redcap

From red + cap.
In sense of "porter", 1890s US; compare contemporary Japanese 赤帽 (akabou), Chinese 小紅帽 /小红帽 (Xiǎo Hóng Mào). On Labor Day, 1890, John Williams, an African-American railway porter, tied a red ribbon to his black uniform cap to stand out from the crowd at Grand Central Terminal. The strategy was so successful that it was soon adopted by others in the profession, leading to the synecdochic use of redcap as a term for all railway porters.

1876: Porter & Coates (pub.), Reliques of Ancient English Poetry
Lord Soulis he sat in Hermitage Castle,
And beside him Old Redcap sly; —
"Now, tell me, thou sprite, who are meikle of might,
The death that I must die?"

"What's a Brownie?" you say. Oh, it's a kind of a sort of a Bogle, but it isn't so cruel as a Redcap! What! you don't know what's a Bogle or a Redcap!

1890, Joseph Jacobs, English Fairy Tales:

[…] the goblin had aroused the mercenary's ire. This seemed to bring out a formidable and hitherto unrecognized talent in the taciturn young man.
"Why cam' ye by my door?" The redcap brandished his pikestaff menacingly.
Redcap - A malevolent goblin easily distinguishable by their namesake red cap, fiery red eyes, claws and iron boots. They often appear as little old men, but can run very fast despite the boots. They reside in castles and watchtowers along the English-Scottish border, but will move their residence to avoid detection. They have sharp eagle’s talons which they use for weapons, but can easily be repelled simply by reading holy verse. http://www.vf11.com/legendsofvalhal/legendsofvalhal-post-814.html

2002, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, The Ill-Made Mute: The Bitterbynde:

After boggarts, they studied Red Caps, nasty little goblinlike creatures that lurked where there had been bloodshed […]

1999 July 8, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter; 3), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

(British, folklore) A type of evil goblin or imp.


nanite

I had the nanites install the brackets, then climbed up there with the panels, placed them on the brackets, and had the nanites secure them.

2017, Stephanie C. Fox, New World Order Underwater, page 76:

Disperse into a cloud of nanites.

2021 August 11, Thomas Happ, Axiom Verge 2, Nintendo Switch, description for Tilhar

"Anyway," their guide continued, "he didn't know the first thing about tech. Pushed the team hard. We couldn't get a chemical solution that worked right, but nanites showed real promise."
"You're joking." Quinn didn't even try to keep the horror from her voice.
"Memory-altering nanite clouds?" Tonya growled. "What did they call this, Project Grey Goo? That's wildly irresponsible."

2023 June 25, HarryBlank, “Transposthumousism”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 2024-12-18:


dryad

From Old French driade (“wood nymph”), from Latin Dryas, Dryadis, from Ancient Greek Δρυάς (Druás, “dryad”), from δρῦς (drûs, “oak”), from Proto-Indo-European *derew(o)- (“tree, wood”); cf. Proto-Indo-European *dóru (“tree”).

der

Coordinate term: Meliai

There it had stood for years, close beside a mighty oak, under which sat often the kindly old priest, who told stories to the listening children. The young chestnut tree listened with them: the Dryad inside it, who was still a child, could remember the time when the tree was so small that it only reached a little higher than the ferns and long blades of grass.

1914, Hans Christian Andersen, “The Dryad”, in William Alexander Craigie, transl., Fairy tales and other stories:


Midas touch

From the Greek legend of King Midas, related in chapter XI of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (8 C.E.), whom Dionysus (the god of, among other things, wine and winemaking) gave the power to turn things to gold by touching them.

Midaan kosketus

ability to gain financial reward or success from one’s actions easily and consistently

(Greek mythology, literally) The ability to turn everything one touches into gold.

(idiomatic) The ability to achieve financial reward (or, more generally, success) from one's actions easily and consistently.


selkie

(Celtic mythology) A seal which can magically transform into a human by shedding its skin.


No, the slightest imbalance there would have alarms flashing all over the room. Probably it was the fact that he knew the threedee was a little out of whack.

1969, Dave Van Arnam, Starmind, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, page 14:

(science fiction) A system capable of recording or displaying three-dimensional video.

A man Ellaby's own size was sitting there, viewing a 3D. When he heard Ellaby at the door he got up.

1955 January, Martin Lesser, “The Dictator”, in Imagination, volume 6, number 1, page 85:

(science fiction) A three-dimensional video.


Aladdin

From Arabic عَلَاءُ الدِّين (ʕalāʔu d-dīn, “nobility of the faith”).

عَلَاءُ الدِّين

Aladdin, of the former dynasty [Khilji], subdued nearly all the Deccan, about 1312; [...]

1876, Edward Augustus Freeman, The History and Conquests of the Saracens: Six Lectures Delivered Before the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution:

(obsolete or archaic)
Alternative form of Alauddin

Orkhan, valuing his brother's knowledge, appointed him Grand Vizier. Aladdin was not an expert in warlike affairs, and turned his attention to the internal improvement of the dominion [...]

1912, Alexander W. Hidden, The Ottoman Dynasty, page 12:

(obsolete or archaic)
Alternative form of Alaeddin

An Arabic tale about a young man named Aladdin who is recruited by a sorcerer to get a magic lamp from a cave; often adapted into comic pantomime in Britain

The young man who is the protagonist and title character of the story


mandrake

en-noun

mandrake (countable and uncountable, plural mandrakes)

From Middle English mandrake, mandroke, an alteration of mandragora with the ending -dragora reinterpreted as related to dragon and replaced with native drake, from Old English mandragora, from Medieval Latin mandragorās.

Any plant of the genus Mandragora, certain of which are said to have medicinal or aphrodisiac properties; the root of these plants often resembles the shape of a small person, hence occasioning various mythic, magical, or occult uses.


Proteus

Derived from Ancient Greek Πρωτεύς (Prōteús).

der+

(Greek mythology) A sea god who could change his shape at will.


hungry ghost

(Buddhism, Chinese folk religion) A type of supernatural being, condemned to desire more than it can consume; often depicted with large belly and tiny mouth.

ပြိတ္တာ

in Buddhism, a type of supernatural being


harmonium

Borrowed from French harmonium, a term coined by French inventor Alexandre Debain in 1840.

coin

The only other man was a little grey-headed fellow with a pleasant face and quick, twinkling eyes, who sat at a harmonium in the corner.

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Which Describes Some Strange Doings in Hammersmith”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

They were a grave and reverend seignior in a frock coat, a lady sitting at a portable harmonium, and a chinless youth toying with a crucifix.

1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC, page 244:

It [Troutbeck] has religious isolation also, for it is several miles—and very strenuous miles in winter—from the parish church at Mungrisdale, and the introduction of the harmonium to the waiting room was due to the zeal of a vicar of many years ago who, in the absence of any other room in the village, obtained permission to use the premises for services, including Sunday School. Most of his successors have continued this self-sacrificing duty.

1951 October, “Notes and News: The Harmonium at Troutbeck”, in Railway Magazine, page 709:

(music) A small keyboard instrument that consists of a series of reed pipes, which sound when one of the keys is pressed to open a valve that allows air to pass through.


R&R

That was my story so far. I really need a better title so please R&R!

2000 December 19, ajangel912 [username], “Re: Putting the Pieces Back Together (JC)”, in alt.tv.er.creative (Usenet):

What would happen if our favorite potions teacher accidently^([sic]) became a famous muggle movie star? Please R&R.

2003 July 25, hansaplatz [username], “Re: HP FanFic and praise for book 5”, in alt.fan.harry-potter (Usenet):

Summary:When offered the opprotunity^([sic]) to have a lost comrade restored to them, Picard must make the decision- even if it mean^([sic]) disregarding Starfleet's Prime Directive. Please R&R!!

2003 August 1, abraon [username], “STNG - One of the Living [PG] (Q, all) 3/16”, in alt.startrek.creative (Usenet):

(fandom slang) Initialism of read and review: used to request that people read a work (generally fan fiction) and give feedback.


ice bucket

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

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


Bandersnatch

Coined by Lewis Carroll in 1863 (see quotation).

Beware the jabberwock, my son.
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch

1863, Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There:

An obscure fictional creature mentioned in two of Lewis Carroll's poems.


slipstream

en-noun

slipstream (countable and uncountable, plural slipstreams)

Compound of slip + stream. Fiction sense coined by cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling in 1989.

coin

Coordinate term: New Weird

Slipstream is not simply a mixture of fantasy and realism, but something which lies between or even beyond the two.

2000, Damien Broderick, quoting Justina Robson and Rozanne Rabinowitz, Transrealist Fiction: Writing in the Slipstream of Science, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 88:

(uncountable, fiction) A genre of fantastic or non-realistic fiction that crosses conventional genre boundaries.


shoggoth

A monstrous gelatinous creature with green eyes, featured in the horror fiction of H. P. Lovecraft.


Ophelia

/əʊˈfiː.lɪə/

Hamlet
Jacopo Sannazaro
William Shakespeare

Borrowed from Italian Ofelia, coined by the poet Jacopo Sannazaro in his poem Arcadia (1504), probably from the Ancient Greek ὠφέλειᾰ (ōphéleiă, “help, aid, succour”). The name was used by William Shakespeare for the ill-fated love interest of Hamlet.

uder

(astronomy) A moon of Uranus, named after the character in Hamlet.


tulgey

Coined by Lewis Carroll around 1870 for the Jabberwock poem.

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, / Came whiffling through the tulgey wood

1871, Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-glass, "Jabberwocky":

I battled for a while with Professor Aschloch's tulgey prose – only German poets have ever written lucid German prose – then closed my eyes, wondering bitterly which of my enemies the nice American worked for.

1973, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Don't Point That Thing at Me, Penguin 2001, page 69:

Thick, dense, dark (originally in reference to a wood).


Matrixism

A minor modern religion based on the science-fiction franchise The Matrix.


metafiction

en-noun

metafiction (usually uncountable, plural metafictions)

From meta- + fiction, coined in 1970 by William H. Gass

Julian Barnes's Flaubert's Parrot (1984) and Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor and Chatterton may be described as accomplished examples of historiographic metafiction, the kind of self-conscious, heavily parodic and experimental historical […]

1999, Susana Onega Jaén, Metafiction and Myth in the Novels of Peter Ackroyd, Camden House, →ISBN, page 1:

In the previous chapter, I presented a heuristic explanation of the development of metafiction. In this chapter, I turn to some texts written before the 1980s to demonstrate that the binary between realism and metafiction is not fixed.

2010, Evan Mwangi, Africa Writes Back to Self: Metafiction, Gender, Sexuality, SUNY Press, →ISBN, page 65:

A form of self-referential literature concerned with the art and devices of fiction itself.


crone

From Middle English crone, from Anglo-Norman carogne (compare central Old French charogne (a term of abuse, literally “carrion, carcass, old sheep, hag”), whence modern French charogne). Doublet of carrion.

вещица

ugly evil-looking or frightening old woman; a hag

“And what is your name, crispy, old, wizened crone?” “Oh, my name's Helen.” “Hel-- Oh, just Helen. That's it. Just Helen?” “Helen the Magic Woman.” “And you can help me rid myself of this disgusting hex?” “Yes.”

2023 August 17, Jeremy Levick & Rajat Suresh, “Hybrid Creatures” (7:01 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5, episode 7, spoken by Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou):


Roswell

en-proper noun

Roswell (countable and uncountable, plural Roswells)

Metathesized from Middle English Roweshill, from a contraction of either the Old English personal name Hrōþwulf or its Norman cognate Rolf, Rouf, Rou (in the genitive case, adding -es) + Old English hyll (“hill”).

An unincorporated community in Canyon County, Idaho.

(1997) So go on with your life / Forget that Roswell crap / Show love to the black suit / 'Cuz that's the Men In … Black "Men in Black" by Will Smith (1997)

A city, the county seat of Chaves County, New Mexico, known for conspiracy theories that its Roswell Army Air Field has recovered UFOs and extraterrestrials.

Among the cases he examined was an incident that has come to be known as England’s Roswell.

1998, Jim Wilson, “Six Unexplainable Encounters”, in Popular Mechanics, Hearst Magazines, page 66:

Kazantsev’s story was for some unaccountable reason taken seriously in the West, leading to some enthusiasts referring to Tunguska as the Russian Roswell.

2007, Rodney Castleden, Natural Disasters That Changed the World, Book Sales, page 272:

Dubbed “Mexico’s Roswell,” the mid-air collision near Coyame of an airplane and a UFO has been the subject of a major documentary for the History Channel’s UFO Hunters series in 2008, and numerous articles in newspapers, magazines, and Websites.

2008, Noe Torres, Ruben Uriarte, Mexico's Roswell: The Chihuahua UFO Crash, Lulu.com, page 3:

The most significant ufological event of a region.

Tuscarawas County
Tuscarawas County#English

A place in the United States:
A village in Tuscarawas County, Ohio.

census-designated place
census-designated place

A census-designated place in Miner County, South Dakota.


Chinese dragon

(mythology) A legendary creature, usually depicted as long and snake-like, with many claws, common in several East Asian cultures.

চীনা আজদাহা

legendary creature common in several East Asian cultures


shapeshifter

/ˈʃeɪpʃɪftə/

The shapeshifter Lisa Bowalk, unable to shed the guise of a black panther, had gone onto the plain as a prisoner but was not now to be found among the dead above or the Captured down below.

Like the teller of shapeshifter stories—who conjures a shifting world of perceptions and expectations for his or her audience that is strikingly similar to the worlds created by the shapeshifter for its victims—the cultural practice of imagination...is an inherently shifty enterprise....

2003, Michael Bathgate, The Fox's Craft in Japanese Religion and Folklore: Shapeshifters, Transformations and Duplicities:

There have also been verified reports of fire-starters and ice-makers and a shapeshifter so powerful she was able to frame another Smallville citizen for a bank robbery!

Granted, Grace is talking about actual transformation, but she's a shapeshifter. For her, growing a couple inches taller is like an alternative to wearing high heels.

2015 January 30, Dan Shive, “Comic for Friday, Jan 30, 2015”, in El Goonish Shive - EGS:NP, archived from the original on 2022-08-13:

“The Jem'Hadar? You fought the Dominion? Ah. The shapeshifters sent many warriors to Sto-vo-kor. I wish I could have seen it.” “No, you do not. There was no honor, just massacres.” “But in the end you were victorious.” “Starfleet is supposed to be about puzzling together the mysteries of life, not fighting wars. I don't want to be a general. I don't, I don't want to send my friends off to die. I just want to be an ensign. If it was good enough for Sito, then it's good enough for me.”

2023 October 26, Mike McMahan, “The Inner Fight” (16:32 from the start), in Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 4, episode 9, spoken by Ma'ah (Jon Curry):

“Oh, no! That house belongs to shapeshifters. [spits]” “Fuck.” “You're kidding me, right?” “Shapeshifters are... extremely freaky.” “They are awful, abhorrent creatures that use the most ancient of sorcery to transform into whatever murderous, all-powerful shape their wicked hearts desire. And now, they have infiltrated out street.” “I have had horrible experiences with shapeshifters in the past. I was once in a relationship with a woman for four years who then transformed into a possum. I stayed with her for six more months, but then I just had to end it.”

2024 November 11, Jake Bender & Zach Dunn, “Laszlo's Father” (1:34 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 6, episode 6, spoken by Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou):

(fantasy, mythology, science fiction) A person or creature capable of changing their appearance or form at will.

canviaformes

creature capable of changing its appearance


warbird

(science fiction) A heavily-armed starship.


apparate

en-verb

apparate (third-person singular simple present apparates, present participle apparating, simple past and past participle apparated)

apparates (present singular third-person)
apparating (participle present)
apparated (participle past)
apparated (past)

From Late Latin apparēre (“to appear”), as of a servant who appears on being summoned. A back-formation from apparition.

"Reivers!" he bellowed. His valet appeared — or really, it seemed rather more like he apparated — in the doorway.

2004, Julia Quinn, When He Was Wicked, page 105:

What had silenced her, however, was the enormous demonic object that had apparated in the air beyond the tunnel's exit.

2005, Matthew Reilly, Scarecrow, page 115:

if it is an emergency, I will be able to apparate directly to wherever you are and help you.

2008, P. L. Lansdon, Dreams of Dragons and Fantasies of Fairy Flight and Light: Book One, page 254:

(fantasy, intransitive) To appear magically; to teleport to or from a place.


malignity

en-noun

malignity (countable and uncountable, plural malignities)

From Middle English malignete, malignitee, malignyte, malyngnite, from Middle French maligneté, from Latin malignitās.
* (a group of goblins): Coined by David Malki in the 30 October 2009 Wondermark webcomic strip “Supernatural Collective Nouns”.

There was a whole malignity‡ of goblins up on the roof, but if you wanted your clacks to fly fast, you didn’t use the term out loud.

2013, Terry Pratchett, Raising Steam (Discworld; 40), London: Doubleday, →ISBN, page 31:

A malignity of goblins chattered loudly, some of them standing on their table.

2022, JT Lawrence, The Haunted Portal (Cursebreaker; 2), Muonic Press Inc, →ISBN:

As a malignity of goblins giggled drunkenly in a corner booth, Fabian and I approached the table with Isaac and Hakim.

2023, Nova Nelson, All the Faire’s a Stage (Magical Renaissance Faire Mysteries; 7), The Faire Ladies LLC, →ISBN:

(fantasy, neologism, collective) A group of goblins.


spacing

spacing (countable and uncountable, plural spacings)

He was a laconic old soul who loved spacing only a jot better than he loved Martian alky.

1949 February 13, Alfred Coppel, “Runaway”, in Planet Stories, volume 4, number 2 (Spring):

(science fiction) The activity of working or living in outer space; the occupation of a spacer.


humaniform

(science fiction, robotics) A robot resembling a human.


fairy dust

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

Based on the story of the fictional character Peter Pan, see quotations.

Of course Peter had been trifling with them, for no one can fly unless the fairy dust has been blown on him.

1911, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “Come away, Come away!”, in Peter and Wendy, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 54:

(fiction) A magical powder that would give the power of flight to whoever it was sprinkled on.

It's not that some magic private sector fairy dust makes the firms all be runs^([sic]) soundly. Lots of bad businesses are out there. But they tend to lose money and close.

2011 May 19, Megan McArdle, quoting Matt Yglesias, “When Should Governments Contract Out?”, in The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC:

(by extension) Any apparently magical ingredient or effect; a panacea.

keijupöly

any apparently magical ingredient or effect

This led to a certain amount of complacency on my part and certainly the fairy dust and mescaline cocktails I took day and night could only have contributed to my uncommonly satiated drive for a good fuck.

2001, Simon Logan, I-O, Prime, →ISBN, page 102:


black spot

black spot (countable and uncountable, plural black spots)

I went down on my knees at once. On the floor close to his hand there was a little round of paper, blackened on the one side. I could not doubt that this was the black spot; and taking it up, I found written on the other side, in a very good, clear hand, this short message: “You have till ten to-night.”

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part I (The Old Buccaneer), page 31:

(fiction) A fictional judicial device among pirates, consisting of a black circle indicating condemnation.


borganism

The word and concept are derived from The Borg, a race of cyborgs in the fictional Star Trek universe with a hive mind that operates as one.

(rare, idiomatic, science fiction, politics) Some forms of government.


completist

completist - A dope who tries to have a complete collection in some line. The line may be as broad as having all the prozines ever published, or as narrow as collecting all the Golden Atom tales or all official correspondence during one's incumbency in some office. […]

[1944, John Bristol Speer, Fancyclopedia, Completist:

Ozzie Train, secretary. Ozzie needs little introduction, other than that he is the remaining half of Prime Press, and a genuine completist.

1953 Winter, William "Bob" Tucker, “The Philadelphia Story”, in Science Fiction Newsletter, number 28, archived from the original on 2019-12-22, page 13:

There's no new material on it, just previously issued bits and pieces. That rules out the completist collector. Go figure.

1997 June, Harvey Pekar, “CD Reviews”, in JazzTimes, →ISSN, pages 120–121:

But it’s even harder for me, because… I am a completist. Once I start reading an author’s work, I need to read everything that writer has written. I can’t veer away. I need to check all that author’s books off my mental list. My knowledge of their work must be complete.

2008 June 21, Matt Selman, “The Completist”, in Time:

But in conversations with people who listen at speeds higher than 2x, it became clear that many podfasters are above all, completists. That is, they have an almost obsessive need to listen to every episode of a podcast that they decide to commit to.

2017 November 12, Doree Shafrir, “Meet the People Who Listen to Podcasts at Super-Fast Speeds”, in BuzzFeed News:

Then a bunch of commercially cynical books […] designed to capitalize on the wise-man status that his death conferred and (in my case successfully) to separate Wallace completists from their money.

2018 September 15, Julius Taranto, “On Outgrowing David Foster Wallace”, in Los Angeles Review of Books:

(originally science fiction fandom slang) A collector who strives to obtain a complete collection of some type of thing, especially a fan who aims to own or consume the complete output of a particular author, publisher, musician or band.


xenoarchaeology

(science fiction) A fictional science, concerned with the physical remains of alien cultures. These may be found on planets which have been inhabited or visited by extraterrestrials.


good guy

He was a good guy to visit with and be around.

(informal) An all-around pleasant person; usually a man.


Mayberry

From Old English mere (“lake”) + Old English byriġ (“fortified place”).


Mayberry

From the main town in the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show.

The young couple thought of the small town they chose to live in as Mayberry, especially because of its low crime rate and excellent schools.

(figurative) A utopian setting, such as a small town; a perfect place to live.


Mayberry

He often talked about coming from a Mayberry type of town.

(figurative, of a place) Utopian; perfect for dwelling.


darkling

(fantasy) A creature that lives in the dark.


Quixote

I had once determined to fix the terrible Name of some Man of War in the Front of your History, a perfect Hero, that should like another Quixot defend your Reputation right, or wrong [...].

Few things can more inflame / This far too combative heart / Than the intellectual Quixotes of the age / Prattling of abstract art.

1929, Cecil Day Lewis, Transitional Poem:

But he was also a natural chronicler: one senses that, even as his schemes collapsed, this aesthetic Arab Quixote knew the stories would make great material for his witty, sharp, melancholic writings.

2011, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography – A History of the Middle East, page 268:

Someone resembling Don Quixote; someone who is chivalrous but unrealistic; an idealist.


Oberon

Earlier Auberon, from Old French Alberon, partial loan translation from Middle High German Alberich, literally ‘elf king, fairy king’, from alp + -rich << Proto-Germanic *rīks.


Scheherazade

/ʃəˌhɛɹəˈzɑːd(ə)/

/ʃəˈhɛɹəzɑd/

Borrowed from German Scheherazade, from Russian Шехераза́да (Šexerazáda), from Classical Persian شَهْرَازَاد (šahrāzād), alternative form of شَهْرْزَاد (šahrzād, from شَهْر (šahr, “city”) + ـزَاد (-zād, “child of”), literally “child of the city”).
Popularized by the fictional character below.

af

A fictional character, the wife and storyteller of the king Shahryar in One Thousand and One Nights.


monkey boy

(derogatory, science fiction) Term of offense directed at male humans in general.


Planet X

X represents an unknown as opposed to the Roman numeral for 10 (initially, Planet X would have been the ninth planet).

(astronomy) A hypothetical planet in the Solar system, beyond the currently known outermost planet. (The term was applied to Eris for a short while, when Pluto was still considered the ninth planet.)


character class

en-noun

character class (plural character classes)

(roleplaying games) One of a number of pre-determined groups into which characters in role-playing games are grouped, based on the focus of their skills.


hellcat

Coordinate term: hellhound

The hellfire abilities were reserved for special kinds of demons. Hellcats, demon princes, and—you guessed it—hellhounds. / Of the three, Vanessa would prefer to not deal with the hellhounds. Unlike hellcats and demon princes, they had the worst attitude, and they usually traveled in small groupings.

2017, Nia Rose, Spellbound & Hellhounds (Coven Chronicles; 1), Poisoned Apple Publishing, L.L.C., →ISBN, page 9:

The Scourge was still a new concept to Logan, but hey, hellhounds and hellcats had to come from somewhere. / “Okay, so what does the ritual entail?” Esme asked. “If you need stuff for it, I’ve probably got it.” / “We’re going to need a Seal of Solomon drawn in blood,” Ceri said.

2020, Andrea Speed, Darlings of New Midnight, DSP Publications, →ISBN:

“These hellcats…they’re not the cute, fluffy kind that Caim and Seth played fetch with. They’e bigger and louder. Like dragons with lion heads.” / That was the second mention of hellcats that looked like lions.

2021, Angela Roquet, Life After Death (Return to Limbo City: A Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. Spin-Off; 1), Violent Siren Press, →ISBN:


woobie

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

From the 1983 film Mr. Mom, in which it is a child's word for his security blanket.

baby girl

male morally-ambiguous character romanticised by fans

Draco in Leather Pants

any morally-ambiguous character romanticised by fans

poor little meow meow

endearingly pathetic villain or morally-ambiguous character

(US, childish) Any object, typically a blanket, garment or stuffed animal, that is used simply for its comforting characteristics; a security blanket.

The conflicted portrayal of the character reaches its zenith during the sixth episode where Logan’s relationship with his abusive and morally despicable father solidifies his character into the woobie.

2006, Afşar Yegin, "Fan-Textual Television: Narrative Structure, Vituality And Fandon In Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel And Veronica Mars, thesis submitted to Istanbul Bilgi University, page 109

In some instances, this characterisation then becomes part of a hurt/comfort fan narrative where the pleasure at the woobie's pain is transmuted into relief at their eventual recovery.

2018, Anna Blackwell, Shakespearean Celebrity in the Digital Age: Fan Cultures and Remediation, page 109:

But the post also rejects Patroclus as woobie, drawing attention to his amorous complicity in Achilles's crimes.

2022, K. R. Moore, The Routledge Companion to the Reception of Ancient Greek and Roman Gender and Sexuality, unnumbered page:

(fandom slang) A fictional character, often morally grey or a villain, subjected to constant stress and angst, so as to create pathos within the narrative and increase the reader/viewer's emotional attachment to them.


twincest

This one's about gay brothers. I'm calling it Twincest. Nice, no?

1985, Joseph Hansen, A Smile in His Lifetime, New American Library, page 64:

As 'twincest' is in (a trend started by Parker Posey and Josh Hamilton in The House of Yes, to be released in the UK in 1998)...

1998, Film Review: Special: Year Book 1997/98, Visual Imagination Ltd., page 117:

These pieces you might very well be able to relate to even if you've never been horny for twincest, had an affair, or been a black man...

2007, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Best Sex Writing 2008:

In the course of one of his climbs, he hears adult voices through a high window, goes to investigate, and comes across Jaime and Cersei energetically engaged in (to use a neologism popular with fans) twincest.

2013, John Lancaster, “When did you get hooked?”, in London Review of Books, volume 35, number 7:

(chiefly fandom slang) incestuous sexual relations between twins, or siblings who look very similar.


fembot

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

Blend of female + -bot. Coined by screenwriters Arthur Rowe and Oliver Crawford in the television series The Bionic Woman (1976–1978), specifically in "Kill Oscar" (season 2, episode 5) first broadcast on October 27, 1976.

Yes, the girl is valuable. But, my fembots can do anything she can.

1976 October 27, Arthur Rowe, Oliver Crawford, Kill Oscar (The Bionic Woman), season 2, episode 5, spoken by Dr. Franklin (John Houseman):

Jawohl, Herr Doktor. I have created the ultimate weapon to defeat Austin Powers. Send in the fembots!

1997, Mike Myers, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, spoken by Frau Farbissina (Mindy Sterling):

The body of Eve 8, the fembot, represents both steely industrial strength and the mysteries of microelectronic circuitry.

2003, Jyanni Steffensen, “Doing It Digitally: Rosalind Brodsky and the Art of Virtual Female Subjectivity”, in Reload: Rethinking Women + Cyberculture, The MIT Press, →ISBN, page 218:

(science fiction) A robot in female or feminine form.

A robot in female or feminine form.
A female sexbot.


X-ray vision

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-X-ray vision.wav

(fiction, by extension) The ability or superpower to see through most or all solid objects as if they were transparent.


photokinesis

photokinesis (usually uncountable, plural photokineses)

(parapsychology, science fiction) The ability to mentally manipulate light.


ruby slippers

From the red shoes worn by Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, that had magic properties unknown until the end of the story.

(idiomatic) A valuable feature (of software, etc.) overlooked by the user.


antihero

/ˈæn.tɪˌhɪə.ɹəʊ/

Alienation: A stage on the downside of the passage wherein the holdfast and the antihero take actions which bring about a disintegration of personality.

2006, James Bonnet, Stealing Fire from the Gods: The Complete Guide to Story for Writers and Filmmakers:

(literature, roleplaying games) A protagonist who proceeds in an unheroic manner, such as by criminal means, via cowardly actions, or for mercenary goals.

A Clockwork Orange (novel)
Alex (A Clockwork Orange)
Batman
Breaking Bad
DC Comics
Deadpool
Dollars Trilogy
Don Quixote
Don Quixote (character)
God of War (franchise)
Hamlet
Han Solo
Image Comics
Kratos (God of War)
Man with No Name
Marvel Comics
Prince Hamlet
Punisher
Spawn (character)
Star Wars
Walter White (Breaking Bad)
antihero


fairyland

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

The children built a fairyland cottage out of gingerbread, decorated with gumdrops and peppermint sticks.

Having qualities ascribed to fairies and their realm; fanciful, delicate, surreal, or diminutive.


contender

Someone who competes with one or more other people.


bilocation

bilocation (countable and uncountable, plural bilocations)

Throyle explained about the mysterious shamanic power known as bilocation, which enables those with the gift literally to be in two or more places, often widely separated, at the same time.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 159:

(Forteana) The ability to be, or fact of being, in two places at once.


mangaka

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

Borrowed from Japanese 漫(まん)画(が)家(か) (mangaka). Doublet of manhwaga and manhuajia.


subspace

subspace (countable and uncountable, plural subspaces)

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

“If he reconfigures the subspace relays and uploads his own code into them, he'll have access to the computers on every planet, ship, and station.” “Alarming. He could vent oxygen, crash vessels, or even detonate warp cores.” “Everyone in the quadrant's gonna die, and it's all my fault.” “Parents are not directly responsible for the actions of their children.”

2023 October 12, Edgar Momplaisir, “A Few Badgeys More” (16:39 from the start), in Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 4, episode 7, spoken by Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome):

(uncountable, science fiction) Any (often unspecified) method of communicating or travelling faster than light speed.

(uncountable, science fiction) An alternative dimension or universe, access to or use of which permits faster-than-light travel or communications; hyperspace.


hydrokinesis

(fantasy, science fiction) The psychic ability to manipulate or control water


ent

J. R. R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings
ent

Learned borrowing from Old English ent (“giant”), from Proto-West Germanic *anti; introduced by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings, 1954–55, as Ent.
Compare Middle English *ent, eont (“giant”), inherited from the Old English word, but which apparently did not survive through the Middle English period into Modern times.
Apparently survived in some German dialects as Enz (“giant”), also in composite forms. Compare ettin.

lbor

[…]and that fine young ent Quickbeam is merely a minor crux in an Old English glossary (the name Quickbeam means 'living tree' in Old English).

2003, Walter Scheps, “The Fairy-tale Morality of The Lord of the Rings”, in Jared Lobdell, editor, A Tolkien Compass:

But this should not lead to complete avoidance, as if it is like some dire incursion of triffids or ents.

2003, Allen Paterson, Trees for Your Garden, page 180:

Somewhere, ents and manitous laugh grimly For, despite all this, the trees lasted much longer Than most of the presents, and all of the holiday spirit.

2003, Robert Dunn, Horse Latitudes, page 98:

Hello, my good friend, myself I present. Not human, nor tree, for I am an ent.

2006, John Allran, Men of Their Word, page 37:

In The Lords of the Rings there are dark forces in the forest—the Huorn. Huorn are ents who have become more treeish, gone rogue. They can still move and speak, but only with the ents.

2017, Inga Simpson, Understory, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

(fantasy) A large, fictional, humanoid, walking tree in works by J. R. R. Tolkien.


Jack Frost

From Jack (“placeholder or conventional name for any man”) + frost.

ref

Arthur Henry Brown ([1863]) Little Jack Frost Quadrilles, London: B. Williams, →OCLC.

This time of Year being cold and frosty generally speaking, or when Jack Frost commonly takes us by the Nose, the Diversions are always within Doors, either in Exercise or by the Fire-side.

1740, “Of Mirth and Jollity, Christmas Gambols, Eating, Drinking, Kissing, and Other Diversions of the Holydays”, in Round about Our Coal-fire, or Christmas Entertainments …, London: […] J. Roberts […], →OCLC; republished as Christmas Entertainments: […], London: Field & Tuer, Yᵉ Leadenhall Presse; Simpkin, Marshall & Co.; Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1883, →OCLC, page 6:

Well, and the inside is all lined with skins, warm enough; and there's a fire in the middle; [...] Jack frost may whistle out doors if he pleases, but he can hardly get his nose in here.

1818, Isaac Taylor, “Lapland. 10. Lapland Witch Selling a Wind.”, in Scenes in Europe, for the Amusement and Instruction of Little Tarry-at-home Travellers, London: […] J. Harris, […], →OCLC, page 11:

December's severely cold nights made dreadful havoc with the soldiers[’] toes on the out posts, where for six long hours without fire or aught to shield from Jack Frost’s intrusion, they trod their lonely beat, dreaming of home and friends far away.

1870, George Wise, “Falls Church, Upton’s and Munson’s Hills”, in History of the Seventeenth Virginia Infantry, C.S.A., Baltimore, Md.: Kelly, Piet & Company, →OCLC, page 47:

Autumn has given way to winter once more, and happily the late and heavy rains fattened the ripening crops now reaping; and left everywhere through this district a thick growth of grass, for winter grazing; long enough, generally, to shield from Jack Frost, by its ample tops and seed heads, a bite of succulent stalk above the roots.

1901 June 1, Maynard Matthews, “District Reports”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume IV, number 7, Pietermaritzburg, Natal Province: Times Printing and Publishing Company, published 7 June 1901, →OCLC, pages 196–197:

Ma said that Jack Frost came in the night and made the pictures, while everyone was asleep. Laura thought that Jack Frost was a little man all snowy white, wearing a glittering white pointed cap and soft white kneeboots made of deerskin.

1932, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods, New York, N.Y.: Harper, published 2016, →ISBN:

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire / Jack Frost nipping at your nose / Yuletide carols being sung by a choir / And folks dressed up like Eskimos

1945, “The Christmas Song: Merry Christmas to You: S.A.T.B. with Incidental Soprano Solos and Piano Accompaniment”, Mel Tormé, Bob Wells (lyrics), Mel Tormé (music), New York, N.Y.: E. H. Morris, published 1946, →OCLC:

Winter is damp, dark and cold, but the new year makes me hopeful of the spring and summer to come, [...] Animals need extra care, logs are brought in to unfreeze by the fire, the ice is scraped off the car. Jack Frost paints glorious pictures on (single-glazed) windows.

2006, Sally Schweizer, “Celebrations: ‘She’s Crying for Joy!’”, in Well, I Wonder: Childhood in the Modern World: A Handbook for Parents, Carers and Teachers (Bringing Spirit to Life), Forest Row, East Sussex: Sophia Books, →ISBN, page 169:

Elves, flying reindeer, wood sprites, talking snowmen, and even Jack Frost, or Grandfather Frost in Russia, are all out and about during Advent. [...] Jack Frost, as those of us who live in northern climates well know, can be an annoying sprite who will make winter icy or stormy on a whim.

2013, Marci Alborghetti, “December 15: Jack Frost … and Friends”, in It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christ’s Mass, Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, →ISBN, page 15:

A personification of frosty weather or winter.


astral plane

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:

The realm of the astral plane is an intermediate realm; below is the world of matter, above is the world of pure Being.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 221:

(parapsychology, theosophy, fantasy) A supernatural plane of existence consisting of the world of the celestial spheres, propounded by esoteric philosophies, some religious teachings, and New Age thought.


treknobabble

/ˈtɹɛknəʊˌbæbəl/

I'd sooner trust treknobabble for an explanation than any thing you say.

1997 September 24, $teve2, “Re: SUNBURN : If you were not watching GITM”, in aus.tv.x-files (Usenet):

So you think up something like Voyager meets some Romulans stranded in the DQ, or some treknobabble takes down the command staff and Seven assumes command.

1999 December 29, Bozo the Proctologist, “Re: Bad Voyager Plots”, in alt.tv.star-trek.voyager (Usenet):

Even if they won using the power of treknobabble, this force ratio does not show the audience how mighty and dangerous the Imperial warships are […]

2003 December 17, Kazuaki Shimazaki, “The More Detailed Critique”, in alt.startrek.vs.starwars (Usenet):

A kind of technobabble particular to the Star Trek universe, with a particularly heavy emphasis on configurations of pseudoscientific particles and waves.


knight-errant

In short, his wits being quite gone, [Don Quixote] hit upon the strangest notion that ever madman in this world hit upon, and that was that he fancied it was right and requisite, as well for the support of his own honour as for the service of his country, that he should make a knight-errant of himself, roaming the world over in full armour and on horseback in quest of adventures, and putting in practice himself all that he had read of as being the usual practices of knights-errant; righting every kind of wrong, and exposing himself to peril and danger from which, in the issue, he was to reap eternal renown and fame.

1885, John Ormsby, chapter 1, in Don Quixote, volume 1, translation of original by Miguel de Cervantes:

A knight in a medieval romance who wanders in search of adventure and opportunities to prove his chivalry.


jinn

en-noun

jinn (plural jinns or jinn or jawan or jinnan or jinnah)

jinns (plural)
jinn (plural)
jawan (plural)
jinnan (plural)
jinnah (plural)

From Arabic جِنّ (jinn, collective noun) (singular جِنِّيّ (jinniyy)).

(Arabic culture) A human-like spiritual or immaterial being, as opposed to al-ins (people), often invisible but able to manifest in form and also inhabit people or animals; origin of the genie of Western literature, film etc.


omniverse

(science fiction) The entire set of co-existing universes, multiverses, etc.


harrowing of hell

harrowing of hell (plural harrowings of hell)

Not the direct vision of the harrowings of hell as reported, for example, by many Christian visionaries, but accounts given by the departed souls themselves are more frequent and typical features of Jewish moralist writing.

1977, Raphael Werblowsky, Joseph Karo: lawyer and mystic, 2nd edition, page 44:

Of the four harrowings of hell that are cornerstones of Western literature […], we can eliminate the oldest.

2003, Robert J. Andreach, Drawing upon the Past: Classical Theatre in the Contemporary American Theatre, page 36:

[…] the Hero Twins go on to defeat Xibalba and its ghastly denizens, a true Harrowing of Hell.

2007, Sophie & Michael Coe, The True History of Chocolate, page 39:

(mythology, theology) A raid into the underworld by a heroic figure.


dwarven

en-adj

dwarven (comparative more dwarven, superlative most dwarven)

more dwarven (comparative)
most dwarven (superlative)

(fantasy) Of, pertaining to, or made by or for dwarfs/dwarves.


UTSL

A pun on Obi-Wan Kenobi's "Use the Force, Luke!" in Star Wars.

(Internet) Initialism of use the source, Luke.


coded

coded (comparative more coded, superlative most coded)

more coded (comparative)
most coded (superlative)

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

The character comes across as being female-coded.

This character is coded as autistic.

He is aware of a number of programs with more "capable" characters like Sheldon, from The Big Bang Theory, who are autistic coded without being explicitly named as such. James notes that, despite being more visible, the autistic traits of these characters tend to be used for comic relief, while autistic people in everyday situations are never seen.

2020 May 21, Noah Adams, Bridget Liang, Trans and Autistic: Stories from Life at the Intersection, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 72:

(fiction, slang) Portrayed in a way that suggests or resembles having a specific trait or inspiration, without being officially explicitly stated as having that trait.


netherworld

From nether- (“beneath, lower”) + world.

The missionary was motivated by a sincere desire to rescue souls from eternal torment in the netherworld.

Specifically, a location of punishment in the afterlife; a hell.


what-if

en-verb

what-if (third-person singular simple present what-ifs, present participle what-iffing, simple past and past participle what-iffed)

what-ifs (present singular third-person)
what-iffing (participle present)
what-iffed (participle past)
what-iffed (past)

Abraham Lincoln
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

(informal) To speculate about the consequences of something that could have happened.


superhuman

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

From Medieval Latin superhūmānus. By surface analysis, super- + human.

Here is a man who, during a potentially testy moment of promotion, retained the clarity of thought to reach deep down into himself, locate the purest possible version of his personality and say: “Fuck you.” What a superhuman he is.

2023 November 14, Stuart Heritage, “Actors are back on the promo beat. And – as Adam Driver shows – this time, they mean business”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

A human with remarkable abilities or superpowers.


little green man

en-noun

little green man (plural little green men)

[ˌlɪ.ɾɫ̩ ˈɡɹɪ̃i̯m ˌmɛ̃ə̯n̆]

[ˌlɪ.t͡ʔɫ̩ ˈɡɹɪ̃i̯m ˌmãn̆]

[ˌlɘ.ɾɯ ˈɡɹɘ̯ĩm ˌmɛ̞̃n̆]

կանաչ մարդուկ

humorous: space alien, Martian — see also alien

An engram is NOT [...] One of the little green men Americans claim have crashed in flying saucers.

1950 December 6, The Sydney Morning Herald, page 3, column 5:

(chiefly science fiction) A conventional fictional alien from outer space in the form of a small humanoid with green skin.

(humorous) One of the supposed extraterrestrial occupants of UFOs.


LGM

w:International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster

(chess) Short for Lady International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster.


spear carrier

Reed was the preternaturally boyish spear carrier for the religious right, the brash Evangelical who transformed the Christian Coalition into a populist power center.

2006 July 23, James Carney, “The Rise and Fall of Ralph Reed”, in Time, retrieved 2014-03-19:

Why would he do that? Because Hu Yaobang embodied the sense of historical mission in Chinese communism; spent his entire adult life honestly attempting to fulfil that mission; and was the spear carrier, after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, for not only economic, but also political, judicial and cultural reform.

2024 December 13, Paul Monk, “Add this to your must-read list”, in The Australian, retrieved 2024-12-14:

(idiomatic) One who plays a leading or substantial role as a supporter, proponent, etc. representing a group, cause, or point of view.

point man

person who plays a leading or substantial role as a supporter or proponent


futanari

futanari (countable and uncountable, plural futanari or futanaris)

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

From Japanese ふたなり (futanari, “hermaphrodite”), from 二(ふた)つ (futatsu, “two”) + 形(なり) (nari, “shape, form”) or 態(なり) (nari).

(uncountable, Japanese pornography) A genre of Japanese pornography featuring intersex or hermaphroditic characters that are depicted as attractive, usually works containing female characters with a penis and sometimes testicles.

فُوتَانَارِي

genre of pornography featuring intersex characters

(countable, Japanese pornography) An intersex or hermaphroditic character, usually female and with a penis, in such works.


houri

From French houri, from Persian حوری (hurî), from Arabic حُورِيّ (ḥūriyy) and Arabic حُورِيَّة (ḥūriyya), adjective and feminine singulative of حُور (ḥūr) from Classical Arabic حُورٌ عِينٌ (ḥūrun ʕīnun, “fair maidens, black-eyed ones”). See أَحْوَر m (ʔaḥwar), حَوْرَاء f (ḥawrāʔ) for the base adjective.

We cannot go into the technical details of his methodology but it allows Luxenberg, to the probable horror of all Muslim males dreaming of sexual bliss in the Muslim hereafter, to conjure away the wide-eyed houris promised to the faithful in suras XLIV.54; LII.20, LV.72, and LVI.22. Luxenberg's new analysis, leaning on the Hymns of Ephrem the Syrian, yields "white raisins" of "crystal clarity" rather than doe-eyed, and ever willing virgins - the houris.

2002 January 12, Ibn Warraq, “Virgins? What virgins?”, in The Guardian:

The repetition of material about the houri suggests that the popularization of that figure occurred as early as the ninth century and continued well into the twelfth century. By then, the houri had become a kind of metonymy for the Garden, as well as an accepted object. A new role of the houri as the superlative being of the Garden emerged through the use of traditions, and most of all the structure of the text. Al-Qadi's text provides an excellent example of the importance of the houri.

2009, Nerina Rustomji, The Garden and the Fire: Heaven and Hell in Islamic Culture, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 114:

What if in paradise there are no houris waiting? / What if but all you get are grapes, succulent grapes? / What if it's all just a mistake in the translation?

2013, “What If…?”, in Still Smiling, performed by Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld:

Although the beauty of houris is described in terms of cosmic pureness and sumptuary materials, the qiyan are understood through attributes and affects. Yet, the houris have one constitutive attribute. They are fair and they have big eyes. Is the houri based on any particular model of beauty or a kind of female slave? Ibn Butlan, in his Risalafi shira'al-raqiq wa-taqlib al-abid, offers a rubric for female slaves; however, the descriptions of houris do not align with other descriptions of slaves.

2017, Matthew S. Gordon, Kathryn A. Hain, Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 274:

(Islam) A beautiful virgin girl supposed to dwell in Paradise for the enjoyment of the faithful.

حَوْرَاء

(Islam) a nymph in the form of a beautiful virgin

I would not exchange this one little English girl for the Grand Turk’s whole seraglio; gazelle-eyes, houri forms and all!

1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter IX, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 242:

“The town is full of temptations, sir,” continued Pen. The old gentleman thought of that houri, Mrs. O’Leary.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 74, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

(by extension) Any voluptuous, beautiful woman.


gnomish

Whoever had taken Vanessa had brushed past the gnomish wizard with no more thought than one gave a mosquito, and the result of that encounter had been astonishingly violent—and final.

2011, David Niall Wilson, Heart of a Dragon:

(fantasy) Belonging to a race of gnomes.


hobgoblin

From hob (“elf”, from Hob, a variant of Rob, short for Robin Goodfellow, an elf in German folklore) + goblin.

af

a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds

A M. Berbiguier lately published an elaborate work, in three huge volumes, in which he demonstrated the existence of hobgoblins, described the proper manner of capturing and securing them, and took credit to himself for his zeal for the benefit of mankind, in allowing no day to pass without imprisoning, with his own hands, at least thirty hobgoblins. A writer of biographical notices of contemporary authors, who believed neither in M. Berbiguier's manner of catching hobgoblins nor in the existence of hobgoblins did not scruple to say that M. Berbiguier was mad, and upon this M. Berbiguier brought his action for libel; but unluckily, together with his action, he brought himself into Court, and established in a very few words the truth of the libel.

1837, Albany Fonblanque, England Under Seven Administrations, volume 1, page 98:

The eyes blinked out and he heard a faint grunt, followed by the sounds of the Hobgoblin scrambling further back into the tunnel, away from the faint sunlight and the Ur'hunglav's domain.

2005, Scott Harper, Winter's Rite, page 142:

The monster goes unrecognized because he looks like a harmless, pudgy nobody rather than like a hobgoblin. But he reveals his hobgoblin nature through music.

2007, “Introduction: Phonoplay: Recasting Film Music”, in Daniel Goldmark, Lawrence Kramer, Richard D. Leppert, editors, Beyond the Soundtrack: Representing Music in Cinema, page 1:

A small, ugly goblin that makes trouble for humans.


giantess

From Middle English geauntesse, geaunesse, from Old French; equivalent to giant + -ess.

He spide far off a mighty Giauntesse / Fast flying, on a Courser dapled gray […]

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

In the corner lay against the wall a stringed instrument not unlike a dulcimer, which, as people believe, the Giantesses used to play on.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 218:

The giantess picked him up and gave him such a squeeze that he felt he was going to choke.

1926, Enid Blyton, The Book of Brownies:

The giantesses lift arms like the trunks of sycamores, each finger tipped with an amaranthine talon.

1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter VIII, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 72:


one-shot

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

(fandom slang) A fanfic of only one chapter.


private eye

From private investigator and its abbreviation P.I., through the homophonic term eye in place of "I", and the use of "eye" as a reference to surveillance.

(idiomatic) A private personal detective, employed to gather information about someone.


endgame

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

TJLC’ers’ strong belief in Johnlock as endgame was intrinsically linked with their trust in the show’s creators, which enabled them to interpret the repeated denial of the subtext in Sherlock as part of the game.

2017, Suzanne Frenk, "Telling The True Story: Queerbaiting, representation, and fan resistance in the BBC Sherlock fandom", thesis submitted to Tilburg University, page 50

I think the fans and I were pretty aligned with who we wanted as endgame couples.

2020, Marlene King, quoted in Sara K. Day & Summer Melody Pennell, "#PLLQueerTheory: Fans’ reactions to queer representation in Pretty Little Liars", The Journal of Fandom Studies, Volume 8, Number 2, June 2020

One user, for example, posted, “Bughead haters can suck it. They’re endgame.”

2021, Emily Burkhardt, Verity Trott, Whitney Monaghan, “'#Bughead Is Endgame': Civic Meaning-Making inRiverdale Anti-Fandom andShipping Practices on Tumblr”, in Television & New Media:

(fandom slang, of a ship) Having become canon by the end of the plot of a work of fiction or speculated to be intended to become such.


the other place

According to Christianity, when someone dies, they go to either Heaven or the other place.


precognition

en-noun

precognition (countable and uncountable, plural precognitions)

/ˌpɹiːkɒɡˈnɪʃn̩/

Borrowed from Middle French precognition or its source, Latin praecognitio, from praecognōscō (“to know beforehand”). Equivalent to Germanic cognate foreknowledge and Greek-based cognate prognosis.

(parapsychology) Knowledge of the future; understanding of something in advance, especially as a form of supernatural or extrasensory perception.

предусещане

knowledge of something that is to occur in the future


smurfy

en-adj

smurfy (comparative smurfier, superlative smurfiest)

smurfier (comparative)
smurfiest (superlative)

And so he opens the bottle and takes two out (little blue caplets—cute actually, plump, smurfy) and swallows them.

2004, J. Robert Lennon, Mailman, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 458:


blaster

Blast out the lakes and canals—whittle down the peaks and mounds with atomic blasters—file them into the shape of gigantic buildings.

1938 April, Henry Kuttner, “Hollywood on the Moon”, in Thrilling Wonder Stories, volume 11, number 2, page 26:

One slender hand clung near a singular jewel, like a great white snow crystal, that hung from her throat. And the other, with a practiced and familiar grip, held a barytron blaster of the newest legion design. An unwilling little glisten had come into the violet eyes. Her blond head flung angrily. She caught her breath, and lifted the barytron blaster. Its bright tube pointed straight between his shoulders. He would never even know.

1939 June, Jack Williamson, “One Against the Legion”, in Astounding Science-Fiction, volume 23, number 4, page 138:

(science fiction) An unspecified powerful hand weapon, usually one that fires an energy pulse or beam.


death ray

(science fiction) A beam of radiation that can kill.


ray gun

Keep your 'lectric eye on me babe / Put your ray gun to my head

1972, “Moonage Daydream”, in The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, performed by David Bowie:

(science fiction, weaponry) A weapon that shoots harmful rays.


Don Juan

After the legendary 14th-century Spanish nobleman Don Juan.

James has three girlfriends; he's a real Don Juan.

دُون خُوَان

a man who obsessively seduces women; a philanderer


Shakespeareanism

en-noun

Shakespeareanism (countable and uncountable, plural Shakespeareanisms)

(uncountable, paleologism) The devotion to or the teaching of the works and terminology of William Shakespeare.

(countable) A term coined by Shakespeare, or otherwise derived from his works.


Shakespearianism

Shakespearianism (countable and uncountable, plural Shakespearianisms)

Alternative spelling of Shakespeareanism


superluminal

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

The first thing to understand about superluminal expansion is that it isn't visible to the unaided eye. The objects that appear to be moving faster than light are emitting radio waves, not visible light.

1984, Edward Edelson, “Faster than light?”, in Popular Science, retrieved 2013-11-20, page 70:

(astronomy, physics, fiction, fantasy) Faster than light; having a speed greater than light.

(unpreferred translation due to hyperphoton, hyperphotonic: υπερφωτονικός m (yperfotonikós), υπερφωτονική f (yperfotonikí), υπερφωτονικό n (yperfotonikó))


regeneration

regeneration (countable and uncountable, plural regenerations)

From re- + generation or regenerate + -ion, from Latin regenerātiō.

The standard ring of regeneration restores one point of damage per turn (and will eventually replace lost limbs or organs).

1995, David Zeb Cook, Jean Rabe, Warren Spector, Dungeon master guide for the AD&D game, page 202:

2003, Bastion Press, E. W. Morton, Out for Blood
Regeneration does not restore hit points lost from starvation, thirst, or suffocation.

(roleplaying games, fantasy) The ability to rapidly heal substantial physical damage to one's body, or to spontaneously restore hit points.


enchanter

/ɪnˈtʃɑːntə/

/ənˈtʃɑːntə/

/ɛnˈtʃɑːntə/

/ɪnˈt͡ʃæntɚ/

/ɛnˈt͡ʃæntɚ/

From Middle English enchantour, from Old French enchanteor (Modern French enchanteur), from Latin incantātor (“enchanter; spellcaster; conjurer”), from incantāre (“to sing, to consecrate with spells”). Doublet of incantator. Equivalent to enchant + -er.

der

1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book One, Indianapolis: Hackett, 2006, Canto VII, stanza 35, p. 113,
No magicke arts hereof had any might, / Nor bloody wordes of bold Enchaunters call, / But all that was not such, as seemd in sight, / Before that shield did fade, and suddeine fall:

He was indeed as bitter an enemy to the savage authority too often exercised by husbands and fathers, over the young and lovely of the other sex, as ever knight-errant was to the barbarous power of enchanters; nay, to say truth, I have often suspected that those very enchanters with which romance everywhere abounds were in reality no other than the husbands of those days; and matrimony itself was, perhaps, the enchanted castle in which the nymphs were said to be confined.

1749, Henry Fielding, chapter VIII, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XI:

[I]n the reign of Henry the Second, a body happening, by chance, to be dug up near Glastonbury Abbey, without any symptoms of putrefaction or decay, the Welch, the descendants of the Ancient Britons, tenacious of the dignity and reputation of that illustrious hero [King Arthur], vainly supposed it could be no other than the body of their justly-boasted Pen-Dragon; and that he had been immured in that sepulchre by the spells of some powerful and implacable inchanter.

1810, J[ohn] Stagg, “Arthur’s Cave. A Legendary Tale.”, in The Minstrel of the North: Or, Cumbrian Legends. […], London: Printed by Hamblin and Seyfang, […], for the author, and sold by J. Blacklock, […], →OCLC, page 105:

Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead / Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind, lines 2–3:

[…] Goldstein […] seemed like some sinister enchanter, capable by the mere power of his voice of wrecking the structure of civilization.

1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part One, Chapter 1:

A spellcaster, conjurer, wizard, sorcerer or soothsayer who specializes in enchantments.


fanservice

Calque of Japanese ファンサービス (fansābisu), equivalent to English fan + service.

And because of that soy sauce, girls can get one of the few fanservice shots made for women in the entire history of the Ranma 1/2 series.

2000, Ryan Omega, Anime Trivia Quizbook: Episode 1: From Easy to Otaku Obscure (Anime Trivia Quizbooks):

(fandom slang, chiefly ACG, often derogatory) The inclusion in a work of fiction of material, especially of a racy or sexual nature, which may or may not have relevance to the storyline and is designed merely to excite the viewer.

殺必死 /杀必死

often racy or sexual material included in fiction merely to excite the viewer


evil twin

(networking) A rogue wireless access point installed near a legitimate one for purposes of eavesdropping or phishing.


lime

en-noun

lime (countable and uncountable, plural limes)

From French lime, from Spanish lima, from Arabic لِيمَة (līma), from Persian لیمو (limu). Doublet of lemon.

WARNING: This is a lime. While it does not show explicit sex, as a lemon would, references to sexual situations abound.

1998 June 8, Gary Kleppe, “[Ranma][Fanfic] Tangled Web”, in rec.arts.anime.creative (Usenet):

Even with all the sex in Garden of EVA, I still think the main stories are better for just being the lemon-scented limes that they are.

1998 December 29, jiml...@earthlink.net, “[EVA][FanFic][Lemon] Garden of EVA 0:6x - Wet Dreams Bite!”, in rec.arts.anime.creative (Usenet):

I have no intention of writing any lemon scenes, limes are possibilities but unlikely and if they occur they will be few in number.

2001 November 27, Schemer, “[Ranma/SF][FanFic] A Learning Experience - Chapter 01”, in rec.arts.anime.creative (Usenet):

(fandom slang) A fan fiction story which contains sexual references, but stops short of full, explicit descriptions of sexual activity (coined by analogy with lemon).


Snuffleupagus

As a mammoth-like creature, he has a long trunk like an elephant's, which is called his snuffle.

CFIDS, even bigger than a medical giraffe, is almost like Sesame Street’s elusive giant puppet Snuffleupagus—witnessed only by believers.

2000, Peggy Munson, Stricken: Voices from the Hidden Epidemic of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome:

Like Big Bird’s Snuffleupagus, Ryan’s “girlfriend” is vividly described, but never seen.

2001, Ryan Bigge, A Very Lonely Planet: Love, Sex and the Single Guy:

“I feel like I’m dating Snuffleupagus.”

2002, William J. Cobb, The White Tattoo:

No sooner than Didomenico would say “Bill?!” his stout potbellied structure would lift out of its seat and turn to face the room, swaying with the grace and agility of Mr. Snuffleupagus.

2004, Owen C. Bernard, The Abyss Beside My Driveway:

Ralph breathed into the phone like Mr. Snuffleupagus.

A fictional character from the television series Sesame Street, resembling a woolly mammoth without tusks, who until the show's 17th season was only visible to Big Bird.


satori

satori (usually uncountable, plural satoris)

Borrowed from Japanese 悟り (satori, “understanding; (Buddhism) enlightenment, satori”), from 悟る (satoru, “to perceive; to comprehend, understand; to come to enlightenment”), from Middle Chinese 悟 (nguH, “to become aware, apprehend, realize; to awaken”) (modern Mandarin 悟 (wù)), used to translate Pali bodhi (“supreme knowledge”) or its etymon Sanskrit बोधि (bodhi, “perfect knowledge or wisdom by which a person becomes a buddha or jina; enlightened or illuminated intellect of a Buddha or jina”).
Sense 3 (“mutant gene of Drosophila that causes homosexual behaviour in males”) was coined by the Japanese scientist Daisuke Yamamoto in a 1991 paper, based on the Japanese term.

coinage

We have isolated a new Drosophila mutant, satori (sat), the males of which do not court or copulate with female flies. […] We have screened about 2000 fly lines with single P-element insertions for altered sexual behavior, yielding a mutant named satori (sat; nirvana in Japanese), the males of which do not court or copulate with females. Instead, sat males exhibit homosexual courtship.

1996 September, Hiroki Ito, Daisuke Yamamoto [et al.], “Sexual Orientation in Drosophila is Altered by the Satori Mutation in the Sex-determination Gene Fruitless that Encodes a Zinc Finger Protein with a BTB Domain”, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, volume 93, number 18, Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, →DOI, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, →PMID, archived from the original on 2024-09-30, page 9687, column 1:

[T]he primary site of action of the fru gene should be in the neural cells. satori,^([sic]) one of the P-insertion alleles of fru which we isolated, carried the lacZ gene of E. coli as a reporter, and β-galactosidase expression was found in a subset of brain cells including those in the antennal lobe in the satori mutant.

1996 October, Daisuke Yamamoto, Hiroki Ito, Kazuko Fujitani, “Genetic Dissection of Sexual Orientation: Behavioral, Cellular, and Molecular Approaches in Drosophila melanogaster”, in Neuroscience Research: The Official Journal of the Japan Neuroscience Society, volume 26, number 2, Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, abstract, page 95:

In Drosophila the satori (sat) mutants of males do not court or copulate with females but have sexual interest in males.

1998, George P. Rédei, “HOMOSEXUAL”, in Genetics Manual: Current Theory, Concepts, Terms, Singapore; River Edge, N.J.: World Scientific, published 1999, →ISBN, page 484:

(countable, biochemistry) A mutant gene of Drosophila, a genus of fruit flies, that causes homosexual behaviour in males (specifically, courtship directed to other males).


scaredy-cat

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I don't care — I wouldn't be such a scaredy-cat for anything.

1918, Florence Kiper Frank, “The Child and the Little Sister”, in The Midland, volume 4, page 61:

Oh, yes, do let's dance together—it's so nice to meet a man who isn't a scaredy-cat about catching my beri-beri.

(endearing) A coward; a person who is easily frightened or high-strung and easily scared.

pelkuri

a coward; a person who is easily frightened or high-strung and easily scared


earthbound

en-adj

earthbound (comparative more earthbound, superlative most earthbound)

more earthbound (comparative)
most earthbound (superlative)

(science fiction) Heading towards Earth.

a föld felé tartó/közeledő/haladó/irányuló


-cula

Denoting things associated with, or compared to, Dracula: Count Chocula, Bunnicula etc.


Spock

en-proper noun

Spock (countable and uncountable, plural Spocks)

Alternative form: Mr. Spock

This caricature called economic man was not only completely self-centered, he was also entirely rational in all his decisions, whether consuming or investing—a veritable Mr. Spock.

2010, William McDonald Wallace, The Decline and Fall of the U.S. Economy: How Liberals and Conservatives Both Got It Wrong, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, page 48:

Phelps's calorie intake may seem superhuman, and his 6' 4", 185-pound body may recall Greek statuary, but fans are also drawn to him by a goofy grin and oversized ears that led to his being called Spock on the school bus.

2008 December 2, “Sportsman of the Year: Michael Phelps”, in Sports Illustrated:

(science fiction) In Star Trek, a Starfleet commander and science officer of the USS Enterprise, especially known for his Vulcan logic, reason, and stoicism and his distinctive pointed ears.


warp factor

From the science-fiction series Star Trek.

(science fiction) A hypothetical figure indicating a space vessel's speed greater than the speed of light.


take the red pill

en-verb

take the red pill (third-person singular simple present takes the red pill, present participle taking the red pill, simple past took the red pill, past participle taken the red pill)

takes the red pill (present singular third-person)
taking the red pill (participle present)
took the red pill (past)
taken the red pill (participle past)

If you want to be a successful bootstrapper, you have to take the red pill and determine how deep the rabbit hole called your organization goes.

2004 September 9, Guy Kawasaki, The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything, Portfolio, →ISBN, →OL, page 92:

As much as we, our generation, start to believe this fictionalized new version of reality we become complicit.... The only way out is to take the Red pill and see what things really look like.

2005 June 1, Terry Allen, Dugout, University of Texas Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 172:

In this day and time, we must begin to take the “red pill” and open our first eye to see what's really going on, and who's behind this madness involving Hip Hop videos.

2005 December 1, The Black Dot, Hip Hop Decoded: From Its Ancient Origin To Its Modern Day Matrix, →ISBN, →OL, page 144:

(idiomatic) To perceive the world in its previously unknown, usually harsher, reality.


Earthican

Blend of Earth + American. Possibly popularized by the adult animated sitcom Futurama.

I went to an Earth Day event in San Francisco and there was this huge Earthican flag, circa 3000 A.D., with the red and white stripes and an image of Earth up in the corner.

2002 April 23, Jym Dyer, “Earthican Day”, in alt.tv.futurama (Usenet):

Just consider that, over time, on a scale of millions of years, earthican continents have had *lots* of different configurations

2004 October 18, Wayne Throop, “Early parallel-universe stories”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet):

You may remember him [Paul Hellyer] from such news articles as "Is there a party Paul hasn't belonged to or at least tried to join?" and "How dare the Americans threaten the delicate Earthican-Alien relationship by [planning] to emplace armed bases on the Moon?"

2006 May 25, James Nicoll, “Spider's Heinlein novel [was: Re: ConCarolinas 2006 is coming!]”, in rec.arts.sf.fandom (Usenet):

that first step is enough to make direct attacks rather tricky, to make most of the Earthican powers' armed forces useless.

2006 June 27, John Schilling, “David Drake - Leary and the RCN”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet):

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


Earthican

Fry: Well, if you're going to be Earthicans, we're going to have to teach you.

2001 April, “A Leela of Her Own”, in Futurama, season 4, episode 10:

(nonstandard, humorous, science fiction) An inhabitant of planet Earth.


schoolmarm

The schoolmarm came to an abrupt stop in her arithmetic quizzing, her face set into a pruny scowl that looked to be permanent.

2013, Josh Rountree, Lon Prater, Alamo Rising:

(US, slang) A female teacher, especially one seen to be old-fashioned and extremely severe and strict.


borogove

/ˈbɒɹə(ʊ)ɡəʊv/

The borogove let out a quiet chirp. Another, larger borogove squirmed in through the hole in the fabric.

2006, David Brown, Kara Willey, The Worlds of Naughtenny Moore, →ISBN:

Its knee bent the wrong way, though Albert thought it was certainly the right way for the borogove . Another borogove popped out of the forest and followed the first across the road, then a third and a fourth .

2013, Mel Gilden, The Jabberwock Came Whiffling: A Novel of Fantasy, →ISBN, page 22:

It smelled like a wet borogove.

2014, Daniel Coleman, Jabberwocky: A Novel, →ISBN:

With the Borogove's long legs, they hop and step over some incoming attacks.

2015, Donald Weis, Monster Lore 2, →ISBN, page 12:

An animal introduced in the nonsense poem Jabberwocky. According to Humpty Dumpty, a borogove is "a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round, something like a live mop." According to Mischmasch, it is "an extinct kind of parrot. They had no wings, beaks turned up, and made their nests under sun-dials: lived on veal."


Newspeak

Newspeak
Newspeak (programming language)
Nineteen Eighty-Four

From new + speak, coined by George Orwell in 1949 in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The programming language was so named because of its “shrinkable” design, following Orwell's idea of a continually diminishing vocabulary in Newspeak.

(fiction) The fictional language devised to meet the needs of Ingsoc and designed to restrict the words, and thereby the thoughts, of the citizens of Oceania in the 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.


nahualism

From nahual + -ism. The first element is from Nahuatl nahualli (“sorcerer, spirit, animal form a person may take”).

uder

(folklore, mythology) The Mesoamerican belief that certain human beings can transform into animals.


idiot savant

en-noun

idiot savant (plural idiots savants or idiot savants)

idiots savants (plural)
idiot savants (plural)

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

From French idiot savant, literally ‘wise idiot’.

The temptation is to regard him [John Ogdon] as an idiot savant, a big talent bottled inside a recalcitrant body and accompanied by a personality that seems not just unremarkable, but almost entirely blank.

2014 May 11, Ivan Hewett, “Piano Man: a Life of John Ogdon by Charles Beauclerk, review: A new biography of the great British pianist whose own genius destroyed him [print version: A colossus off-key, 10 May 2014, p. R27]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review):

(possibly derogatory) A person who exhibits an extraordinary ability in one subject (often mathematics) whilst being intellectually disabled in many other domains.


Dyson sphere

Named after American theoretical physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson, who originally described the concept in 1960.

named-after

"But there's more to a Dyson sphere than collecting solar power.
"Say you make the sphere one astronomical unit in radius. You've got to clear out the solar system anyway, so you use all the solar planets in the construction. That gives you a shell of, say, chrome steel a few yards thick. Now you put gravity generators all over the shell. You'd have a surface area a billion times as big as the Earth's surface. A trillion people could wander all their lives without ever meeting one another."

1970 October, Larry Niven, Ringworld, →ISBN, page 106:

Aye, an actual Dyson sphere. Can you imagine the engineering skills needed to even design such a structure?

1992 October 12, Ronald D. Moore, “Relics”, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 7, episode 4, spoken by Scotty (James Doohan):

You could even extend the argument to say why, on purely selfish grounds, a benign intelligence might remain benevolently engaged with the rest of the universe, rather than hiding away in a Dyson sphere and literally wireheading itself - because the payoff for expansive engagement will necessarily eventually exceed any possible payoff accompanying solitary self-reconstruction.

2005 August 19, Mitchell Porter, “Re: Paperclip monster, demise of.”, in SL4 mailing list, message-ID <BAY103-F40D2C8C3B70C9EB8A834EACAB50@phx.gbl>:

Meridian is a construct akin to a Dyson sphere: a vast, hollow shell encompassing a power source that provides heat and light to lush green biomes in the interior.

2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Meridian Codex entry:

(science fiction) A solid shell of matter enclosing a star.


runabout

(science fiction) A small, relatively maneuverable spacecraft or shuttlecraft.


beanstalk

If we don't build a Beanstalk, somebody else will—and once one is working, the number of rocket launches will drop to zero. That's the source of more than half our income.

1979, Charles Sheffield, The Web Between the Worlds:

I have never liked riding the Beanstalk. My distaste was full-blown even before the disaster to the Quito Skyhook. A cable that goes up into the sky with nothing to hold it up smells too much of magic.

1982, Robert A[nson] Heinlein, Friday, page 1:

Space elevators proposed for the Earth require novel high-strength materials and a substantial counterweight for their implementation. The problem becomes easier for Mars. There is no available "counterweight" for a synchronous "beanstalk" but Phobos proves a substantial anchor in non-synchronous orbit. A tether extending 1456 km from Phobos could release objects into an orbit just entering the Martian atmosphere, providing a launch and recovery device for Mars Excursion Modules. Extending the "beanstalk" to a length of 5832 km would place the end at the fringes of the Martian atmosphere.

2005 May 13, Bob Parkinson, “Partial Beanstalks for Mars Exploration”, in Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, volume 58, number 05/06, page 197:

(chiefly science fiction) A space elevator.


gynoid

She was obviously a skillful surgeon. She expertly cleaned and sterilized the gaping holes in the gynoid’s chest and back.

2000, Thomas J. Sanders, God's Fire, Trafford Publishing, page 58:

Purchased as sex toys, the gynoids are programmed to love and sexually serve male humans; the aberrant violence of one particular model, called "Hadaly," is a mystery to the company that manufactures them. They should not be able to kill humans, nor should they have any desire to commit suicide, since they should have no real sense of self.⁴⁴ Batõ and his new partner, Togusa (who was Kusanagi's partner in the previous film), spend the rest of the film trying to discover how the gynoids have acquired their faulty programming—is it the work of a terrorist hacker, for example, targeting prominent men?

2006, Sharalyn Orbagh, “5: Frankenstein and the Cyborg Metropolis: The Evolution of Body and City in Science Fiction Narratives”, in Steven T. Brown, editor, Cinema Anime: Critical Engagements with Japanese Animation, Springer, page 99:

She is embodied as a bright blue feminized robot, much like the mechanized gynoids in the classic film Metropolis (1928).

2013, Nickie D. Phillips, Staci Strobl, Comic Book Crime: Truth, Justice, and the American Way, New York University Press, page 82:

(science fiction) An android (humanoid robot) in female form.


merfolk

Mythical creatures that are human from the waist up and fish from the waist down.


shipper

Either formed anew from ship + -er or borrowed from Middle Low German schipper; compare skipper and Old English sċipere (“sailor”). Piecewise doublet of skipper (“captain, sailor”).


shipper

From a clipping of relationshipper. Relationshipper emerged in early online fandom of the television series The X-Files as a term for fans who supported the possibility of a Mulder/Scully romance. It was shortened to r'shipper, then 'shipper, and finally shipper. By surface analysis, ship (“to create a fictional romantic relationship”) + -er.

surf

For creative fans and committed 'shippers^([sic]), fanfiction continues the interaction — the dialogue, the conversation, the story […]

2013, Jennifer K. Stuller, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, page 42:

(fandom slang) A person who supports a romantic or sexual relationship between fictional characters or real people.


thunderbird

A man there was, grim his expression, just like a Thunderbird his features were frightening.

1999, Andrew George, transl., Gilgamesh, section VII:

(mythology) A mythological bird, often associated with stormy weather, especially in various indigenous North American mythologies.


cosplay

en-noun

cosplay (countable and uncountable, plural cosplays)

Borrowed from Japanese コスプレ (kosupure), which is a clipping of コスチュームプレイ (kosuchūmu purei), from a compound of English costume + play.

كُوسْبْلَاي

subculture centered on dressing as characters

Men, of course, also participate in cosplay and all its attending events, but women make up the greater numbers.

2003, Cosplay Girls: Japan's Live Animation Heroines:

The environments and spaces created for and by cosplay provide cosplayers with a variety of spaces for social interactions.

2006, Frenchy Lunning, Mechademia 1: Emerging Worlds of Anime And Manga, page 75:

It didn't take long for anime cons and cosplay to become a part of popular culture fandom in the West[…]

2010, Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, Dru Pagliassotti, Boys' Love Manga, page 5:

(uncountable) The art or practice of costuming oneself as a (usually fictional) character.

Central to the activity of cosplay is elaborate costuming, though some cosplays are enacted using a game system.

2010, Sarah Lynne Bowman, The Functions of Role-playing Games, page 29:

According to a student from France who went to Japan to study Japanese, "Universities in France are like Halloween when otaku students engage in these cosplays. They take Japanese language because of anime, but they see after a few classes that it's hard and not fun. Many drop out" (author interview, 2009).

2010, Anne Cooper-Chen, Cartoon Cultures: The Globalization of Japanese Popular Media, page 121:

Popular cosplays include, for example, characters from the Final Fantasy range of games[…]

2012, Dan Hunter, Ramon Lobato, Megan Richardson, Amateur Media: Social, cultural and legal perspectives:

(countable) A skit or instance of this art or practice.


cosplay

en-verb

cosplay (third-person singular simple present cosplays, present participle cosplaying, simple past and past participle cosplayed)

cosplays (present singular third-person)
cosplaying (participle present)
cosplayed (participle past)
cosplayed (past)

→ Norwegian: cosplay

→ Portuguese: cosplay

→ Russian: коспле́й (kospléj)

→ Spanish: cosplay

→ Thai: คอสเพลย์ (kɔ́ɔs-plee)

→ Ukrainian: коспле́й (kospléj)

She cosplayed at the manga convention.

Senior politicians have cosplayed as train drivers, ambulance workers, Border Force officials – the list goes on.

2022 December 23, Marina Hyde, “Who can doubt the futuristic brilliance of Sunak and co? They’ve given us driverless government”, in The Guardian:

(intransitive) To costume oneself as a character.

She cosplayed Sailor Moon at the manga convention.

(transitive) To costume oneself as (a character).

Why has the Russian Federation decided to cosplay the Nazi Third Reich by attacking the peaceful neighboring state and plunging the region into war?

2022 March 17, Aila Slisco, “Ukrainian UN Ambassador Accuses Russians of Engaging in 'Nazi Cosplay'”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2022-03-18:

On weekends, there was usually a party. Her classmates, free from their wealthy families, cosplayed as struggling intellectuals.

2022, Ling Ma, “Office Hours”, in Bliss Montage, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN:

[…] turning conservative white men into amateur commandos cosplaying war wherever they liked and the US into a war zone.

2022 May 30, Rebecca Solnit, “US mass shootings will continue until the majority can overrule the minority”, in The Guardian:

Whilst their stability was generally an improvement on earlier German destroyers, as the vessels no longer displayed a strong desire to cosplay as U-boats, the main armament proved to be something of a problem.

2022 August 27, Drachinifel, 2:44 from the start, in Type 1936A / Narvik class - Guide 298, archived from the original on 2022-08-29:

(figurative, often derogatory, transitive) To adopt the behavior and mannerisms of another.


cosplayer

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

From Japanese コスプレイヤー (kosupureiyā). Equivalent to cos- + player or cosplay + -er.


Stepford

en-proper noun

Stepford (countable and uncountable, plural Stepfords)

Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway#English

A locality in Dumfries and Galloway council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NX8681).


GH

The ambulatory surgery center (ASC) differs from the general hospital (GH) in several respects. […] The ASC has many advantages over the GH facility, some of which are financial and others related to patient flow and satisfaction. Clearly, a facility that has a limited purpose and scope can eliminate many services and costs that are necessary in the GH.

2000, Michael Lavan, “Facilities for Ambulatory Surgery. Part A: The Freestanding Ambulatory Surgery Center”, in H. Randolph Bailey, Michael J. Snyder, editors, Ambulatory Anorectal Surgery, Springer, →ISBN, page 1:

(medicine) Initialism of general hospital.


GH

GH joint

(anatomy, medicine) Initialism of glenohumeral.


GH

(television) Initialism of General Hospital, an American daytime television medical drama first aired in 1963.


Moby-Dick

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

The elusive white whale hunted in this novel.


skimmer

Kondric stood beside the skimmer for a moment, looking back at his warriors. They shouted and banged their swords on their shields. He raised his hand in farewell, and followed Violet into the cabin.

2015, Aurora Springer, Grand Master's Pawn:

They said no one landed on other planets. They said there was no such thing as a skimmer. Rocky hadn't believed them. They didn't know everything. He wished they could see the skimmer.

2000, Carlie Simonsen, Rocky to the Rescue, page 2:

(science fiction) A small, fast-moving spacecraft.


slasher

Realizing there was a fresh market for a style of movie that studios had written off as niche material, Scream’s gonzo profits ushered in a wave of subsequent slashers trying to capitalize on a new generation’s discovery of the subgenre, as Gen Xers and Gen Yers alike learned (or re-learned) the fundamental pleasures of a good old-fashioned murder spree by a crazed killer, supernatural or otherwise.

2017 October 27, Alex McLevy, “Making a Killing: The Brief Life and Bloody Death of the Post-Scream Slasher Revival”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-03-05:

(informal, film) A horror movie with graphic blood and violence; a slasher movie.

With the success of the first film and the third one already in production, Warner Bros. is more likely to greet Harry Potter slashers with more takedown orders than tolerance.

2002 December 21, Christopher Noxon, “What to do about Harry Potter Porn?”, in The Vancouver Sun, page 96:

The same aspects that made buddy shows attractive to relationship-oriented fans also made them attractive to slashers; the fact that these shows were set in an era of tight jeans and unbuttoned shirts, and of the loosening of formerly strict standards of acceptable male behavior, only provided additional evidence for homoerotic interpretation.

2006, Francesca Coppa, “Writing Bodies in Space: Media Fan Fiction as Theatrical Performance”, in Kristina Busse, editor, Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays, page 49:

In other words denied their own voice by a conservative misogynist culture, the original female slashers and vidders needed male characters as surrogates to express their own identity and desires.

2014, Kathryn Hill, “'Easy to Associate Angsty Lyrics with Buffy': An Introduction to a Participatory Fan Culture: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Vidders, Popular Music and the Internet”, in Mary Kirby-Diaz, editor, Buffy and Angel Conquer the Internet: Essays on Online Fandom, page 182:

(fandom slang) One who writes slash fiction and/or supports male/male ships.


yuri

Borrowed from Japanese 百合(ゆり) (yuri, “lily”), by analogy to 薔薇(バラ) (bara, “rose”), indicating love. See Yuri (genre) § “Terminology and etymology” at Wikipedia.

(slang) A narrative or visual work featuring a romance or sexual relationship between two or more women.

Yuri (genre)
Yuri (genre)#Terminology and etymology

ガールズラブ (gāruzu rabu, literally “girls' love”)

가르즈라부 (gareujeurabu, literally “girls' love”)


sixth sense

Adding to the traditional five senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing.

Among themselves they communicate by means of what Perry says must be a sixth sense which is cognizant of a fourth dimension.

1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter V, in At the Earth's Core:

Luckily, on evidence which I could never understand, Dominic detected something suspicious. Perhaps it was by virtue of some sixth sense that men born for unlawful occupations may be gifted with.

1919, Joseph Conrad, chapter 3, in The Arrow of Gold: A Story between Two Notes, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, […], →OCLC:

What Ghaznavi had considered animal intuition or some sixth sense was merely the razor-edged faculties and savage wit of the barbarian.

1934 August, Robert E. Howard, The Devil in Iron, Chapter IV, published in Weird Tales

Extrasensory perception
extrasensory perception

Extrasensory perception; the ability to sense things by means other than the known bodily senses.


grundy

Derived from Mrs. Grundy, a prudish character from the play Speed the Plough (1798) by the English playwright Thomas Morton.

A narrow-minded person or group that is overly concerned with censoring or criticizing personal conduct.

Spießer

narrow-minded person(s), censoring personal conduct

Spießigkeit

the tendency of society to criticize personal conduct


grundy

Backformation from Grundies, an underwear brand name.

(Australia, New Zealand, UK, slang) A pair of underpants


Hogwarts

desc

Translingual: Dracorex hogwartsia (species of dinosaur, now recognized as a juvenile form of Pachycephalosaurus)

Coined by J. K. Rowling in her 1997 book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Rowling has speculated that she might have subconsciously produced the name from hogwort, a plant she saw when walking round Kew Gardens.
Previously used by Geoffrey Willans in his 1953 book Down With Skool (which J. K. Rowling has read - see the article). Willan’s use was as the title of a fictitious play, “The Hogwarts”, referred to in the book as the creation of Marcus Plautus Molesworthus.
According to the article Hogwarts, the name is a simple compound hog + warts (cf. warthog).

Buffy: No, but, see, Mom, that doesn't really work for me. We're just going to the magic shop, no school supplies there.
Dawn: Yeah, Mom. I'm not going to Hogwarts.

2000, “Real Me”, episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Remember [...] what it was like to enter your first public or private school, or to arrive at places like Oxford, or Yale, or the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?

2004, John Lewis Gaddis, The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past, page 5:

2005 A Modern Introduction To Probability And Statistics: Understanding Why and How by Michel Dekking, Frederik Michel Dekking, Cor Kraaikamp, H. P. Lopuhaä, L. E. Meester (page 126) http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN1852338962&id=XLUMIlombgQC&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&ots=846rcIuft_&dq=%22+have+to+be+a+student+at+Hogwarts+to+be+able+to+get+the+values+of+p+night%22&sig=d0PEF2RXCs5j1EQECJuf-2QoSdQ
Since px(0), px(1), py(0) and py(1) are all equal to 1/2, knowing only px and py yields no information on ε whatsoever. You have to be a student at Hogwarts to be able to get the values of p right!

2005 2005 Wicca Almanac by various, Llewellyn, Elizabeth Barrette http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0738703087&id=wdVSV_qgBksC&pg=PA49&lpg=PA49&dq=hogwarts&sig=APdluHbvH2rKPLxTvxx6e7tpYkY
Teaching, if you've never done it, is a difficult task. There isn't a real-life Hogwarts to send your aspiring young Witch or wizard to, so teaching children falls to you, the parent.

When people plan out their actions, they do more. When they write out their fears, they solve more. You do not need to be a Hogwarts grad to master that type of magic.

2007, Steve Prentice, Cool Down: Getting Further by Going Slower, Wiley, page 190:

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a school for learning magic in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.


foo fighter

From foo, either a nonce word or a corruption of the French word feu (“fire”), + fighter (“type of aircraft”).

unidentified flying object
unidentified flying object

Any of various unidentified flying objects, as reported by Allied pilots during World War II.


GAFIA

Acronym of getting away from it all. Used in early science-fiction fandom.

gafia - (Wilson) - Get Away From It All; motto of escapism.

1944, John Bristol Speer, “G - Guild”, in Fancyclopedia:

So once again there were only 2 Fen, and while one picked up his obliterine and turned toward Mimi, the other, an escapist, picked up a prozine to gafia.

c. 1944, Forrest J Ackerman, “Fantasy Flanguage”, in What is Science Fiction Fandom?, page 27:

"Gafia" (getting away from it all) started out being what a fan did when he was fanning.

1977, Damon Knight, The Futurians, page 71:

(dated, fandom slang) The state of becoming involved in science fiction and fandom activity, leaving the mundane world.


esper

From ESP + -er from ESP (“extrasensory perception”).

I don't know why anybody would be spying on me, either, but—I'm neither a Lensman nor an esper, but I'd swear that somebody's peeking over my shoulder half the time.

1942 June 13, Edward Elmer Smith, “Storm Cloud on Deka”, in Astonishing Stories, volume 3, number 4:

But Espers can’t pick up any EK brain pattern farther than the horizon. It’s direct wave transmission. Even large objects cannot be penetrated. A building, say, or a—

1950 August 13, Alfred Bester, “The Devil's Invention”, in Astounding Science Fiction, volume 45, number 6, page 139:

extrasensory perception
extrasensory perception

(chiefly science fiction) A person who has extrasensory perception.


planeteer

Blend of planet + volunteer or planet + -eer.

(science fiction, rare) Someone who makes interplanetary journeys.