michael Strevens, The Knowledge Machine:

Romeo and Juliet couple
Romeo and Juliet couple

(figuratively) A member or citizen of the family, party, or country of the wife in a Romeo and Juliet couple and/or one of a pair of feuding groups, the other identified as Montague.


Montague

en-proper noun

Montague (countable and uncountable, plural Montagues)


fluff

en-noun

fluff (countable and uncountable, plural fluffs)

From earlier floow (“woolly substance, down, nap, lint”), also spelt flough, flue, and flew, from West Flemish vluwe,
of uncertain ultimate origin:
* Compare Old English flōh (“that which is flown off, fragment, piece”) - see flaw
* Possibly representing a blend of flue + puff; compare Middle Dutch vloe, or perhaps onomatopoeic; compare dialectal English floose, flooze, fleeze (“particles of wool or cotton; fluff; loose threads or fibres”), Danish fnug (“down, fluff”), Swedish fnugg (“speck, flake”).
* Alternatively, West Flemish vluwe may derive from French velu (“hairy, furry”), from Latin villūtus (“having shaggy hair”), from villus (“shaggy hair, tuft of hair”).
For words of similar sound and meaning in other languages, compare Japanese フワフワ (fuwafuwa, “lightly, softly”), Hungarian puha (“soft, fluffy”), Polish puchaty (“soft, fluffy”),Romanian puf (“down, peachfuzz, soft hair of some animals, powderpuff”).

onomatopoeic

onomatopoeic

cog

And when something triggers, I can close the window and go read fluff for hours until I calm down.

2011, anonymous, quoted in Katherine Larsen & Lynn Zubernis, Fandom at the Crossroads: Celebration, Shame and Fan/producer Relationships, page 138

Fans prefer fluff to other types of fic. But angst (dramatic stories where characters have a wide range of emotions, including...angsty ones) comes in close second.

2017, "Flourish Kink", quoted in Ashley J. Barner, The Case for Fanfiction: Exploring the Pleasures and Practices of a Maligned Craft, page 67

Ah, fluff. My happy place. These fics are dedicated to feel-good feelings, which are the very best type of feelings.

2017, Carrie DiRisio, Brooding YA Hero: Becoming a Main Character (Almost) as Awesome as Me, unnumbered page:

(fandom slang) Fan fiction, or part of a fan fiction, which is sweet and feel-good in tone, usually involving romance.


bandit

en-noun

bandit (plural bandits or (archaic) banditti)

bandits (plural)
banditti (archaic plural)

Borrowed from Italian bandito (“outlawed”), a derivative of Italian bandire (“to ban”), from Late Latin bandīre, an alteration (due to Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍅𐌾𐌰𐌽 (bandwjan, “to signal”)) of Late Latin bannīre (“to ban”), from Frankish *bannan (“to ban”). Doublet of bandito.

Do you recollect a story my nurse told us of a Sicilian bandit, the terror of the country?—how he saved a young child from a cottage on fire, brought it up delicately, and far removed from his own pursuits; while, at his execution, his chief regret was the future provision for that boy?

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 173:

One who robs others in a lawless area, especially as part of a group.

強盗

がんどう, gandō, ごうとう, gōtō

(military, aviation) An aircraft identified as an enemy, but distinct from "hostile" or "threat" in that it is not immediately to be engaged.

(sports, slang) A runner who covertly joins a race without having registered as a participant.


bandit

en-verb

bandit (third-person singular simple present bandits, present participle banditing, simple past and past participle bandited)

bandits (present singular third-person)
banditing (participle present)
bandited (participle past)
bandited (past)

First, she read the bandit news in the paper, and was rather disappointed to learn that her man had evidently taken a night off from banditing. An imitator of the bandit had made an unsuccessful attempt to hold up a drug-store, and had backed out and run when the nervy proprietor reached for a gun; but that was all.

1921, Munsey's Magazine, volume 74, page 38:

As the sanctuary was bandited at least once, it may be that the silver wine cups I have are from the treasure.

1937, The Atlantic Monthly, volume 160, page 7:

(transitive, intransitive) To rob, or steal from, in the manner of a bandit.


monkfish

en-noun

monkfish (countable and uncountable, plural monkfish or monkfishes)

[The] monkfish is preceded by the “monstre Leonin” and followed by the “monstre marinen habit d'Evesque” (de Monstro Leonino and de pisce Episcopi habitu respectively). The creature represented in these works is a hybrid: his round and tonsured ...

2017, Itineraries in French Renaissance Literature: Essays (Jeff Persels, Kendall Tarte, George Hoffmann), page 382


dystopian

en-adj

dystopian (comparative more dystopian, superlative most dystopian)

more dystopian (comparative)
most dystopian (superlative)

If Suzanne Collins’ novel The Hunger Games turns up on middle-school curricula 50 years from now—and as accessible dystopian science fiction with allusions to early-21st-century strife, that isn’t out of the question—the lazy students of the future can be assured that they can watch the movie version and still get better than a passing grade.

2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, “The Hunger Games”, in AV Club:

In my book Britain has actually worked out how it wants to leave and the EU is preparing a new constitution as a result. The real Brexit is actually much more dystopian.

2019 June 30, Philip Oltermann, quoting Tom Hillenbrand, “German sci-fi fans lap up dystopian tales of Brexit Britain”, in The Guardian:

He kept thinking about an episode of “Black Mirror,” the British dystopian anthology series, in which the characters rate everyone they interact with on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. (It doesn’t end well.)

2020 January 17, Amy Chozick, “This Is the Guy Who’s Taking Away the Likes”, in New York Times:

The whole city is immersed in a dystopian-looking smog: urban streets in sepia, emptier than usual, bathed in an eerie quiet.

2023 June 7, Samira Asma-Sadeque, “‘It’s too much’: New Yorkers don masks or stay inside amid smog crisis”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:


cerealogy

There is no university with a department of cerealogy, and consequently anyone may call him- or herself a "cerealogist," even after one single visit to a crop circle.

2001, Eltjo Haselhoff, The Deepening Complexity of Crop Circles: Scientific Research & Urban Legends, page xv:

Despite film showing the two men creating highly complex crop circles, the momentum behind cerealogy was too strong to be stopped by any admission of English eccentricity.

2002 August 12, “Cereal offenders who won't go away”, in Christian Science Monitor:

Patrick Moore, in Can You Speak Venusian, noted that — shades of cerealogy — the crops over a wide area had been flattened.

2005, Steve Dewey, John Ries, In Alien Heat: The Warminster Mystery Revisited, page 57:


shape-shifter

(fantasy, mythology, science fiction) Alternative form of shapeshifter


changeling

/ˈt͡ʃeɪnd͡ʒlɪŋ/

The noun is derived from change + -ling (suffix with the sense ‘immature; small’). Sense 6 (“idiot, simpleton”) is from the idea that foolish children had been left by magical creatures (sense 1).
The adjective is derived from the noun.

suffix

[S]he, as her attendant, hath / A louely boy ſtollen, from an Indian king: / She neuer had ſo ſweete a changeling.

[c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

Every Lover admires his miſtris, though ſhee be very deformed of her ſelfe, [...] her feet ſtinke, ſhee breed lice, a meere changeling, a very monſter, [...]: if he loue her once, he admires her for all this, he takes no notice of any ſuch errors, or imperfections of body or minde.

1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Symptomes or Signes of Love Melancholy, in Body, Minde, Good, Bad, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 2, member 3, subsection 1, page 515:

Juſt as a Changeling ſeems below the reſt / Of Men, or rather is a two-legg’d Beaſt, / So theſe Gigantick Souls amaz'd we find / As much above the reſt of human kind.

1709, Earl of Murlgrave [i.e., John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, formerly Earl of Mulgrave], An Essay on Poetry, London: […] H. Hills, […], →OCLC, page 15:

Nothing will induce parents to show any attention to a child that they suspect of being a changeling.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 263:

It was easy enough to see that the child was a changeling, for it wasn't like other children at all it screamed and cried, as if a knife stuck in it, and it wheezed and hit about with its arms like a huldre-cat, and was as ugly as sin.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 298:

His nurse had told him all about changelings, and how the little people would always try to steal a beautiful human child out of its cradle and put in its stead one of their own ailing, puking brats [...]

1961, Muriel Saint Clare Byrne, Elizabethan Life in Town and Country, 8th edition, London: Methuen & Co., →OCLC, page 285:

(European folklore, also figurative) In pre-modern European folklore: an infant of a magical creature that was secretly exchanged for a human infant. In British, Irish and Scandinavian mythology the exchanged infants were thought to be those of fairies, sprites or trolls; in other places, they were ascribed to demons, devils, or witches.

خائن

infant of a magical creature secretly exchanged for a human infant

(by extension, informal, rare) An infant secretly exchanged with another infant deliberately or by mistake; a swapling.

(fantasy, science fiction) An organism which can change shape to mimic others; a shape-shifter.

To face the garment of rebellion / With ſome fine colour that may pleaſe the eye / Of fickle changlings and poore diſcontents, / Which gape and rub the elbow at the newes / Of hurly-burly innouation, [...]

c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

Fal[staff]. [...] If you will lodge with me in Eaſtcheap, you ſhall ſee the thouſand pound fairly ſpent in ſack: you ſhall ſhare with me to the utmoſt farthing. But for dry reſtitution, I have not been accustom'd to it of many years. You would not have me a changeling at this time of day, I hope, Maſter Shallow. / Shal[low]. Changeling! no, Sir John, thou art no changeling; but, depend on it, I will not put up with this wrong. [...] I will have my money; depend on't I will have my money.

1760, [William] Kenrick, Falstaff’s Wedding: A Comedy. […], London: […] J. Wilkie, …, →OCLC, act II, scene vi, page 28:

What words are these have fall’n from me?
Can calm despair and wild unrest
Be tenants of a single breast,
Or sorrow such a changeling be?

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XVI, page 26:

(archaic, also figurative) A person apt to change their loyalty or thinking; a waverer.


elemental

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

From Middle English elementall, from Medieval Latin elementālis; compare Old French elementel. By surface analysis, element + -al.

Those who have escaped the dark and terrible aspects of life will find my brutality, my flash of rage in our final tragedy, easy enough to blame; for they know what is wrong as well as any, but not what is possible to tortured men. But those who have been under the shadow, who have gone down at last to elemental things, will have a wider charity.

1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 219:

The pervasive emptiness and stultifying summer heat were only minor deterrents when compared with the more elemental consideration that all the banking and commercial institutions were based elsewhere, chiefly in Philadelphia and New York.

2000, Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers, New York: Vintage Books, pages 79–80:


elemental

Incidentally, such beings may be said to have an existence of a sort upon the lower astral plane; they are elementals created by man's evil desires and unclean thoughts.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 115:

(mysticism, fantasy) A creature (usually a spirit) that is attuned with, or composed of, one of the classical elements: air, earth, fire and water or variations of them like ice, lightning, etc. They sometimes have unique proper names and sometimes are referred to as Air, Earth, Fire, or Water.


Snoopy

Some dogs will be back porch familiars — beagles with soulful, Snoopy eyes: Dalmatians with spots; bassets with mitten ears; Siberian huskies with wolfish voices; Collies that look just like Lassie.

1978 January 20, “A Day For Dogs And Dog Lovers”, in Milwaukee Journal:

My daughter calls these "Snoopy eyes" after the childlike presentation of the beagle in Schulz's cartoon Peanuts.

2005, Russell Dale Guthrie, The nature of Paleolithic art, page 93:

Mary Mann, another sophomore, sits on the roof of a red dog house, giving her most enigmatic Snoopy look.

2006 April 14, “Good Grief! A Student Musical.”, in The Virginian Pilot:

Being excessive or overzealous only gives the patient a surprised “Snoopy” look.

2009, Douglas Hamilton with Babak Azizzadeh, Beverly Hills Beauty Secrets, page 161:

Charlie Brown's pet beagle in the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz; often representing doggish soulfulness.


himbo

Blend of him + bimbo, first recorded in 1988 and likely influenced by sex scandals in the US politics around the time.

‘Himbo’ Flexes His Pecs in U.K. Ads [title]

1991 August 12, Stuart Emmrich, “‘Himbo’ Flexes His Pecs in U.K. Ads”, in Adweek, volume 41, page 16:

[…] a reboot in which a cryptocurrency billionaire, maybe the son of Luke Ward, whose series arc traces an evolution from villain to beloved himbo, moves to Newport Beach and takes control of the local real estate market.

2022 March 31, David Yaffe-Bellany, “Ben McKenzie Would Like a Word With the Crypto Bros”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(sometimes derogatory, slang) A physically attractive man who lacks intelligence; the male equivalent of a bimbo.


whump

By embracing dark genres of slash such as ‘squick’ and ‘whump’, the art of mythagowood purposely skirts parameters of taste and acceptability.

2014, Joseph Brennan, “'Fandom is full of pearl clutching old ladies': Nonnies in the online slash closet”, in International Journal of Cultural Studies, volume 17, number 4, page 365:

Narrative devices shared by Hannibal and fanfiction include “whump,” the vivid abuse and torture of a character, a popular convention across certain types of fanfiction: Graham is knocked out, shot, stabbed, gutted, sawed open, and subjected to induced seizures.

2018, Naja Later, “Quality Television (TV) Eats Itself: The TV-Auteur and the Promoted Fanboy”, in Quarterly Review of Film and Video, volume 35, number 6, page 540:

However, further research with a larger sample and encompassing more fandoms would be necessary to confirm this potential explanation of this trend and to explore the impact of other factors, such as assigning characters a physical and/or mental disability or illness for the purpose of whump or hurt/comfort stories.

2019 April, Adrienne E. Raw, “Normalizing Disability: Tagging and Disability Identity Construction through Marvel Cinematic Universe Fanfiction”, in Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, volume 8, number 2, pages 202–203:

(fandom slang) A genre of fan fiction in which a character endures injury, torture, or other forms of physical and mental suffering.


uke

From Japanese 受け (uke), derived from the verb 受ける (ukeru, “to receive, to get”).

Yaoi uke in fanfics often bear the brunt of stereotypical "negative female characteristics" such as passivity, helplessness, and masochism.

2008, Tan Bee Kee, “Rewriting Gender and Sexuality in English-language Yaoi Fanfiction”, in Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, Dru Pagliassotti, editors, Boys’ Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 142:

You'd rather have Sebas be an uke?

2010, Pentabu, My Girlfriend’s a Geek, volume 1, Yen Press, published 2012isbn=9780316221801:

Shizuku is so, so, so cute! I love him as an uke so much I can't stand it!

2010, Kyoka Wakatsuki, “Afterword”, in The Selfish Demon King, Digital Manga Publishing, →ISBN:

(Japanese fiction, fandom slang) A passive or submissive male fictional character in a same-sex relationship; a bottom.


Incredible Hulk

en-noun

Incredible Hulk (plural Incredible Hulks)

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

Named after the Incredible Hulk, a Marvel Comics Universe character with green skin.

A green-colored cocktail made with equal parts of the fruit liqueur Hpnotiq and Hennessy brand cognac poured over ice.


black widow

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

Any of several species of venomous and potentially deadly spiders, particularly Latrodectus spp..


hillbilly

→ German: Hillbilly

→ Russian: хи́ллбилли (xíllbilli)

From hill + billy (“fellow”). Compare Scots chapman billie (“travelling salesman”).

cog

Thanks to the massive migration from the poorer regions of Appalachia to places like Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, hillbilly values spread widely along with hillbilly people.

2017, JD Vance, Hillbilly Elegy, →ISBN, page 21:

(ethnic slur) A white person from the rural southern part of the United States, especially the Southeastern states.

metsäläinen

white person from the rural southern United States


paranormal

en-adj

paranormal (comparative more paranormal, superlative most paranormal)

more paranormal (comparative)
most paranormal (superlative)

From para- (“above, beyond; abnormal”) + normal; compare supernatural.

prefix

“We who study the paranormal always hope for strong readings with our equipment,” explains Nancy.

That (ostensibly) cannot be explained by what scientists know; supernatural; especially of or pertaining to ghosts, spirits, and supposed abilities like telepathy.

خارق للطبيعَة

cannot be explained by scientific methods


comm

My comm was set on silent mode—nothing in or out except emergency transmissions.

2018, Joseph Kainz, Sector 12 and the Art of Burning, page ix:


gen

(fandom slang) Fan fiction that does not specifically focus on romance or sex.


gen

en-verb

gen (third-person singular simple present gens, present participle genning, simple past and past participle genned)

gens (present singular third-person)
genning (participle present)
genned (participle past)
genned (past)

Samples could be taken from the original, and plans could be made, but genning could not be initiated until death had occurred.

2008, Bart Dahmer, Primal Screams, →ISBN, page 36:

Her nurturer ears, genned to be hyper-sensitive, had to be hurting from the noise.

2011, Karen Sandler, Tankborn, →ISBN, page 28:

(science fiction) To genetically engineer.


eoten

Learned borrowing from Old English eoten. Doublet of ettin.

lbor

The chief exploit of the hero, Beowulf the Great, is the destruction of the two monsters Grendel and his mother; both like most of the evil beings in the old times, dwellers in the fens and the waters; and both, moreover, as some Christian bard has taken care to inform us, of "Cain's kin," as were also the eotens, and the elves, and the orcs (eótenas, and ylfe, and orcneas).

1834, “The National Fairy Mythology of England”, in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, volume 10, page 53:

In these manuscripts we are again in an atmosphere of eotens and trolls, there are traces of even older terrors, when the first Teuton settlers in Europe struggled with the aborigines who lived in caves[.]

1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, The Old English Herbals, page 3:

A giant from Old English literature and mythology.


Rapunzel

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

Borrowed from German Rapunzel, the name of several varieties of lettuce.

A German fairy tale about a girl imprisoned in a tower who lets down her long hair for a rescuer to climb.

[…] as they loll in pairs or trios, looking down from the windows like Rapunzels and carpet-knights, while they eat bruised apricots, tomorrow is always on their lips as honey to come.

1966, Hal Porter, The Paper Chase, Angus and Robertson, page 90:

I spot Sleeping Beauty in a thorn forest. Two of them, only they are more like Rapunzels who’ve fallen from their tower.

2011, Carole Nelson Douglas, Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta, Forge, →ISBN, page 172:

He keeps all three of us locked up like Rapunzels.

2020, Lauri Robinson, The Flapper’s Baby Scandal, Harlequin, →ISBN:

The fictional girl who is the protagonist and title character of the fairy tale.


gangster

From gang + -ster. First attested in 1884.

عُضْو فِي عِصَابَة

ʕuḍw fī ʕiṣāba


STAB

(fandom slang, Pokémon) A 50% damage boost applied when a Pokémon uses a move with the same type as itself (for example, an Electric-type Pokémon using an Electric-type move).


goblin

From Middle English gobelyn, from Old Northern French gobelin (compare Norman goubelin, Walloon gobelin), possibly a blend of Old Dutch *kobeholdo (“goblin”) (compare Dutch kabouter, German Kobold) and Late Latin cobalus (“mountain sprite”), from Ancient Greek κόβαλος (kóbalos, “rogue, knave; goblin”). Displaced native Old English pūca from Proto-Germanic *pūkô (“a goblin, spook”).

inh

From yͤ hagg & hungry Goblin,
yͭ into raggs would rend yee,
& yͤ spirit yͭ stand’s by yͤ naked man,

c. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665)

"[…]If he had struck a stroke more to the side just here," said the goblin, tapping the very stone, as it seemed to Curdie, against which his head lay, "he would have been through; but he's a couple of yards past it now, and if he follow the lode it will be a week before it leads him in.[…]"

1872, George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin, page 50:

At last the goblins had a chance to rid themselves of one of the troublesome defenders, and two goblin warriors snatched the opportunity.

2006, Charlotte Bishop, Norty: The Chosen Ones, page 187:

The goblin shifted the two younger ones closer to him. It looked like he was hiding behind them, using them as a shield.
The goblin looked pure evil. His eyes were brown.

2010, Thom L. Nichols, War: Return of the Elves, Part 1, page 37:

I shall send another entourage of goblins back here to Desput with the goblins’ new ally the Pixy! These creatures deserve the same respect as any other goblin.

2010, D. S. Macleod, The Middle Times: Rise of the Goblin King, page 229:

Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you.

2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:

(fantasy) A malevolent and grotesque diminutive humanoid, often associated with orcs or trolls.

iratxo

hostile diminutive humanoid in fantasy literature


AD&D

w:Editions of Dungeons & Dragons#Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

(roleplaying games) Initialism of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.


X-Phile

1995, Ngaire Genge, The Unofficial X-Files Companion: An X-Phile's Guide to the Mysteries, Conspiracies, and Really Strange Truths Behind the Show, Crown Trade Paperbacks, →ISBN:

1998, Richard Corliss, Time, quoted in Peter Bart, The Gross: The Hits, the Flops — the Summer That Ate Hollywood, St. Martin's Griffin, →ISBN, page 227,
And that’s enough to turn an X-phile into an ex-phile.

2003, Robynn J. Stilwell, "The sound is ‘out there’: score, sound design and exoticism in The X-Files", in Allan F. Moore (ed.), Analyzing Popular Music, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 70,
The X-Files – as any X-Phile could tell you – divides into two kinds of episodes: the mythology shows, which further the overarching plot of Mulder’s search for the truth that is ‘out there’ about the US government conspiracy to conceal the alien presence; and the stand-alone shows.

My involvement in coffee connoisseur (Kozinets, 2002), Star Trek fan (2001) and X-Phile (1997) communities was high.

2006, Robert V. Kozinets, “Netnography 2.0”, in Russell W. Belk, editor, Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing, Edward Elgar Publishing, →ISBN, page 133:

(fandom slang) A fan of the television series The X-Files.


infernal

en-adj

infernal (comparative more infernal, superlative most infernal)

more infernal (comparative)
most infernal (superlative)

celestial

antonym(s) of “of or relating to hell, underworld or fire”

From Middle French infernal, from Medieval Latin infernalis, from Latin īnfernus, from īnferum (“netherworld, underworld, hell”), equivalent to inferno + -al.

Of or relating to hell, or the world of the dead; hellish.

جَحِيمِيّ

of or relating to hell, or the world of the dead; hellish

(by extension) Of or relating to a fire or inferno.

infernaal

by extension: of or relating to a great fire or inferno


bad boy

Many school music teachers and directors are not primarily clarinetists and, knowing little of the subtle intricacies of this "bad boy" of instruments, can teach little more than the fingering.

1949 November-December, Floyd E. Low, “Keep that pitch UP!”, in The Instrumentalist, volume 4, Association for the Advancement of Instrumental Music, page 38:

[…] he groaned as he twisted his arm over his head to follow the groove to the right wheel well, "if this bad boy connects right there, then it can't be a light."

1988, Writers Forum, numbers 14-17, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs:

So isn't it time you took this bad boy for a test drive?

1992 November 16, “The POWERstation 220: Here today. More tomorrow. [Advertisement]”, in InfoWorld, volume 14, number 46, page 137:

“Oh yeah,I remember, you already bagged one of those bad boys backin the city.”Sal chuckled.

2014, David Vengley, Mars Base Red Seven, →ISBN:

This bad boy wasn't shy in letting us know either, as three of us struggled to pull it ashore. Again, it felt totally bizarre to be physically straining every sinew to drag a massive dangerous animal towards me.

2016, Max Dickins, My Groupon Adventure, →ISBN, page 93:

(slang) A powerful or impressive product or item.


Ewok

Coined by American filmmaker George Lucas in 1983 from the syllabic reverse of Wookiee. The name first appeared in the end titles of the film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

coin

Those vampire-wanna-bes, who are actually cute in a Ewok/troll doll sort of way, pick their teeth nightly after a six-course wing fling.

2000, Lori Torrance, Tea for Texas: A Guide to Tearooms in the State, page 15:

Tripping a walker the size of a house is difficult but not impossible. You will need high-tensile wire and suitably grounded posts. Ask your Ewok friends for help.

2005, Daniel H. Wilson, How to Survive a Robot Uprising, Bloomsbury,, →ISBN, page 134:

My answer to those who believe that all Bigfoot are just huge cuddly Ewoks is to remind them that there is plenty of evidence that every member of the great apes family […] has exhibited hostility […].

2007, Matthew Scott Hansen, The Shadowkiller: A Novel, page 434:

She looked like a little plump Ewok, standing with Big Foot.

2008, Grace Octavia, His First Wife, Dafina Books,, →ISBN, page 30:

It’s been claimed that Jon has a string of mistresses, that Kate had an affair with her bodyguard and that Baby Number Six is actually a shaved Ewok with a catastrophic heroin addiction. Or something.

2009 May 22, Stuart Heritage, “Jon & Kate Latest: People You Don’t Know Do Crap You Don’t Care About”, in Hecklerspray:

A member of a fictional, primitive race of teddy-bear-like creatures.


naiad

From Latin Nāïas, from Ancient Greek Νᾱϊάς (Nāïás, “naiad”), from νάω (náō, “to flow”).

(Greek mythology) A female deity (nymph) associated with water, especially a spring, stream, or other fresh water.


simurgh

(Iranian mythology) A gigantic winged benevolent creature.


hipster

From hip + -ster. First attested for someone carrying something on their hip in the U.S. in the 1920s. Attested as a variant of hepster in the 1940s, for a follower of the latest fashions/trends/styles.

bootleg

v.; from hiding flasks in the boot, or stocking

c. 1954, Jack Kerouac, Untitled poem, in Book of Sketches, 1952-57, Penguin, 2006, p. 239,
I, poor French Canadian Ti Jean become / a big sophisticated hipster esthete in / the homosexual arts […]

Clare grapples with the idea that she, a well-dressed city hipster, will soon be in the boondocks raising a child with two men who are as much in love with each other as with her: "I'm not this unusual," she stammers. "It's just my hair."

1991 August 10, Chris Nealon, “Get A Life”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 4, page 10:

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker seem like the kind of late-1960s hypercerebral born-cynical East Coast hipsters who are often found valorizing authenticity in aesthetic expression.

2008 June 16, Ben Ratliff, “Pop Veterans Still Pumping Anti-Charisma”, in The New York Times:

hepster

A person interested in the latest trends

A person who is keenly interested in the latest trends or fashions.


chronoscope

/ˈkɹɒnəˌskəʊp/

(science fiction) A device able to directly view other times, past or future.


tin can

For here am I sitting in a tin can / Far above the world / Planet Earth is blue / And there's nothing I can do

1969, David Bowie (lyrics and music), “Space Oddity”:

(science fiction, slang) A metal spaceship or space station.


phaser

* (science fiction): For the fictional weapon coined for Star Trek: originally a "ph(oton ma)ser," later changed canonically to a "phas(ed)-e(nergy) r(ectifier)" (of "nadions", not photons).
* (phase modulation): phase + -er

Captain James Kirk: "Set your phaser on one quarter. I'll leave mine on stun."

1966 September 8, George Clayton Johnson, The Man Trap (Star Trek), season 1, episode 1:

His oddly reserved nature stands out [...]. Whyte sets his phaser on stun, not kill.

A Bajoran rushed past with an armful of phaser rifles, another with a box of hand phasers.

1999, Dafydd ab Hugh, chapter 3, in Fallen Heroes [Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; 5], New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books:

Giolitti's Gold Key art is widely admired, [...] and this is a terrific opportunity to pick up a page—set your phasers on bid.

2004, Hertiage Signature Auction #811, page 185:

I said, "Set phasers on be-a-bastard."

Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press

(science fiction) Fictional energy weapon, with multiple settings for degree of intensity, from the television series Star Trek (1966–69).


phaser

en-verb

phaser (third-person singular simple present phasers, present participle phasering, simple past and past participle phasered)

phasers (present singular third-person)
phasering (participle present)
phasered (participle past)
phasered (past)

(science fiction, transitive) To shoot with a phaser weapon.


Nordic

en-adj

Nordic (comparative more Nordic, superlative most Nordic)

more Nordic (comparative)
most Nordic (superlative)

From French nordique, from nord (“north”).

(linguistics) Of or relating to the family of North Germanic languages.

nòrdic

of or relating to the family of North Germanic languages


Nordic

A person of Nordic descent or having features typical of Nordic people.

Called “Nordics,” the aliens are human-like in appearance, of average height, and often have long, flowing hair. Contactees are typically struck by the beauty of the Nordics, as was Howard Menger (1959): “She seemed to radiate and glow,” Menger explains,

2007, Erich Goode, D. Angus Vail, Extreme Deviance, Pine Forge Press, page 41:

But the third most common alien is called a Nordic, or humanoid.

2012, Kelly Milner Halls, Alien Investigation: Searching for the Truth about UFOs and Aliens, Millbrook Press, page 45:

Known as Nordics, these extraterrestrials are said to have blond hair, blue eyes, and pale skin and are anywhere from 6 to 8 feet (183cm to 244cm) tall.

2012, Patricia D. Netzley, Extraterrestrial Life: Alien Encounters, Reference Point Press, page 33

(ufology, science fiction) A race of extraterrestrials similar in appearance to Nordic humans.


It girl

Originally applied to actress Clara Bow, who starred in a film titled It (it being a euphemism for sex appeal).

Coordinate term: It boy

Passionate pursuers are a challenge to guys because while other girls may be chasing them, the It Girls are chasing their dreams.

2003, Gilda Carle, Teen Talk with Dr. Gilda: A Girl's Guide to Dating:

I even found the perfect venue to display my new It-girl persona: the aptly named It-girls premiere party for the It-girls documentary.

2003, Melissa de la Cruz, Karen Robinovitz, How to Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less:

She was one of the It Girls of her day.

2004, Andrea Stuart, The Rose of Martinique: A Life of Napoleon's Josephine:

A woman who is in vogue, typically as an actress, model, socialite, or the like.


ETV

en-noun

ETV (countable and uncountable, plural ETVs)

(ufology, countable) Initialism of extraterrestrial vehicle.


knight in shining armor

knight in shining armor (plural knights in shining armor)

We must work this out on our own and not wait for a knight in shining armor, who may never come.

(idiomatic) A person who will rescue a dangerous situation; a hero.


Moonie

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The Moonies and the Dragonballers aren't minorities; they're as large or larger than any other group of animeniacs you're going to find.

1995 December 12, Sea Wasp [username], “Re: Too Many SM/DB posts! ARRGGHH!!!”, in rec.arts.anime (Usenet):

Nope, you're not the only Moonie here. Unfortunately, the US Bandai figures are kinda ugly.

1997 January 3, thewkt [username], “Re: Sailor Moon blow-out at Kay-Bee”, in rec.toys.action-figures (Usenet):

Mike- who has a Sailor Moon webpage up, carries a Sailor Moon wallet and matching coinpurse irl and is just in general a major Moonie.

1998 September 14, Mike Oliva, “OT Sailor Moon”, in alt.games.everquest (Usenet):

(fandom slang) A fan of the Japanese manga and anime franchise Sailor Moon.


Ali Baba

From Arabic عَلِيّ بَابَا (ʕaliyy bābā). The use of Ali Baba to designate a type of container originates from the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (see the use as proper noun below), suggesting the appearance of the oil jars in which the thieves hide in the story.

bor

عَلِيّ بَابَا

Arabic عَلِيّ بَابَا (ʕaliyy bābā)

The fictional protagonist of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, famous for his encounter with forty thieves and their treasure trove cave that opens on the command "open sesame".


kobold

en-noun

kobold (plural kobolds or (rare) kobolde)

Borrowed from German Kobold. Doublet of cobalt.

a. 1867, George MacDonald, The Shadows, 2000 [1980], The Golden Key and Other Stories, page 96,
The king had seen all kinds of gnomes, goblins, and kobolds at his coronation; […] .

Among the nonhuman creatures that peopled rural Europe in the Middle Ages — the fairies, elves, dwarfs, trolls, and kobolds — there were beneficent female spirits who patronized those households that treated them well.

1977, James Buchanan Given, Society and Homicide in Thirteenth-Century England, published 2007, page 138:

In Germany also the kobolds are rather troublesome than otherwise, to the miners, taking pleasure in frustrating their objects, and rendering their toil unfruitful.

2011, William Wirt Sikes, Varla Ventura, The Occult Powers of Goats and Other Welsh Tales of Goblins, Fairies, Gnomes, and Elves, unnumbered page:

(German folklore) A mischievous elf or goblin, or one connected (and helpful) to a family or household.


looking-glass

/ˈlʊkɪŋ ˌɡlɑːs/

/ˈlʊkɪŋ ˌɡlæs/

* (way into a bizarre world): From the book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) by Lewis Carroll.

It has been quite a week in politics. […] I know that some Republicans feel as if they've fallen through the looking glass.

2016 July 29, Paul Krugman, “Who loves America?”, in The New York Times:


gorgon

From Middle English gorgon, from Latin Gorgō, from Ancient Greek Γοργώ (Gorgṓ), from γοργός (gorgós, “terrible”). Possibly from the same root as the Sanskrit word "garğ" (गर्जन), which is defined as a guttural sound, similar to the growling of a beast, thus possibly originating as an onomatopoeia.

(Greek mythology) A vicious female monster from Greek mythology with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes. One of the three sisters: Medusa, Stheno and Euryale


Dalek

Dalek
Doctor Who
Genesis of the Daleks
I, Davros
Terry Nation
The Daleks

Coined by Terry Nation in 1963 for his script of The Mutants (later retitled "The Daleks"), the second serial of the first season of Doctor Who. Accounts of how he devised the word vary. Within the Doctor Who universe, the word is supposed to be related to the name of the people from whom the Daleks evolved, either the Kaleds (as according to later serial Genesis of the Daleks) or the Dals (as in The Daleks), or to derive from a word meaning "gods" in their (fictional) language, in which the sacred "Book of Predictions" is written. According to the I, Davros audio fiction the book reads "...and on that day, men will become as gods", with the last word pronounced "Dal-eks".

'But Alydon,' I persisted, 'the Daleks aren't human beings. They're just evil, half creatures, half machines, determined to destroy you.'

1964, David Whitaker, Dr. Who and the Daleks, chapter 6 (based on the film script Dr. Who and the Daleks by Milton Subotsky, based itself on the tele-script The Mutants/The Daleks by Terry Nation)

[…] what kind of courage it must have taken for Hawkins, an actor renowned for the quality of his voice, to go back onto the set to deliver lines in that oesophageal monotone, what he called his "Dalek voice".

1987, Barry Norman, The Movie Greats, page 144:

This synthesizer is by far the best I have heard, because it varies the intonation, and does not speak like a Dalek.

p. 1996, Together with English Core, fourteenth edition (Rachna Sagar Pvt. Ltd., page 234

My voice still insisted on disappearing into my shoes every time it happened so that I sounded like a Dalek, but with a bit of experience behind me I felt marginally more confident.

2000, Rosie Parnell (Rosie White), The Crit: An Architecture Student's Handbook (co-written with Charles Doidge, Rachel Sara), page xii

One man was skiting around on a big, wheeled camera like a Dalek, dodging the scurrying assistants and clipboard-wielders, […]

2003, Siân Preece, “Country Cooking Countdown”, in Scottish Girls About Town, published 2004, page 19:

Then the Dalek turned and picked off the other passengers one by one. It screamed... 'Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!'

2006, Gareth Roberts, chapter 9, in I Am a Dalek:

Gordon Brown sounds like a Dalek with about three stock phrases... Remember, Daleks always want world domination but they always lose.

a. 2010, Peter Bazalgette, quoted in the Funniest Thing You Never Said: 2, page 333

And Peter was so focused too: like a Dalek in a track suit.

2011, Colin Neill, Turas: A Story of Strangers in a Strange Land, page 166:

(science fiction) A member of a species of extraterrestrial cyborg mutants who appear in the television programme Doctor Who and are known for travelling in metallic shells, having monotone, mechanically distorted voices, repeating a limited number of phrases, and their fanatical obsession with exterminating other, non-Dalek beings.


tachyonic

en-adj

tachyonic (comparative more tachyonic, superlative most tachyonic)

more tachyonic (comparative)
most tachyonic (superlative)

Of or relating to a tachyon or tachyons.


inferno

From Italian inferno (“hell”), from Latin infernus (“of the lower regions”), inferna (“the lower regions”); see infernal.
The meaning "big fire" came as a figurative use from the traditional idea of hellfire.

At each sudden explosion in the inferno below they sprang back from the brink [of the volcanic crater].

1899, D. C. Worcester, The Philippine Islands and Their People:

When Jurgis had first inspected the packing plants with Szedvilas, he […] found that each one of these lesser industries was a separate little inferno, in its way as horrible as the killing beds, the source and fountain of them all[, and t]he workers in each of them had their own peculiar diseases.


lich

en-noun

lich (plural liches or (with Scots pronunciation) lichs)

From Middle English lich, from Old English līċ, from Proto-West Germanic *līk, from Proto-Germanic *līką, from Proto-Indo-European *leyg-. Cognate with Dutch lijk, German Leiche, Norwegian lik, Swedish lik, Danish lig.

It was a lich’s face – desiccated flesh tight over its skull.

(fantasy, roleplaying games) A reanimated corpse or undead being; particularly an intelligent, undead spellcaster.


lich

en-adj

lich (comparative more lich, superlative most lich)

more lich (comparative)
most lich (superlative)

From Middle English līke, līch (“like”); see like and -like for more. Compare -ly and -lich.

1386-90, John Gower, Confessio Amantis.
Anon he let two cofres make / Of one semblance, and of one make, / So lich, that no lif thilke throwe, / That one may fro that other knowe.

[He] rather joy'd to be than seemen sich, For both to be and seeme to him was labour lich.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 29:


kokoro

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/ˈkoʊkəˌɹoʊ/

Borrowed from Japanese 心(こころ) (kokoro, “heart, mind, spirit”).

Fame is for weenies. I'd rather be remembered for inventing a weird guitar effect or a recording technique than becoming famous by a song, unless the song is genuinely from my kokoro.

1992 December 7, Mike, “Re: When Things Go Wrong”, in bit.listserv.allmusic (Usenet), message-ID <ALLMUSIC%92120719125825@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU>:

(fandom slang, chiefly anime and manga) A heart.


seer

From Middle English seere, equivalent to see + -er (“agent suffix”).

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-seer.wav

"But I must not forget to tell you that the lad was born on a Sunday, and had found a card with the four of clubs; therefore he was a seer, that is to say, he could see the supernatural people, but they could not see him."

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 185:

One who foretells the future; a clairvoyant, prophet, soothsayer or diviner.


superpower

en-noun

superpower (countable and uncountable, plural superpowers)

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Administered in such a way, in that superpowers it assures.

1994, C. J. Lee, Caldwell Lee the Poet to Be: The Forthright Omnipotence Era, Dorrance Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 46:

This is his superpower, I think. The comic geek always has one, and Oliver's is a poker face that would leave even the Holy Trinity guessing what he's thinking.

2014, Christina Lauren, Dirty Rowdy Thing, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 258:

If I could have a superpower id^([sic]) want to be able to teleport. I hate walking and driving gives me headaches.

2021 December 6, Givinuplol, belugasareneat, “What superpower you would like?”, in reddit.com:

(countable, fiction) An extraordinary physical or mental ability, especially possessed by a superhero or supervillain.


Mister Right

She waited for years and years, hoping someday to find Mister Right.

(idiomatic) A perfect, ideal or suitable male companion, especially a husband.

如意郎君

perfect, ideal or suitable male mate or husband


fall guy

(informal, sometimes derogatory) One who is gullible and easily duped.


woodwose

The young woodwose had now closed his eyes and was stretched out supine on the pool's marble margin; his Tarzan brief had been cast aside on the turf.

'If the cub has a grievance, let him bring it to the King's judgement,' answered Saeros. 'But the drawing of swords here is not to be excused for any such cause. Outside the hall, if the woodwose draws on me, I shall kill him.'

2007, J. R. R. Tolkien edited by Christopher Tolkien, The Children of Húrin:

A wild man of the woods; a faun, a satyr or a representation of such a being in heraldry or other decoration.


shaman

Borrowed from German Schamane, from Russian шама́н (šamán), from Evenki шама̄н (şamān), сама̄н (samān). The Evenki word is possibly derived from the root ша- ("to know"); or else a loanword from Tocharian B ṣamāne (“monk”) or Chinese 沙門 /沙门 (shāmén, “Buddhist monk”), from Pali samaṇa from Sanskrit श्रमण (śramaṇa, “ascetic, monk, devotee”), from श्रम (śrama, “weariness, exhaustion; labor, toil; etc.”), which would make this a doublet of sramana.


bioroid

(science fiction) A cybernetic or fully biological organism created by artificial means.

genetically engineered
genetic engineering

(science fiction) A genetically engineered humanoid-like organism created for the purpose of enslavement.


merman

From Middle English mereman, from Old English *meremann (“merman”) (suggested by Old English meremenn, meremennen, meremenin (“mermaid, siren”)), equivalent to mer- + man. Cognate with Dutch meerman (“merman”), German Meermann (“merman”).

The meer man hath no feet but fins / And this hath legs you see and shins.

1653, The Loves of Hero and Leander: A Mock Poem, London, page 19:

A legendary creature, human male from the waist up, fishlike from the waist down.


Mummerset

Blend of mummer (“actor in a pantomime”) + Somerset (“county in the west of England”).

Mummersetin murre

An imaginary rural county in the West Country of England.

Mummerset

(often theater) An invented English-language dialect used by actors that mimics a stereotypical West Country rural accent.


droid

Clipping of android (“robot designed to look and act like a human being”), coined by the American science fiction author Mari Wolf (born 1927) in the story “Robots of the World! Arise!” (1952), and popularized by the film Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, 1977): see the quotations.

coin

It's crazy. They're swarming all over Carron City. They're stopping robots in the streets—household Robs, commercial Droids, all of them. They just look at them, and then the others quit work and start off with them.

1952 July, Mari Wolf, “Robots of the World! Arise!”, in James L. Quinn, editor, If (Project Gutenberg; Ebook #31611), volume 1, number 3, Kingston, N.Y.: Quinn Pub. Co., published 12 March 2010, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-04-27, page 76:

“These aren’t the ’droids you’re looking for,” [Obi-Wan] Kenobi told him pleasantly.

1976, George Lucas, [Alan Dean Foster], Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 77:

The bartender was a droid, as most were, but she doubted this one had been programmed to listen cheerfully to customers' hard luck stories. […] Droids couldn't be bribed, she thought with some regret. And threats had to be both clever and logical.

1995, J. D. Robb [pseudonym; Nora Roberts], chapter 3, in Glory in Death, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, →ISBN, page 39:

Do droids have capacities for mental states and language? There are plenty of examples of droids apparently engaged in behaviors expressive of mental states and language. One glaring example is the torturing of a droid at Jabba the Hutt's palace in Return of the Jedi. […] (Interestingly enough, one also gets the sense that the droid administering the torture is enjoying what he's doing.)

2005, Robert Arp, “‘If Droids Could Think …’: Droids as Slaves and Persons”, in Kevin S. Decker, Jason T. Eberl, editors, Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful than You Can Possibly Imagine (Popular Culture and Philosophy; 12), Chicago, LaSalle, Ill.: Open Court Publishing Company, →ISBN, part III (“Don’t Call Me a Mindless Philosopher!”):

The trouble with droids is that they can't think, Obi-Wan told himself as he hacked his way through the battle droids that still clogged the sinkhole tunnel city on Utapau. An army made up of living beings would have seen how badly outnumbered they were, and given up. The droids just kept on fighting.

2005, Patricia C[ollins] Wrede, Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith […], New York, N.Y.: Scholastic, →ISBN, page 142:

I'm close to finding those maps. I know it! Then six more missions and I'll have enough creds to set myself up in style on some snug and safe planet. I'll have a bunch of droid servants and never have to get my hands dirty again.

2014, S. E. Gilchrist, chapter 1, in When Stars Collide, Sydney, N.S.W.: Escape Publishing, →ISBN:

Stepping inside to the front office you'll find Black Spire's most complete collection of droids, technical manuals, droid parts, and tools. Tucked outside the shop lies a repair station and oil bath, normally considered a luxury by most droid companions.

2020, Eloc Throno [pseudonym; Cole Horton], “Droid Depot”, in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: Traveler’s Guide to Batuu, Bellevue, Wash.: Becker&mayer! books, The Quarto Group, →ISBN, page 36:

(originally and chiefly science fiction) A robot, especially one made with some physical resemblance to a human (an android).

"Okay, Allie, I didn't want to have to do this, but if you insist on behaving like an astromech droid, you leave me no choice." Rory's an accountant and a Star Wars nerd.

2006, Shane Bolks, Reality TV Bites: […], New York, N.Y.: HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 16:

(chiefly US, derogatory) A person having the qualities of an android; one with few or no emotions or little personality, or who acts in an unthinking manner; a robot.


oread

From Latin Orēas, Orēadis, from Ancient Greek Ὀρειάς (Oreiás), from ὄρος (óros, “mountain”).

The imprisoned ringlets are emancipated; 'fresh as the oread from the forest fountain,' you descend—you breathe the incense of the chocolate—not more I hope—and grow conversational and confidential over the green tea, which, with a fragrance beyond all the violets of April, rises to your lip, 'giving and taking odours.'

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 92:

(Greek mythology) A mountain nymph; an anthropomorphic appearance of the spirit of a mountain.


close encounter

en-noun

close encounter (plural close encounters)

(ufology) A supposed observation, or observation of evidence, of extraterrestrial beings or their craft.

contato imediato

observation of extraterrestrials or their craft


Lazarus

From Late Latin Lazarus, from Koine Greek Λᾱ́ζᾱρος (Lā́zāros), the given name of Biblical characters found in Luke 16 and John 12, from Biblical Hebrew אֶלְעָזָר ('El'azár), a given name shared by various figures in the Hebrew Bible and literally meaning "God has helped". Doublet of Eleazar.

(biblical) A beggar in a parable by Jesus Christ, traditionally (Christianity) believed to have been a leper and often conflated with Lazarus of Bethany.

לַעְזָר (la'zár) (used in the Franz Delitzsch translation of the New Testament)


Ionian

* (Hellenic, Ionia, architecture): Ionia + -n
* (moon of Jupiter): Io + -n- + -ian

(science fiction) An inhabitant of Io, a moon of Jupiter.


sea serpent

Any unidentified sea monster, especially one resembling a snake or dragon.


egomaniac

He's a raving egomaniac: all he ever talks about is himself and how important he is.

A person obsessed with their own (supposed) importance.


CTC

(rail transport) Initialism of Centralized (or Centralised) Traffic Control.


Titania

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

A style of Diana in Ovid, fem. of titanius, from Titan. As faeries were identified with Classical nymphs, the queen of the faeries was equated with Diana.

As it is impossible to believe that this huge mountain can produce such an effect, at the expiration of a few minutes we become dupes of illusion, and the most grave thinker is ready to swear that there is in those shades, under some fantastic thicket, a solitary— a supernatural being—a sort of fairy—a Titania, who amuses herself by delicately parodying the music of mortals, and throwing down the half of a mountain every time she hears the report of a gun.

1842 May 7, L'Etudiant, “The Rhine”, in The Mirror, volume 1, number 19, page 293:

For all this Magical Mansion were vain With all its dominions so fair; Its splendor and riches no happiness gain Without a Titania to share!

1859, “Fairy Knowe”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, page 428:

"Take breath," said Teresa, unable to help laughing. "Why, kitten, you're as good as a fairy-tale." "Inspired by Titania herself." said a gallant voice at her elbow; and Kate disappeared with a sly grimace, as Russell Wayne shook hands with Miss Amesford. "You never saw a dusky queen of the fairies, did you? A species of Brownie would be more like me, Mr. Wayne; you must wait until Alma comes home for a Titania."

1871 January, Daisy Ventnor, “Prince Charming Comes to Town”, in The Peterson magazine, volume 59, number 1, page 39:

But something is awry; the fairy-stories, the mythologies, are mixed up. Tom is less a masculine Pygmalion caressing his dream-statue into flesh than a feminine Galatea waking to see her lover's face blotting out the sun; less an Oberon than a Titania, falling in love with “the first person he had seen on waking from his drugged sleep”.

2009, Jan S. Cronin, Simone Drichel, Frameworks: Contemporary Criticism on Janet Frame, page 30:

From Shakespeare's play A Midsummer-Night's Dream, the queen of the fairies.


Oompa Loompa

Apparently a fanciful formation in line with whimsical English words like fuzzy-wuzzy, Humpty Dumpty, etc. Perhaps reminiscent of "exotic" ethnonyms to Westerners; note Roald Dahl spent time in Tanganyika, East Africa, during his service in the Royal Air Force. Also compare oom-pah (“genre of German folk music”) (the Oompa Loompas dance to quirky, rhythmic songs).

Dr. Evil: Is he giving off too much of a creepy Umpa Lumpa vibe? / What’s wrong, Mini-Me?

1999 June, Mike Myers, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, New Line Cinema

Nobody, not even an Umpa Lumpa, had warned me what would happen to a blind guy who refuses to close his eyes.

2006, Ryan Knighton, Cockeyed, A Memoir, page 152:

It could be worse, but I've learned to become invisible to Machiavellian dilettantes, faux radical Satanistas, and bloodsucking Oompa-Loompas of the painfully ordinary variety.

2006, Adrian C. Louis, Logorrhea, Northwestern University Press,, →ISBN, page 44:

[Referring to the male member] It's not one of the Muppets or an Umpa Lumpa.

2006, Sherry Argov, Why Men Marry Bitches: A Woman's Guide to Winning Her Man's Heart, page 89:

Don’t be afraid to write your name in the books and on the pans that were yours before you found yourself sharing a studio apartment that would normally not be big enough for an Oompa-Loompa.

2006, Anna Jane Grossman, Flint Wainess, It’s Not Me, It’s You: The Ultimate Breakup Book, page 129:

Nevertheless, some subtle market forces are at work which pressure the canny shopkeeper into giving up valuable shelf space to the contents of an Oompa Loompa’s cocktail cabinet.

2006, Simon Trewin and Michael Moran, The Encyclopaedia of Guilty Pleasures, John Murray, page unknown

For women with skin of color, it's so, so important to get the shade and tone right. If it's wrong, you can look incredibly ashy, or like an Oompa Loompa.

2006, Iman, The Beauty of Color: The Ultimate Beauty Guide for Skin of Color, page 34:

The men[…]have gone way overboard with the spray-on tan. They’re as orange as Oompa Loompas, and they stare at my boobs for a very long time before acknowledging me.

2007, Meta Smith, Queen of Miami, Hachette Digital, →ISBN:

I don't know who decided all porn actors must be the same shade of orange as Oompa Loompas.

2009, Reverend Jen, Live Nude Elf: The Sexperiments of Reverend Jen, Counterpoint Press, →ISBN, page 172:

Dahl insisted there was no racist intent behind the Oompa Loompas but also said he found himself sympathising with the NAACP.

2017 September 13, Haroon Siddique, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory hero 'was originally black'”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(fiction) Any of the fictional pygmies who manufacture candy in Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.


civvy street

From civvy (“(informal) civilian”, adjective and noun) + street.

You might have been in Civvy Street / Instead of in the fight; / But it serves you right, / You shouldn't have joined [the navy], / It jolly well serves you right.

1943 November, Desmond Cox, Harold Elton Box (lyrics and music), “It Serves You Right (You Shouldn’t Have Joined)”, in Bell-Bottom George (released 7 February 1944; soundtrack), performed by George Formby:

In civvy street he had been a bus cleaner.

2002, Sam Smith, Vera and Eddy’s War, Nibley, South Gloucestershire: BeWrite Books, →ISBN:

(chiefly British, military slang) The condition or status of a civilian; civilian life.


man-eater

And particularly, he knows where to find the primitive substance of the man eater: howsoever evaporate or reduced, as it were, into air or vapour, by sweat or perspiration.

1776, Thomas Boston, The Human Nature in its Fourfold State, page 336:

Man-eaters are more newsworthy than three-foot-long harmless sharks with tiny teeth.

1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 146:

His origin amongst monsters and man-eaters signals the play's recurrent concerns with monstrification, with eating others or being eaten by them, and with issues of specularity […]

1995, Bradley William Johnson, Birthed Effects: Shakespeare's Generation of Monsters, page 67:

An animal that attacks and kills humans for food, such as certain tigers or sharks; any animal that consumes human flesh.


unbiunium

Systematic element name from un- + bi- + un- + -ium.

systematic element name
systematic element name

The systematic element name for the (as yet undiscovered) chemical element with atomic number 121 (symbol Ubu).


dilithium

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Fifty years later and it seems like we should—I don’t know if dilithium crystals are out there—but, you know, we should be getting some breakthroughs.

2016 October, Scott Dadich, quoting Barack Obama, “Barack Obama Talks AI, Robo Cars, and the Future of the World”, in Wired, →ISSN:

(science fiction) A fictional crystalline mineral in the Star Trek franchise, described as an essential component of anti-matter energy generation systems.


DAD

Currently replaying in preparation for DAD, and the Josiemance is still as lovely as I remember.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf
w:Dragon Age: The Veilguard

(fandom slang) Initialism of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf (early title of Dragon Age: The Veilguard).


silver bullet

(literally, folklore) A bullet made of silver, usually with reference to the folkloric belief that such bullets are the only weapons which can kill a werewolf, vampire, or other monster.

There is no silver bullet for this problem. It will take hard work and long hours to fix.

Colin H. Kahl, the under secretary of defense for policy, acknowledged last week that “no one capability is a silver bullet,” but said the cluster munitions would allow Ukraine “to sustain the artillery fight for the foreseeable future.”

2023 July 14, Eric Schmitt, quoting Colin H. Kahl, “U.S. Cluster Munitions Arrive in Ukraine, but Impact on Battlefield Remains Unclear”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(figurative) Any straightforward solution perceived to have great effectiveness or bring miraculous results.

solució miraculosa

The Martini is nicknamed “the silver bullet” because of its supposedly lethal properties.

[2003, Lowell Edmunds, Martini, Straight Up: The Classic American Cocktail, JHU Press, →ISBN, page 64:

For a classic silver bullet martini, you simply need to choose your poison—gin or vodka—and add dry vermouth and olives. For the more complex concoctions, you'll want to stock up on flavored vodkas, juices, garnishes, and liqueurs.

2007, Sally Ann Berk, Martini Book: 201 Ways to Mix the Perfect American Cocktail, Hachette, →ISBN:

(colloquial) A classic dry martini cocktail.

[…] "the silver bullet"—a rectal thermometer, to ensure that their body core isn't dangerously overheated from the run.

1998, Thomas E. Ricks, Making the Corps, page 166:

Of course, there is the infamous “Silver Bullet,” which is a rectal thermometer that measures the body's core temperature in the event of a heat case. No one wanted to get it up the butt with the Silver Bullet, […]

2006, Cpl. Matthew D. Wojtecki, Every Other Four, page 140:

A Corpsman was yanking my pants down in order to administer a “silver bullet” (rectal thermometer). I squirmed away and shoved the Corpsman off me before he could insert it.

2017, Jason Delgado, Chris Martin, Bounty Hunter 4/3: From the Bronx to Marine Scout Sniper, page 109:

(military slang) A thermometer, especially one used for rectal temperature readings.


hyperspace drive

hyperspace drive (plural hyperspace drives)

a hypothetical propulsion system for spacecraft that would "warp" spacetime


sylph

First attested in 1657. From New Latin sylphes, coined by Paracelsus in the 16th century. The coinage may derive from Latin sylvestris (“of the woods”) and nympha (“nymph”). Ultimately from the root silva (“woods, forest”). Related to sylvan.
More at Wikipedia.

Her heart fluttered with expectation—her step was buoyant with hope, and she sprung into the carriage with the lightness of a sylph.

Necromancy meant originally the conjuring up the souls of the dead, and later included the conjuring of all sorts of inhuman spirits such as sylphs, giants, and djinn.

1941, Rupert Gleadow, Magic and Divination, page 125:

(mythology) An invisible being of the air.

The elemental being of air, usually female.

(ornithology) Any of the mainly dark green and blue hummingbirds (genus Aglaiocercus), the male of which has a long forked tail.


tomacco

A tomato plant grafted onto a tobacco plant.


conman

confidence trickster
confidence trickster


Igor

From the hunchbacked lab assistant to Dr. Victor Frankenstein in the 1931 U.S. film Frankenstein of Universal Studios, which was named "Fritz", and the successor to Dr. Frankenstein found in the third and fourth films, named "Ygor"; which have been conflated in popular culture to become "Igor".

(fiction) A stock character, the lab assistant to a mad scientist, vampire, or miser frequently depicted as being deformed in some manner, physically and/or psychologically.


mimsy

en-adj

mimsy (comparative mimsier, superlative mimsiest)

mimsier (comparative)
mimsiest (superlative)

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wade^([sic – meaning wabe]); / All mimsy were the borogoves, / And the mome raths outgrabe.

1871, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, “I. Looking-Glass House”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There:

Down he sank in a chair—ran his hands through his hair— / And chanted in mimsiest tones

1876, Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark […] , London: Macmillan, Fit the Seventh. The Banker's Fate:

(nonce word) A nonce word in Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky


haint

"Ain't you scared of haints?"

1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa., New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC, part 2, page 254:

I got a tree on my back and a haint in my house, and nothing in between but the daughter I am holding in my arms.

It didn't take long for word to spread that there was a "haint" in the graveyard. A haint is what the old-timers called a ghost.

2005, Eulie Rowan, “The Four-Legged Haint”, in The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs, Simon and Schuster, page 106:

My dead grandpa's haint floated above my bed one night when I was a young'un and scared me so bad I busted the bedroom door down tryin' to get out that room so fast.

2009, Mary Monroe, God Still Don't Like Ugly, page 211:

(US, dialectal) A ghost; a supernatural being; Alternative form of haunt.


gremlin

Oxford English Dictionary
Roald Dahl
The Gremlins

Uncertain; the following etymologies have been suggested:
* A variant of goblin.
* From Irish gruaimín (“gloomy little person”); or from Dutch gremmelen (“to soil, stain; to spoil”), or griemelen, grimmelen (“(obsolete) to abound, teem; to swarm”), but according to the Oxford English Dictionary there is little evidence for such derivations.
The word was popularized, especially in the United States, by the children’s novel The Gremlins (1943) by the British author Roald Dahl (1916–1990), in which gremlins sabotage Royal Air Force aircraft in revenge for the destruction of their forest home to make way for an aircraft factory; the creatures later join forces with the British to fight the Nazis.

der

Like Abominable Snowmen, gremlins have never actually been seen; but nobody who works with electronic gear doubts the existence of these mischievous and elusive entities. There are too many malfunctions and failures that can have no other explanation.

1963, Arthur C Clarke, chapter 8, in Glidepath, New York: Simon and Schuster, pages 72-73:

Crucial time was saved by the fact Nexus didn't require a Transport & Works Act. Nevertheless, other gremlins kept raising their heads.

2023 November 29, Richard Foster, “Tyne & Wear Metro goes with the flow”, in RAIL, number 997, page 34:

(originally British, aviation, Royal Air Force slang)

(mythology) An imaginary creature reputed to be mischievously inclined, for example, to damage or dismantle machinery.

гремлин

imaginary creature reputed to be mischievously inclined to damage or dismantle machinery


psychokinesis

en-noun

psychokinesis (usually uncountable, plural psychokineses)

(parapsychology) The movement of physical systems and objects by the use of psychic power. Abbreviated as PK.

telekinesia

movement inanimate objects by the use of psychic power


levitation

levitation (countable and uncountable, plural levitations)

/ˌlɛvɪˈteɪʃən/

From levitate + -ion, from Latin levitas (“lightness”), patterned in English on gravitate.

It was erected by the application of those universal laws and forces of nature which cause iron to float. By the same laws, gravity may be overcome or neutralized, and stone made to float in air. The Pyramid was thus built by levitation, abetted by song and chanting, much in the same manner in which the Druids of England set up their huge stones at a later period.

1972, Lytle Robinson, chapter 4, in Edgar Cayceʼs Story of the Origin and Destiny of Man, USA: Berkley Publishing Corporation, page 90:

The suspension of something via technical means without any mechanical support, such as by magnetism

levitació

technical suspension without mechanical support


frabjous

en-adj

frabjous (comparative more frabjous, superlative most frabjous)

more frabjous (comparative)
most frabjous (superlative)

/ˈfɹæbd͡ʒəs/

Audio (US)

Originally a nonce word in Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky; probably a blend of fair, fabulous, and joyous.

“[…] / O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” / He chortled in his joy.

[Owl, deluded his candidate was elected:] My dark horse!... Oh, frabjous day!

1960 November 15, Walt Kelly, Pogo, comic strip, →ISBN, page 198:

"Tomorrow there'll be so much to do," as the Dixie Chicks remind us, "so tonight I'll drift in a dream with you." I want her life to be frabjous, not weighed down with mimsy.

2012 March 15, “To Be a Fully Developed Person (and Leader), You Need to Dream”, in Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Beginning in the final months leading up to the bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and ending in 1953, “Barefoot Gen” takes us inside war from the civilians’ view with none of the propaganda and all of the flawed and frabjous potential of humanity.

2016 January 23, Kris Kosaka, “Barefoot Gen”, in The Japan Times:

It's the sugar rush that quickens the pulse. It's the headlong chocolate-dopamine surge that excites. It's the frabjous joy of tearing into a well-wrapped bar. It's love, love, love.

2017 January 31, Jim Myers, “Nashvill'es Best Candies for Valentine's Day”, in Tennesseean:

O frabjous day! We are all bored out of our minds with Brexit when a demented looking gnome is pulled out of the Ecuadorian embassy by the secret police of the deep state. Or “the met” as normal people call them.

2019 April 12, Suzanne Moore, “Wikileaks was the future once. Then it became Julian Assange”, in NewStatesman:


galumphing

From Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky; perhaps a blend of galloping + triumph.

(nonce word) Galloping in a heavy and inelegant manner.


alkahest

en-noun

alkahest (countable and uncountable, plural alkahests)

Borrowed from Late Latin alcahest, apparently coined by Paracelsus, as Pseudo-Arabism.

This perspective stimulated the alchemical quest for a ‘universal solvent’, that would dissolve and homogenize all substances – a solvent that Paracelsus named the alkahest.

2006, Philip Ball, The Devil's Doctor, Arrow, published 2007, page 267:

(now historical) A universal solvent sought by the alchemists.


doxy

Perhaps from Middle Dutch *doketje, diminutive of Middle Dutch docke (“a doll”), from Proto-Germanic *dokko (“something round”), related to *dukkǭ (“muscle, strength”). Cognate with Low German dokke (“doll”), Saterland Frisian dok, dokke (“a doll”), Swedish docka (“doll, puppet”).

der

Alternative form: doxie

He did not relish the apparition of that Katherine, for when it appeared it seemed to bring with it a brother shadow that wore ragged clothes and tangled hair and foul linen, that drank from any flagon and drabbed with any doxy, that slept in tavern angles through hours of drunkenness, a thing whose fingers pillaged, filched, and pilfered when and where they could, a creature that once he saw whenever he stared into a mirror.

1907, Justin Huntly McCarthy, Needles and pins, page 82:

Do you think the writer of Antony and Cleopatra, a passionate pilgrim, had his eyes in the back of his head that he chose the ugliest doxy in all Warwickshire to lie withal?

However, terrible as it may seem to the tall maiden sisters of J.P.'s in Queen Anne houses with walled vegetable gardens, this courtesan, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie, street-walker, this trollop, this trull, this baggage, this hussy, this drab, skit, rig, quean, mopsy, demirep, demimondaine, this wanton, this fornicatress, this doxy, this concubine, this frail sister, this poor Queenie—did actually solicit me, did actually say 'coming home to-night, dearie' and my soul was not blasted enough to call a policeman.

1936, Anthony Bertram, Like the Phoenix:

So then, of course, he paid her in kind...the place is full of his doxies, open a closet at Allington and some wench falls out of it.

2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 328:

(archaic, Thieves' Cant) A sweetheart; a prostitute or a mistress.


doxy

I know one patient who couldn't take the tabs but could tolerate liquid doxy.

1996 May 7, Phyllis Mervine, “Re: Tetracycline”, in sci.med.diseases.lyme (Usenet):

(informal, pharmacology) Clipping of doxycycline.


doxy

Coined by J.K. Rowling in the Harry Potter series as the name of a species of biting fairy, possibly originally from Etymology 1 or from Etymology 3 (doxycycline is used to treat various diseases caused by insect bites). Likely influenced by pixie.

"Yeah, but she doesn't usually actively sabotage you."
"No worries. I'm used to doxy fairies"

2010 July 15, Justine Larbalestier, How to Ditch Your Fairy, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 6:

The doxies were everywhere. So he just kept swinging, feeling a shudder through his arm each time the racquet made contact with a scaly body. Despite his best efforts, two or three of the nasty, screeching things got close.

2015 March 10, C.T. Adams, The Exile: Book One of the Fae, Tor Books, →ISBN, page 93:

"And I'm a doxy not a fairy, you complete and utter fuckface."

2021 May 19, Sarah Biglow, Molly Zenk, Captivity The Complete Series: A Dystopian Shifter Fantasy Collection, Biglow & Zenk Fantasy Publishing:

Trapped like this, the options are extremely pitiful and the damned doxies bite the way scorpions sting.

2022 October 11, Doug Moench, Aztec Ace: The Complete Collection, Dark Horse Comics, →ISBN, page 139:

A doxy messenger can outfly a pixie by five klicks in optimal conditions. They can span 40 klicks in a little over five hours. Though not particularly good in combat, doxies can turn invisible, kill with a kiss, and cause hallucinations if touched.

2023 December 12, Claire Wilkins, Courting the Prince of Moonlit Shadows, eGlobal Creative Publishing Inc., →ISBN:

(fantasy) An aggressive creature similar to a fairy.


Robin Hood

/ˌɹɒbɪn ˈhʊd/

From Middle English, from Old French, diminutive of Robert.

A legendary English outlaw famous for his skill in archery and his vow to defend the poor and the oppressed against established authority.

Baslow and Bubnell
Baslow and Bubnell#English

Derbyshire Dales
Derbyshire Dales#English

w:List of United Kingdom locations: Ri-Ror#Roa-Ror

A hamlet in Baslow and Bubnell parish, Derbyshire Dales district, Derbyshire (OS grid ref SK2772).

A settlement in Wrightington parish, West Lancashire district, Lancashire (OS grif ref SD5211).

A village in the Metropolitan Borough of Leeds, West Yorkshire (OS grid ref SE3227).

A locality near Drouin, Victoria, Australia.