meta

Adjective sense 1 is a back-formation from meta- (prefix).
Adjective sense 2 is derived from noun sense 1.
The noun senses are clippings of various terms beginning with meta (prefix).

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

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

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

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

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

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

(fandom slang) Clipping of metanalysis: metanalysis or metacommentary focused on media, fandom, or related topics, typically presented as an essay or dialogue.


brainiac

Blend of brain + maniac, with influence from ENIAC, the name of an early computer. The term was coined in the Superman comic book and first appeared in Action Comics #242 in July, 1958.

With all the brainiacs in the world ... you'd think somebody would come up with a sunblock for ice cream.

2009 July 18, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic):

With nearly 900,000 Twitter followers, Popova is a member of a rare pantheon of “influencers” for the brainiac crowd. Miraculously, she makes a living writing a blog about science, literature, philosophy, feminism and whatever else takes her voracious and generous fancy.

2019 February 8, Margaret Wertheim, “Minds that explore the beauty of math and the logic of art”, in Washington Post, →ISSN:

(slang, sometimes derogatory) A very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person.

մոզգ

a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person


xenocide

en-noun

xenocide (countable and uncountable, plural xenocides)

The age that began with one xenocide attempted had now ended with other xenocides prevented or, at least, postponed.

1996, Orson Scott Card, Children of the Mind:

(science fiction) The genocide of an entire alien species.


easy street

From easy (“at ease, comfortable”) + street.

Stocks are light, while packers will be able to get financial aid, which will, so far as that is concerned, place them on "easy street."

1813, Financial Year Book of the Daily Commercial News, San Francisco, Calif.: Commercial News Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 55, column 2:

Once after this I asked the "pardners" if Jimsey's mascot was bringing him luck. / "Yes, lady," said Tom, "we walks on de shady side of de street now—don't we, Jimsey?" / "Yes, we lives on Easy street."

1890 August, Marie L[ouise] Marsh, “[The Sketch Book—Character in Outline] Jimsey’s Mascot”, in Current Literature: A Magazine of Record and Review, volume V, number 2, New York, N.Y.: The Current Literature Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 121, column 2:

There was big money in it—the fellows who did that job might live on Easy Street the rest of their lives.

1919, Upton Sinclair, “Jimmie Higgins Puts His Foot in It”, in Jimmie Higgins […], Pasadena, Calif.: Upton Sinclair, →OCLC, section II, page 83:

Honestly, Sally, it's the chance of a lifetime. It would put you right on easy street. Isn't there really any way you could get your money out of this other thing and take on this deal?

1921 October 8 – December 31, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIV, in Mostly Sally [The Adventures of Sally], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 23 March 1923, →OCLC, section II, page 256:

Sometimes I'm tired and I wonder / What's so all-fired important / About being someplace at some time / Oh, but I don't really mind / 'Cause I could be on Easy Street

1972 October, Carole King (lyrics and music), “Bitter with the Sweet”, in Rhymes & Reasons:

Easy street, easy street / Where the rich folks play (yeah, yeah, yeah) / Move them feet to easy street / When you get there, stay

1977, “Easy Street”, in Martin Charnin (lyrics), Charles Strouse (music), Annie (soundtrack):

(originally US, idiomatic, informal) Chiefly preceded by on: a carefree lifestyle or situation, especially as as a result of becoming wealthy.

kissanpäivät

(informal) carefree lifestyle or situation, especially as resulting from being wealthy


transmutation

transmutation (countable and uncountable, plural transmutations)

Late 14th century, from Old French transmutacion (“transformation, metamorphosis”), from Late Latin transmutationem, from Latin transmutare (“to change”).

გარდაქმნა

the transformation of one element into another

The transmutation of metals was secondary to the main aim, which was the spiritual transformation of the adept.

1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 261:

(alchemy) Specifically, the supposed transformation of one element into another, especially of a base metal into gold.


transorbital

(science fiction) A commercial spacecraft operating between the planets of the solar system.


transporter

(science fiction) A device that instantaneously transports, or teleports, a person or object.


alf

From Danish and Swedish alf, from Old Norse alfr; see also Dutch alf. Doublet of elf and oaf.

As the Scandinavians were at that time still worshippers of Thor and Odin, the belief in Alfs and Dwarfs accompanied them to their new abodes, and there, as elsewhere, survived the introduction of Christianity.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 248:

[T]he charm suggests rather that the Ases had sunk to a level where they could be counted together with witches and lesser wights, than that the alfs were seen as godly beings at the time the charm was composed.

2023, Kveldulf Gundarsson, Elves, Wights & Trolls, The Three Little Sisters, page 83:

(Norse mythology) A supernatural being similar to an elf; one of the Dǫkkálfar or Ljósalfar.


Dungeons & Dragons

role-playing game
role-playing game#English

(games) A particular fantasy role-playing game.


slick

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

cog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Jabberwocky

The name of a nonsense poem from the children's book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1872) by Lewis Carroll. Apparently based on the Jabberwock, the monster described therein, with the suffix -y in imitation of classical epics such as the Odyssey.

A nonsensical poem that appears in Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll.


bodice ripper

/ˈbɒdɪs ˌɹɪpə/

/ˈbɑdɪs ˌɹɪpɚ/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nackenbeißer

sexually explicit romantic novel, usually in a historical setting


bonkbuster

However, there would certainly be no Insatiable without Jilly Cooper. The bonkbusters of the 80s were responsible for my sentimental sex education. Like millions of readers, I fell in love with every aspect of the universe Cooper created.

2021 March 31, Daisy Buchanan, “The return of the bonkbuster: how horny heroines are starting a new sexual revolution”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(colloquial, chiefly UK) A popular novel involving frequent explicit sexual encounters, normally in a contemporary setting.


grey goo

Coined by Eric Drexler in his 1986 book Engines of Creation.

"Our first priority has to be quarantining Xinchub's body, and examining any Yomingians who may have handled it. I don't think we're headed for a grey-goo scenario here, but we'd all feel really bad if the local biosphere got consumed by nanobots after we left."

2007 August 24, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary, archived from the original on 2024-05-11:

[…]Through this, they learn more, and manage to reverse-engineer the ion drives of the drone, allowing them to move the station very rapidly towards Earth. On their way, they manage to send signals to multiple Foundation facilities, overriding them and using their fabrication plants to make new nanomachines. At this rate, it won't be long before there's a good old-fashioned grey-goo scenario, and humanity and the Earth are similarly consumed.

2023 October 22, “Exploring the SCP Foundation: SCP-7759 - T is for "Transmission"” (14:43 from the start), in The Exploring Series, retrieved 2024-05-15:

A hypothetical end-of-the-world event involving nanotechnology, in which out-of-control self-replicating nanobots consume all life on Earth (or another planet or moon).


top banana

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

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


salamander

/ˈsæləˌmɑːndə/

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

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

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

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

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

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


biter

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


starship

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

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

星際飛船 /星际飞船

a spacecraft capable of traveling to other stars


Cookie Monster

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


lightsaber

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

coined

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


deathtrap

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


lifeboat

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


Jedi

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

der

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Jedi.

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


narcissist

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

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

af

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


exorcism

en-noun

exorcism (countable and uncountable, plural exorcisms)

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

der

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

悪魔払い

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


scrooge

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

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

A person who is grumpy about the Christmas holidays.


scrooge

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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


faerie

en-noun

faerie (countable and uncountable, plural faeries)

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


weather balloon

weather balloon (plural weather balloons)

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


faun

From Middle English fawn, from Latin faunus.

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


verisimilar

en-adj

verisimilar (comparative more verisimilar, superlative most verisimilar)

more verisimilar (comparative)
most verisimilar (superlative)

/ˌvɛɹɪˈsɪmələ/

/ˌvɛɹɪˈsɪməlɚ/

/ˌvɛɹəˈsɪməlɚ/

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

af

genitive of <i class="Latn mention" lang="la">vērus</i> (“true”)

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


sorcerer

/ˈsɔːsəɹə(ɹ)/

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

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

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

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

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

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

yshtës

magician/wizard drawing upon natural powers


gafiate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


gafiate

en-verb

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

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

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

af

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


sidekick

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

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

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

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


Batman

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

The capital city of Batman Province, Turkey.


Batman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Batman.

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


Batman

Holy guacamole, Batman!

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

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

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


Batman

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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


Beast

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

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

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

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

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


Borg

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


Borg

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Chaos

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

19521 Chaos
Chaos (Warhammer)
Chaos (cosmogony)

Chaos warrior, Chaos daemon

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


Dickens

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

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

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


Donner

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

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

A Visit from St. Nicholas
Santa Claus's reindeer


Draco

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

Draco
Draco (constellation)
Draco (lawgiver)
Draco Dwarf

(Greek mythology) One of Actaeon's hounds.


Duo

An unincorporated community in West Virginia.


Elvish

These difficult runes are written in Elvish.


H

Coordinate term: M (“Muslim”)

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


Hamlet

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

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

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

A number of places in the United States:

An unincorporated community in Marin County, California.

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

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

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

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


Hansel

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

Хензел

fictional character in Hansel and Gretel


Hulk

Jack Kirby
Marvel Comics Universe
Stan Lee

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

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

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

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


Hulk

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


Hydra

[ˈhaɪ̯d͡ʒɹə]

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


Joker

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

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

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

2008, Deborah Eden, The Destroyer, page 82:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Judas

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

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

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

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

The Catholique (or General) Epistle of the Apostle JUDAS

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

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

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

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


Judas

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

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

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

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

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


Kraken

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

der

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


Krypton

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


Luna

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

Luna that ne'er shines by day.

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

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

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

The different visible shapes of Luna are called her phases.

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

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

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

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


Matrix

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Muggle

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

suffix

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This video game won’t appeal to muggles.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Muppet

Diane Sawyer
Elmo
Jim Henson
Kevin Clash
Muppet

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

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


Oz

After the fictional land in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

etymid

fictional place envisioned by L. Frank Baum

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


PK

en-noun

PK (countable and uncountable, plural PKs)

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

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

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

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

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

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

preacher's kid

(parapsychology) Initialism of psychokinesis.

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

(biochemistry) Initialism of protein kinase.


Pony

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


Q

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

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

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


Robin

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

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

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

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


Sapphire

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

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

A female given name from English from the precious stone.


Scrooge

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

The fictional character Ebenezer Scrooge.


Shylock

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

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


Snark

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

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

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


Sol

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


Standard

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

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

universal language
universal language#Noun

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


Superman

en-proper noun

Superman (countable and uncountable, plural Supermen)

DC Comics
Dragon Con
Jerry Siegel
Joe Shuster

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

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

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

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

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

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

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Superman.

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

سُوبَرْمَان

a fictional character with superhuman powers


Te

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

der

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

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


Tellus

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

bor+

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

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

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


Termagant

/ˈtɜɹməɡənt/

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

der

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

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

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

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

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

ترماغنت

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


Tonto

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

cal

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


Tux

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

A cuddly cartoon penguin, the official Linux mascot.


Yahoo

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

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

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

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

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


shuck

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


hellish

en-adj

hellish (comparative more hellish, superlative most hellish)

more hellish (comparative)
most hellish (superlative)

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

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

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

(hyperbolic) causing great pain, discomfort or distress


spacy

spacy (comparative spacier, superlative spaciest)

spacier (comparative)
spaciest (superlative)


mastermind

→ German: Mastermind

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

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

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

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

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


MAC

en-noun

MAC (countable and uncountable, plural MACs)

(science fiction) Initialism of magnetic accelerator cannon.


martial

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

der

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

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

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


Martial

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

Saint Martial was the first bishop of Limoges, circa 250

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

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


Martial

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

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

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


Martial

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

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


lamia

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

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

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

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


unobtainium

en-noun

unobtainium (countable and uncountable, plural unobtainiums)

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

suffix

Coordinate term: adamantium

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

難得素 /难得素

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


middle-earth

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


fetch

Heldref Publications
University Press of Kentucky

Uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested:
* From fetch-life (“(obsolete, rare) a deity, spirit, etc., who guides the soul of a dead person to the afterlife; a psychopomp”).
* From the supposed Old English *fæcce (“evil spirit formerly thought to sit on the chest of a sleeping person; a mare”).
* From Old Irish fáith (“seer, soothsayer”).

inh

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

Southern US, African-American Vernacular, obsolete

In these dilapidated articles of dress she had, on principle, arrayed herself, time out of mind, on such occasions as the present; for this at once expressed a decent amount of veneration for the deceased, and invited the next of kin to present her with a fresher set of weeds: an appeal so frequently successful, that the very fetch and ghost of Mrs. Gamp, bonnet and all, might be seen hanging up, at any hour of the day, in at least a dozen of the second-hand clothes shops around Holborn.

1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, “The Reader is Brought into Communication with Some Professional Persons, and Sheds a Tear over the Filial Piety of Good Mr. Jonas”, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC, page 236:

I think it was a fetch. [...] Folk say a fetch is seen at its departing / From a cold house whence it shall lead a soul; / But this comes like a child-birth closing in, / And so perchance it does but signify / The consciousness of death that breaks in all.

1905, Gordon Bottomley, Midsummer Eve, Harting, Petersfield, Hampshire: Pear Tree Press, →OCLC; republished in King Lear’s Wife, The Crier by Night, The Riding to Lithend, Midsummer Eve, Laodice and Danaë: Plays, London: Constable & Company, 1920, →OCLC, page 159:

Several farm maidservants meet to see their future lovers' spirits on Midsummer Eve, but see only the "fetch" or double of one of them, foretelling her death.

1921, Sterling Andrus Leonard, “Bibliography of Plays for Reading in High Schools”, in Sterling Andrus Leonard, editor, The Atlantic Book of Modern Plays: […], Boston, Mass.: The Atlantic Monthly Press, →OCLC, page 300:

"If you're after some money," said the millionaire, "move that cat out of the way." Catweazle shook his head. "Mayhap 'tis a fetch." Victor was very taken aback. "A fetch?" he gulped. "That's a witch in the shape of a cat, isn't it?" "Ay," said Catweazle calmly.

1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 80:

(originally Ireland, dialectal) The apparition of a living person; a person's double, the sight of which is supposedly a sign that they are fated to die soon, a doppelganger; a wraith (“a person's likeness seen just after their death; a ghost, a spectre”).


Essex girl

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


Oliver Twist

en-adj

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

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

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

Cockney rhyming slang
Cockney rhyming slang


pulp

pulp (comparative more pulp, superlative most pulp)

more pulp (comparative)
most pulp (superlative)

From Middle English pulpe, from Latin pulpa.

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

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

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

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

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


metamorphose

en-verb

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

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

/ˌmɛtəˈmɔːˌfəʊz/

/ˌmɛtəˈmɔɹˌfoʊz/

/ˌmɛtəˈmɔɹˌfoʊs/

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

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


Neptunian

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

cog

Near-synonym: Poseidonian

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

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

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


Neptunian

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

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

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

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

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

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

(geology, historical) A proponent of Neptunism.


Neptunian

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

suffix

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


mogwai

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

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


zombify

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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


Japanimation

en-noun

Japanimation (countable and uncountable, plural Japanimations)

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

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


uplift

en-verb

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

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

извисявам

to raise something or someone to a higher level

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

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

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

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


jinx

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


AMC

Air Mobility Command
w:Air Mobility Command

(US military) Initialism of Air Mobility Command.


BW

Pokémon Black and White
w:Pokémon Black and White

(fandom slang) Initialism of Pokémon Black and White.


hypnosis

en-noun

hypnosis (countable and uncountable, plural hypnoses)

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

suffix

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

ܛܘܼܠܵܥܵܐ ܡܲܓ݂ܢܵܛܝܼܣܵܝܵܐ

ṭullāˁā maḡnāṭīsāyā


Jovian

en-adj

Jovian (comparative more Jovian, superlative most Jovian)

more Jovian (comparative)
most Jovian (superlative)

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

(astronomy) Pertaining to the planet Jupiter.

Near-synonym: Zeusian

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

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

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


Jovian

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


secret admirer

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

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

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


fey

en-noun

fey (countable and uncountable, plural fey or feys)

From Middle English faie, fei (“a place or person possessed with magical properties”), from Middle French feie, fee (“fairy", "fae”). More at fairy.


DP

DP (countable and uncountable, plural DPs)

displaced person
displaced person#English

dynamic programming
dynamic programming#English

(computer science) Initialism of dynamic programming.


DP

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl
w:Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

(fandom slang) Initialism of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.


ARV

alien reproduction vehicle
alien reproduction vehicle#English

(ufology) Initialism of alien reproduction vehicle.


annum

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

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


D&D

(roleplaying games) Initialism of Dungeons & Dragons.


ESP

ESP (countable and uncountable, plural ESPs)

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

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

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

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

extrasensory perception
extrasensory perception#English

(parapsychology) Abbreviation of extrasensory perception.

Near-synonym: wallhack

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

Environmental Sample Processor
w:Environmental Sample Processor

(ecology) Initialism of Environmental Sample Processor.

email service provider
w:mailbox provider

(Internet) Initialism of email service provider.


SS

Pokémon Sword and Shield
w:Pokémon Sword and Shield

(fandom slang) Initialism of Pokémon Sword and Shield.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


OTP

Other common OTPs are Frodo/Sam and Aragorn/Legolas.

2007, Kristin Thompson, The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, page 179:

The 'shippers in the study asserted that they may enjoy reading stories about other 'ships, or stories without a 'ship […] but the stories they most enjoy are those about their OTP.

2013, Jennifer K. Stuller, Fan Phenomena: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, page 43:

Over Rico's shoulder, I see Claire biting her lip, wearing the look of a shipper watching her OTP interact.

2018, Britta Lundin, Ship It, unnumbered page:

(fandom slang) Initialism of one true pair (or pairing): the romantic pairing preferred by an author or reader of fan fiction.


magic realism

magic realism (usually uncountable, plural magic realisms)

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

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

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

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


Rudolph

From German Rudolph, Rudolf (compare Proto-Germanic *Hrōþiwulfaz).


Disney

English surname of Norman origin, from Old French de (“of, from”) + Isigny (a place in Calvados). For the placename, see Isigny-sur-Mer. In modern use, it is also derived from the name of Walt Disney, whose surname has the aforementioned origin.

Have you seen Disney's latest film?

The Walt Disney Company, named after Walt Disney.

A town in Mayes County, Oklahoma, United States, named after Wesley E. Disney.


OC

OC (countable and uncountable, plural OCs)

One point that almost always seems to be overlooked every time the Mary Sue issue comes up is that #*not* all original characters are Mary Sues. Although there are those who think OCs should be kept out of fanfic, it is possible and acceptable to write OCs into your stories without deifying them.

1999 October 28, Laura Taylor, “Re: Voyager Mary Sue Litmus Test”, in alt.startrek.creative (Usenet):

Too often an OC tends to slip into a Mary Sue mould, but if it's well written, I have no problems with an OC as a protagonist of a fic.

2005 February 3, Don Sample, “Re: Are OC's the kiss-of-death in BtVS fanfics?”, in alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer.creative (Usenet):

For instance, one fan might create an OC or Original Character that does not exist in the primary media canon. Then, with that fan's permission (it is considered good form to request permission from the OC creator; however, this does not always happen) another fan may incorporate that OC into his or her texts.

2008, Rebecca W. Black, Adolescents and Online Fan Fiction, Peter Lang, published 2008, →ISBN, page 40:

original character
original character#English

(fandom slang) Initialism of original character.


challenger

Inherited from Middle English chalengere, chalangeour; equivalent to challenge + -er.

inh+

The champion hopes to defeat his new challenger in the game to remain undefeated.

One child stood as king of the hill, and tried to withstand the pushes and shoves of his challengers.

Debates are often unpredictable, but it is especially hard to game out how this debate featuring a moderate standard-bearer and a liberal challenger will unfold and how people will process it. Hundreds of thousands of viewers, if not millions, will have been personally affected by Sunday, as public gathering spaces are shuttered, schools are closed and on Thursday the stock market plunged by the largest percentage in decades (it snapped back upward on Friday).

2020, Shane Goldmacher, “Throw Out the Debate Playbook: Biden and Sanders to Clash Amid Crisis”, in The New York Times:

One who challenges; especially, one who plays against the current champion of a game or contest in hopes of winning and becoming the new champion.


tooth fairy

/ˈtuːθ ˌfɛə̯ɹi/

/ˈtuθ ˌfɛə̯ɹi/

Anna was concerned that telling her child about the tooth fairy, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny would cause him to believe his mother was a liar later in life.

A figure of modern myth said to give children a small amount of money (or sometimes a present) in exchange for a milk tooth when it falls out of a child's mouth.

tandemuis

figure of modern myth said to give children a small amount of money in exchange for a milk tooth


roman à clef

Borrowed from French roman à clef (literally “novel with a key”).

bor

I want to emphasize that in this respect my account of romance differs substantially from both Annabel Patterson's argument that the primary purpose of roman à clef in early modern England was to avoid censorship and Michael McKeon's […]

2007, A. Zurcher, Seventeenth-Century English Romance: Allegory, Ethics, and Politics, Springer, →ISBN, page 9:

In the end, the fragmentary nature of the text and Dora's abrupt decision to terminate her treatment indicate that as a narrative technology, the roman à clef fails. This owes less to the particulars of the individual case, however, than to Freud's […]

2009, Sean Latham, The Art of Scandal: Modernism, Libel Law, and the Roman à Clef, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 57:

However, I would argue that this feature of the roman à clef need not be characterized as an impediment to interpretation. If the layered address contained in novels that encrypt references to the 'real' is acknowledged as itself a characteristic […]

2011, S. Nair, Secrecy and Sapphic Modernism: Writing Romans à Clef Between the Wars, Springer, →ISBN, page 23:

A piece of fiction, especially a novel, describing real-life people or events.


TARDIS

Coined in 1963 for the British science-fiction programme Doctor Who; said to stand for "Time and Relative Dimension(s) in Space".

'While I was in the Rani's TARDIS, I made an adjustment or two.' He chuckled, remembering the occasion.

1986, Pip & Jane Baker, chapter 19, in The Mark of the Rani, page 129:

The Master's essence escapes his funeral urn and lands the TARDIS in San Francisco on December 30, 1999.

2000, Fraser A. Sherman, Cyborgs, Santa Claus, and Satan, page 57:

I want the ground to swallow me up. I want to hide in a corner, curl up, and weep, sucking my thumb. I want the TARDIS to appear and take me away.

2004, Will Hadcroft, The Feeling's Unmutual: Growing up with Asperger Syndrome (Undiagnosed), page 16:

The time machine and spacecraft used by the Doctor in the British sci-fi television series Doctor Who, which is larger on the inside than its exterior (that of a British police box) suggests, or any of the conceptually similar time machines used by other members of the Doctor's race, the Time Lords.


TARDIS

This unassuming Georgian terrace house, located within five minutes walk of the busy commercial and tourist heart of Bath in Somerset, is like a veritable TARDIS of astronomical history and discovery, with more to see on the inside than its [exterior suggests].

2008, in Astronomy Now, volume 22, issues 7–12, page 36

Alternative form of Tardis (something which resembles the bigger-on-the-inside time machine from the series Doctor Who).


cheerleader

(chiefly US) A person, usually a young, attractive female, who encourages applause and cheers at a sports event, and wearing a specially-designed uniform in the official colors of the team he/she cheers for.

rasieleier

person (usually female) who encourages applause


teleportation

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Coined by Charles Fort in his 1931 book Lo! from tele- + transportation.

Any of many (mostly hypothetical or fictional) processes of moving matter from one spatial point to another without physically crossing the space in between and which are often depicted or described as happening instantaneously, and through dematerialization or gateways.

إِنْتِقَال آنِي

process of moving matter from one point to another


quantum teleportation

en-noun

quantum teleportation (usually uncountable, plural quantum teleportations)

quantum entanglement
quantum entanglement

(quantum mechanics) the instantaneous transference of a quantum state to a distant location using quantum entanglement and the transmission of classical information


quantum entanglement

quantum entanglement (countable and uncountable, plural quantum entanglements)

(quantum mechanics) A quantum mechanical phenomenon in which the quantum states of two or more objects have to be described with reference to each other, even though the individual objects are spatially separated.

ക്വാണ്ടം എൻടാംഗിൾമെന്റ്

kvāṇṭaṁ eṉṭāṅgiḷmenṟŭ


AV

From Japanese AV(アダルトビデオ) (adarutobideo), from English adult video.

(Japanese pornography) Initialism of adult video (“video pornography”).


ETI

Ethical Trading Initiative
Extraterrestrial intelligence

Initialism of Ethical Trading Initiative.


Lothario

/loʊˈθɛəɹioʊ/

Named after Lothario, a character in the play The Fair Penitent, a reference to a seducer of the same name in the metastory of the Quixote called The Impertinent Curious Man.

Coordinate term: Romeo

High times, indeed, if unprincipled young rakes like him are to be permitted to invade the sanctity of domestic bliss; though do what the Bashaw will, he cannot keep the most notorious Lothario out of his bed; for alas! all fish bed in common.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Schools and Schoolmasters”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 437:

He warned her 'gainst seductive youths in scarlet clad and gold, / As much as 'gainst the blandishments paternal of the old; / But kept his gravest warnings for (hereby my ditty hangs) / That snowy-haired Lothario Lieutenant-General Bangs.

1919, Rudyard Kipling, “A Code of Morals”, in Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads:

So much of the plot structure rested on Chandler being the second string: the maladroit loser to Joey’s lothario, the joker skating beneath Ross’s romantic gravity.

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

A man whose chief interest is seducing, usually women.


cunny

cunny (countable and uncountable, plural cunnies)

(countable, fandom slang, chiefly anime and manga) The vulva or vagina of a child or childlike character (loli).

(countable, synecdochically) A child or childlike character, especially when considered sexually attractive; a loli.

(uncountable, metonymically) Lolicon-themed media, especially when erotic (hentai).


utopian

en-adj

utopian (comparative more utopian, superlative most utopian)

more utopian (comparative)
most utopian (superlative)

a utopian project

The Great Society was never, in my mind, just a visionary utopian ideal. I considered it a realistic outline of what this nation could achieve in a limited period of time if we marshaled our will and committed our resources.

1971, Lyndon Johnson, The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 104:


reptilian

From reptile + -ian, replacing earlier reptilious and adjectival reptile.

More evolved than the Grays or Reptilians, the Humanoids seem to feel some sort of kinship with humans and are likely to be kind.[…] Some researchers believe the Grays are merely preparing the way for a full-scale invasion of Reptilian aliens.

2001, Caroline Tiger, The UFO Hunter’s Handbook: A Field Guide to the Paranormal, →ISBN, pages 62–63:

Such powerful human families would descend upon the reptilians themselves and they would be willing to do just anything to retain their power.

2010, Chico Penteado, Talking to the Reptilians-A Report from Brazil, →ISBN, page 11:

The reptilians are the creation of the Carians.

2011, Collin Robert Bowling, A New Order of the Ages, →ISBN:

Reptilians generally are envisioned as half snake, half human, and they are thought to have come from the Alpha Draconian star system.

2015, Marty Crump, Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog, Adder's Fork and Lizard's Leg, →ISBN:

(science fiction) A reptilian alien, especially (ufology, often capitalized) of a shapeshifting race alleged to secretly control the world.


dumb blonde

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Have you found the canonical list of dumb blonde jokes on the Internet yet?

My friends say she's a dumb blonde but they don't know she dyes her hair.

(derogatory) A common stereotype of a blonde woman as attractive but unintelligent.


spooky

spooky (comparative spookier, superlative spookiest)

spookier (comparative)
spookiest (superlative)

(informal) Eerie, or suggestive of ghosts or the supernatural.


extradimensional

(science fiction) Originating outside the known physical reality of the universe.

(science fiction) Coming from a world outside Einsteinian space-time.


empathy

en-noun

empathy (countable and uncountable, plural empathies)

A twentieth-century borrowing from Ancient Greek ἐμπάθεια (empátheia, literally “passion”) (formed from ἐν (en, “in, at”) + πάθος (páthos, “feeling”)), coined by Edward Bradford Titchener in 1909 to translate German Einfühlung. The modern word in Greek εμπάθεια (empátheia) has an opposite meaning denoting strong negative feelings and prejudice against someone.

coin

(parapsychology, science fiction) A paranormal ability to psychically read another person's emotions.


aug

(science fiction) Clipping of augmentation.


Tweedle-dum

The names "Tweedledum" and "Tweedledee" first appeared in print in one of John Byrom's epigrams, which satirised the disagreements between Handel and Bononcini. They were made popular by Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass.

A fictional little fat man who is the twin brother of Tweedle-dee and appears in multiple artistic works, including certain nursery rhymes and Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass.


Tweedle-dee

A fictional little fat man who is the twin brother of Tweedle-dum and appears in multiple artistic works, including certain nursery rhymes and Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass.


alicorn

Term already associated with unicorns and reinterpreted as a blend of Latin āla (“wing”) with unicorn, popularized by Bearing an Hourglass (1984) and other fantasy novels by Piers Anthony.

The Alicorn. He be a winged unicorn, the finest equine flesh extant, the adoration of every fair and innocent maiden. For that steed I would give anything.

1984 August, Piers Anthony, Bearing an Hourglass, Del Rey Books, published 1992, →ISBN, →OL, page 171:

A silver portal opens in the sky and a^([sic]) ebony alicorn stallion gallops from it the silver tips on his black wings shine in the sun's light.

1999 May 15, Twyligtsky <twyligtsky@aol.comSKYMAGE>, “Re: RP: First appearence!^([sic])”, in alt.mythology.mythic-animals (Usenet), message-ID <19990515145319.05236.00000939@ng-fs1.aol.com>:

Rarity: Why, you've become an alicorn! I didn't even know that was possible.
Pinkie Pie: [wearing a costume horn and wings] Alicorn party!

2013 February 16, M.A. Larson, “Magical Mystery Cure” (16:32), in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, season 3, episode 13, spoken by Rarity and Pinkie Pie (Tabitha St. Germain and Andrea Libman):

(nonstandard) A mythological creature, a mixture of pegasus and unicorn: a winged horse with a single horn on its head.


hey presto

(British) Used by stage magicians, when performing a magic trick.


spectral

en-adj

spectral (comparative more spectral, superlative most spectral)

more spectral (comparative)
most spectral (superlative)

The spectral chain-rattling and moans gave me the chills.

The day itself was miserably dull; a thick fog shut out the landscape, while a few of the nearer trees alone were visible, spreading out their thin spectral arms on the murky air.

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Marriage Morning”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 202:

Agitated by a multitude of curious thoughts, I retired to my room, that night, prepared to encounter some new experience of a spectral character.

1859 December 13, Charles Dickens, “The Ghost in Master B’s Room”, in Charles Dickens, editor, The Haunted House. The Extra Christmas Number of All the Year Round […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Whiting, […], →OCLC, page 27, column 2:

Of, or pertaining to, spectres; ghostly.


ghostly

ghostly (comparative ghostlier, superlative ghostliest)

ghostlier (comparative)
ghostliest (superlative)

From Middle English gostly, gastlich, from Old English gāstlīċ (“spiritual, holy, clerical (not lay), ghastly, ghostly, spectral”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaistalīk (“spiritual”), equivalent to ghost + -ly. Cognate with Scots ghaistly, gaistly (“spiritual, ghastly, terrifying”), West Frisian geastlik (“spiritual, clerical, religious”), Dutch geestelijk (“spiritual, clerical, ecclesiastical”), German geistlich (“spiritual, sacred, religious”), Danish geistlig (“ecclesiastical, clerical”).

cog

A ghostly hush fell.

Scores of coconut-shell fires blazed with their characteristic glaring white flame, throwing grotesque shadows on the brown thatched huts, dancing in fairylike shimmerings among the domes of coconut fronds, casting ghostly reaches of light through the adjacent graveyards, and silhouetting the forms of pareu-clad natives at work cleaning their fish or laying them on the live coals to broil.

1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 35:

His lips were chapped and lined with a ghostly purple fringe.

2019, Dave Eggers, The Parade, N.Y.: Vintage Books, page 134:


Teletubby

She spoke like the Teletubbies, behaved like a Teletubby, and seemed to live in this harmonious toddler phantasy world.

2007, Michael Günter, Playing the Unconscious, page 98:

They [wind turbines] turn pristine landscapes into Teletubby-style horror shows.

2012, James Delingpole, How To Be Right:

Any of the four color-coded tubby human-like characters in the BBC children's television series Teletubbies.