suspension of disbelief

en-noun

suspension of disbelief (usually uncountable, plural suspensions of disbelief)

Coined by English poet, literary critic and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817.

coin

In science fiction films, suspension of disbelief is essential.

On the other hand, Chikamatsu could induce a suspension of disbelief with the same means, thus producing an effect of reality within basic unreality. (The suspension of disbelief is, of course, nothing new to Western audiences.)

1955, Donald Keene, “The Japanese Theatre”, in Japanese Literature, page 63:

All films require "suspension of disbelief" to work effectively. And every film creates its own unspoken rules to accomplish this.

2010 June 17, John Landis, “John Landis on why Ray Harryhausen's effects are still so special”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Characters are either rich, comfortable, or struggling, but we rarely know how rich, how comfortable, or how much they struggle in concrete-enough terms to relate to. Money is involved in every important decision in one’s life; TV characters simply frown at a bank statement or gasp at a hidden figure on a piece of paper. The topic of money requires the most awkward suspension of disbelief in fiction.

2022 January 7, Jordan Calhoun, “The One Thing TV Characters Don’t Talk About”, in Humans Being, The Atlantic:

The acceptance of people, for the sake of appreciation of art (including literature and the like), of what they know to be a nonfactual premise of the work of art.

懷疑暫停 /怀疑暂停

people's acceptance of what they know to be a nonfactual premise


superstrength

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

They have the power to make things happen, see the future, and kill off bad guys, but they rarely have the superstrength of Superman, which would make them too unfeminine.

2006 August 8, Sharon Lamb with Lyn Mikel Brown, Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers' Schemes, New York: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 96:


Scaramouche

From French Scaramouche, a character popularized in France by Tiberio Fiorilli. From Italian scaramuccia (“skirmish”). Doublet of escarmouche, Scaramucci, and skirmish.

doublet

A roguish clown character from the 16th-century Italian commedia dell'arte.


derezz

en-verb

derezz (third-person singular simple present derezzes, present participle derezzing, simple past and past participle derezzed)

derezzes (present singular third-person)
derezzing (participle present)
derezzed (participle past)
derezzed (past)

From the film Tron, perhaps from de- and resolve or resolution.

(science fiction, intransitive, of an image) To disappear, or dissolve into pixels.


werefox

Lycanthropy also was common, in early times at least, and belief in werewolves and werefoxes existed among all tribe.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 183:

(mythology) A person who transforms into a fox or foxlike form.

weervos

shapeshifter assuming the shape of a fox


manhua

en-noun

manhua (countable and uncountable, plural manhuas)

Borrowed from Mandarin 漫畫 /漫画 (mànhuà), from Japanese 漫(まん)画(が) (manga). Doublet of manga and manhwa.

(comics) A comic originating in China or Taiwan.


manhwa

Borrowed from Korean 만화(漫畫) (manhwa), from Japanese 漫(まん)画(が) (manga). Doublet of manga and manhua.

In fact, many manga fans don't realize that their favorite comics — such as Priest, Ragnarock, and Island — are actually Korean manhwa!

2004, Christopher Hart, Manhwa Mania: How to Draw Korean Comics, Watson-Guptill Publications, →ISBN, page 7:

Since the Korean language reads left to right (unlike Chinese and Japanese), manhwa are printed left to right in the same format as English books.

2007, Jason Thompson, Manga: The Complete Guide, Del Rey, published 2007, →ISBN:

As the best Japanese titles were mined, the American companies began to look for alternatives, and Tokyopop's founder Stuart Levy already had a budding interest in Korean manhwa.

2008, Mark James Russell, Pop Goes Korea: Behind the Revolution in Movies, Music, and Internet Culture, Stone Bridge Press, published 2008, →ISBN:


Ringwraith

From ring + wraith, coined by J. R. R. Tolkien as a fantasy character in The Lord of the Rings.

A party of four at one of my stations included a pretty creditable Scarlett O'Hara in her famous green velvet `curtains' gown, a fairy princess complete with fancy airbrushed wings, a man dressed as either a Ringwraith or the Grim Reaper (I guessed from the absence of a sickle that he was probably a Ringwraith), and George Washington.

2006, J.C. Sillesen, No Return, page 40:

I had written a number of short stories in the Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents vein, and a couple of fantasy novels that explored the premise of modernized 'Ringwraiths' invading a 1986 Alabama high school."

2007, Mark Stephen Smith, The Art of Flash Animation: Creative Cartooning, page x:

Like the Ringwraiths,
I need your acacia unfurled,
Enabling my dream-stuns
Of fizzing mauve whirls.

2007. Jerry Dowlen, "Lio Lios", 2007, p27

(fantasy) Anyone who keeps a magical ring, and is enslaved thereby, and may also be rendered invisible and immortal thereby.


autofire

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

(science fiction) A feature that allows a weapon to fire automatically.


Disneyana

items related to The Walt Disney Company, especially collectibles.


superluminality

The quality or condition of being superluminal.


zombification

zombification (countable and uncountable, plural zombifications)

Both the threat and the fact of zombification confer on the bokor a potent means of social control, if he chooses to use it.

1988, Wade Davis, Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie:


Grauniad

Deliberate misspelling of Guardian, coined by the UK satirical magazine Private Eye, implying that the Guardian newspaper was prone to typographical errors.

Good old Grauniad.

1984 [1981], Jonathan Lynn, Antony Jay, “The Right to Know”, in The Complete Yes Minister, →ISBN, page 135:

Stop along the road for papers; scan headlines, make sure that no late-breaking story displaced the Vanguard piece and that it's intact (ninety-five percent – a satisfyingly high score), check out Doonesbury in the Grauniad, then away.

Katherine Viner wants to appoints a "1 per cent correspondent" to hound the filthy rich. As befits a possible Grauniad editrix, the NUJ misspelt her name.

2015 February 24, Patrick Kidd, “Guardian Angels Declare”, in The Times, page 11:

His appointment marked the start of a daily corrections and clarifications column, a first for a UK newspaper, which has mined a rich seam of typos and other slips for which “the Grauniad” is fondly known.

2021 May 12, Elisabeth Ribbans, “Typo negative: the best and worst of Grauniad mistakes over 200 years”, in The Guardian:

(UK, newspapers, humorous) The Guardian, a British daily national newspaper.


Ugandan affairs

/juːˌɡændən əˈfɛəz/

Probably a variant of Ugandan discussions (“(UK, euphemistic, informal) sexual intercourse”), from discuss Uganda (“(UK, euphemistic, informal) to have sex”), said to have been coined by the English journalist and poet James Fenton (born 1949), based on a 1973 incident at a party at which the Irish journalist Mary Kenny (born 1944) explained why she was in the arms of a former Ugandan cabinet minister by saying they were “upstairs discussing Uganda”. The incident was reported by the British satirical and current affairs magazine Private Eye on 9 March 1973, which then popularized the expression by using it to refer to other sexual affairs.

Everyone known about them now; Rosemary has even been mentioned in Private Eye as "discussing Ugandan affairs with a gorgeous young American don."

1984, Alison Lurie, chapter 5, in Foreign Affairs, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, published November 1985, →ISBN, page 171:

'You sure they're not … er … discussing Ugandan affairs?' Rhona asked, citing the old euphemism for illicit sex.

1998, Cathy Kelly, chapter 13, in She’s the One, London: Headline Publishing Group, published 2011, →ISBN:

The fact that his [George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe's] "heavy workload" included many discussions of Ugandan affairs just shows how prescient Private Eye was when it adopted the phrase as a euphemism for the sexual indiscretion of politicians at least 15 years later.

2004 January 1, Alan Travis, “Call girls, drugs and Ugandan affairs shook cabinet: Ministers in the Heath government had to quit”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2016-12-01:

She [Margaret Thatcher] had been baffled by what Private Eye referred to as "Ugandan affairs" in relation to [Cecil] Parkinson's affair with Sarah Keays,^([sic – meaning Sara Keays]) saying: "I know it's untrue. He's never been to Africa."

2016 January 25, “Lord Parkinson – obituary: Thatcherite star whose career faltered after revelations of an affair with his former secretary”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC:

(British, euphemistic, humorous) Often in the form to discuss Ugandan affairs: sexual intercourse, usually an extramarital affair.

BBC News
James Fenton
Mary Kenny
Private Eye


CCS

(animanga, Japanimation) Initialism of Cardcaptor Sakura. (manga and anime series)


superluminally

In a superluminal manner; faster than the speed of light.


star visitor

(informal) An extraterrestrial person who visits from a different star system.


sea monster

(mythology) A large and aggressive creature living in or under the sea that attacks ships.


good old boy

yokel

unsophisticated resident of a rural area

"Billie, what kind of a lad is that young Coke up at Washurst?" He addressed an old college friend. . . .
"He's one of those Ohio Cokes—regular thing—father millionaire—used to be a barber—good old boy."

1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 5, in Active Service:

Tell these fellows to say to their Sultan that he is a good old boy, and that we thank him very much.

1910, H. Rider Haggard, chapter 7, in Queen Sheba's Ring:

A male friend or chum, especially a schoolmate; a man with an established network of friends who assist one another in social and business situations; a decent, dependable fellow.


electrokinesis

But Grey's electrokinesis and Greenman's telekinesis put me in a tight spot.

2008, A. Lee Martinez, The Automatic Detective, →ISBN, page 138:

(fantasy, science fiction) The generation of electrical force using the mind alone.


superheroine

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From super- + heroine, by analogy with superhero.

A heroine with supernatural powers; a female superhero


yeartide

From year + -tide (“time, occasion”). Compare West Frisian jiertiid (“season”), Dutch jaartijd, jaargetijde (“season”), German Jahreszeit (“season”), Swedish årstid (“season”), Icelandic árstíð (“season”), Yiddish יאָרצײַט (yortsayt). Doublet of yahrzeit.

[…] And promised whatever the yeartides would bring To this wish of his friend he would fervently cling.

1907, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Young Israel:

And soft the yeartides creep:
O sweet, O lasting sleep!

1921, Emma Kenyon Parrish, The Golden Island, page 8:

Or phylacteries on skulls unyielding, While our river of days flows dark With a yeartide of days, a yeartide of nights Unhallowed, unhallowed?

1958, American Jewish Congress, Judaism:

Peter & 2-Js & I joined in a flower bunch, besides which I also sent her a 15 bob sheaf on my own, with gum-leafage — the sole homish stuff havable here at this yeartide — there among.

1985, Percy Grainger, Kay Dreyfus, The Farthest North of Humanness: Letters of Percy Grainger, 1901–1914:

(chiefly poetic or fantasy) A specific time of year; season.


ettin

From Middle English eten, etend, from Old English eoten (“giant, monster, enemy”), from Proto-West Germanic *etun, from Proto-Germanic *etunaz (“giant, glutton”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”). Cognate with Icelandic jötunn (“giant”), Swedish jätte (“giant”), Danish jætte (“giant”). Doublet of jotun.

inh

1890, Joseph Jacobs, "The Red Ettin" in English Folk and Fairy Tales, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 3rd edition, no date, p. 138, https://archive.org/details/englishfairytale00jacouoft
He asked the wife if he might stay for the night, as he was tired with a long journey; and the wife said he might, but it was not a good place for him to be in, as it belonged to the Red Ettin, who was a very terrible beast, with three heads, that spared no living man it could get hold of.


sneed

From a 1999 Simpsons episode, "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)" featuring a farming supply store, "Sneed's Feed & Seed", from the English surname Sneed; the joke is that the sign says the shop was "Formerly Chuck's", implying it formerly rhymed with Chuck instead ("Chuck's Fuck and Suck"). The sign became a meme on the image board 4chan around 2012. It came to be used as a substitute for seethe (e.g. in the phrase "cope and seethe" → "cope and sneed"), then (as a noun) became synonymous with beta males when 4chan started automatically changing soyboy to sneed..

He then told me to "Seethe, cope and dilate you sneed."

2021 October 28, “What is the deal with sneed, cope and dilate?”, in Reddit, r/NoStupidQuestions:

(Internet slang) One who seethes; a soyboy.


Cockaigne

From Old French cocagne, of obscure origin, but the many references to sweet delicacies in the 13th century poem that is the first record of the word suggest it may have come from a Germanic word for a cake, probably the ancestor of the modern German Kuchen.
See also Proto-Germanic *kōkô.
May also relate to or be influenced by Old Irish cucainn (“food ration, sweet pie”).

Coordinate term: Arcadia

In Cockaigne, the Land of Plenty, people never argued. Instead, they partied, they danced, they drank, and they slept around.

2017, Rutger Bregman, chapter 1, in Elizabeth Manton, transl., Utopia for Realists, Kindle edition, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 3:

(mediaeval folklore) A land of plenty, luxury and idleness.


unbiquadium

systematic element name
systematic element name

The systematic element name for the (as yet undiscovered) chemical element with atomic number 124 (symbol Ubq).


adamantium

It was a bullet. It was a small slug of adamantium, the toughest and hardest of all metals, crammed to capacity with the terrific explosive feroxite and would burst instantly on any reasonable heavy impact.

1941 June, Malcolm Jameson, “Devil's Powder”, in Astounding Science-Fiction, volume 27, number 4, Street & Smith:

It's imperative that these experiments be concluded with haste! The military must know the potential of this new adamantium at once! Even the President is standing by!

1969 July, Roy Thomas, “Betrayal”, in Avengers, volume 1, number 66, Marvel Comics:

A fictional metal that is indestructible or nearly so.


unbipentium

The systematic element name for the (as yet undiscovered) chemical element with atomic number 125 (symbol Ubp).


expanded universe

en-noun

expanded universe (plural expanded universes)

The Star Wars novels, comics, video games, television series, and radio shows created between 1977 and 2012 all constitute an original Expanded Universe (EU) of in-universe history and lore set within the same transmedia franchise.

2019, Monica Louzon, “Mara Jade, Frontier Woman”, in Melanie A. Marotta, editor, Women's Space, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 29:

In fiction, the extension of a media franchise (i.e. a television show, series of feature films, etc.) with other media (generally comics and original novels), often with the result being that the stories described in the other media are not considered canon in the original.


psionics

In any case, psionics appears quite legitimately in science fiction.

1976, Reginald Bretnor, The Craft of Science Fiction:

In the 1960s, Campbell abandoned his public obsessions with psionics and pseudo-science.

1998, Gary Westfahl, The Mechanics of Wonder: The Creation of the Idea of Science Fiction:

(science fiction) Mental powers, especially those under conscious control, that affect physical matter, such as telekinesis.


vampirically

en-adv

vampirically (comparative more vampirically, superlative most vampirically)

more vampirically (comparative)
most vampirically (superlative)

She believed that the seance was an arena in which power was vampirically transferred between medium and spirit.

1991, Philip Shaw, Peter Stockwell, Subjectivity and Literature from the Romantics to the Present Day:


terraformer

(science fiction) A machine that has the capability to terraform.

(chiefly science fiction) A person who terraforms.


Earthscape

en-verb

Earthscape (third-person singular simple present Earthscapes, present participle Earthscaping, simple past and past participle Earthscaped)

Earthscapes (present singular third-person)
Earthscaping (participle present)
Earthscaped (participle past)
Earthscaped (past)

From Earth + -scape, modelled after landscape.


zombielike

en-adj

zombielike (comparative more zombielike, superlative most zombielike)

more zombielike (comparative)
most zombielike (superlative)

Similar to a zombie, having the appearance or character of a zombie.


fusion rocket

(astronautics) a rocket engine that uses nuclear fusion reactions for propulsive force

(astronautics) a spacecraft having a fusion reactor that powers the rocket

nuclear-pulse rocket
nuclear-pulse rocket

(astronautics) a nuclear-pulse rocket that uses thermonuclear bombs to supply propulsive force


telepath

(parapsychology, science fiction) A person with telepathic ability, capable of reading the thoughts of others around them.


telepath

en-verb

telepath (third-person singular simple present telepaths, present participle telepathing, simple past and past participle telepathed)

telepaths (present singular third-person)
telepathing (participle present)
telepathed (participle past)
telepathed (past)

Jan. 3rd, 1984.—I was in the front sitting-room and dare not go out of the room for the cold; my plants were awfully dry, and hearing E. [her niece] in the kitchen, I telepathed to her to bring me in some water. She at once came with a jug full and asked if I would water the plants.

1896 October, “A Diary of Telepathic Impressions”, in Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, volume 7, number 132, page 300:

He does not attribute one single experience to what we might term a "ghost" for lack of a better term. Witches, poltergeists, goblins, gremlins, fairies, dwarfs—all of them are real, physical, alive, being either the real thing or the teleported or telepathed image of the real thing.

1947 June, Raymond A. Palmer, “Observatory”, in Amazing Stories, volume 21, number 6, page 9:

Thanos: "Did you not suspect I could tell you had been telepathing?"

1973 February, Stan Lee, Iron Man, number 55

In your mind you have capacities you know / To telepath messages through the vast unknown

1976, John Woloschuk and Terry Draper (lyrics and music), “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft”, in 3:47 EST, performed by Klaatu:

(parapsychology, science fiction) To communicate by thought; to use telepathy.


Kallikantzaros

Borrowed from Greek καλλικάντζαρος (kallikántzaros).

bor

καλλικάντζαρος

In Greek and Cypriot culture, a traditional Yuletide gift-bearing character, resembling a goblin.


identical twin

identical (“indistinguishable”) + twin (“sibling with whom one has shared the uterus of the mother”)

One of exactly two siblings produced from the splitting of a single zygote.


grav

Since there is no such thing as top or bottom in space, the ship's artificial gravs hold you to the floor no matter which end of the vessel points which way.

1950, Nelson Bond, Lancelot Biggs: Spaceman, →ISBN, page 76:

... We will be going to low-gravity just before jump. Passengers should be firmly strapped in at this time." "Good," murmured Muerotte. "Cutting gravs...brace yourself.

2007, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., The Ecolitan Enigma, →ISBN:

Trystin shut down the ventilation system and shifted the last of the power for gravs into the thrusters.

2010, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., The Parafaith War, →ISBN:

(science fiction) An artificial gravity generator.

A starship thundered invisibly close overhead, its gravs at full lift-off power.

The orbot was a speck, a clot, a ball, a toy. It was gliding silently in on gravs, directly overhead.

1992, Gardner Dozois, Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction Of Gardner Dozois, →ISBN, page 83:

Air cars include any vehicle which are grav powered and are capable of flying, but unlike aeroplanes they handle similar to normal ground cars.

2008, Martin Rait, FSpace Roleplaying Conspiracy Convention Skills Guide v1.1, →ISBN, page 7:

I set things up for the grav sled support and the Averonian operation.

2011, R Richard, Second Chance King of Avuls, →ISBN, page 7:

With the gravs, I can land in ten seconds and be cutting a door for you at the same time.

2011, J. E. Murphy, Sanctuary, →ISBN, page 317:

(science fiction) An anti-gravity device.


hyperfiction

en-noun

hyperfiction (countable and uncountable, plural hyperfictions)

Fiction written in a hypertext medium, usually allowing the reader to make decisions that affect the storyline


geokinesis

(parapsychology, fantasy, science fiction) The ability to manipulate the movement of minerals in the earth using supposed psychic powers.


magic point

(fantasy roleplaying games) A unit of measure indicating the amount of magical energy or power available to a character in a role-playing game. Abbreviated MP.


chronokinesis

(science fiction) The ability to manipulate the flow of time.


ferrokinesis

(parapsychology, fantasy, science fiction) The ability to mentally manipulate iron and other metals.


magnetokinesis

(parapsychology) The ability to mentally control magnetic fields.


barghest

The etymology of this word is disputed; it is perhaps from Old English burh-ghest (“town-ghost”), or from German Berg-geist (“mountain spirit”) or Bär-geist (“bear-spirit”).

Yet another possibility is that the headless man is a barghest, sometimes referred to and spelled as 'barguest', 'bahrgeist' or 'boguest'. These are creatures primarily associated with the north of England – Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire and Lancashire. They assume at will the form of a headless man, a headless lady, a white cat, a rabbit, or dog, or a black dog. The barghest is a fiend that is attached to a particular place, more often than not an isolated piece of land, a wooded area, cloughs or wasteland. The barghest is known as a portent of disaster or death for those who see it; it is also said that death may not visit the person who sees the barghest but could kill a family member instead.

2016, Alexander L. Kaufman, “‘And Many Oþer Diuerse Tokens …’: Portents and Wonders in ‘Warkworth’s’ Chronicle”, in Jaclyn Rajsic, Erik Kooper, Dominique Hoche, editors, The Prose Brut and Other Late Medieval Chronicles: Books Have Their Histories. Essays in Honour of Lister M. Matheson, Woodbridge, Suffolk: York Medieval Press in association with The Boydell Press and the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, →ISBN, page 61:

(mythology, British) Any ghost, wraith, hobgoblin, elf, or spirit.


friend of Dorothy

friend of Dorothy (plural friends of Dorothy)

Commonly thought to refer to Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939), portrayed by gay icon Judy Garland; alternatively (or additionally) it could be a reference to writer Dorothy Parker, who was friends with many gay men.

He's a disco-dancing, Oscar Wilde-reading, Streisand ticket-holding friend of Dorothy, know what I'm saying?

1995, Amy Heckerling, Clueless, spoken by Murray (Donald Faison):

(slang, dated, euphemistic) A homosexual man.

Dorothy Parker
Judy Garland
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)


sankyu

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

From Japanese サンキュー (sankyū), from English thank you.


timelord

From time + lord. From "Time Lord", the term for a member of a specific race of time travellers from the long-running BBC television series Doctor Who.

A renegade timelord from the future who liked to meddle with history? If this were so, perhaps he really had talked with Christ and the kings of bygone days.

1999, Thomas Slemen, Strange But True: Mysterious and Bizarre People:

...a kind of timelord who rewrites himself as he passes across timezones and geographical locations, often within the same sentence.

2001, Simon Ward, Negotiating Positions:

...a mind that could fly to all points in the cosmos seemingly at will, able to slip between time, across the ages like some omnipotent, hip hop timelord.

2004, Neil Kulkarni, Hip Hop: Bring the Noise:

Not doing a timelord, ping ponging back and forth through time.

2007, Carmel McConnell, The Happiness Plan:


empath

She was the empath who would betray empaths if she got the chance. So they'd tried to fix things so that she didn't get the chance.

1957, Hans Stefan Santesson, editor, Fantastic Universe:

How did a complete stranger know he was an empath? He rarely if ever talked about it, even to his closest friends. It made people uneasy.

The aura may, in fact, linger around objects or places and that "lingering energy" is what an empath senses and intuits.

(science fiction, parapsychology) A person with extra-sensory empathic ability, capable of sensing the emotions of others around them in a way unexplained by conventional science and psychology.


ironman

From iron + man. First applied to Joe McGinnity, a baseball player who pitched 48 complete games in one season and worked in an iron foundry during the offseason.

“Every sense of your body is taken over by the climate,” said the New York City native Christopher Bergland, who set a record at triple ironmans (7.2-mile swim, 336-mile bike, 78.6-mile run) but failed to finish one of his three Badwater races.

2007 July 21, Aimee Berg, “Far-From-Basic Training for a 135-Mile Footrace”, in New York Times:

An extreme form of triathlon, expecially one organised by the World Triathlon Corporation that comprises a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike race and a marathon run.


yandere

/ˈjɑːndɛɹeɪ/

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

Borrowed from Japanese ヤンデレ (yandere), a portmanteau of 病んでる (yanderu), contraction of 病んでいる (yande iru), progressive tense of 病む (yamu, “to be sick”), and デレデレ (dere-dere, “in a lovey-dovey, infatuated, or lovestruck manner”, adverb).
Developed on the model of tsundere (“being cold and even hostile towards another person before gradually showing a warm and caring side over time”).

And it finally answered the question as to whether Senjougahara is tsundere or yandere.

2009 October 4, sanjian [username], “Re: Bakemonogatari - comments on the end of the TV broadcast”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

Looking at anime charts, there's always the harem series with the dense hero and a bunch of girls whose personalities are pulled out of a set cast of tropes (the Childhood Friend, Tsundere, Yandere, and Lolita, for instance).

2012, Jazmine Brusola, Rabble Rousers: A Fate/Zero Anime Review, Flyleaf (Ateneo Literary Association), page 14:

“Believe it, man. In fact, she's seriously creepy. Like creepier than that pink-haired girl from Future Diary.”
 “Wait, what?” Sam got that reference quickly, but was not happy with the comparison. She wasn't a psychopathic, murderous Yandere stalker, from what he could see.

2014, Olivia D. Knight, Please, Let Me Be a Seiyuu!, BookRix, →ISBN, unnumbered page:

(chiefly Japanese fiction) A character, usually a girl, who has an obsessive and possessive side in regards to their crush, ready to use violent (if not murderous) means to maintain an exclusive bond.

يَانْدِرِي

character who fits the archetype of being genuinely kind, loving, or gentle, but suddenly switching to being aggressive or deranged


biopunk

biopunk (countable and uncountable, plural biopunks)

From bio- + -punk, apparently on the model of cyberpunk. Compare biotech.

In the early nineties there grew up biopunk, a derivative sub-genre building not on IT but on biology, the other dominating scientific field of the end of the twentieth century. Individuals are enhanced not by mechanical means, but by genetic manipulation of their very chromosomes.

1997 September 13, Michael Quinion, “Biopunk”, in World Wide Words, archived from the original on 2015-12-08:

At its heart, The Wind Up Girl is a biopunk thriller following a^([sic]) undercover corporate agent and a genetically modified woman – but its detailed, bleak depiction of the effects of climate change sets it apart.

2017 January 19, “Five of the best climate-change novels”, in The Guardian:

(uncountable, science fiction) A science fiction genre that focuses on biotechnology and subversives.


archvillain

/ˌɑːtʃˈvɪlən/

/ˌɑɹt͡ʃˈvɪlən/

From arch- (“chief, most extreme”) + villain.

Madoff is the season's archvillain, accused of having run a Ponzi scheme so vast that future generations may well describe similar swindles as Madoff schemes.

2009 January 6, Clyde Haberman, “We Know About the Mess. Please, Clean Up Carefully.”, in New York Times:

(chiefly narratology) A supreme villain; the most evil or powerful villain.

arkkivihollinen

a supreme villain; the most evil or powerful villain


stargate

From star + gate. A science-fiction film of this title, Stargate, was released in 1994.

Find examples of stargates and wormholes in the ancient world […]

2000, David Hatcher Childress, Technology of the Gods:

Perhaps the first clear depiction of a stargate is to be found in Robert Heinlein's classic novel Tunnel in the Sky […]

2001, William R Alschuler, Howard Zimmerman, The Science of UFOs:

A stargate takes you to that star or constellation. […] The opening of a stargate requires the participation of the Archangel Michael […]

2002, Richard Leviton, The Galaxy on Earth: A Traveler's Guide to the Planet's Visionary Geography:

At some point it might be possible to devise a "stargate" such as depicted in the movies 2001: A Space Odyssey and Stargate […]

2003, Albert A Harrison, After Contact: The Human Response to Extraterrestrial Life:

With a stargate, travel is instantaneous. It is quite possible that the secret government either has a stargate or is trying to get one.

2004, Stephanie Relfe, The Mars Force Book 2:

(neologism, science fiction) A hypothetical device consisting of a traversable portal (typically a wormhole) that can send one to another location light years away nearly instantaneously.


Alcubierre metric

Alcubierre metric (plural Alcubierre metrics)

Named after Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre.

(relativity) A type of spacetime metric. See warp bubble.


haunted house

haunted house (countable and uncountable, plural haunted houses)

بَيْت أَشْبَاح

house believed to be a center for supernatural occurrences

This enigmatic bunch are a reaction to Manchester's musical past, with a blend of haunted house and rave dynamics

2011 March 25, Paul Lester, “New band of the day: Christian AIDS (No 991)”, in The Guardian:

(uncountable, music) Synonym of witch house (“music genre”)

It was easy to see that it was an avoided house—a house that was shunned by the village, to which my eye was guided by a church spire some half a mile off—a house that nobody would take. And the natural inference was, that it had the reputation of being a haunted house.

1859, Charles Dickens, “The Mortals in the House”, in The Haunted House:

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see haunted, house.


antiheroine

Since she sprang from the imagination of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in 1890, this coldhearted antiheroine has maintained a tight grip on the attention of audiences across the globe, outstripping all the many other complicated women in Ibsen’s oeuvre, even the door-slamming Nora of “A Doll’s House”.

2009 January 18, Charles Isherwood, “Hedda Forever: An Antiheroine for the Ages”, in New York Times:

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


psychometry

psychometry (countable and uncountable, plural psychometries)

"Their power and knowledge are as closely limited as ours. But this is not a matter for the spirit people. What I did then was psychometry, which, so far as we know, is a power of the human soul."

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:

Then there is that queer practice of the whites, psychometry, by which mediumistic people claim they can, by handling any object, tell events that occurred to the owner of it.

1931, Ion L. Idriess, Lasseter's Last Ride, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 60:

(parapsychology) The paranormal ability to discover information about an object's past, and especially about its past owners, merely by handling it.


supervillainess

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From supervillain + -ess or super- + villainess.

On the everlasting As the World Turns, Lisa was another kind of person, a sort of supervillainess of the soaps. Yet she was always saved from damnation...

1987, Shirley Rogers Radl, Mother's Day is Over:

Disappointingly, Valkyrie turns out really to be the Enchantress, a supervillainess whose intention is the destruction of both sexes.

1996, Trina Robbins, The Great Women Superheroes:

Created by DC Comics and featured in Batman, supervillainess Poison Ivy is a potent femme fatale.

2005, Lois H Gresh, Robert E Weinberg, The Science of Supervillains:


disintegrator

'Well, gentlemen,' said he, in a velvety voice with only the least trace of a foreign accent, 'you have come, as I understand from our short chat over the wires, in order to learn more of the Nemor Disintegrator.'

1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disintegration Machine:

(science fiction) A laser or similar weapon or device that can disintegrate matter.


disapparate

en-verb

disapparate (third-person singular simple present disapparates, present participle disapparating, simple past and past participle disapparated)

disapparates (present singular third-person)
disapparating (participle present)
disapparated (participle past)
disapparated (past)

A negative back-formation from apparition, coined by J. K. Rowling.

But again, over time and over many, many pages this scenario fails to chill: most of the “muggle” population goes about its ordinary existence, and every time the secret police close in, our heroes are able to “disapparate” — a term that always makes me think of an attempt at English by George W. Bush.

2007 August 12, Christopher Hitchens, “Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived”, in New York Times:

Even without Alastair Campbell's assistance, a visiting idealist can see that the simplest thing John Prescott could do, to help secure a fourth term for Labour, would be to disapparate, taking his fellow revenants with him.

2009 February 1, Catherine Bennett, “Does Labour really think John Prescott is the new Obama?”, in The Guardian:


dhampir

(mythology, fiction, fantasy) A half-human, half-vampire hybrid.


barometz

Friedrich Justin Bertuch
Sir Richard Clayton, 1st Baronet

Possibly a corruption of Russian баране́ц (baranéc, “species of club moss (genus Lycopodium)”, from бара́н (barán, “ram (male sheep)”) + -ец (-ec, diminutive suffix)).

refn

From D[emetrius] de La Croix (1791) Richardus Clayton [i.e., Sir Richard Clayton, 1st Baronet], transl., Connubia florum latino carmine demonstrata, Bath, Somerset: Ex. typographia S. Hazard, →OCLC.

From F[riedrich] J[ustin] Bertuch (1806) Bilderbuch für Kinder: enthaltend eine angenehme Sammlung von Thieren, Pflanzen, Blumen, Früchten, Mineralien, Trachten und allerhand andern unterrichtenden Gegenständen aus dem Reiche der Natur, der Künste und Wissenschaften, alle nach den besten Originalen gewählt, gestochen, und mit einer kurzen wissenschaftlichen, und den Verstandes-Kräften eines Kindes angemessenen Erklärung begleitet, Weimar: Im Verlage des Industrie-Comptoirs, →OCLC.

der

Much wonder is made of the Boramez, that ſtrange plant-animall or vegetable Lamb of Tartary, which Wolves delight to feed on, which hath the ſhape of a Lamb, affordeth a bloudy juice upon breaking, and liveth while the plants be conſumed about it; and yet if all this be no more then the ſhape of a Lamb in the flower or ſeed, upon the top of the ſtalk, as we meet with the formes of Bees, Flies and Dogs in ſome others, he hath ſeen nothing that ſhall much wonder at it.

1650, Thomas Browne, “Of Some Others”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 152:

Cradled in ſnow and fann'd by arctic air / Shines, gentle Barometz! thy golden hair; / Rooted in earth each cloven hood deſcends, / And round and round her flexile neck ſhe bends; / Crops the grey coral moſs, and hoary thyme, / Or laps with roſy tongue the melting rime; [...]

1789, [Erasmus Darwin], The Botanic Garden; a Poem, in Two Parts. […], London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1791, →OCLC, part II (The Loves of the Plants; 3rd edition), page 30, lines 283–288:

[...] I say to you what I should say if any little Barometzes should come under my care. It is more on the imaginary side than the matter of fact.

1919 February 15, The Garden: […], volume 83, London: Hudson and Kearns, →OCLC, page 69, column 3:

It seemed to be at least as good a vegetable lamb as Lepas was an unripe vegetable bird, and one version of the story itself is probably explained by it. That is the version in which the barometz grows out of the ground, being attached to its root system by its umbilical cord and capable of feeding only as far as that cord will reach—a perfect counterpart to the Jidra of the Talmud.

1948, Willy Ley, The Lungfish, the Dodo and the Unicorn: An Excursion in Romantic Zoology, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC, page 82:

One has only to consult [Jorge Luis] Borges's own "Book of Imaginary Beings" to encounter chimeras, phoenixes, basilisks, barometzes (the last a kind of vegetable lamb) and the like.

1987 April 12, Cynthia Ozick, “The Library of Nonexistent Classics”, in The New York Times Book Review, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-11-05, page 12:

However, one night when I was hard at work in one of the powder mills outside the fortress, I was captured along with some others by a band of Tartars and carried off so deep into their territory that I not only saw borametz, the legendary sheep-shaped melon, growing, I ate it.

1999, Johann Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, “On the Short and Diverting Road by which He Came Home to His Da”, in Mike Mitchell, transl., Simplicissimus, Sawtry, Cambridgeshire: Dedalus Books, published 2010, →ISBN:

(mythology) A purported zoophyte, half-animal and half-plant, said to grow in the form of a sheep.

植物羊

half-animal and half-plant said to grow in the form of a sheep — see also vegetable lamb

A singular vegetable production met with in the deserts, concerning which various fables have been related, is a kind of fern called the barometz, or Scythian lamb; the latter name being given to it from its woolly body, attached to the ground by a long slender stalk, affording a distant resemblance to a lamb grazing.

1807, J[ohn] Aikin, “Chinese Tatary”, in Geographical Delineations, or A Compendious View of the Natural and Political State of All Parts of the Globe, Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed for F. Nichols, by Kimber, Conrad, & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 256–257:

[page 7] The Tartarian, or Scythian lamb, or borametz, is a plant, of which many miraculous tales are told. Travellers say that it exactly resembles a lamb, and that its pulp is similar to the flesh of lamb; and that it contains blood, &c.; but these accounts require confirmation. [...] [page 8, footnote †] [The plants] appear to be originally the roots or stalks of certain vegetables, probably of the capillary kind, covered with a woolly moss, which, naturally naturally bearing resemblance to the figure of a lamb, have been helped out and brought nearer to it by art, and the addition of new parts. Sir Hans Sloane, and Breynius [Jacob Breyne], give us the figures and descriptions of such borametzes in their collections.

1826, Eliza P. Reid, “Part I. Rice, Licorice, Maize, or Indian Wheat, and Some Other Plants.”, in Historical and Literary Botany, […], volume III, Windsor, Berkshire: C. Andrews, […], →OCLC, pages 7 and 8:

Nor can we affirm that this plant of [Gustav] Kunze is not that which gave rise to the tales of wonder, for, although the species was first botanically determined by Kunze from [Hugh] Cuming's Philippine Island specimens, and although it is shown to be a native also of Sumatra, yet we have lately (in 'Kew Garden Miscellany,' vol. ix. p. 334) had occasion to record the fact of our having received specimens of the same Fern from Hongkong, Chusan, and South China, of which country the Barometz is considered a native.

1861, William Jackson Hooker, “Introductory Notice”, in The British Ferns; […], London: Lovell Reeve, […], →OCLC, footnote:

A portion of the Baromez does present a rude resemblance in its shape to the figure of an animal, and is covered by a soft downy substance, which may be compared to a silky fleece, of a reddish-brown colour, and which gives to it more the appearance of a dog than a lamb.

[1866], “The Field and the Heath”, in Beauties and Wonders of Vegetable Life; […], London: The Religious Tract Society, […], →OCLC, page 263:

Cibotium. This is a small distinct genus of robust-growing and highly ornamental plants; and, though generally considered Tree Ferns, some species have a decumbent rhizome, of which the Barometz, or Vegetable Lamb, is a good example.

1868, Benjamin Samuel Williams, “Descriptive List of Exotic Ferns”, in Select Ferns and Lycopods: British and Exotic. […], London: Published and sold by the author, →OCLC, page 93:

Cibotium Barometz frond resembles the Cibotium Scheidei but the growth is different as well as the color. The Barometz is more stiff and upright where the Scheidei droops and is more delicate and lighter green.

1949, The Begonian: […], Long Beach, Calif.: American Begonia Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 265, column 2:

A golden chicken fern or woolly fern (Cibotium barometz), the rhizomes of which are covered in furry brown hair; the legend (sense 1) is supposed to have arisen because, when inverted, the rhizomes with stalks growing out of them resemble lambs.


everywoman

From every + woman, modelled on earlier everyman.

In fiction, drama, or allegory, the archetypical ordinary woman.


hammerspace

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From hammer + space, referring to the large mallets often produced from nowhere by cartoon characters.

Okay, now just picture what you want to pull out of hammerspace and just reach in and grab it.

1996, Vincent Tagle, “Love and a single Ukclone...”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

...it's a commonly known fact that dust is physically incapable of collecting in Hammerspace, so everything is always looking brand new! I for one would want to keep my collection of--I think it's sixty-four--manga spotless!

2000, Jason Howe, “Hammerspace Cleaning”, in alt.fan.sailor-moon (Usenet):

I just learned how to take my sword out of my hammerspace, and I'm not afraid to use it.

Each incident involved some implement or skill SCP-6549 could not possibly utilize without additional anomalous qualities, a lack of detail or proper observation of which currently prevents concrete inference from being made regarding its ability to actually carry out said attacks. Usage of telepathically-linked accomplices, ectoentropic nanotechnology, and/or an antimemetic extradimensional hammerspace have not been ruled out as possibility.

2023 December 28, Billith, “SCP-6549”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 2025-01-01:

(humorous, fiction) A notional extradimensional storage space able to contain objects larger than itself.


loli

From Japanese ロリ or a clipping of lolicon.

(fandom slang, chiefly anime and manga) A childlike female character, particularly in the lolicon genre.


megastructure

For lack of anything intelligent to do (it's a slow weekend), I've been compiling a list of stories about "megastructures" -- ringworlds, Dyson spheres, and so forth.

1993 January 17, Ross Smith, “Enormous Big Things”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet), message-ID <alien.02jk@acheron.amigans.gen.nz>:

Wright and his co-authors say the unusual star’s light pattern is consistent with a “swarm of megastructures,” perhaps stellar-light collectors, technology designed to catch energy from the star.

2015 October 13, Ross Andersen, “The Most Mysterious Star in Our Galaxy”, in The Atlantic:

(science fiction) A hypothetical structure not possible with current technology, e.g., a Dyson sphere.


beauty queen

(idiomatic) The female winner of a beauty contest.


Earthman

Such dreams! Always of Mars, and during my waking hours at night my eyes always sought out the Red Planet when he was above the horizon and clung there seeking a solution of the seemingly unfathomable riddle he has presented to the Earthman for ages.

1928, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Master Mind of Mars, page 2:

(usually science fiction) A male inhabitant of Earth.


Dickensianly

en-adv

Dickensianly (comparative more Dickensianly, superlative most Dickensianly)

more Dickensianly (comparative)
most Dickensianly (superlative)


snarker

Sarah Silverman escapes unscathed, while Penn Jillette, an avowed libertarian who entertains mostly in Las Vegas nowadays, and Sarah Palin, an avowed big-game hunter who’s safely tucked away up north somewhere, are portrayed as snarkers par excellence.

2009 February 22, Walter Kirn, “Insult as Injury”, in New York Times:


hub world

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

From hub, meaning the central point or are of an activity, region, or network.

Otherwise, our beautiful tree might become a definite nuisance on any Hub world to which it is introduced.

1965, John Wood Campbell, editor, Analog Science Fact/science Fiction, page 43:

A hub world in the Kasna Republik, Kasnearfar was a cosmopolitan port for beings across the Four Galaxies.

2007, Aaron Michael Fanthorpe, Genesis Project: Prelude to Destiny, volume 1, page 8:

But something was shaping up—something incomprehensible and vast, concerning the Hub Worlds, something that was apparently tangled in and directly related to tens of thousands of years of interacting histories.

(science fiction) A planet which serves as a hub.


hoverboard

Back to the Future Part II
Self-balancing two-wheeled board
hoverboard

From hover + board, patterned off of skateboard. First mentioned in the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II.

(chiefly science fiction) A levitating board that can be ridden in the manner of a surfboard or skateboard.


hoverboard

en-verb

hoverboard (third-person singular simple present hoverboards, present participle hoverboarding, simple past and past participle hoverboarded)

hoverboards (present singular third-person)
hoverboarding (participle present)
hoverboarded (participle past)
hoverboarded (past)

(chiefly science fiction) To travel by hoverboard.


hobbitlike

en-adj

hobbitlike (comparative more hobbitlike, superlative most hobbitlike)

more hobbitlike (comparative)
most hobbitlike (superlative)


hodag

A fictional animal in Wisconsin folklore, having a head like an ox, the bulging eyes of a frog, huge claws, a row of spikes down its back, and a dinosauric body and tail.


ecchi

en-noun

ecchi (countable and uncountable, plural ecchi)

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From Japanese エッチ (etchi, “dirty; perverted”), which is derived from English aitch (“name of the letter ⟨H⟩”), which is an initialism of the romaji of Japanese 変態(へんたい) (hentai, “pervert”).
エッチ (etchi) is not a genre in Japanese; this is a development in English.

der

The manga fan was disturbingly proud of his extensive ecchi collection.

(uncountable) A genre, especially of anime and manga, featuring playful, tongue-in-cheek usage of sexualized scenes and situations such as double entendre or flirtation, while remaining non-pornographic. Often used to differentiate from hentai which features overt sexual themes.

There was a moment of ecchi for comic relief in the otherwise serious story.

(rare, countable, chiefly proscribed by fandom slang) A situation within a story, especially anime and manga, which ventures into the ecchi genre.


squonk

Have you ever seen a squonk's tears? Well, look at mine / The people on the street have all seen better times

1974, Donald Fagen, Walter Becker (lyrics and music), “Any Major Dude Will Tell You”, performed by Steely Dan:

(mythology) A mythical creature, said to inhabit Pennsylvanian forests, where it hides from view for being ashamed of its own appearance, and to dissolve into a pool of tears if captured.


HMV

Coordinate term: PMV

(pornography) Abbreviation of hentai music video. A fan-made hentai anime clipshow set to music


antigravitational

From anti- + gravitational or antigravitation + -al.

He delivers a sales pitch for an "antigravitational reinforcement device with remote control.

1988 April 22, Tom Valeo, “Not For Real”, in Chicago Reader:


werebear

/ˈwɪəbɛə(ɹ)/

/ˈwɛəbɛə(ɹ)/

(fiction) A shapeshifter who can change between bear and human form


Fonzie touch

From Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli in the 1974-1984 TV series Happy Days.

Often when something doesn't work for me, I just restart the computer and try again. Often this jars something loose, akin to the ole Fonzie touch.

We wish we had the Fonzie touch — give it a little kick and voila, it's working. Unfortunately, printers don't like to be kicked.

2005, Jesse M. Torres, Peter Sideris, Surviving PC Disasters, Mishaps, and Blunders, page 53:

2005, Rocket Jones (archive). http://rocketjones.mu.nu/archives/2005_06.php
I have to do that to get the door of my pickup truck open sometimes. - Rookie astronaut Donald Pettit after he used his Fonzie touch to open a hatch on the International Space Station

2006, http://www.motoringfile.com/2005/08/24/the_mini_window_motor_issue/
I had the driver’s side window motor replaced about three weeks ago on my ‘03 MC. Last weekend, the passenger side started acting up, but I guess I don’t have the “Fonzie” touch — beating on the door panel didn’t do anything but hurt my hand.

Usually, when things in the dashboard don't work, I just bang on it, and they start working again. This happened often with the speedometer. The Fonzie touch would not work for the radio.

2007, Sporting News Magazine https://web.archive.org/web/20071112161716/http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=220608

(informal) Hitting an electrical appliance to make it work. Any similar rough treatment that proves successful.


mana point

(fantasy roleplaying games board games video games) magic point.


Homer Simpson

Name of an amiable but stupid character who gorges on beer and doughnuts in the long-running animated television series The Simpsons. Officially named after creator Matt Groening's father, Homer Groening, but also said to be named after a character in Nathanael West's novel The Day of the Locust (1939).

A few months of this torture, and even the finest treads may begin to resemble a donut with a Homer Simpson-size bite out of it.

2001, Brent Peterson, The Complete Idiot's Guide to RVing:

Find out if you owe birth to an Albert Einstein or a Homer Simpson!

2002 December, Weekly World News, volume 24, number 16:

Sample insults calling the recipient a slut, a bookworm, bucktoothed; characterizing them as having a "Homer Simpson gut," a crooked ponytail...

2004, Serge P Shohov, Frank H Columbus, Advances in Psychology Research:

I struggle to remember even a Homer-Simpson handful of them, even those that arose from my own fevered keyboard.

2005, Tony Carlson, The How of WOW: A Guide to Giving a Speech that Will Positively Blow 'em Away:

One of the employees, apparently a Homer Simpson prototype, "goosed" the man...

A person who is foolish, easily distracted, and/or gluttonous.

Homer Groening
Homer Simpson
Matt Groening


total recall

(neuroscience) The ability to remember in great detail; possessing photographic memory.


Carrollian

en-adj

Carrollian (comparative more Carrollian, superlative most Carrollian)

more Carrollian (comparative)
most Carrollian (superlative)

Of or pertaining to Lewis Carroll (1832-1898, real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) or his writings, most notably a type of imaginative fantasy involving humorous plays on words and logic.


Tolkienian

Tolkienian (comparative more Tolkienian, superlative most Tolkienian)

more Tolkienian (comparative)
most Tolkienian (superlative)

Of or relating to John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) or his writings, of which the best known are the fantasy epics The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.


Tolkienesque

Tolkienesque (comparative more Tolkienesque, superlative most Tolkienesque)

more Tolkienesque (comparative)
most Tolkienesque (superlative)

Resembling or influenced by the works, ideas, or literary style of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973).


off-worlder

/ˌɒfˈwɜːldə/

/ˈɔfˈwɜɹldəɹ/

From off-world (adjective) + -er (suffix denoting a person characterized by [the adjective to which the suffix is attached]).

suffix

suffix denoting a person characterized by 􂀿the adjective to which the suffix is attached􂁀

So? On your world you do as custom rules. Customs are different here, off-worlder.

1955, Andre Norton [pseudonym; Alice Mary Norton], “Classic move to Disaster”, in Star Guard, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, page 58:

The distinguished scientist, winner of the Seo Oren Prize for service to all nations through science, has accepted a professorship at Ieu Eun University, an honor never before accorded to an off-worlder.

1974, Ursula K[roeber] Le Guin, chapter 3, in The Dispossessed, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, published July 1975, →ISBN, page 63:

TRAVEL ADVISORY: Korlus ranks second in murder per capita in the Terminus Systems and first in offworlder murder. Civilian traffic is encouraged to employ security professionals when visiting.

2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2, Redwood City, Calif.: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Korlus:

(fantasy, science fiction) One who is not from the local world (whether a dimension, plane, planet, or universe); an alien.

ulkoplaneettalainen

one who is not from the local world — see also alien


fabliau

From Old French fabliau, diminutive of fable.

‘I’m planning a sort of fabliau comparing this place with a fascist state,’ said Sampson, ‘sort of Animal Farm meets Arturo Ui . . .’

1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 19:

A short, farcical, often bawdy tale of a genre written in the North of France in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries.


superspeed

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Operated at or capable of moving at exceedingly high speeds.


wizarding

From wizard + -ing, popularized in the late 1990s by J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels.

And he said he knew the paper was but a forgery, my lord; that His Highness, Rechad Effendi, had never seen it; that his master the American knew this too; that he had learnt all my lord's plans by wizarding, and knew them...

1904, Arthur Williams Marchmont, Norman Hardy, By snare of love:

Not using magic is what wizarding is all about!

2000, Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent:

For instance, when Dumbledore offered to pay him ten Galleons a week — a standard wizarding wage, but for an elf an embarras de richesses...

2007, William P MacNeil, Lex populi: the jurisprudence of popular culture:

You are already a real wizard, he says, and the only way you’ll get any better is by wizarding.

2011, Kazerad, ==>, in: Prequel -or- Making a Cat Cry: The Adventure (webcomic), July 27 2011

The magical work of a wizard; sorcery, witchcraft.


merperson

en-noun

merperson (plural merpersons or merpeople)

A mythological creature with a human upper half (head, arms, and torso) and a piscine lower half.


bananadine

Coined for a hoax in the Berkeley Barb in 1967, presumably from banana + -ine.

They conclude that the "active ingredient" in bananadine is the psychic suggestibility of the user in the proper setting.

1967, The American Journal of Psychiatry:

The smoking of dried scrapings from the inner portion of banana peel (bananadine or mellow yellow) has received the most national publicity.

1970, Oliver Erasmus Byrd, Medical readings on drug abuse:

The most embarrassing and ludicrous event seldom recalled in the professional literature is the story of "bananadine" or "mellow yellow," […]

1983, Michael Myslobodsky, Hemisyndromes, psychobiology, neurology, psychiatry:

A fictional psychoactive substance said to be extracted from banana peels.


antigrav

antigrav (countable and uncountable, plural antigravs)

(science fiction) Antigravity, or a device that counters gravity.


clairsentience

From late 17th century French clair (“clear”) + sentience (“feeling”).

The psychic ability for a person to acquire knowledge by means of feeling.


clairalience

From late 17th century French clair (“clear”) + alience (“smelling”).

An episode of clairalience occurred for me during an animal communication with a dog that had chronic eosinophilic pneumonopathy, a lung disease that was causing congestion and thick nasal discharge. I received a distinctly rank odor associated with the nests of pack rats that the client had found under the bathtub and pantry in her old home.

2017, Karlene Stange, The Spiritual Nature of Animals: A Country Vet Explores the Wisdom, Compassion, and Souls of Animals:

To develop your clairalience, small everything! Do not turn your nose up to the opportunity of smelling the world after rainfall, flowers on a walk, fruit and vegetables in the supermarket, puts during cuddles, coffee in the morning, cooking smells in the evening, candles and incense.

2021, Shelley F. Knight, Good Grief: The A To Z Approach Of Modern Day Grief Healing:

Many people suddenly smell a scent from an unidentified source that reminds them of a loved one who has passed. This is more common than we realize, regardless of whether these are examples of clairalience.

2021, Carla Camins Macapinlac, Vade Mecum: An Always-Present Guide to Your Divine Path:

Sometimes, clairalience can be an early indicator of something. As with any clairsense, it can come in handy when loved ones are in trouble.

2021, Vincent Higginbotham, How Witchcraft Saved My Life:

the ability to acquire psychic knowledge by means of smelling.


claircognizance

Presumably from late 17th century French clair (“clear”) + cognizance.

The ability for a person to acquire psychic knowledge without knowing how or why they knew it.


holodeck

From holo- + deck, coined in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

[…] the fact that science-fiction film, and indeed much — if not most — contemporary film, has become a technology on the way to somewhere else, whether that goal turns out to be immersive, interactive, or some holodeck-style fusion of the two.

1999, Annette Kuhn, Alien Zone II: The Spaces of Science-fiction Cinema:

Computer music might someday replace acoustic music made by human beings, but that time is far away, waiting either for Holodecks to be perfected or for a generation of listeners to arrive who are too busy and too uninvolved with their ambient surroundings to want to relate to them[.]

1999 June, Al Stevens, “Jukebox: Covering the Basses”, in Dr. Dobb's Journal, volume 24, number 6, San Francisco, Calif.: Miller Freeman, Inc., →ISSN, page 115:

Building a holodeck will require breakthroughs in sensors, robotics, and mechanical interfaces […]

2002, Kay M Stanney, Handbook of virtual environments:

In such a world, would one want to be hooked up to a pleasure machine or live on a holodeck?

2007, Fritz Allhoff, Patrick Lin, James Moor, Nanoethics:

(science fiction) A room that provides holographic simulations for recreation, training, etc.


lycanthropia

Of this Fury there be divers kindes,[…]. The moſt knowne are theſe, Lycanthropia, Hydrophobia, Chorus ſancti viti. Lycanthropia, which Avicenna calles Cucubuth, others Lupinam inſaniam, or Woolfe madneſſe, when men runne howling about graues and fields in the night, and will not be perſwaded but that they are Wolues, or ſome ſuch beaſts.

1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Dotage, Phrensie, Madnesse, Hydrophobia, Lycanthropia, Chorus sancti viti, Extasis”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 1, member 1, subsection 4, page 13:


Pokéfan

This is fantastic... I've never met so many Pokéfans, and I've never seen so many Pikachu rucksacks around.

2000 November 12, Cliff Barnes, “My Whitby Diary”, in uk.people.gothic (Usenet):

When die-hard Pokéfans outside Japan discovered that portions of the original narrative were being withheld, they flocked to online chatrooms dedicated to the series, where they complained bitterly about censorship and debated various forms of protest.

2004, Hirofumi Katsuno, Jeffrey Meret, “Localizing the Pokémon TV Series for the American Market”, in Joseph Tobin, editor, Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon, Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 81:

Few of even the most hard-core Pokéfans will ever have tried this, so just pulling together a copy of Pokémon XD for GameCube and two GameCube-Game Boy cables can deliver a play experience that they've never had before.

2007, Eli Neiburger, Gamers…in the Library?!: The Why, What, and How of Videogame Tournaments for All Ages, American Library Association, published 2007, →ISBN, page 71:


mind control

The subversion of a person’s control of his or her mind (thinking, behavior, emotions or decisions), especially by means of psychological tactics.


slow burn

The second episode of tonight’s two part finale is the culmination of a storyline first introduced way back in the first season (episode ten, “Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind”). That aired over seven years ago. Even shows that pay very close attention to serialization rarely manage that kind of slow burn.

2021 September 6, Zack Handlen, “Rick And Morty ends its fifth season looking for an escape hatch”, in The A.V. Club:

You might politely describe this werewolf thriller set in the English countryside, in which the werewolf is kept off-camera, as a slow-burn. A devastating revelation awaits us at the end, but for the first two-ish-thirds of the movie we watch a man in a cottage […] looking alarmed and perturbed, possibly having a psychotic breakdown.

2023 May 2, Cath Clarke, “Wolf Garden review – English rural werewolf horror is a major slow burn”, in The Guardian:

Despite its dramatic opening, this is a slow burn of a novel. Salvioni might not display the flair of [Elena] Ferrante, but Francesca and Maddalena are vibrant characters for whom we quickly root.

2024 June 16, Lucy Popescu, “The Cursed Friend by Beatrice Salvioni review – rebels with a cause”, in The Observer:

(idiomatic) Something that emerges or unfolds slowly or gradually.

(fiction) A work of fiction with a slow-paced plot; also, such a storyline.

Another familiar trope, the slow burn, teases the reader as characters secretly pine for one another . . . for a long time.

2018, Francesca DiPiazza, Fandom: Fic Writers, Vidders, Gamers, Artists, and Cosplayers, page 30:

Slow burns are torture. Why wait? I want my characters getting down and dirty ASAP, and there's nothing wrong with that.

2019, Robinwritesallthethings, “porn with plot”, in Lemon, page 62:

On some nights, I want a good long, juicy 70k word slowburn, mutual pining, angst (with a happy ending, of course, I'm not a monster).

2021, Aditi Dubey, “Considering Fanfic”, in Rabbit Hole, number 1, Australian National University, page 33:

(fiction, fandom slang) A romantic story (especially a work of fan fiction) in which the central relationship develops slowly.


cyberdeck

From cyber- + deck, coined by American-Canadian speculative fiction writer William Gibson in 1984 in his novel Neuromancer.

coin

More than twelve hours had passed since the decker had touched the cyberdeck keyboard.

1991, Robert N Charrette, John Zeleznik, Joel Biske, Find Your Own Truth:

...then the interface that provides the experience — say, a cyberdeck — becomes a quantifiable metric of human experience as well as a commodity.

2002, Veronica Hollinger, Joan Gordon, Edging Into the Future:

...people fused either temporarily or permanently with machinery (by brain implants, by jacking in to the cyberdeck, etc.)...

2003, Karen Haber, Exploring the Matrix:

...a glove with silver metallic weaving and a black cord that was connected to his cyberdeck.

(science fiction) A piece of equipment that can be temporarily connected to the user's brain as an interface to cyberspace.


cyberbook

The reader, the cyberbook, costs, say, $200. The wafers cost pennies. The reader, the human, is thus ever after buying a handful of wafers instead of books […]

1972, John Wood Campbell, Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact:

Bookshelves ran up to the ceiling along two walls, and a third wall had shelves full of video disks and cyberbook chips […]

Probably the day is not far off when a three-dimensional cyberbook can begin to effectively chart this web of contacts […]

2005, Michael A Winkelman, Marriage relationships in Tudor political drama:

(science fiction) A digital or electronic equivalent of a book.


trollish

en-adj

trollish (comparative more trollish, superlative most trollish)

more trollish (comparative)
most trollish (superlative)

Clara's father, a trollish ne'er-do-well who spent most of his time in brothels and saloons, would disappear for days and weeks at a stretch, leaving Clara and her mother to fend for themselves.

2012, Christoper Zara, Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and Winehouse, the Twisted Secrets of the World's Most Creative Minds, part 1, chapter 1, page 26:

Giantish or trollish ancestry is a source of great strength to some of these sagas' heroes […]

2022, Katherine Marie Olley, Kinship in Old Norse Myth and Legend, page 55:

(fantasy) Resembling or characteristic of a troll (supernatural being).


ork

(fantasy, mythology) Alternative spelling of orc.


taur

His character was a husky taur with dark red fur.

Tails and wings both greatly affect clothing choices, same with taur species.

2021, Ian Madison Keller, Mary E. Dowd, Furry Fiction Is Everywhere: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Anthropomorphic Characters, Rainbow Dog Books, →ISBN, page 58:

(furry fandom) A creature, often a furry, built similar to a centaur with the lower body of some four-or-more-legged animal and an upper body either of an anthropomorphic version of that same animal or (less commonly) of a human or another humanoid creature.


cybercowboy

...from the voyeur and beau, through the private dick and the hobo to the cybercowboy and the cyborg.

2000, Cutting Edge, Digital desires: language, identity and new technologies:

Unlike the cyborg and cybercowboy, technoman Lenny is a sad figure who cannot move on. Despite Faith's rejections he loiters about the club where she works...

2002, Amanda Fernbach, Fantasies of fetishism: from decadence to the post-human:

...ruthlessly competitive with each other, these corporations hire cybercowboys like Case to do this risky work for them.

2003, Frederick Buell, From apocalypse to way of life: environmental crisis in the American century:

(science fiction) A character who carries out contract work, especially of a legally dubious nature, in cyberspace.

...shares not a little with libertarian cybercowboys of the technosphere like John Barlow and Mitch Kapor...

1995, Maurice Berger, Brian Wallis, Simon Watson, Carrie Mae Weems, Constructing masculinity:

Within the week he upgraded his PC, got a modem, downloaded Netscape, and became a cybercowboy.

2001, Jim Sterne, World Wide Web marketing:


timeslip

In any case, neither Morris nor Adeler used a timeslip like Twain.

1996, Rebecca A Umland, The use of Arthurian legend in Hollywood film:

And, although not in a timeslip tale, the horse protagonist of Richard Adams's Traveler (1988) is a creature inherently bound to General Lee...

1999, John Clute, John Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy:

For an instant, she felt as though she were caught in a timeslip — her crew suffering from scurvy, the transporter a significant advantage...

He Walked Around the Horses by H. Beam Piper (1948) uses a timeslip to explain a mysterious actual event summarized in the story's prologue...

2003, Edward James, Farah Mendlesohn, The Cambridge companion to science fiction:

In an apparently fantastic moment, Stephen experiences a timeslip that enables him to secure his own existence.

(science fiction) A phenomenon that causes unexpected time travel.


vampyr

(archaic or fantasy) Alternative form of vampire (“undead creature”)


mechanoid

Originally he'd entered the Game to rescue the others. He was a sanitation Mechanoid, programmed to clean, and, in theory, should have been immune to the Game's lure. But he wasn't.

(science fiction) A robot that is designed to look and act like a human.


Sirian

(science fiction) An inhabitant of (an exoplanet orbiting) Sirius.


homoerotica

Pet Shop Boys are actually the late-'80s equivalent of Soft Cell, a synth-pop duo from England with a penchant for dance beats and homoerotica-infused lyrics.

1988 December 18, Christopher Wittke, “Why I Loved Marc Almond From The Minute I First Read About Him”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 23, page 11:

His most radical legacy is having seduced a heterosexual public with soft-core homoerotica.

2007 March 11, Horacio Silva, “Muscle Man”, in New York Times:


slanshack

From slan (“science fiction fan”) + shack. From a clubhouse for science fiction fans in Battle Creek, Michigan, USA called "Slan Shack" which existed from 1943 to 1945; from the fanspeak term slan; from the science fiction novel Slan (1940) by A. E. van Vogt, by analogy to the superior but persecuted mutants of the novel.

Slan Shack - A science-fiction house in Battle Creek, charter members being Al & Abby Lu Ashley, Walt Liebscher, and Jack Wiedenbeck. Acquired in the summer of '43, it wasn't occupied by the slans till the eve of the Michiconference. EEEvans joined a little later.

1944, John Bristol Speer, “sfn - Sydcon”, in Fancyclopedia:

Sad to relate, however, some of the European delegates were probably insurgents rather than true fen. Probably none of them had ever been in a slanshack, and there were only a few completists among them.

1951 May 21, Winthrop Sargeant, “Through the Interstellar Looking Glass”, in Life:

In fact we *had* a slanshack about 6 blocks from his house, but he never had the time to hang out much -- he would drop by for an hour or so to drink beer...

1995, Richard Newsome, “Signing one's real name”, in rec.arts.sf.fandom (Usenet):

(dated, fandom slang) A house shared by fans of science fiction.


comedy of manners

en-noun

comedy of manners (plural comedies of manners)

“The great millennial novelist”—the mantle has been thrust, by Boomers and Gen Xers alike, upon the Irish writer Sally Rooney, whose two carefully observed and gentle comedies of manners both appeared before her twenty-eighth birthday.

2019 April 18, Madeleine Schwartz, “How Should a Millennial Be?”, in The New York Review, →ISSN:

A comic work that satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters.


Sherlockian

en-adj

Sherlockian (comparative more Sherlockian, superlative most Sherlockian)

more Sherlockian (comparative)
most Sherlockian (superlative)

Of or pertaining to Sherlock Holmes or his investigations, methods, or sayings.

sherlockien

of or pertaining to the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes


Sherlockian

William S. Baring-Gould was one of our most knowledgeable Sherlockians and a scholarly, prolific writer.

Sherlockians generally praise two screen incarnations of Holmes: One is British actor Jeremy Brett's portrayal of the sleuth in TV series from 1984 to 1994, and the other is by Plummer in the 1979 film "Murder by Decree," which costars James Mason as Watson.

2009 December 25, Tirdad Derakhshani, “The screen has been unfaithful to Holmes”, in Los Angeles Times:

But some Sherlockians have made a sport out of searching for the “real” 221B, parsing clues in the texts with the diligence of Holmes himself.

2011, Joshua Hammer, Sherlock Holmes' London, New Word City, published 2011, →ISBN:

To be a “Sherlockian” (in England, a “Holmesian”) is to do more than read Sherlock Holmes with delight; it is to enter a world of trivia questions, films, parodies, interlocking societies, little magazines, T-shirts, nostalgia, and a dedication bordering on mania.

2012, Christopher Redmond, Sherlock Holmes Handbook: Second Edition, Dundurn Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 257:

A Sherlock Holmes scholar or fan; one who studies and/or appreciates the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.


Blackbeard

The archetypal pirate, who lived in the 17th and 18th centuries.


Wellsian

Wellsian (comparative more Wellsian, superlative most Wellsian)

more Wellsian (comparative)
most Wellsian (superlative)

The real problem is that a true Wellsian time machine would run into itself. The time machine on its pastward journey just after you flip the switch and the time machine sitting there just before you flip the switch will run into each other […]

1982, Nicholas D. Smith, Philosophers look at science fiction, →ISBN, page 52:

Of or pertaining to H. G. Wells (1866–1946), English writer regarded as a progenitor of science fiction, or his writings or politics.


Wellsian

X. is one of those incorrigible Wellsians who reads all the works of the great H. G. as fast as they appear and converts himself with the most protean readiness from one thing to another—student of modern married love—devotee of war-torn England—observer of the invisible king-god—revolutionist in education—friend of Bolshevist Russia—philosophic internationalist—world historian.

1922 January 25, Bruce Bliven, “Mr. X. of the Movies”, in The New Republic, volume XXIX, number 373, New York, N.Y.: The Republic Publishing Company, Inc., pages 246–247:

Most Wellsians of course will be familiar with the majority of these stories.

Even though Leon Stover’s views were shared by few Wellsians and were not expressed in a way conducing to their wider acceptance, he did make a considerable contribution to Wells studies.

2008, Science Fiction Studies, page 125:

I would also like to mention Wellsians who have particularly inspired me over the years whose memories are treasured: […]

2016, Emelyne Godfrey, “Acknowledgements”, in Utopias and Dystopias in the Fiction of H. G. Wells and William Morris: Landscape and Space, Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page ix:

An admirer of H. G. Wells (1866–1946), English writer regarded as a progenitor of science fiction, or his writings or politics.


science-fiction

en-noun

science-fiction (usually uncountable, plural science-fictions)


crocotta

From Ancient Greek κροκόττας (krokóttas, “crocotta”, first attested in Strabo's Geographica), which may have been borrowed from Sanskrit.

der

A mythical dog-wolf of India or Ethiopia, said to be a deadly enemy of men and dogs and able to imitate the voice of any animal or human.


leucrota

(mythology) The offspring of a crocotta and a lion, supposed to be able to imitate the sound of a human voice.


boy next door

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-boy next door.wav

Coordinate term: girl next door

She didn't want to marry the boy next door: she yearned for the big city.

I want a whole lot more than the boy next door / I want hell on wheels

1982, Dennis Linde (lyrics and music), “Cool Rider”, in Grease 2, performed by Michelle Pfeiffer:

A regular, typical boy, as opposed to a superstar.


androsphinx

en-noun

androsphinx (plural androsphinxes or androsphinges)

androsphinxes (plural)
androsphinges (plural)


terraformation

terraformation (countable and uncountable, plural terraformations)


kohai

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

Borrowed from Japanese 後(こう)輩(はい) (kōhai, literally “later cohort”). Doublet of hoobae.

ja-r

(anime and manga, fandom slang) An underclassman or younger student.


red mercury

A supposed substance for use in the creation of nuclear bombs and other weapons, about which there are various conspiracy theories.


planetless

And I am not going to gamble half our resources on as crazy an effort as this, masterminded by a mouthful of planetless lunatics.

1961, Galaxy Magazine - Volume 20, Issues 1-6, page 163:

He cleared his throat and began the tale of the planetless boy, and Kate listened, drowsy, drifting.

1998, Dana Stabenow, Killing Grounds, →ISBN, page 222:

Umlari, others called them. Or spacefolk. Or those planetless freaks. Living in their great stations, orbiting unwanted stars, the People cared nothing for names.

2006, Marvin Kaye, Forbidden planets, →ISBN, page 269:

(science fiction) Having no home planet.


Simps

2000, TomServo, “Twin Peaks spoof in Simps!”, in alt.tv.simpsons (Usenet):

(fandom slang) The television program The Simpsons.


heffalump

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

Probably a childish mispronunciation of elephant, perhaps influenced by half a lump (as in "I'll have half a lump of sugar in my tea"), coined by the English author Alan Alexander Milne (1882–1956) as the name of an imaginary animal in his book Winnie-the-Pooh (1926). The animal was not described in the book, but the illustrator Ernest Howard Shepard (1879–1976) depicted it as an elephant.
Sense 2 (“something which is elusive”) refers to the fact that in Milne’s book the characters Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet set a trap for, but are unable to capture, a heffalump.

coinage

We went to the zoo and saw some heffalumps.

Mrs. Jumbo stood at the door with the baby heffalump in her arms. She waved a large blue handkerchief and heffalump waved his little white paws. "Goodbye, Daddy Jumbo, Goodbye" they cried. "Goodbye Mummy Jumbo, goodbye baby heffalump."

1973, The Malahat Review, Victoria, B.C.: University of Victoria, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 82:

From time to time to time, bones clearly recognized as those of elephants have been found in the North Temperate Zone. In Western Europe the explanation always was, "These are the remains of the army-elephants of Hannibal the Carthaginian." […

1983 January, Avram Davidson, “Adventures in Unhistory: What Gave All Those Mammoths Cold Feet?”, in [George H. Scithers], editor, Amazing Science Fiction Stories, volume 28, number 9, Lake Geneva, Wis.: Dragon Publishing, TSR Hobbies, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 90:

Yeees, we're going to the zoo to see animals. There are lions and tiggers and snakes and heffalumps.

2007, Nuno Morais, chapter 1, in Margaret Hart, transl., Spare Parts (Unholy Commerce; 1), Chicago, Ill.: Babelcube, published April 2020, →ISBN:

In the "Heffalumps and Woozles" ditty from Winnie the Pooh, elephants—those would be the heffalumps—wear tuxedos and use their trunks as accordions and suddenly turn blue. Fantastical, to be sure, but it's downright unimaginative compared to what European natural historians used to believe about the elephant: That it has no knees and it can't have sex until it eats the ridiculously toxic mandrake root, and even when it successfully mates, dragons eat its baby.

2014 May 11, Matt Simon, “Fantastically Wrong: History’s Most Hilarious Misconceptions About the Elephant”, in Wired, San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-07-20:

(chiefly childish, humorous) (A child's name for) an elephant.

With the study in this chapter, we continue the hunt for the Heffalump to answer the 'who is the entrepreneur' question [...]. The Heffalump is a character from Winnie-the-Pooh that has been hunted by many individuals using various ingenious trapping devices, but no one has succeeded in capturing it so far. All who claim to have caught sight of it report that it is enormous, but they disagree on its particularities [...].

2008, Eva Cools, “The Hunt for the Heffalump Continues: Who is the Flemish Entrepreneur?”, in Hans Landström, Hans Crijns, Eddy Laveren, David Smallbone, editors, Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Growth and Performance: Frontiers in European Entrepreneurship Research, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar Publishing, →ISBN, part II (Entrepreneurs and Their Role), page 30:

In fact, some researchers are skeptical about the feasibility of constructing such an index and describe it as a "search for [a] heffalump" [...] or looking for a "Holy Grail" [...].

2009, Zoltán J. Ács, László Szerb, “The History of Entrepreneurship Index Building”, in The Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEINDEX) (Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship; vol. 5, no. 5), Hanover, Mass., Delft: Now Publishers, →ISBN, page 13:

Violet, under the auspices of Jacques-Yves Cabillaud, had been continuing to expand her childish girth. At two she had already been pronounced a heffalump; by seven, she was the size and shape of a barrel.

1997, Liz Jensen, “The Scrapie Dinosaur”, in Ark Baby, London: Bloomsbury, published 2011, →ISBN:

As I sat in my Virgin seat, I spotted an enormous fat bloke waddling towards me and thought: Please, God, not him. There's nothing worse than sitting next to a heaving heffalump on an 11-hour flight, not least because they eat all the best food.

2009, Piers Morgan, chapter 3, in Misadventures of a Big Mouth Brit, London: Ebury Press, published 2010, →ISBN, page 117:

'Seven-thirty, then,' she agreed, because for some perverse reason she wanted to go home after her surgery, shower and change into something—well, something else. Something pretty. Something that didn't make her feel like a heffalump.

2010, Caroline Anderson, Christmas Eve Baby (Brides of Penhally Bay), Don Mills, Ont.: Harlequin Enterprises, →ISBN, page 60:

Every time Chloe met Natalia she felt like some lumbering heffalump compared to the diminutive but full-chested South American beauty who had perfect chocolate brown hair, matching eyes and permanently tanned skin.

2012, Anna Hutton-North, chapter 5, in Rural Affairs (Drayton Beauchamp Series), [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 32:

'What are you, thumping around like fucking heffalumps? The twins are trying to get to sleep,' he says, staring at us on the bed.

2014, Caitlin Moran, How to Build a Girl, London: Ebury Press, →ISBN:

They're bound to be whoppers, aren't they, competitive eaters? Lard-buckets. Human dumpsters. Mega-heffalumps. Not at all. This hard-to-swallow documentary comes to show us that top-class scoffers are actually athletes, not only fit but thinner than average.

2019 June 13, David Sexton, “Battle of the Super-Eaters: 3,000 Calories a Minute: Britain’s got talent? You’ll believe it when you feast your eyes on our top gobblers”, in George Osborne, editor, Evening Standard, London: Evening Standard, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-12-30:

With cars getting bigger and heavier, there’s a proper thirst for four-wheel-steering to help hide heffalumps and make fast cars faster – 4WS is a useful way of killing two birds with one stone.

2019 October 9, Rowan Horncastle, “Renault Megane R.S. 300 Trophy – Long-term Review”, in Top Gear, BBC, archived from the original on 2020-12-30:

(derogatory) A clumsy or overweight person.


disenchanter

(fantasy) A magical beast that can drain magical energy.


World Turtle

In the underworld beneath the lid on the back of the world turtle, where the god Batara Kala and the goddess Setesuyara lived, there was perpetual darkness.

1970, Hubert Sieben, Ian Fraser Grant, Bali: Morning of the World, page 6:

The mythical giant sea turtle or tortoise that upholds the World in various cosmologies.


hellspawn

en-noun

hellspawn (plural hellspawn or hellspawns)

Despite his grim mien, his kinship with vein-biters and hellspawns, Batman always maintained one pious virtue, his unspoken insistence on the value—the sacredness—of human life.

1994, Dennis O’Neil, Batman: Knightfall, Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 348:

Image Animation also fabricated the hellspawns’ bondage-inspired costumes, substituting foam material for the more expensive leather of the previous two films.

1996, Anthony Timpone, Men, Makeup, and Monsters: Hollywood’s Masters of Illusion and FX, St. Martin’s Griffin, →ISBN, page 179:

The face and voice were beyond question those of the man who had died to protect her in a room full of hellspawn and slaughter.

1998, David Drake, Queen of Demons, Tor Books, →ISBN, page 115:

“The door was ajar. Not so smart for a young Nightwing-in-training—especially when he’s got one of those filthy hellspawns in his hands.”

2003, Geoffrey Huntington [pseudonym; William J. Mann], “A Deadly Duel”, in Demon Witch (The Ravenscliff Series; II), ReganBooks, →ISBN, page 111:

(fantasy) A creature or creatures from hell.


DAO

Dragon Age: Origins
w:Dragon Age: Origins

(fandom slang) Initialism of Dragon Age: Origins.


parallel universe

parallel universe (plural parallel universes)

non-parallelizable universe

mathematically incompatible; without a common superordinate wave function

Subjectively we perceive this as a single, unpredictable or ‘random’ outcome, though from the multiverse point of view all the outcomes have actually happened. This parallel-universe multiplicity is the real reason for the unpredictability of the weather.

1998 [1997], David Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality, New York: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 202:

(sciences, science fiction, cosmology) A universe that exists separately alongside another universe, as part of a multiverse.


eucatastrophe

From eu- + catastrophe, coined by English author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien in 1944 as part of a letter: see quotation.

coinage

But at the story of the little boy (which is a fully attested fact of course) with its apparent sad ending and then its sudden unhoped-for happy ending, I was deeply moved and had that peculiar emotion we all have – though not often. […] For it I coined the word ‘eucatastrophe’: the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce).

[1944 November 7, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “88. From a Letter to Christopher Tolkien[,] 28 October 1944 (FS 58)”, in Humphrey Carpenter with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien, editors, Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1981, →ISBN; The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Houghton Mifflin paperback edition, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000, →ISBN, page 100:

Let us hymn the small but journal wonders
of Nature and of households, and then finish
on a serio-comic note with legends
of ultimate eucatastrophe,
regeneration beyond the waters.

1969 June 5, W. H. Auden, “Epistle to a Godson”, in The New York Review, issue:

The "problem" of T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot comes partly from our post-Christian sense of a world where Tolkien's eucatastrophes never happen, and partly from the way we write biography.

1988, Alzina Stone Dale, “Prologue: J. Alfred Prufrock among the Prophets”, in T. S. Eliot: The Philosopher Poet (The Wheaton Literary Series), Wheaton, Ill.: Harold Shaw, →ISBN; T. S. Eliot: The Philsopher-Poet, Authors Guild Backprint.com edition, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, 2004, →ISBN, page 5:

Literary unity demands that once a eucatastrophe happens it must be accepted as part of the story rather than as an arbitrary whim of the author.

2015, John J. Davenport, quoting Eleanor Helms, “The Virtues of Ambivalence: Wholeheartedness as Existential Telos and the Unwillable Completion of Narravives”, in John Lippitt, Patrick Stokes, editors, Narrative, Identity and the Kierkegaardian Self, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 159:

(narratology) A catastrophe (dramatic event leading to plot resolution) that results in the protagonist's well-being.

eucatastrophe

catastrophe that results in the protagonist's well-being


dragonlike

en-adj

dragonlike (comparative more dragonlike, superlative most dragonlike)

more dragonlike (comparative)
most dragonlike (superlative)

Resembling or characteristic of a dragon.


cat lady

Beacon Hill’s notorious cat lady was in the spotlight again yesterday after an angry confrontation with cops who say they found at least two dead felines in her freezer following a brief standoff at her Plymouth home.

2009 March 19, Jessica Fargen, “Cops: Lady froze her cats again”, in Boston Herald:

The most common is a female character. Single of course, lamenting that she can never own a cat because once you have one you won't be far away from being the cat lady of the neighborhood.

2009 November, Suzanne Mullett, ABC News:

We all know the stereotype of the crazy cat lady who lives alone in a home that smells of stale litter. But how unjust is it really?

2023 October 3, Sirin Kale, “Purring, parasites and pure love: what exactly makes someone a cat person?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Aniston was responding to recently resurfaced 2021 comments by Vance, who told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the US was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

2024 July 25, Catherine Shoard, quoting JD Vance, “Jennifer Aniston criticises JD Vance’s ‘childless cat ladies’ comment”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(informal, sometimes derogatory) A woman, often elderly, who devotes her time and attention to one or usually many domestic cats.

femme à chats

elderly lady who devotes her attention to cats


may the Force be with you

From the Star Wars film franchise, in which "the Force" is an omnipresent energy that can influence events and may be harnessed by gifted individuals.

What thoughts are you sending into the universe? Are they seeking the results you want, or are they attracting the things you don’t? The mental sharks will be drawn to you as surely as the results you desire. To be certain, be aware of the messages you are sending, and may the Force be with you, whatever you conceive it to be!

2007, Layton Park, Get Out of Your Way: Unlocking the Power of Your Mind to Get What You Want, 1st edition, Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 87:

(idiomatic) Used to wish someone luck with a difficult endeavor.


dragonhide

en-noun

dragonhide (countable and uncountable, plural dragonhides)

She was also almost naked, except for a couple of mere scraps of the lightest chain mail and riding boots of iridescent dragonhide.

1983, Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic:


drop bear

You don't know what drop bears are? Fair dink, don't they teach you blokes anything? Fancy sending a bloke to a place like this and not telling him about drop bears.

1995, John Marsden, The Third Day, the Frost (TCPA Tomorrow Series; 3), Sydney: Pan Macmillan; republished as A Killing Frost, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1999, page 15

‘Drop-bears? Who’s been feedin’ you a line about drop-bears?’ / ‘What do you mean?’ / ‘There’s no such thing as drop-bears! Someone must’ve seen you coming, mate!’

1998, Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent (Discworld; 22), London: Doubleday; republished London: Corgi, 2013, page 219

They cling high in the branches and drop at the first sign of life below. You're walking along and thump, there's a drop bear covering your head. Their claws are so long they usually need surgical removal. It's quite a business, carting drop bear victims to hospital with drop bear attached. It'd be easier to shoot the drop bear but they're heavily protected. If it's a choice between an American vet or an Aussie drop bear, the drop bear wins every time.

2012, Marion Lennox, Taming the Brooding Cattleman (Sweet Romance), Chatswood, N.S.W.: Harlequin Mills & Boon, →ISBN:

The creature withdrew its fangs and hopped out of the way of Aaron's flailing arms, ran down the path to the nearest tree, and scurried up it. […] "There are a few of those around. Dropbears. […] They're quite cuddly and fun loving … if you're not edible."

2014 September, Lisa McMann, “Aaron Hatches a Plan”, in Island of Legends (The Unwanteds), New York, N.Y.: Aladdin Paperbacks, →ISBN:

(humorous) A fictional Australian marsupial in the form of a large, carnivorous koala said to fall upon its prey from treetops.


jackalope

/ˈd͡ʒækələʊp/

Most jackalopes are furry and a foot or two tall; many are only heads, mounted on wood plaques; there are some six-footers, covered with fur…

1993, Jane Stern, Michael Stern, Way out west:

(folklore, mythology) A folkloric animal, a supposed cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope, goat, or deer, usually portrayed as a rabbit with antlers.


finfolk

(Orkney) Sorcerous shapeshifters of the sea in Orkney folklore.


argopelter

A mythical monster of the United States, said to inhabit hollow tree trunks and hurl wooden splinters and branches at passers-by.


batutut

John MacKinnon, studying orangutan ecology in the Malaysian state of Sabah, found footprints of the batutut […]

1988, Jeffrey A McNeely, Paul Spencer Sochaczewski, Soul of the tiger:

[…] the batutut was described as a type of ghost, a shy nocturnal creature about four feet tall, which walks upright like a man and has a long black mane.

2007, Jeff Meldrum, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science:

From the guide's description, however, the batutut seems more aggressive […]

2009, Gregory Forth, Images of the Wildman in Southeast Asia:

A folkloric hairy hominid said to inhabit wilderness areas of Vietnam, Laos, and northern Borneo.


joint snake

The farmer, however, knowing the habits of joint snakes, had hidden one of the middle pieces in his pocket.

Nat knew, though he had never seen one, that there were such things as joint snakes and hoop snakes.

You take them joint snakes, now. That's not one of God's works. You hit one, he breaks into pieces, layin' on the ground like a broken icicle...

A mythical creature of the southern United States, a snake that can reassemble itself when broken or cut into pieces.


hidebehind

The Hidebehind is never found in the open. He always conceals himself behind a tree trunk.

1939, Henry Harrington Tryon, Fearsome critters:

She meets sirens and sea serpents and hidebehinds, wicked kings and repulsive recluses, capitalist magicians and seven-league boots and magic pomegranates.

1984, John Wood Campbell, editor, Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact:

A creature in United States folklore that may be glimpsed but never seen clearly.


cactus cat

A bobcat-like creature in North American folklore, said to be covered in spines like a porcupine and to slash cacti at night to release their juices.


hoop snake

A mythical creature of the United States and Australia, a snake that grasps its tail in its jaws and thereby rolls after its prey like a wheel.


wolpertinger

The wolpertinger roams the mountains and forests of the Bavarian Alps.

1995, Greg N Carlson, Francis Jeffry Pelletier, The generic book:

...fall into the same category as Germany's wolpertingers, which we have seen on our visits to that country.

2004, Bill Cannon, Texas: Land of Legend and Lore:

We can however think of hypothetical worlds w' that contain wolpertingers and/or unicorns […]

2006, Regine Eckardt, Meaning change in grammaticalization:

A fictional creature said to inhabit the alpine forests of Bavaria, having various incongruous features such as wings, antlers, and fangs.


sirrush

A fantastical creature depicted on the reconstructed Ishtar Gate of Babylon, a scaly dragon with hind legs like an eagle's talons and feline forelegs.


Brigadoon

After the village in the 1947 musical of the same name, written by Alan Jay Lerner. That village appears for only one day every hundred years. The name of the village is taken from the Brig o' Doon mediaeval bridge, in Ayrshire, Scotland.

I saw the rain dirty valley / You saw Brigadoon

1985, Mike Scott (lyrics and music), “The Whole of the Moon”, in This Is The Sea, performed by The Waterboys:

A mile walk took us into Mountshannon, a sort of Brigadoon, so quiet in the warm sun we thought it deserted.

1988 July, Cruise Travel, volume 10, number 1, page 46:

But low tide allowed us to walk on tiptoes along an underwater sandbar, and explore the tide pools, miniature maritime Brigadoons in which we'd find crabs...

2003, George Howe Colt, The big house: a century in the life of an American summer home:


analepsis

analepsis (countable and uncountable, plural analepses)

From Ancient Greek ἀνάληψις (análēpsis).

A form of flashback in which earlier parts of a narrative are related to others that have already been narrated


esquilax

Coined in a 1995 episode of the animated TV show The Simpsons named "Lisa's Wedding", in which a Renaissance fair sideshow falsely promotes a normal rabbit as "a horse with the head of a rabbit and the body of a rabbit".
Possibly inspired by fanciful names for creatures from Medieval Latin (e.g. basilisk, cockatrice).

Yeah, well I get to run the Circus Sideshow, and the esquilaxes.

1997, Powdered TOAST Man, “TAN: The Weasel Strikes Back”, in aus.tv.x-files (Usenet):

In fact, I am also "really weakly omnipotent," because it is logically impossible for me to fly unaided, or transform myself into an esquilax, because I am a being who cannot do those things. But I can do anything which it is logically possible for me to do.

1999, Cabrutus, “is lack of evidence a reason to lack belief?”, in alt.atheism (Usenet):

I wasn't thinking of gray elephants in Denmark, I was thinking of white esquilaxes in the Domincan ^([sic]) Republic.

2001, Anonymous Weirdo, “Have a rest”, in sk.forsale (Usenet):

Could be worse... couldve ^([sic]) been an Esquilax.

2008, Jeßus, “Found some Hydrox”, in rec.food.cooking (Usenet):


Jabberwock

Nonsense word coined by Lewis Carroll in his poem Jabberwocky (q.v.), from the children's book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1872). Carroll stated later, "The Anglo-Saxon word 'wocer' or 'wocor' signifies 'offspring' or 'fruit' [see oker]. Taking 'jabber' in its ordinary acceptation of 'excited and voluble discussion', this would give the meaning of 'the result of much excited and voluble discussion'..."

A fantastical dreaded monster with flaming eyes.