mother figure

/ˈmʌðə ˌfɪɡə/

/ˈmʌðɚ ˌfɪɡɚ/

Coordinate term: father figure

One (especially an older woman) who behaves as, is regarded as equivalent to, or represents a mother for another person or group of people.

moederfiguur

one who behaves as, is regarded as equivalent to, or represents a mother


lad lit

Modeled on lad mag and perhaps chick lit.

Publishers have been trying for years to find a winning formula for men's fiction. From lad lit to dad lit to bad lit, men have been barraged with an array of reading matter since Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary stormed up the bestseller lists and into our lives in 1997.

2004 June 6, Jonathan Heawood, “You couldn't make it up”, in The Observer:

Just Like You could stand alone as the ladlit-meets-mumlit social satire that it is, its vicious wit paradoxically interwoven with tenderness and empathy.

2020 September 18, Joanna Briscoe, “Just Like You by Nick Hornby review – ladlit meets mumlit”, in The Guardian:

(British) Male-authored popular novels about young men and their emotional and personal lives.


cognitohazardous

en-adj

cognitohazardous (comparative more cognitohazardous, superlative most cognitohazardous)

more cognitohazardous (comparative)
most cognitohazardous (superlative)

Rapidly-flashing lights are cognitohazardous to people with certain forms of epilepsy, resulting in seizures.

Had the unknown girl who'd written those things somehow added to the end of the book without realizing what it was? Or had it acquired cognitohazardous properties after she was already dead?

2014, Matt Dymerski, The Portal in the Forest, Proximate Publishing, →ISBN:

(neurology, chiefly science fiction) Being, containing, or pertaining to a cognitohazard.


wastelander

(science fiction, fantasy) One who inhabits a wasteland.


allocamelus

THE ALLOCAMELUS is a Beast of Peru; it is about two Yards high, and about five Feet in length : His Head, Neck, and Ears, are like a Mule's; but his Neck as white as a Swan's, his other Parts of a yellowish Colour: His Body is like a Camel, […]

1769, Thomas Boreman, A description of three hundred animals ... tenth edition, page 22:

There were many wondrous Arainian beasts in these groves: star-spotted pantheons, allocameli like donkey-eared dromedaries, the trogodryces whose antlers grow down rather than up, the argasills that resembled antelopes but for their[…]

2007 September 3, Alison Baird, The Archons of the Stars, Aspect, →ISBN:

By late afternoon, Van's lower back and inner thighs ached from riding on the allocamelus for so long. The bindings on her wrists had turned them raw and bloody. The grandfather clock Van had seen in Uxa's office haunted her every[…] Jorie's anger flared, and she released an animalistic growl so guttural it upset the allocameli tied to the trees. Some of them let out rapid, high-pitched shrieks and struggled against their binds. Others stomped their front hooves and[…]

2017 April 11, D. L. Armillei, Shock of Fate: Anchoress Series Book One, Diamond Cove Publishing, LLC, →ISBN:

Blythe was ahead of them all, keeping pace with Silas and one of the allocameluses he was leading. As she tied up her curls, she observed the two. There was really nothing else to look at, and she couldn't exactly converse with her[…]

2020 October 16, Octavia J. Riley, Sand Dunes & Blood Moons, Poisoned Apple Publishing, L.L.C., →ISBN, page 188:

A fictional animal, apparently based on early reports of llamas, which has the head of an ass or mule and the body of a camel.


giantish

(fantasy) A fictional language spoken by giants.


smart thinking

One of the biggest bestselling books in the recent ‘smart thinking’ genre was Susan Cain's Quiet, which popularised the idea that networking is superficial and loud.

2017, Julia Hobsbawm, Fully Connected: Surviving and Thriving in an Age of Overload, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 215:

Hence the rise in publishing of the “smart thinking” book, an elevated species of self-help for the aspiring ratiocinator.

2021 August 21, Steven Poole, “Can ‘smart thinking’ books really give you the edge?”, in The Guardian:

A genre of popular science books mainly concerned with cognitive science, psychology and biases to help the reader think better.


D&Der

Being geeky has always been about making and doing things. That’s nothing new—kids who went to Space Camp constructed and launched their own model rockets, and D&Ders painstakingly hand-drew maps, or painted their own pewter figures.

2011, Susan Beal, “Introduction”, in World of Geekcraft: Step-by-Step Instructions for 25 Super-Cool Craft Projects, Chronicle Books, →ISBN, page 6:

René, an aficionado himself, never missed an opportunity to find fellow D&Ders.

2018, Cara Black, Murder on the Left Bank, Soho Crime, →ISBN, page 17:

Regardless of how you do or don’t play games—whether you are an MMORPGer, a console gamer, a D&D'''er, a Settlers of Catan enthusiast, or someone who has never gamed before but who is perhaps curious about gaming or instructional design—I hope that in reading this book you will find a lens that will be useful to you in your own life, whether for teaching, writing, learnining, training, game development, or simply the enjoyment of games.

2018, Carly Finseth, Teach Like a Gamer: Adapting the Instructional Design of Digital Role-Playing Games (Studies in Gaming), Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 12:

A player of the fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.


uniboob

(pornography, anime and manga, sometimes science fiction) A female character with a single breast in the center of the chest.

yksirintainen

pornography: female character with a single breast


swordbrother

Once initiated into the band, a swordbrother was bound to serve for life. Consequently, most crofters still preferred to serve in the king's shieidhost.

2006, Josephine Godby, To Suffer the Crown, page 22:

He was a swordbrother to the last, our commander.

2015, Paul E. Horsman, Ordelanden: The Shadow of the Revenaunt, Book 3:

(fantasy) A man who is a member of a military brotherhood.


Pokédex

Blend of Pokémon + index, adapted from Japanese ポケモン図鑑 (Pokémon Zukan, “Pokémon illustrated encyclopedia”).
The English version was introduced in the dub of the pilot episode of the Pokémon anime, originally aired in September 8, 1998.

der

They're all able to make up new punny names based on their altmode without being told what they turn into--presumably their computers might even recognize the scanned Beast Mode immediately, like a Pokedex; "You've scanned a cheetah. Cheetahs are really fast."

2012 June 5, Onslaught Six, “Does Beast Wars Deserve a Revisit?”, in alt.toys.transformers (Usenet):

Entomologists use catalogues and checklists to record species, such as the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) online database. The ALA includes data like a Pokédex does, including species distribution and collection information.

2021, David Shaw, Jasmine Fellows, Puzzles and Projects, CSIRO PUBLISHING, →ISBN, page 5:

(Pokémon) A fictional electronic encyclopedia with information about Pokémon.

Pokémon (TV series)
Pokémon, I Choose You!


Scroogey

en-adj

Scroogey (comparative more Scroogey, superlative most Scroogey)

more Scroogey (comparative)
most Scroogey (superlative)

The idea comes from a particularly Scroogey, and infamous, paper by the economist Joel Waldfogel, who estimated that the deadweight loss from gift-giving is one-tenth to one-third of the gift’s value.

2015 December 18, Ana Swanson, “Why cash is the worst gift”, in The Washington Post:

Before you write off this review as uncharitably Scroogey, take note: four children, ages eight to 11, gathered round the television to attend the screening. Plied with mugs of sugary cocoa, a frighteningly willing audience heeded the call of duty.

2022 November 28, Lauren Mechling, “Scrooge: A Christmas Carol review – Netflix’s junky musical is a lump of coal”, in The Guardian:

Resembling or characteristic of Ebenezer Scrooge; bad-tempered, selfish and miserly.


objectsona

i kinda want to draw fursona and an objectsona

i want bill gates' objectsona to be an actual gate

my objectsona, bandy!! hes a knotted rubber band!! ✨

finally decided to make a fighter pose of my objectsona

2020 December 15, @krustykrampizza, Twitter:

hi guys new objectsona dropped

The traffic cone is just an oc but the other one is my objectsona

2022 February 28, @ferifuruixz__, Twitter:

another aggie doodle, this time of my objectsona!!

2022 September 29, @T0PP4T_KiNG, Twitter:

(Internet slang, chiefly object show community) An object alter-ego or self-insert character; a persona which is an inanimate object.


Centaurian

Centaurian (comparative more Centaurian, superlative most Centaurian)

more Centaurian (comparative)
most Centaurian (superlative)

(chiefly science fiction) Pertaining to the constellation Centaurus or its imagined inhabitants.


Centaurian

The Centaurians are remarkable people, but move slowly.

1911, [L. D.] Biagi, The Centaurians: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Broadway Publishing Co., […]:

Jack proposed to record a Centaurian’s vocabulary with English equivalents, and the dictawriter, hearing the queer hoots the strange creature uttered, would pick out a card which would then cause a speaker to enunciate its English synonym.

1935 March, Murray Leinster, “Proxima Centauri”, in Astounding Stories, volume XV, number 1, Street & Smith, page 25:

Suppose that in a few years we are visited by a race of benevolent and rational beings from Alpha Centauri that have free will and an advanced culture. […] Suppose further that after they figure out our languages we realize the Centaurians are moral beings who act on reflectively endorsed and rationally appraised principle. We can now ask, “What is of moral value for the Centaurians?”

2010, Adam D. Moore, Privacy Rights: Moral and Legal Foundations, The Pennsylvania State University Press, →ISBN, page 38:

(science fiction) An inhabitant of the constellation Centaurus.


Proxima Centaurian

en-noun

Proxima Centaurian (plural Proxima Centaurians)

The Proxima Centaurians, who are roughly humanoid in shape, are a development of mobile carnivorous plants.

1998, Everett Franklin Bleiler, Richard J[ames] Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years, Kent, Ohio, London: The Kent State University Press, →ISBN, page 248:

In “Rautavaara’s Case,” the alien Proxima Centaurians save the severely damaged human Agneta Rautavaara by using the rest of her irreparable body as a nutrient source to sustain her brain.

2011, G.C. Goddu, “Will You Survive a Trip to Rekall, Inc.?”, in D.E. Wittkower, editor, Philip K. Dick and Philosophy: Do Androids Have Kindred Spirits? (George A. Reisch, editor, Popular Culture and Philosophy, volume 63), Chicago, Ill., LaSalle, Ill.: Open Court Publishing Company, →ISBN, section “Identity Crises”, page 65:

Rather than come here in person, it would be much more sensible for Proxima Centaurians, if they exist, to send an unmanned satellite, the way we have in our exploration of the other planets of the solar system.

2018, William B. Irvine, You: A Natural History, Oxford University Press, →ISBN:

(science fiction) An inhabitant of Proxima Centauri.


Proxima Centaurian

en-adj

Proxima Centaurian (comparative more Proxima Centaurian, superlative most Proxima Centaurian)

more Proxima Centaurian (comparative)
most Proxima Centaurian (superlative)

Science Officer Heath stood out as the only American – specifically, of Proxima Centaurian descent – among the command cadre.

2016, Jamie Sawyer, The Lazarus War; Book Three: Origins, Orbit, →ISBN:

IF I CAN ISOLATE THE DIFFERENCES IN HUMAN BLOOD AND PROXIMA CENTAURIAN…

2021, Jim McCann, Star Trek: Year Five, IDW Publishing:

A member of the Galacterian Alignment, and participants in the Melchizedek Star Seed Program, the Proxima Centaurian race is here to assist Earth in its dualistic proclivity: to spiritually raise, to uplift mentally, to reveal health—all roads that lead to true happiness.

2021, Craig Campobasso, The Extraterrestrial Species Almanac: The Ultimate Guide to Greys, Reptilians, Hybrids, and Nordics, Weiser Books, →ISBN, page 109:

(science fiction, rare) Of or relating to Proxima Centauri.


Disneyphile

While a few of the pictures harken back to the 1951 animated film of Alice, most are unlike anything Disneyphiles have seen before, […]

1989, Knight Letter, Lewis Carroll Society of North America:

McElwee also mentions the Perspecta Process that simulated stereo, and was applied to re-issues of Gone With the Wind (1939) and The Jolson Story (1946), and a reissue of Disney's Fantasia (1940) with a Dolby track that apparently annoyed Disneyphiles.

1993, Moving Image Works and Manifestations, University of California, Los Angeles, page 104:

Steve Watts is both a scholar and a Disneyphile, which makes him an ideal author for this much-needed volume about Walt Disney’s place in American culture.

1997, Steven Watts, quoting Leonard Maltin, The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life, Columbia, Mo., London: University of Missouri Press, back cover:


medbed

On either side of the medbed I was in, and on the other side of the long, narrow room, other medbeds stretched in long rows. I couldn't make them out well, though, and I remembered they had added distortion fields to medbeds to give patients privacy.

That might work. Call the Aurorae and have a medbed waiting in your prep room. If we can offload them on medbeds, we can load them the same way.

2013, Maggi O'Mally, Aurorae II, page 161:

She was lying on a medbed and only clad in her black jumpsuit. Her armor, helmet and pack were gone.

2014, Rhiannon Frater, The Last Mission of the Living:

Dante snapped his fingers and Damon appeared with a medbed. "As you can see he is the patient."

2020, Serena Simpson, Keriann McKenna, Mick:

(science fiction) A bed equipped with technology for medical diagnosis and treatment.


bitca

From an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in which a character mishears an oral spelling of the word "bitch".
*
1997 September 15, “When She Was Bad”, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 2, episode 1, spoken by Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon):
Willow: That's what it was! I mean, why else would she be acting like such a B-I-T-C-H?
Giles: Willow, I think we're all a little too old to be spelling things out.
Xander: A bitca?

quote-av

w:Buffy the Vampire Slayer

(humorous, fandom slang) Alternative form of bitch


terranaut

From Latin terra (“dry land; soil; Earth”) + -naut.

af

The first terranaut was pulled into view, wearing the characteristic black uniform of his kind. His head lolled back, his mask had been ripped away, but he was fighting bravely to retain consciousness.

1967, Brian W. Aldiss, “The Night That All Time Broke Out”, in Harlan Ellison, editor, Dangerous Visions, New York: Doubleday & Company, page 166:

By now, the interior of the vessel was entirely weightless. The ship had sunk to a depth of 6,800 kilometers – the planet's deepest point. The last remaining terranaut aboard the Sunset 6 had become the first person to reach the Earth's core.

2013, Cixin Liu, The Wandering Earth, London: Head of Zeus, published 2017, →ISBN, page unknown:

(chiefly science fiction) Someone who explores some part of the Earth.


Snamione

Pairing names are often portmanteaus of characters' names, although fans may not always agree on the forms that these amalgamations take — the Snape/Hermione ship, for example, may be called Snamione, Sevmione, Snermione or Snanger, depending on the preferences of the fans who participate in it.

2015, Amanda K. Allen, “Social Networking, Participatory Culture and the Fandom World of Harry Potter”, in Gail Ashton, editor, Medieval Afterlives in Contemporary Culture, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 279:

Therefore, it is logical that the selected trope will more often be used in fics which have a non-normative ship: fandomstats relays that, within the EWE tag, some of the most prolific ships include Drarry, Dramione (Draco/Hermione, not a slash ship but still one that does not conform with Rowling’s normative ideas as it contains Draco, an antagonistic character), and ships involving Snape, including Snamione and Snarry.

2019, Beatriz Brito do Nascimento, "No heteros in this heterotopia: Harry Potter slash fanfiction as heterotopian space", dissertation submitted to the University of Porto, page 120

And the love bred a shameful number of Snamione fanfics in the coming years.

2021, Leighann Hart, “About the Author”, in Loving Rosenfeld, Crooked Hart Press, LLC, →ISBN:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Hermione Granger and Severus Snape of the Harry Potter series.


there is no war in Ba Sing Se

From the episode "City of Walls and Secrets" of the American animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, aired on September 22, 2006, in which the corrupt officials of the city Ba Sing Se try to keep order by hypnotizing citizens to believe that "there is no war in Ba Sing Se" even as the city is being besieged.

When something is wrong, and people seem to be ignoring it, we'll often say, "there is no war in Ba Sing Se."

[2020 July 19, Rich Knight, “Why Avatar: The Last Airbender Fans Have Issues With M. Night Shyamalan's Movie”, in CinemaBlend, archived from the original on 2022-12-27:

Today, I'm negotiating with myself: You have tacos in a meal kit box that's arriving in a couple of days, so at least you won't have to wait long. And burgers are good. You like apples, especially Granny Smith. Pork and apple burgers are what you want. Relax, there is no war in Ba Sing Se... Wow, my burgers are so good and exactly what I wanted!

2021 April 27, “A Week In Edmonton, AB, On A $61,000 Salary”, in Refinery29, archived from the original on 2023-01-05:

The LinkedIn page is pretty creepy with terms like "Giving employees the best work environment they'll never know with our patented and extremely safe Severance procedure." It gives off "There is no war in Ba Sing Se" vibes […]

2022 March 22, Dean Daley, “Severance's Lumon Industries has its own LinkedIn page”, in MobileSyrup, archived from the original on 2022-04-14:

At the very least, even if there is no patch, we now know that they're stating that they're aware of the problem, which contrasts the previous 'there is no war in Ba Sing Se' approach that they were taking.

2022 December 1, Ryan Pearson, “Nintendo Backtracks On Claim They Didn't Hear Of Performance Issues In 'Pokémon Scarlet & Violet' And Releases Much-Needed Patch”, in Bounding Into Comics, archived from the original on 2023-01-05:

There is no war in Ba Sing Se, and there are no lesbians in China.

2022 December 16, Andy Golder, “23 Screenshots Of People Being Wrong, Wrong, Wrong In 2022”, in BuzzFeed, archived from the original on 2022-12-29:

(Internet slang, occasionally sarcastic) Nothing is going on; everything is under control; it is business as usual (suggesting that important information is being covered up).

Avatar: The Last Airbender
City of Walls and Secrets


otherlandish

en-adj

otherlandish (comparative more otherlandish, superlative most otherlandish)

more otherlandish (comparative)
most otherlandish (superlative)


Dungeons & Dragoner

en-noun

Dungeons & Dragoner (plural Dungeons & Dragoners)

And looking out from the Lookout were the Dungeons & Dragoners he’d phoned a half hour earlier.

1982, William Kotzwinkle, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, London: Sphere Books Limited, →ISBN, page 235:

This disgusted the other students, all of them: those engaged in African American pride, the brainiacs from decent homes, even the burnouts, who shared a tiny patch of brownish lawn with the Dungeons & Dragoners.

2007, Jennifer Blowdryer, “Style Your Own Damn Self”, in Michelle Tea, editor, It’s So You: 35 Women Write About Personal Expression Through Fashion and Style, Seal Press, →ISBN, page 270:

“Students here cover a spectrum,” muses a senior, including “preppy pop-collars, hardcore hippies, emo punk rockers, jocks, semi-goths, and Dungeons & Dragoners.”

2008, Edward B. Fiske, Robert Logue, the Fiske Guide to Colleges staff, Fiske Guide to Colleges 2008, twenty-fourth edition, Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks, Inc., →ISBN, page 129:

(rare) A player of the fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.


skyland

She then went to Miss Green’s house who, when she heard the sound of the six pipe flute, expected to see her husband return from the skyland. She opened the door. Instead, it was the tiger demon who touched the hem of her skirt causing her to fall down in a dead faint.

1967, Collected Papers in Highway Salvage Archaeology, 1972-74, Department of Anthropology, University of Montana, →ISBN, page 55:

Tearing his eyes from the skylands, he called, “You warned me that Blood was going to catch me, back there in the city while you were renting these donkeys for us. What do you think he’ll do to me if he does?”

1993, Gene Wolfe, Nightside the Long Sun (The Book of the Long Sun), Tor Books, →ISBN:

First he has to find the place, and as the sleeve of night brings darkness to his city of Viron, light to the skylands above, he sets out on his quest.

2016, Michael Andre-Driussi, Gene Wolfe: 14 Articles on His Fiction, Sirius Fiction, →ISBN, page 128:

They passed a number of islands as well as a few low lying skylands, all heavy with vegetation and life.

2021, L.T. Junzon, Descendants of the Lost: Tales of the Seeker, MJ Publishing, →ISBN:

The military intelligence confidently surmises that their ethnic origin is either from the skylands in the clouds of Jupiter or from Uranus.

2022, Yoda Oraiah, Cosmism: A New Hope for Humanity, FriesenPress, →ISBN, page 198:

But that day in the skylands of Skod, the day of deliverance, I never set out to do anything like what I’m given credit for.

2022 August, Rick Remender, Seven to Eternity, deluxe edition, Image Comics, Inc.:

(science fiction) A land above the sky, such as a floating city or another planet.


dead dove

dead dove (countable and uncountable, plural dead doves)

A reference to a scene from Arrested Development in which a character inspects a bag labelled "Dead Dove: Do Not Eat", opens it to see what's inside, and then (having found a dead dove) remarks that he isn't sure what he was expecting.

(countable, fandom slang) A disclaimer or tag for a fan fiction, particularly on Archive of Our Own, meant to signify that the fan fiction contains the content that is described as being in it, and as such, readers shouldn't be surprised and shouldn't complain about finding said content therein.

(countable, fandom slang) A fan fiction that is particularly disturbing or disgusting due to its subject matter.

(uncountable, fandom slang) Such fan fiction collectively.


unicornback

They travelled the magical realm on unicornback.

(fantasy, with on) The back of a unicorn.


salesrobot

(science fiction, rare) A robotic salesperson.


yangire

A common character in chiefly Japanese fiction. It's essentially a yandere without romantic motivations for their acts of violence.


Shakespearism

Shakespearism (countable and uncountable, plural Shakespearisms)


Shakspearism

Shakspearism (countable and uncountable, plural Shakspearisms)


Shakspeareanism

Shakspeareanism (countable and uncountable, plural Shakspeareanisms)


Shakspearianism

Shakspearianism (countable and uncountable, plural Shakspearianisms)


Miltonism

Miltonism (countable and uncountable, plural Miltonisms)

The literary style of John Milton (1608–1674), English poet.


Shaksperianism

Shaksperianism (countable and uncountable, plural Shaksperianisms)


Shaksperism

Shaksperism (countable and uncountable, plural Shaksperisms)


Marveldom

1965, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #11 (letters section), Marvel Comics
As for Kirby-Stone, you've come up with what is by far the finest team in Marveldom in the past year or two.

The domain of Marvel Comics, including the set of all works and people related with the company.


aerocar

(science fiction) A flying car; a flying machine which looks and functions similarly to modern cars, often described as using antigravity technology.


Aldebaranian

(science fiction) Relating to the Aldebaran system or to Aldebaranians.


Aldebaranian

(science fiction) An inhabitant of the Aldebaran system.


Aldebaranian

(science fiction, rare) The language spoken by Aldebaranians.


aerocab

From aero- + cab under the influence of aeroplane. Compare aircab and airplane.

(science fiction) Synonym of aircab (“a flying taxicab”).


aircab

From air + cab under the influence of airplane. Compare earlier aerocab and aeroplane.


armorplast

From armor + -plast (“a small body, structure”).

suffix

(science fiction) A fictional material, often described as being strong, flexible, and transparent.


autodoc

(science fiction) A system or robot which provides automatic medical care.


asterite

(science fiction, demonym) An inhabitant of an asteroid.


Asterite

(science fiction, demonym) Alternative letter-case form of asterite


astroengineer

(science fiction) An engineer who designs or operates spacecraft or space stations.


braintape

From brain + tape (“any video or audio recording”).

compound

(science fiction) A complete record of the contents of someone's brain.


Big Dumb Object

en-noun

Big Dumb Object (plural Big Dumb Objects)

Coined by British critic and writer Roz Kaveney in 1981.

coinage

(science fiction criticism, ironic) A large and mysterious object of extraterrestrial origin containing immense power, thought of as a common trope of science fiction.


BDO

There may be another characteristic BDOs need to have to be considered a classic BDO: absent creators and a consequently mysterious purpose. At the very least, by the time the story begins, the BDO has been around for a long time.

2018 January 8, James Davis Nicoll, “A Brief History of the Big Dumb Object Story in Science Fiction”, in Tor.com, archived from the original on 2022-11-28:

(science fiction criticism) Initialism of Big Dumb Object.


Chicon

(science fiction fandom slang) A name given to various science fiction conventions held in Chicago, United States.


combozine

(science fiction fandom slang) A combination of zines bound or distributed together.


cityship

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

(science fiction) A spacecraft which contains an entire city.


Class M

Originally from the TV series Star Trek.

(science fiction) Of a planet: having characteristics similar to that of Earth.


collapsium

From collapse + -ium. Probably alluding to black holes, which are extremely dense objects formed by collapsing matter in the core of a dying star.

(science fiction) A fictional material usually described as having an extremely high density.


-con

(science fiction fandom slang) Used to form the names of conventions.


-con

Modeled after lolicon; ultimately from clipping of complex (“abnormal mental condition”).

clip

(chiefly anime and manga) Forming terms for abnormal sexual attractions.


countergravity

Synonym of anti-gravity (“any of various concepts, systems or devices that would oppose or cancel out the force of gravity”).


countergrav

(science fiction, rare) Clipping of countergravity.


coreward

en-adj

coreward (comparative more coreward, superlative most coreward)

more coreward (comparative)
most coreward (superlative)

(science fiction) Close to or travelling towards the galactic core.


coreward

The first colonisation efforts went coreward from the Blue Planetary Nebula with worlds like Sirona Prime, Xalau III and Usinnia being discovered and settled.

2018, James E Taris, The Venality Effect: Two Clients, Xlibris, →ISBN:

(science fiction) Towards the galactic core.


cyborged

Cyborged servitors – mind-wiped snail-men – constantly cruised the black marble floor of his long, barrel-vaulted chamber, cleansing and laying down trails of scewnted polish behind them.

1994, Ian Watson, Harlequin, Boxtree, →ISBN, page 9:

(science fiction) Having been made into a cyborg.


cyborgized

She is almost totally cyborgized except for a small number of human brain cells. Her apparently female body is a mere shell to encase a cybernetic entity.

2011, Donna Spalding Andréolle, Veronique Molinari, Women and Science, 17th Century to Present: Pioneers, Activists and Protagonists, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, →ISBN, page 233:


different story

en-noun

different story (plural different stories)

(science fiction fandom slang, dated) Any story featuring elements of science fiction or fantasy (as opposed to typical stories which are set in the real world).


impossible story

impossible story (plural impossible stories)


dark fantasy

A subgenre of fantasy which incorporates elements of horror.


cyborgization

(science fiction) The act of converting something into a cyborg.


Earthish

en-adj

Earthish (comparative more Earthish, superlative most Earthish)

more Earthish (comparative)
most Earthish (superlative)

(science fiction) Relating to or originating from the Earth.


Earthish

(science fiction) A hypothetical universal language of Earth.


Earthfolk

(science fiction) People from planet Earth.


Earth normal

atmospheric pressure
atmospheric pressure

(science fiction) The standard conditions (especially of gravity and atmospheric pressure) found on Earth.


Earth-normal

Earth-normal (comparative more Earth-normal, superlative most Earth-normal)

more Earth-normal (comparative)
most Earth-normal (superlative)

(science fiction) Of a condition, similar to that found on Earth (especially describing gravity or atmospheric pressure).


eetee

A pronunciation spelling of ET (“extraterrestrial”).

(science fiction) An extraterrestrial being; an alien.


empathist

extrasensory perception
extrasensory perception

(science fiction) Someone able to sense the emotions of others through extrasensory perception; an empath.


Earthsider

(science fiction) An inhabitant of Earth.


Earthside

(science fiction) The planet Earth or (synecdochically) a group or organization based on Earth.


gyrobus

The gyrobus touched down on the commercial side of the spaceport, not far from a row of hangars where several shuttles were parked.

2007 December, Allen Steele, “Galaxy Blues”, in Asimov's Science Fiction, volume 31, number 12, →ISSN, page 102:


kiloday

(science fiction, rare) A period of one thousand days.


Martianess

Coordinate term: Martian

(science fiction, rare) A female Martian.


otherspace

(science fiction) A type of space with different physical laws than ordinary space, often permitting faster-than-light travel.


ROTS

It may be surprising, but the plot for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith was revealed early in the ROTS and LEGO Star Wars video games.

2022 April 3, John Feliciani, “Star Wars Spoiled Revenge of the Sith Months Early In Games”, in Screen Rant, archived from the original on 2022-08-14:

Revenge of the Sith
w:Revenge of the Sith

(Star Wars) Initialism of Revenge of the Sith (a 2005 movie in the Star Wars series).


metahistorical romance

en-noun

metahistorical romance (countable and uncountable, plural metahistorical romances)

Coordinate term: historiographic metafiction

From Linda Hutcheon's work on historiographic metafiction to Amy Elias's study of the metahistorical romance, addressing the historical novel, for example, has become something of a minor industry outside conventional history.

2010, Alun Munslow, The Future of History, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 267:

Through the “historiographic metafiction” or “metahistorical romance” of post-1960s fiction, critics have identified the self-reflexive quality of the new historical aesthetics.

2017, Alison Shonkwiler, The Financial Imaginary: Economic Mystification and the Limits of Realist Fiction, University of Minnesota Press, →ISBN:

A type of postmodern historical fiction.


historiographic metafiction

historiographic metafiction (usually uncountable, plural historiographic metafictions)

Coined by Canadian literary theorist Linda Hutcheon.

coin

This assumption leads us to historiographic metafiction, a style of writing that emerged during the postmodern era. If there is fiction in scholarly historiography, where is the difference between that and a novel that deals with history?

2008, Markus Schneider, Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five” as Historiographic Metafiction, GRIN Verlag, →ISBN, page 1:

Although works classified as “historiographic metafiction” have been seen by numerous critics as the continuation into the eighties of the work of Pynchon, Coover, Barth, and Gass, this application of the concept turns on metafiction's identification with its anti-mimetic, counter-realist self-descriptions. […] McHale identifies three devices in historiographic metafiction: —apocryphal history, creative anachronism, and historical fantasy […]

2012, Joe Bray, Alison Gibbons, Brian McHale, editors, The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature, Routledge, →ISBN, page 137:

A type of postmodern historical fiction employing metafiction.


godsdamned

Bet they're not godsdamned bandits at all, but more like, godsdamned deserters.

2010, Chris Bunch, Dragonmaster: The Omnibus Edition:

(fantasy) Synonym of goddamned (in fictional worlds having more than one god)


Soulsborne

Blend of souls + bloodborne, after the Dark Souls trilogy and Bloodborne.

As the director of each of the Soulsborne games, Miyazaki is a strong influence on all aspects of the final product, including visual design, gameplay, and narrative content.

2019, “Introduction”, in Matthew Wilhelm Kapell, editor, Narrative Design and Authorship in Bloodborne: An Analysis of the Horror Videogame, page 4:

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was created by FromSoftware, the developers behind the Soulsborne titles.

2020, James Palmer, "Why did UK games sales drop in 2019?", The Boar (University of Warwick), 13 February 2022, page 32

Sure, “Death's Door” does little to hide its love for both the Zelda and Soulsborne franchises, cramming in dense lore to creepy dungeons filled with puzzles and enemies galore, but it manages to take the best part of these series and form something wholly unique.

2021 July 29, M. Deitz, “Fighting against your death in 'Death's Door'”, in The Michigan Daily, University of Michigan, page 9:

(fandom slang, video games) A loose series of dark fantasy action role-playing video games developed by FromSoftware, generally held as including Demon's Souls (2009), the Dark Souls trilogy (2011-2016), Bloodborne (2015), and Elden Ring (2022).


Soulsborne

en-noun

Soulsborne (countable and uncountable, plural Soulsbornes)

Because FromSoftware's Demon's Souls is the granddaddy of the soulsborne genre, and one of the PlayStation 3's overlooked classics.

2020 October, “Have Your Say: Demon's Soul”, in PlayStation Official Magazine, page 27:

“Blasphemous” is a masterfully crafted game that would entice hardcore fans of Soulsborne and Metroidvania games.

2022, Gabrielle Cabello Torres, "From The International: Video Games From Different Cultures", Mace & Crown (Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA), Spring 2022, page 36

The Soulsborne formula has been imitated countless times but mastered by few apart from FromSoftware, the original pioneers.

2022 December 29, Cameron Rasmusson, “Elden Ring recaptures magic of video game discovery”, in Reader, page 17:

(fandom slang, video games, uncountable) A video game subgenre influenced by this series, characterized by high difficulty, trial-and-error progression, esoteric enemy movesets, environmental storytelling, and complex lore.

Do you have room for another Soulsborne in your life?

2018, "Team Ninja's Nioh 2 is back for more", PlayStation Official Magazine (UK), August 2018, page 11 (image caption)

Diagrammatics allows us to properly think about how something like a “soulsborne” can be created: It is a set of mechanics, modes of storytelling, and player expectations that branch out and proliferate from the original object.

2020, Cameron Kunzelman, "How we deal with dark souls: The aesthetic category as a method", in Hybrid Play: Crossing Boundaries in Game Design, Players Identities and Play Spaces (eds. Adriana de Souza e Silva & Ragan Glover-Rijkse), unnumbered page

Lee confirms it offers the challenge of a soulsborne but with a greater level of flexibility in how you approach that challenge.

2020 December, “Godfall”, in PlayStation Official Magazine, UK, page 56:

(fandom slang, video games, countable) An individual game of this genre.


Truck-kun

What if I was walking across the street when I was summoned, only to be dropped back in front of a speeding truck. Lots of dodgy stories start with Truck-kun, and I don't want mine to end with it.

2022, Dean Henegar, “The Summoned Life”, in Legendary LitRPG: An All Genres LitRPG Anthology, unnumbered page:

While Truck-kun does cause one form of ending—the character is dead in their original world—it's an integral part of the main character's transportation to a new world, one where they can explore, learn, and grow.

2022, Natasha Yglesias, Anime Tarot Deck and Guidebook: Explore the Archetypes, Symbolism, and Magic in Anime, page 29:

So I figure I might as well chuck a "Truck-kun" into my own story too! Gotta get in while the getting's good!!

2023, Shizuki Fujisawa, translated by Cerridwyn Graffham, The Transcendent One-Sided Love of Yoshida the Catch, volume 3, unnumbered page:

(chiefly Japanese fiction, fandom slang, humorous) In the isekai genre, a truck that sets off the plot by hitting the protagonist, transporting them into the fantastical setting (typically by killing them in the real world).


dating sim

Unlike typical Western games, the goal in Japanese dating sims is to attain true love rather than defeat level bosses.

2004 September, “Dating Lessons With Anime Play?”, in CPU: Computer Power User, page 9:

Tokimeki Memorial was hugely influential not just in kickstarting the entire dating sim genre in Japan but also in the way its gameplay influenced the love mechanics I've already described in Persona 4 and Dragon Age: Origins.

2015, Nicholas Ware, “Interative romance and button-mashing sex: Gameplay design and video games' Nice Guy Syndrome”, in Evan W. Lauteria, Matthew Wysocki, editors, Rated M for Mature: Sex and Sexuality in Video Games, page 234:

Short had enjoyed playing dating sims in grad school, but grew frustrated by their focus on the desires of cishet men. "I was like, 'Ah, I gotta make a game where you can date whoever you want, because this is ridiculous'," she recalls.

2021 December, Edwin Evans-Thirwell, “Kitfox Games”, in Edge, page 93:

(video games) A social simulation game centered on building and maintaining a romantic relationship with one or more NPCs.


nakige

Borrowed from Japanese 泣きゲー (nakige, “crying game”), a combination of なき (naki, “crying”) and ゲー (gē), a shortening of ゲーム (gēmu, “game”), itself from English game.

Nakige are known for their sense of melancholy. Take 2001's Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (The Eternity You Desire), for example, which was released by eroge label âge, a division of ACID. Soon after high school student Takayuki Narumi falls for his classmate Haruka Suzumiya, she goes into a coma after a car accident. Depressed and shocked, Takayuki develops post-traumatic stress disorder and becomes involved with Haruka's best friend, Mitsuki. "To put it simply, a nakige brings players to tears as they read the in-game text," says [ACID CEO Hirohiko] Yoshida.

2010, Brian Ashcroft, Shoko Ueda, Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential: How Teenage Girls Made a Nation Cool, page 154:

The medium is dominated by nakige, the crying genre, much like how superheroes dominate comics and sitcoms television.

2011 November 10, Alex Mui, “Visual Novels: Unrecognized Narrative Art”, in The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, Johns Hopkins University, page B5:

Utsuge, on the other hand, stands for pretty much the opposite of nakige, aiming to be as depressing an experience as possible.

2019, Robert Ciesla, Game Development with Ren'Py: Introduction to Visual Novel Games Using Ren'Py, TyranoBuilder, and Twine, page 90:

A Japanese visual novel of a genre characterized by melodramatic plots intended to move the player to tears.


utsuge

Borrowed from Japanese 鬱ゲー (utsuge, “depressing game”), a combination of 鬱 (utsu, “melancholy, gloom”) and ゲー (gē), a shortening of ゲーム (gēmu, “game”), itself from English game.

bor

The related genre “utsuge” (“depressing game”), unlike “nakige”, does not typically achieve a happy ending.

2019, Ema Bícová, "Visual Novel and Its Translation", thesis submitted to Palacký University Olomouc, pages 12-13

Nitroplus, the company behind Saya no uta, specializes in utsuge containing body horror, gore, rape, and depression—in short, as scholar Clarisse Thorn puts it, games that are “not ‘fun’ in the way most people think about ‘fun,’ that’s for sure.”

2020, Ana Matilde Sousa, "She's Not Your Waifu; She's an Eldritch Abomination: Saya no uta and Queer Antisociality in Japanese Visual Novels", Mechademia, Volume 13, Number 1, Fall 2020

A Japanese visual novel genre characterized by tragic plots and pervasively bleak tones.


nukige

Borrowed from Japanese 抜(ぬ)きゲー (nukigē), a combination of 抜(ぬ)く (nuku, “to jerk off”, literally “to extract”) and ゲー (gē), a shortening of ゲーム (gēmu, “game”), itself from English game.

ja-r

Eroge is a hugely popular genre of visual novel both from established producers and fan circles, and can be further divided into smaller categories such as nukige (抜きゲ) or ‘jack-off game’, referring to a game that is intended to provide easy access to sex scenes or other erotic material to facilitate masturbation.

2016, Matthew R. Bird, "Eustia of the Tarnished Wings: The Visual Novel in Translation", thesis submitted to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, page 17

As well as the effect of loosening content restrictions, the key point here is that Japanese videogame regulation is fractured by platform multiplicity. Small publishers producing games such as dating sims, visual novels, and ‘nukige’ (masturbation games) cohere to self-regulate, and more serious sexual content is confined to the PC market, dominated by adult consumers.

2019, Catherine Driscoll & Liam Grealy, "In the name of the nation: Media classification, globalisation, and exceptionalism", International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 22, Issue 3, May 2009 (link)

Unlike nukige, visual novels that focus primarily on sexual interactions between characters, the focus of eroge is on the story, including more romantic or emotional relationships.

2022, William Schrage, "Hiding Hobbies and Saving Social Lives: About the Representation of Otaku Struggles in Ore no imōto ga konnani kawaii wake ga nai", Mechademia, Volume 14, Number 2, Spring 2022

(video games) A Japanese visual novel genre featuring sexually explicit content for the sole purpose of masturbation or sexual gratification.


instant loss 2koma

en-noun

instant loss 2koma (plural instant loss 2komas)

Partial calque of Japanese 即堕ち2コマ (soku-ochi ni-koma, “instant fall 2-panel”).

pcal

The cereal spitting guy was the original instant loss 2koma

2022 August 17, TripleKyun, Twitter, archived from the original on 2022-11-17:

A two-panel comic depicting a character who displays smugness or overconfidence in the first panel, only to be defeated or humiliated in the second.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:instant loss 2koma.

A pornographic variant of this type of comic, in which the losing character is sexually dominated in the second panel.


dokkaebi

en-noun

dokkaebi (usually uncountable, plural dokkaebis)

(Korean mythology) A creature in Korean mythology, also known as "Korean goblin"

トッケビ

a creature in Korean mythology, a Korean goblin


Ascapart

(European folklore) A legendary giant in English folklore.


Lady Macbeth

From the character in William Shakepeare's Macbeth.

True it is, that the ambitious women of these civilized times do not murder sleeping kings: but are there, therefore, no Lady Macbeths in the world? no women who, under the influence of a diseased or excited appetite for power or distinction, would sacrifice the happiness of a daughter, the fortunes of a husband, the principles of a son, and peril their own souls?

1833, [Anna Brownell] Jameson, Characteristics of Women, Moral, Poetical, and Historical. […], 2nd edition, volume II, London: Saunders and Otley, […], page 309:

Fear of blood has become the incubus of modern men who are pursued like so many women, little nineteenth century Lady Macbeths, by the spectre of death ... the principle of right to life is utterly without justification.

1961, John Alden Thayer, Italy: The Post-Risorgimento and the "Great War", Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin–Madison, page 246:

With the cuts in government expenditure, heads of research councils rage round their castles like demented Lady Macbeths looking for blood with which to stain their hands as evidence of their administrative worthiness, apparently oblivious of the fact that what they cut today can never be recreated as the costs of new building and recruitment escalate with the size of their administrations.

1987, New Scientist, volume 114, page 82, column 3:

The silent men, women, and children streaming down the center of Manhattan instead carried signs reading: “Mother, Do Lynchers Go to Heaven?”; “Pray for the Lady Macbeths of East St. Louis”; “Mr. President, Why Not Make America Safe for Democracy?”; and “Give Us a Chance to Live.”

2010, Anne P. Rice, “White Islands of Safety and Engulfing Blackness: Remapping Segregation in Angelina Weld Grimké’s “Blackness” and “Goldie””, in Brian Norman, Piper Kendrix Williams, editors, Representing Segregation: Toward an Aesthetics of Living Jim Crow, and Other Forms of Racial Division, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 95:

The president’s wife, Turai [Yar’Adua], acquired the image of a Lady Macbeth hungry for power and determined to loot the country’s coffers while she still had the chance.

2015, Mark Hollingsworth, Von Kemedi, Against the Odds: President Goodluck Jonathan, the Rise of Nigeria as Africa’s Economic Superpower and the Threat of Boko Haram, Susquehanna Press, →ISBN, page 32:

As we did with Medea and the “Modern Medeas,” we were able to see multiple instances in which real life female politicians were described as “Lady Macbeths.” Given that Lady Macbeth herself clearly views the monstrous acts she is going to commit as more male than female, it seemed strange to the class that those who call scheming politicians Lady Macbeths associated that scheming, plotting cruelty with the worst traits of women. […] On the day we were studying this text in class, Hillary Clinton had just made headlines, and we were able to see and then analyze how the term “Lady Macbeth” was used to describe her in multiple articles published mere hours before class had started.

[2017, Brian Sweeney, “High School Monsters: Designing Secondary English Courses”, in Adam Golub, Heather Richardson Hayton, editors, Monsters in the Classroom: Essays on Teaching What Scares Us, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, part III (Disrupting Systems: The Monster Attacks), page 204:

A determined but ruthless or unscrupulous woman.


Mobian

From Mobius, the fictional planet such characters would inhabit in some incarnations of their universe.

Now, their accents do in fact fit them well, and do represent (as someone said formerly) the fact that they're a group of Mobians from different cultural worlds..

1998 August 25, RazJMastrs, alt.fan.sonic-hedgehog (Usenet):

"Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble" (1995) has manifestations in both a comic book trilogy and as a video game. We'll simply make note of the saga's floating islands. “Panic in the Sky” starts off with a group of happy Mobians playing volleyball until interrupted by a shadow.

2015, Richard J. Heggen, Floating Islands: an Activity Book, published 2021, page 172:

Both [the Pokemon and Sonic franchises] are home to a wide variety of creatures capable of feats of great strength and speed and elemental manipulation. The only difference is that those from the Sonic universe, also known as Mobians, can speak.

2023 February 4, Dexter Adams, “9 Pokemon That Look Like Sonic Characters”, in TheGamer:

(fandom slang) An anthropomorphic character from, or in the style of, characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog universe.


Lilliput

John Hardesty Bland (1971) Forests of Lilliput The Realm of Mosses and Lichens: “(book title)”

(fiction) An imaginary island populated by tiny people, in the book Gulliver's Travels.

Ronald E. Miller, Peter D. Blair (2009) Input-Output Analysis: Foundations and Extensions, page 388: “The Land of Lilliput plans to build a new power plant”

Dermot McAleese (2004) Economics for Business: Competition, Macro-stability, and Globalisation: “Two economies , Lilliput and Oz , exist beside each other”

(by extension) A generic fictional country, sometimes contrasted with a counterpart Brobdingnag or Blefuscu.


TatsuJun

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Tatsuya Suou and Jun Kurosu from the Persona series.

Persona 2: Innocent Sin#Setting and characters


zombieness

The quality of being a zombie, or zombie-like.


worlder

From world + -er (“supporter”) or + -er (demonym suffix).

One who supports a certain idea of the world.


sleep flower

After the lazy lover had sown the sleep seed all over the grounds, he went away.[…] All along the galleries it grew and grew, and in a few days the air of the place was heavy with the scent of the pale-coloured sleep-flowers. Then the whole world of the palace began to drowse.[…] And the pale sleep-flowers bloomed thicker and thicker, and the air grew heavier and heavier, and at last everybody was lapped in sleep.

1875, “The Sleep Seed”, in The Peep-show: for Little Readers, Oxford University:

[…] The wind will shift and the way will open. […] Then, go back to the garden with the sleep flowers. Use Jinn's power to control the wind, and spread the sleep pollen into Rolante castle.

1995, Squaresoft, Seiken Densetsu 3, SNES:

(fantasy) Any flower whose consumption, in whole or in part, causes the consumer to fall asleep.


Glup Shitto

From a September 2020 post by Tumblr user gomjabbar lampooning hardcore Star Wars fans and Star Wars character names: "every time a new Star War^([sic]) movie or show is announced all the fans are like 'OMG Glup Shitto is back 😭😭😭'.
Probably derived from shit, referring to the supposed poor quality of the new characters.

When it works well, Mank feels like the inheritance and renovation of a range of craft competencies and attentions. And when it does not work well, it is the classical Hollywood nerd’s version of Glup Shitto. “OMG Ben Hecht is back!” Sometimes it does both at once.

2021 May 9, J. D. Connor, “Put Some 'Mank' on It”, in Los Angeles Review of Books:

'The Book of Boba Fett' is a good example of this joke containing a few grains of truth. Boba Fett was, after all, the original Glup Shitto. He turned up in all of maybe three major scenes in 'The Empire Strikes Back' and 'Return of the Jedi', died by accident, and was written off in the movies.

2022 June 1, Brian Lloyd, “This week's 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' sees the return of a familiar helmet”, in Entertainment.ie:

I also questioned what characters might show up in this series, and while we haven’t seen a true Glup Shitto yet, we do get a reference to Quinlan Vos, a Jedi from the “Star Wars” novels who then appeared in “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.”

2022, Brandon Raglow, "Review | Episode three of ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ brings the Jedi master face to face with a certain former Padawan", The Pitt News (University of Pittsburgh), 8 June 2022

(Star Wars fandom slang, vulgar, derogatory) Any minor Star Wars character or one who features primarily in Extended Universe media unknown to casual fans.


Tumblr sexyman

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

From Tumblr, referencing the microblogging platform and social network, and sexy + man.

The most iconic Tumblr sexymen of all Tumblr sexymen: The Onceler. Oh my god did the Onceler take Tumblr by its neck and wring it until it died horribly. I have never seen such a trend.

2021, Belle, "Tumblr Sexymen: A Never-Ending Cycle of Questionable Taste", LOCO Mag, 2 August 2021

“Timothee Chalamet Willy Wonka is what happens when a Hollywood focus group tries to create a Tumblr sexyman,” another remarked, referencing the famous 2010s blogging site.

2021, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, quoted in Andrew Court, "Twitter slams Timothée Chalamet’s ‘sexification’ of Willy Wonka", New York Post, 11 October 2021

Congratulations, Lucifer Morningstar, on joining the esteemed ranks of Tumblr Sexymen like Alastor, The Once-ler, Bill Cipher of "Gravity Falls," Waluigi, King Dice of "Cuphead," and for some reason, Sans from "Undertale."

2022 December 1, BJ Colangelo, “Why Animation Fans Are Going Wild For Hazbin Hotel's King Of Hell Read More”, in Slash Film:

(fandom slang) A male fictional character (often conventionally unattractive or non-human) with a particularly devoted fanbase on Tumblr.

Papyrus (Undertale)
Sans (Undertale)
Undertale


main character

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

With his Jill Biden essay, Joseph Epstein became Twitter’s main character this month.

2020, Paul Farhi, "How the dusty old op-ed pages became the red-hot outrage-generating machine of 2020", The Washington Post, 28 December 2020 (image caption)

Unless you’re in the business of receiving hate clicks for profit, you never want to be the “main character” of Twitter.

2021 January 5, Dani Di Placido, “The Ballad Of ‘Bean Dad’ Shows The Cruel, Petty Side Of Twitter”, in Forbes:

And while Trump, at least, now faces a reckoning over his most consequential tweets via the January 6 hearings, one final way to understand Elon Musk as our new main character is to consider the internet that has incentivized the rise of both men.

2022 July 14, Delia Cai, “How Elon Musk Became the Internet’s New Main Character”, in Vanity Fair:

(Internet slang, idiomatic) A person who becomes a focal point of discussion on a social media platform (particularly Twitter).


dragonlet

I had no idea how long dragon gestation was, and my experience with Lois wasn't much to go on about normal dragonlet development, but if there was a human baby around about a year after some dragonlets were born which was maybe when normal dragonlets start spending serious time outside mom’s pouch. . . .

2007, Robin McKinley, Dragonhaven, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →ISBN, page 315:

So it was that after the dragonlets had eaten a supper of raw fish from the bay, and he and Princess Eleanor had eaten a delicious meal of cooked fish, Sir Thomas found himself lying on a bed of sweet grasses surrounded by sleepy baby dragons and one tired princess.

2010, Shutta Crum, Thomas and the Dragon Queen, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 203:

In most examples, as in this panel, there are visible female genitalia, though occasionally breasts or dugs are also shown, and in some cases one or more baby dragonlets are depicted that seem to be intended to identify the dragon as a mother.

2015, Samantha Riches, “St George as a Dragon-slayer”, in St George: A Saint for All, Reaktion Books, →ISBN, pages 105–106:


Nemo

Audio (US)

The "clownfish" meaning comes from the film Finding Nemo, where Nemo is a clownfish.

A diminutive of the male given name Geronimo


queercoded

en-adj

queercoded (comparative more queercoded, superlative most queercoded)

more queercoded (comparative)
most queercoded (superlative)

(fiction, slang) Portrayed in a way that suggests or implies LGBTQ+ identities or characteristics, without explicitly stating so; Hinting that something (a character, a relationship, a situation) is LGBTQ+.


thanatomancy

(rare, fantasy) Magic or divination powered by death, such as a human sacrifice.


thaumic

From Ancient Greek θαῦμα (thaûma, “miracle, wonder”) + -ic.

af

(chiefly fantasy) Relating to magic; magical.


element zero

From being a chemical element with zero protons.

(informal, nuclear physics, science fiction) Synonym of neutronium (“material composed of neutrons”)

(science fiction) A fictional chemical element with element number/atomic number/proton number zero (0), often with unrealistic properties.


BroTP

Blend of bro (“male comrade or friend”) + OTP (“one true pairing”).

blend

"Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers are adorbs together as friends, but I'd never ship them — total BROTP."

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

BROTPs and OT3s (shipping three characters in a polyamorous relationship) abound.

2016, Bethany A. Scettrini, "Fan Responses to Orphan Black and The 100 via Blogs, Fan Fiction, and Ship Wars", thesis submitted to Baylor University, page 51

Being in a fandom means that we willingly signed on to watch as our—soon-to-be — favorite character(s) die, as we find out our OTP may never truly get to be happy, or that our BroTP will always be at odds.

2019, Star, "Fixing What Shouldn't Be Broken", Lemon, page 14

(fandom slang) A platonic relationship between two characters that is a personal favorite of a fan.


NOTP

Usually it is best to keep your NOTP to yourself, unless you wish to start a shipping war.

2013, "Severus Snape", "Ship happens", The Sandscript (Sanderson High School, Raleigh, BC), March 2013 (April Fool's issue), page 5

Add the words you want to avoid to your black list (anything from your NOTP to seriously triggering topics), and posts containing them will never again show up on your dash.

2015, Sam Maggs, The Fangirl's Guide to the Universe: A Handbook for Girl Geeks, pages 66–67:

When questioned on why they disliked their ‘NOTP’, most respondents claimed it was often due to notable inclusion of paedophilic, incestuous, abusive, or non-consensual relationships and intercourse within the stories.

2019, Amy Pollard, “An investigation of fanfiction readers' and writers' views on fanfiction, with a focus on LGBTQ+ themes”, in Mesh: The Journal for Undergraduate Work Across English Studies, number 3, published 2009, pages 22–23:

(fandom slang) A ship that one strongly dislikes.


LoVe

Blend of Logan + Veronica, as a deliberate homophone of love.

The complicated and, for fans, mostly frustrating relationship between these characters is the reason why stories dealing with Spuffy and LoVe pairings are by far more popular than stories based on any other possible ship.

2008, Manuela Scherf, "Character Formation in Fan Fiction Based on Popular TV Series, thesis submitted to the University of Vienna, page 15

“LoVe” (Logan/Veronica) was a very rapid OTP (one true pairing) candidate.

2018, Ivan Askwith, quoted in The Routledge Companion to Media Fandom (Melissa A. Click & Suzanne Scott), unnumbered page

Though all but two of my informants eventually self-identified as LoVe shippers—Eileen and Jodie were vocally opposed to the relationship, characterizing it as abusive—all were initially unwilling to involve that investment in their answers to my questions.

2018, Annemarie Navar-Gill, “Fandom as symbolic patronage: expanding understanding of fan relationships with industry through the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign”, in Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture, volume 16, number 3:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Logan Echolls and Veronica Mars from the television show Veronica Mars.


thionite

From thio- (“containing sulphur”) + -n- + -ite. Coined by American author E. E. Smith in 1937.

coinage

(science fiction) A fictional addictive drug said to induce euphoric dreams.


anti-Reylo

When Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out, the fandom found itself dividing across one really hard, bright line: the Reylos and the anti-Reylos.

2017 December 15, Ani Bundel, “More Than The Force Connects Kylo Ren & Rey In 'The Last Jedi' & It's Intense”, in Elite Daily:

Anti-Reylos read the pairing's on-screen encounters as rape, and they point out the age difference and potential familial relationship.

2018, Kristina Busse, “Afterword: Fannish Affect and Its Aftermath”, in Rebecca Williams, editor, Everybody Hurts: Transitions, Endings, and Resurrections in Fan Cultures, page 217:

This also means that there are significant clashes between Reylo shippers and anti-Reylos.

2019, Lauren Rouse, "The fan fiction reading guide: the use of multimedia and comments as close reading tools", thesis submitted to DePaul University, page 96

(fandom slang) An opponent of the ship of Rey and Kylo Ren from Star Wars (Reylo).


time barrier

(science fiction) A barrier or obstacle preventing time travel, especially one resulting from technological limitations.


time-binding

Coined by Polish-American philosopher Alfred Korzybski in 1921.

(especially general semantics, science fiction) The act of transmitting knowledge and experience from one moment and person to other moments and people using written information (e.g., written language, images, symbols), whether in mundane instances or (especially) from one generation to the next.


time-binding

(general semantics, science fiction) Engaging in time-binding.


time police

(science fiction) An organization which regulates time travel, especially with the purpose of preventing the past from being changed.


time cop

(science fiction) A member of the time police.


time crime

en-noun

time crime (countable and uncountable, plural time crimes)

(science fiction) The violation of time travel law (especially referring to an attempt to change the past).


seetee

Spelling out of CT, initialism of contraterrene. Coined by American science fiction author Jack Williamson in 1942.

coined

He followed her slowly into the empty hallway, announcing flatly, “I never made a seetee weapon. I don’t intend to start now.”

1949, Jack Williamson, “Seetee Shock”, in Astounding Science-Fiction, volume 42, number 4, page 149:

He gritted his teeth as another bolt of seetee matter exploded against the energy screen.

1960, John Glasby, Black Abyss, e-book edition, published 2014, →ISBN:

She inferred what happened: the atmosphere of Yuggoth was composed of SeeTee matter. ¶ SeeTee. CT. ContraTerrene. Antimatter.

2010, Richard A. Lupoff, “Nothing Personal”, in Darrell Schweitzer, editor, Cthulhu’s Reign, →ISBN:

(science fiction) Synonym of contraterrene (“made of or pertaining to antimatter”).


time patrol

Synonym of time police (“an organization which regulates time travel”).


Titanese

(science fiction) Relating to Titan (the largest moon of Saturn) or to its inhabitants.


Titanese

(science fiction) The language spoken on Titan.


torch drive

(science fiction) A spacecraft engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion.


torchship

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

Compound of torch (“a torch drive”) + ship.

com+

(science fiction) A spacecraft propelled by a torch drive (“spacecraft engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”).


Kobayashi Maru

From the fictional Kobayashi Maru test, first introduced in the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a training exercise in which Starfleet cadets face an intentionally unwinnable scenario as a test of character. The test involves the rescue of an eponymous vessel, named by Star Trek II screenwriter Jack B. Sowards after his neighbours, from the Japanese family name Kobayashi and maru (a suffix of Japanese ship names).

Christmas is the Kobayashi Maru of holidays. It is unwinnable.

2010, April Winchell, Regretsy: Where DIY Meets WTF, page 121:

Martin said, “Gwen, do you understand that there’s no right answer to that? You've asked me the Kobayashi Maru of questions. There’s no possible way to answer that won't make you mad.”

2015, Scott Meyer, An Unwelcome Quest, page 265:

“You might not be able to win,” I said. “It may be the Kobayashi Maru of seating arrangements.”

2016, Hillary Manton Lodge, Together at the Table, page 81:

(informal) A scenario with no positive or favourable outcome; a no-win situation.

Jack B. Sowards
Kobayashi Maru
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Starfleet


Potterlock

The same naming technique may be applied to crossovers - stories that combine two or more fandoms together - so in this case Potterlock is a combination of Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes fandom.

2019, Alena Pospíšilová, "Metamorphosis of Relationships in Harry Potter Fanfiction", thesis submitted to the University of Pardubice, page 33

Fictional characters star throughout Slash, including Catwoman and Wonder Woman and a wonderful alternate-universe Johnlock/Harry Potter crossover (Potterlock) with Sherlock as a drug-addicted pureblood Slytherin and John a Muggle-born Gryffindor dating Hufflepuff Mary.

2019 January 23, Lisa Granshaw, “Slash Brings Familiar And Unexpected Pairings To Life In The Ultimate Fanfiction Play”, in Syfy:

With Potterlock being such a popular crossover amongst Harry Potter and Sherlock fans, it’s no surprise that these characters slot so effortlessly into the four Hogwarts Houses.

2021, Maychen Tyler & Stacey Lannigan, "Sorting BBC’s 'Sherlock' Characters into Hogwarts Houses, MuggleNet, 2 February 2021

(fandom slang) A genre of crossover fanworks blending characters, settings, and plot elements from the Harry Potter series and the television show Sherlock.


Wholock

Whovians have joined with Sherlock fans to create WhoLock crossovers, which range from brilliant to bizarre.

2012, Charles Wang, "Not Sure If Still Funny", Kitsch (Cornell University), Spring 2012, page 36

Doctor Who and Sherlock showrunner Steven Moffat has "come clean" about the possibility of a crossover 'Wholock' episode between the two shows, saying he wants to do it but his "killjoy" colleagues Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are in the way.

2014 August 11, Christopher Hooton, “Doctor Who Sherlock crossover: I would do 'Wholock', says Steven Moffat”, in The Independent:

Neither Ben nor Thom knew much about SuperWhoLock, for instance, although they knew of WhoLock.

2019, Paul Booth, Crossing Fandoms: SuperWhoLock and the Contemporary Fan Audience, page 89:

(fandom slang) A genre of chiefly fan-created crossover fiction blending characters, settings, and plot elements from the Sherlock Holmes stories (typically the BBC series Sherlock) and the television series Doctor Who.


yawnsville

From yawn + -s- + -ville, evoking a fictional town.

Synonym of dullsville (“a boring place, or state of being bored”)


antelabbit

Synonym of jackalope (“folkloric animal”)


asantaist

From a- + Santa + -ist, based on atheist.

Nearly everyone but small children are asantaists, while the same is true of aunicornists — even if they have never once decided as an absolute fact, or even as a matter of faith, that unicorns do not exist.

2016 January 30, Nicholas Bittner, The Roads Around Religion, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 11:

(rare, humorous) A person who does not believe in Santa Claus.


Sburbventure

Blend of Sburb + adventure, in reference to the fanventure genre based on comics in the MS Paint Adventures multiverse and the supernatural video game Sburb that appears in Homestuck, one of the MS Paint Adventures comics

(fandom slang) A fanventure in the style of Homestuck where the characters are players of the supernatural video game Sburb.


majokko

Unadapted borrowing from Japanese 魔女っ子 (majokko), composed of 魔女 (“witch”) + っ子 (“person having a certain quality”, also diminutive suffix).
This term is sometimes also glossed in English as “little witch”, the word 子 (ko) meaning “child” or “small”.

affix

The viewer is normally treated to the transformation from the point of view of the majokko herself - the other people around her basically would see a "flash of light" and (poof!) she's changed.

1999 July 13, Animeg3282, “The magical girl thread”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):


aleprechaunist

From a- + leprechaun + -ist, based on atheist.

"Put it this way. You believe in leprechauns?"
"Uh... no." She smirks. "I firmly renounce any and all belief in leprechauns."
"And so, if I wanted to fully and richly characterize your world view, do you think ‘aleprechaunist’ would do it?"

2002 January 8, Dale McGowan, Calling Bernadette's Bluff: A Novel, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 200:

Am I an atheist? No. Nor am I an aleprechaunist—that label would be just as silly.

2015 January 6, Marshall Brain, How "God" Works: A Logical Inquiry on Faith, Sterling Ethos, →ISBN, page 263:

Nobody can actually say for certain that anything doesn't exist, but I'm an atheist in the same way as I am an aleprechaunist and an afairyist and an apinkunicornist.

2019 February 24, Dawkins on Religion, spoken by Richard Dawkins, via Al Jazeera:

(very rare, humorous) A person who does not believe in leprechauns.


adragonist

From a- + dragon + -ist, based on atheist.

(very rare, humorous) A person who does not believe in dragons.


dragonflame

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

The records of the battle speak only of rolling smoke and of dragonflame mixed with the white fire of the three Ancients.

1981 November, David J[ames] Ritchie, “A History of the Third Fomorian War: The Last Struggle and Decline of the Sidh in Albion”, in Ares, number 11, New York, N.Y.: Simulations Publications, Inc., section “The Great Worm”, page 7, column 2:

She felt her skin pop and eyes melt in the blast of dragonflame, and the snapping of her bones as his teeth skewered her—

1985, Dave Smeds, The Sorcery Within, New York, N.Y.: Ace Fantasy Books, →ISBN, page 272:

Already weakened by blasts of dragonflame, the dome cracked under the force of impact, and a moment later half of it came tumbling down, crushing both dragon and dragonslayers under tons of broken stone and rubble.

2013, George R[aymond] R[ichard] Martin, “The Princess and the Queen, or, The Blacks and the Greens”, in George R. R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, editors, Dangerous Women, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, →ISBN, pages 765–766:


dragonfire

“Spurs!” Imbri sent in a dream like a blast of dragonfire. “Hotter than the breath of Baal, your thought! But I don’t use the spurs, once my steed is tame,” he argued.

1982, Piers Anthony, Night Mare, New York, N.Y.: Del Rey Books, page 100:

With a roar of dragonfire something enormous blazed by overhead, as if the Moon itself were dropping onto us.

1982, Mike Scott Rohan, Run to the Stars, Arrow Books, →ISBN, page 14:

At the same time, it made me desperate to get to Ember. To get us all out of here and find someplace safe before the world exploded in a hellstorm of dragonfire.

2017, Julie Kagawa, Legion, HQ, →ISBN, page 210:


homeworlder

(science fiction) An inhabitant of the homeworld.


Horcrux

Alternative letter-case form of horcrux.


Rowldemort

Big ups to Rick Riordan for being a good one. Disappointing that Rowldemort continues to not listen.

2020 June 6, Crow, in Autumn Clad(@unlimitedBLACK), Twitter:

People want to morally justify putting money in Rowldemort's pockets.

2022 December 29, @The_Terroirist, Twitter:

Like seriously, you're being silenced? Then why the fuck do I keep hearing from your ass, huh? Conjure me up an answer to that one, Rowldemort.

2023 April 14, Kilroy A. L. Mioruilt (@superiordriger), Twitter:

(slang, derogatory) J. K. Rowling viewed as villainous for her espousal of gender-critical or anti-transgender views.


Marvelophile

A true Marvelophile can recall even the most obscure Marvel superhero, tell what issue that superhero made its debut in, and deliver a kind of thumbnail biography, including some observation on the character's peculiarities and frailties.

1978 October 10, Bill Marvel, “His web of fantasy has captured the public”, in The Tampa Times, volume 86, number 211, page 4-A:


Doctor Whovian

These Doctor Whovians, as they call themselves, will be particularly earnest in their pleas because the future depends on it. […] Many of the Doctor Whovians are members of a 2-year-old Seattle organization called the Society of the Rusting Tardis.

1987 April 24, Andee Beck, “‘Dr. Who’ fans have hopes of bringing their hero to KTPS”, in The News Tribune, 105th year, number 17, Tacoma, Wash., page D7, columns 1–2:

Doctor Whovians will further get the chance to see a real Tardis (a time-travel vehicle), a mockup of the ship’s control panel, and Bessie, the banana-colored 1953 Ford that belonged to Doctor No. 3 (played by Jon Pertwee).

1987 September 9, Andee Beck, “Dr. Who’s coming to Tacoma: The real McCoy will sign autographs at Bates school”, in The News Tribune, 105th year, number 155, Tacoma, Wash., page D10, column 2:

Why Doctor Whovians Owe It All To H.G. Wells

2012, Jean Asta, Quicklet: An Unofficial Guide: H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, Hyperink Inc., →ISBN:

To maintain cover, I went to some UFO conventions in America, and Star Trek ones too. That was a blast, because I had been a Trekkie and also a Doctor Whovian.

2014, Don Bambrick, 5 Short Stories, Xlibris, →ISBN:

For Doctor Whovians, the episode downloaded was the final episode of season seven 'The Name of the Doctor'.

2014 August 19, James Vincent, “North Korean internet users download Top Gear, violent video games and American porn”, in The Independent, archived from the original on 2022-07-08:

As I was staring way too hard, I caught sight of faint Jolt grid marks up her right arm and forgot to breathe. Were those for real? Or was she just fangirling, like those Doctor Whovians with their pen-and-ink hash marks?

2016, Jill Williamson, Broken Trust, Novel Teen Press, →ISBN, page 23:

He was a longtime Parrothead, Beatlemaniac, Doctor Whovian and a (Star) Trekker.

2018 February 24–25, “[Obituaries] Jack Carver”, in Elizabethton Star, volume 93, number 40, Elizabethton, Tenn., page 5A, column 2:


Doctor Whovian

en-adj

Doctor Whovian (comparative more Doctor Whovian, superlative most Doctor Whovian)

more Doctor Whovian (comparative)
most Doctor Whovian (superlative)

[…] it contains all-original short stories by a swarm of the usual Doctor-Whovian suspects: Jonathan Blum, Martin Day, Paul Ebbs, Jim Mortimore, Kate Orman, Justin Richards, Dave Stone and many others.

2004 spring, Interzone, number 193, page 62, column 1:

This is not the sleek white Apple-store vision of the future, but something altogether Doctor Whovian in its sensibilities, as enamored with the past as with the future’s mind-boggling possibilities.

2015 September 16, Amelia Mason, “How A Music Futurist Composes The Future”, in WBUR, archived from the original on 2023-04-16:

In a surreal multimedia performance-lecture, Nina Stuhldreher recounts an artistic research trip which accidentally turned into a Doctor Whovian robinsonade.

2016, “Nootropics and the Last Frontier of (Un)consciousness”, in Bristol Biennial 2016: In Other Worlds, page 24:

Except, that was Moriarty in the bride's frock, and none of this was real, because it was all taking place in one of Sherlock's mind palaces, that Doctor Whovian device whereby Messrs Moffat and Gatiss can do exactly what they want with their lead characters, in this case, tell a head-scratching one-off tale, while they wait for their two stars to pause making blockbusting films long enough to make a whole series.

2016 January 1, Caroline Frost, “'Sherlock: The Abominable Bride' Review Finds Benedict Cumberbatch And Martin Freeman Suffering Time Constraints”, in HuffPost, archived from the original on 2023-04-16:

One part of this is the Doctor Whovian urge to hide behind the sofa, but it’s far more than that.

2017 January, Kieron Gillen, “Life and Darth”, in SFX, number 281, page 60:

The "I" here also could refer to Offa talking about himself in that sort of Doctor Whovian floating between the eighth century and the twentieth century.

2020, Nadia Ali Ismael, “Anachronism in Geoffrey Hill's 'Mercian Hymns'”, in Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies, volume 5, number 1, published February 2021, →ISSN, page 75:

1990 / Chris Lydgate built a Dalek with his Doctor Whovian kids.

2021 March, Reed Magazine, volume 100, number 1, Portland, Ore.: the Office of Public Affairs at Reed College, →ISSN, page 38, column 1:

Oh, sure Polestar was already Volvo’s racing team and go-faster division before its Doctor Whovian electric regeneration, and Californian dentists had access to a Genesis, but in the UK these are brand-new, um, brands.

2022 August 19, Ollie Kew, “Genesis GV60 vs Polestar 2: EV newbie showdown”, in Top Gear, archived from the original on 2022-08-19:

Controlling the game with blinks is something we have seen done before, particularly with the well-regarded Before Your Eyes on PC, but tying that to some sort of Doctor Whovian monster mechanic in which the creatures can grab you if you blink too much is absolutely the best/worst possible application for this kind of game mechanic.

2022 November 2, Lee Brady, “The Dark Pictures comes to PS VR2 with essentially Doctor Who angels”, in TrueTrophies, TrueGaming Network Ltd, archived from the original on 2022-11-02:

There are any number of Doctor-Whovian plots that could place the two together — failed mutation experiment, secondary mutation (a la Beast from "The X-Men," for example), or even a portal accident (which, in a fun Easter egg, would prove Geralt's well-documented disdain for the magic true).

2022 December 29, Chris Condry, “12 Witcher Stories Netflix Should Tell After Blood Origin”, in Looper, Static Media, archived from the original on 2022-12-30:


trekky

trekky (comparative more trekky, superlative most trekky)

more trekky (comparative)
most trekky (superlative)

But our genes are mutable, and like the mutant hamster, we could still be attuned to another planet by a trekky travel clock.

1990 May 15, Hospital Practice, page 130:

DO NOT wear a trekky looking Bluetooth earpiece, unless you are strutting through a Star Trek convention.

2009, Kirtsy Takes a Bow: A Celebration of Women’s Favorites Online, Houston, Tex.: Bright Sky Press, →ISBN, page 120:

With barely any religion in Star Trek (exceptions are made for fraudulent religion) there is also no hint of mystery. Everything in the trekky world can be understood.

2015, Guy Collins, Faithful Doubt: The Wisdom of Uncertainty, ISD LLC, →ISBN:

A Trekky-style transporter is unlikely to exist in our lifetimes, if ever, but it’s clear that popular culture has an influence on the direction of scientific experimentation (and vice versa!).

2016, Lliana Bird, Jack Lewis, The Mice Who Sing for Sex, Sphere, →ISBN, page 292:

When online, we encounter writing systems and heroic fantasies that come from the past but also from the future, as Snowden describes the trekky fantasy of the NSA chief.

2019, Tarek El-Ariss, Leaks, Hacks, and Scandals: Arab Culture in the Digital Age, Princeton, N.J., Oxford: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 178:

A trekky appearance, I’ve seen those movies and Jupiter Rising, no doubt have jet boots, […]

2021, Paul Stansby, The Dimension Hopper & the Outer Space Guys:

Well, I thought the trekky look of a communicator that you whack to activate was kind of a cool idea.

2022, Curtis Wilbur, Tides of Air: An Inferno-Earth Series Novel, →ISBN:


Rowlingian

Rowlingian (comparative more Rowlingian, superlative most Rowlingian)

more Rowlingian (comparative)
most Rowlingian (superlative)

“Nigidius Potter” sounds like a good Rowlingian name, and Publius Nigidius Potter, the friend of Cicero who died in exile in 45 BC, was indeed a wizard.

2000, The Classical Outlook, volume 78/79, American Classical League, page 94, column 1:

In any case, having established its Rowlingian street cred, the film then does what Potter’s adaptors never dared, and turns its protagonist from an 11-year-old British boy into a 13-year-old American one, thus combining old English charm and Connecticut Yankee ingenuity like nothing since Arthurian times.

2007 October 5, Chris Knight, “Too much magic for one kid to handle”, in National Post, volume 9, number 288, page PM7, column 2:

Auntie Muriel taunts Doge about his youthful dedication to Dumbledore, dismissing his affections (“Oh, we all know you worshipped Dumbledore” [DH 154]), and Dumbledore’s brother Aberforth more colorfully condemns Doge’s affection for Albus: “Thought the sun shone out of my brother’s every orifice, he did” (DH 563). This line, with typical Rowlingian ambiguity, hints at an anal attraction while refusing to state it.

2011, Tison Pugh, “Dumbledore’s Queer Ghost: Homosexuality and Its Heterosexual Afterlives in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Novels”, in Innocence, Heterosexuality, and the Queerness of Children’s Literature, New York, N.Y., London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 93:

As we refer to “Shakespearean” English, perhaps those future English speakers will refer to “Rowlingian” English (after the author of the Harry Potter books).

2011, Michael G. Gaunt, “Perspectives: Old English and Middle English”, in Lightning Literature & Composition: British Medieval: Student’s Guide, 2nd edition, Washougal, Wash.: Hewitt Homeschooling, →ISBN, unit 1, lesson 2 (Anglo-Saxon Riddles), page 56:

Broad-stroke storytelling, a critical eye turned towards class differences and tender moments between friends? That's positively Rowlingian!

2012 September 29, Maddie Crum, “'The Casual Vacancy': Harry Potter Fans Will Enjoy JK Rowling's New Book”, in HuffPost, archived from the original on 2022-06-28:

The healing power of tears has never been a characteristic of the phoenix in its long development of reception and it is obviously a modern or even ‘Rowlingian’ invention.

2015, Dagmar Hofmann, “The Phoenix, the Werewolf and the Centaur: The Reception of Mythical Beasts in the Harry Potter Novels and their Film Adapatations”, in Filippo Carlà, Irene Berti, editors, Ancient Magic and the Supernatural in the Modern Visual and Performing Arts, Bloomsbury Academic, published 2016, →ISBN, page 173:

Downes’s desire for narratological absolutes continues with an attack on Rowling’s thematic uncertainties regarding issues such as race, where ‘Rowlingian political correctness, like Rowlingian magic, is a mere superaddition, a futile attempt to control the damage done by a foundational decision not to create a secondary world worthy of the name’ (Downes 173). On the contrary, Rowling’s fusion of realism and fantasy within a Scottish gothic mode enhances the dialogical dynamics of cultural exchange in a series that is rich in its refusal to offer closure and fixed certainties in its engagement with a contemporary world which, similarly, offers no such thing.

2017, Fiona McCulloch, “‘We’re All Human, Aren’t We?’: Scottish Cosmopolitics in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter”, in Contemporary British Children’s Fiction and Cosmopolitanism (Children’s Literature and Culture), New York, N.Y., London: Routledge, →ISBN, part I (Ethical Endeavours), pages 37–38:

Characteristic of J. K. Rowling (born 1965), British author, philanthropist, film producer, and screenwriter.


Harry Potterish

Harry Potterish (comparative more Harry Potterish, superlative most Harry Potterish)

more Harry Potterish (comparative)
most Harry Potterish (superlative)

Last summer interest in U.K. Garage reached Harry Potterish levels in Britain (David’s debut CD alone went six times platinum); […]

2001 April 30, Christopher John Farley, “The Garage Door Opens”, in Time:

‘[…] Oh, you could be something Harry Potterish.’ ‘Or maybe . . . Yes! If I could find the gear, I could go as a character from that book I’ve been reading to them.[…]’

2002, Judith Cutler, Hidden Power, Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 204:

In Not Just a Witch, Heckie has just finished Witches’ School where all the witches learn how to make the world a better place. Sound a bit Harry Potterish? It is, but it came before the J.K. Rowling adventures began.

All this is to say that the night after the dinner party from hell, I had a redemptive, Harry Potterish sort of dream.

2004, Patricia J. Williams, Open House: Of Family, Friends, Food, Piano Lessons and the Search for a Room of My Own, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 11:

This time, my mind stayed centered in my body, getting off on the scents in the air, the mysterious, mystical copse of Harry Potterish pines in the middle of the hike, and the curious looks on the faces bf the cows.

2004, Jessica Porter, The Hip Chick’s Guide to Macrobiotics: A Philosophy for Achieving a Radiant Mind and Fabulous Body, New York, N.Y.: Avery, →ISBN, page 55:

On the one hand this attention has brought the promise of extra funding - though few at the Universities UK annual conference in the Harry Potterish surroundings of Keble College, Oxford believe that undergraduate fees of up to £3,000 a year from 2006 are the magic wand to solve their problems.

2004 September 15, “Conference call”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 2014-09-16:

He hoped that the rumour about the Canadian school with neckties was true. How bad could that be? It sounded kind of Harry Potterish.

2005, Kathrine K[ristine] Beck, Snitch, Scholastic Children’s Books, →ISBN, pages 87–88:

There is something rather Harry Potterish about them: they can suddenly appear in huge quantities or alternatively disappear. […] Remember that receptors are Harry Potterish, appearing and disappearing.

2005, Vivienne Parry, The Truth About Hormones, London: Atlantic Books, →ISBN, pages 12 and 55:

I had no idea what was going on until I heard one of my roommates ordering my other roommate back into her room to change into something that was more “Harry Potterish.” Somehow, I managed to tear myself away from my Middle East Politics paper to discover the two of them uncontrollably hyper and wearing head-to-toe gold and burgundy. The new Harry Potter movie was opening at midnight, and they had picked up tickets a week in advance.

2005 December 8, Brooke Nevils, “Brining Potter’s lessons to campus”, in The Johns Hopkins University News-Letter, volume CX, number 13, the students of The Johns Hopkins University, page B4, column 1:

A visit to any favourite legal drinking den, El Vino’s, say, in Blackfriars, Daly’s Wine Bar on the Strand, or Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese beside Gough Square, confirms immediately the peculiar Harry Potterish sociality of the Bar – its abiding clubbishness which confirms belonging while also asserting exclusion.

2006, Hywel Williams, Britain’s Power Elites: The Rebirth of a Ruling Class, London: Constable, →ISBN, page 130:

It was where the Glomerels studied Glomery – no, I’m not making this up but it does sound Harry Potterish (or the other way round) – which was a corruption of grammarye or Latin grammar.

2006, Benedict le Vay, Eccentric Cambridge: The Bradt City Guide, Bradt Travel Guides; The Globe Pequot Press, →ISBN, page 116:

“Do not name him. He knows when his name is spoken and seeks out the speaker.” Jack had heard this before. It struck him as Harry Potterish, but he respected the sources and so he abided.

2006, Francis Paul Wilson, Harbingers, New York, N.Y.: Forge, →ISBN, page 81:

I, of course, did not tell Kenneth what I’d done – burning his letter at a wayside shrine – because in some Harry Potterish way he could have made a counter curse to that, too.

2007, Marianne Faithfull, Memories, Dreams & Reflections, London: Fourth Estate, →ISBN, page 53:

I looked up to find an arc of almost-teens around me in Harry Potterish garb. A couple of adults appeared, in robes, pointed hats, and affected accents, beckoning the children to follow closely through this “dangerous” space.

2007 August 9–15, “The war on fun: “Family-friendly” is really a code word for “adult-hostile””, in See Magazine, number 715, page 7, column 3:

Pitch it right to the children, and ‘Taking a walk through a graveyard’ takes on a Harry Potterish aura, and Ireland offers you plenty of chances to do just that.

2008, Terry Marsh, Frommer’s Ireland with your Family: From Vibrant Towns to Picnic Perfect Countryside, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 5, column 1:

I flung out one hand at them. I didn’t have time to think of catchy phrases. No Die Hardish Yippee ki yay motherfuckers or Harry Potterish wand waving Or Bewitched inspired nose twitches.

2009, Leigh Bridger, Soul Catcher, Bell Bridge Books, →ISBN, page 100:

The only thing that keeps me from sheer madness is that Mr. Specter looks like a wizard. He has a severe comb-over of thin, dyed red hair and long yellow teeth. I’d love to leap up, stick my pencil out like a wand and yell something Harry Potterish, like, “Expelliderus!”

2010, Mary Hanlon Stone, Invisible Girl, Philomel Books, →ISBN, page 193:

Buildings date back to 1924 (when they were home to the local senior girls school) consequently there is lots of wood-panelling (slightly Harry Potterish feel to some of it) but, more importantly, lots of dedicated space.

2010, The Good Schools Guide, 15th edition, Lucas Publications, →ISBN, pages 1501–1502:

MapQuest displays it in a place where I’m sure no street exists. The Harry Potterish mystery has a boring resolution; an apartment building called Sheldon Court sits where, presumably, a cul de sac of that name once existed.

2010 September 20, David Guaspari, “Republicans in Ithaca”, in The Weekly Standard, volume 16, number 1, page 19, column 2:

At least one critic has complained that this is a Harry Potterish portrayal of Death, and I must admit that from time to time I found myself wishing this Death had a bit more edge.

2011, Steve Rasnic Tem, “Death and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak”, in Danel Olson, editor, 21st-Century Gothic: Great Gothic Novels since 2000, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 45:

As it was the platform number for the Ardrossan train was given as 11A. That sounded a little Harry Potterish to me but there really was such a platform. I have to report that it was far from magical.

2011, Craig Stevenson, John Mackay, The Cheap Way Round, East Kilbride: Cheapwayround Publishers, →ISBN, page 78:

Tegmark’s story sounds a bit like something I read in one of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books. In fact, much of what you’re about to read concerning the multiverse will seem a bit Harry Potterish. You will find it stretching your imagination. A few of the multiverse concepts described in this book are perhaps as fictitious as the Harry Potter series, […] This little apparent loophole in energy conservation provides a strange, Harry Potterish avenue to an understanding of the forces of nature via a theoretical framework known as quantum field theory.

2011, Steven Manly, Visions of the Multiverse, Pompton Plains, N.J.: New Page Books, →ISBN, pages 21–22 and 93:

Resembling or characteristic of the Harry Potter series.

That bespectacled, Harry Potterish face, frowning earnestly at the assorted jumble of Ben’s computer, stirred the soppiest memories in my breast of the days when my son had himself been just such a pink-cheeked cherub.

2002, Kate Fenton, Picking Up, Flame, →ISBN, page 104:

His dark brown hair was all over the shop, sticking out in tufts, and his spectacles were Harry Potterish.

2003, Jill Mansell, Falling for You, Headline Review, →ISBN, page 80:

I know about projectile vomiting because L—one of my brothers, the Harry Potterish one—had it when he was a baby.

2004, Nicola Morgan, Chicken Friend, Cambridge, Mass.: Candlewick Press, published 2005, →ISBN, page 40:

Tina points to a Harry Potterish lightning bolt on her chin.

2006, Mary Hogan, Susanna Sees Stars, Delacorte Press, published 2007, →ISBN, page 199:

These were round, Harry Potterish, horn-rimmed glasses of zero prescription which increasingly strengthened as you pumped a clear gel solution attached to the frame inside the glass.

2007, Robert D[avid] Kaplan, Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN, page 307:

He was tall, reed-thin in a heavy coat, and absurdly Harry Potterish with round glasses and an owlish gaze.

2009, Noel Hynd, Countdown in Cairo (The Russian Trilogy; 3), Zondervan, →ISBN, page 365:

The core Tangent group would be joined for the next four nights by the visiting crew from Jo’burg: […] Juan the make-up man, surprisingly (and disappointingly, for Guy at least, as he was tall and rather gorgeous in a Harry Potterish way) straight.

2009, Tarras Wilding, Leopard Rock, Little Black Dress, →ISBN, page 115:

He was maybe a fifth- or sixth-grader. Kind of early Harry Potterish. Short and skinny. Glasses. Short, dark hair that cowlicked in the back.

2010, Susan Fletcher, Ancient, Strange, and Lovely (The Dragon Chronicles), Atheneum Books for Young Readers, →ISBN, page 181:

It was him, only more so. The curls were wilder and darker. The glasses were not as Harry Potterish.

2011, Angie Smibert, Memento Nora, Marshall Cavendish, →ISBN, page 28:

Resembling or characteristic of the fictional character Harry Potter.


Harry-Potterish

Harry-Potterish (comparative more Harry-Potterish, superlative most Harry-Potterish)

more Harry-Potterish (comparative)
most Harry-Potterish (superlative)

There is a frequent Harry-Potterish deflation of tension; a mounting crisis tends to be resolved before it can cause the reader too much anxiety.

2000 September 21, Daniel Soar, “Willesden Fast-Forward”, in London Review of Books, volume 22, number 18, page 31; quoted in Janet Witalec, editor, Contemporary Literary Criticism: Criticism of the Works of Today’s Novelists, Poets, Playwrights, Short Story Writers, Scriptwriters, and Other Creative Writers, volume 158, Gale, 2002, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 248, column 2:

Here the apostle engages in a Harry-Potterish competition in sorcery.

2004, Edward Stourton, Paul of Tarsus: A Visionary Life, HiddenSpring, published 2005, →ISBN, page 77:

She led them through a corridor of Harry-Potterish aspect, past strange and fusty exhibits of rocks and shells and stuffed creatures — likely donated cast-offs of former members — to what had been Lexy’s room during her short stay at the college.

2010, G. M. Malliet, Death at the Alma Mater, Wheeler Publishing, →ISBN, page 255:

[…] the gimnazija has a splendid Harry-Potterish Gothic feel with its arches, long corridors and leather bound library.

2010, Robert MacCurrach, In the Bend of the River: Finding Vojvodina, Novi Sad: Bookstream, →ISBN, page 118:

I look up to ask Guy another question and notice, seemingly out of nowhere, a great horned owl sitting opposite me, near Lynette. It startles me, and I start to scoot back, away from the fire. Lynette laughs and says, “He’s here for you, you know.” “What do you mean?” I ask, thinking of all the old Native American stories connecting owls with death. “A little too Harry-Potterish for you?” she asks playfully.

2014, Jane Peranteau, Jumping, Hampton Roads Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 80:

Escape the crowds on a walk around the Fern Garden and Arboretum, investigate toxic plants in the Harry-Potterish Poison Garden, or explore the landscaped nooks and crannies of the Rock Close.

2016, Fionn Davenport, Damian Harper, Catherine Le Nevez, Ryan Ver Berkmoes, Neil Wilson, Ireland, Lonely Planet, →ISBN, page 222, column 1:


Potteresque

Potteresque (comparative more Potteresque, superlative most Potteresque)

more Potteresque (comparative)
most Potteresque (superlative)

A young teen who reads Rowling’s books, for example, might seek a Potteresque type of excitement by joining the London-based Ordo Anno Mundi (OAM), a sect of occultists who practice Ophidian Witchcraft (i.e., serpent-venerating). Like Hogwarts, which takes its wizards through seven years of training, the OAM has seven degrees of “Magical Training” that include classes strikingly similar to those offered at Hogwarts: […]

2001, Richard Abanes, Harry Potter and the Bible: The Menace behind the Magick, Camp Hill, Pa.: Horizon Books, →ISBN, pages 126–127:

Joanne was delighted at the choice of Daniel as she was with the ten-year-old Emma Watson and eleven-year-old Rupert Grint – a Potteresque name if ever there was one – to play Hermione and Ron.

2001, Sean Smith, J. K. Rowling: A Biography, Michael O’Mara Books Limited, →ISBN, page 178:

Marketing is inherently mysterious, and we forget this at our peril. It is mysterious not only in the sense that we still don’t know how advertising works, why Potteresque fads and crazes occur, or what the marketing philosophy is, exactly.

2005, Stephen Brown, Wizard!: Harry Potter’s Brand Magic (Great Brand Stories), Cyan Books, →ISBN, page 175:

Later in the day (hopefully after a solid night’s sleep, rather than any Potteresque nocturnal adventures) the children will return to the Great Hall of the castle for a Hogwarts-style banquet.

2005 June, Tanya Brown, “UK Report”, in Chronicle, number 260, DNA Publications, Inc., page 30, column 3:

GRYFFINDOR GRUNGE: Joe and Paul’s Potteresque style gets kids listening.

2005 June 6, Rachel Deahl, “Wizards Of Rock”, in Express (a publication of The Washington Post), page 16:

If live-action debutant Andrew Adamson and his team can spin the numbers right, a franchise is born of Potter'''esque proportions that will make the Rings look like a quota quickie.

2006 April, Nick Lowe, “Mutant Popcorn”, in Interzone, number 203, page 68, column 1:

The Grey School of Wizardry website has a number of very Potteresque features, including the ‘Magick Alley’ site from which textbooks and school equipment may be purchased. Although this is a virtual site, it is conceptually similar to Diagon Alley (‘diagonally’) in Harry Potter’s parallel London, where wands and robes, spell ingredients and companion animals (usually owls and cats, but sometimes rats and toads) can be purchased.

2010, Carole M. Cusack, Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith, Ashgate Publishing, →ISBN, page 76:

Parents can expect to pay £20,000 for their children to board at the school and former pupils have the marvellously Potteresque name of Old Dragons.

2011, David Nolan, Emma Watson: The Biography, John Blake, →ISBN, page 5:

In his own adventures Buslaev’s world seems less Potteresque; like Volkov before him, Yemets started with an imported fictional world but, having grown confident from working with it, is taking it in a different direction from the one chosen by its original creator.

2011, Aaron Schwabach, Fan Fiction and Copyright: Outsider Works and Intellectual Property Protection, Ashgate Publishing, →ISBN, page 121:

The story was illustrated by Joe Kubert, best known for his work on the DC Comics character Sgt. Rock, and set at a Potteresque school, where instructors with names like Professor Rumbledoore teach army officers about the proper maintenance of magical equipment, including a flying jeep.

2011, Richard Lukas Graham, Government Issue: Comics for the People, 1940s–2000s, New York, N.Y.: Abrams ComicArts, →ISBN, pages 90–91:

Other scenes set at Hogwarts were filmed in the magnificent medieval cloisters, while some of the impressive statues in the abbey’s grand hall have a distinct Potteresque feel.

2011, Great Breaks: Bath, Insight Guides, →ISBN, page 72:

Resembling or characteristic of the Harry Potter series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling.