Jack Frost

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

ref

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A personification of frosty weather or winter.


out-of-universe

An out-of-universe explanation for Dr. Watson's wife calling him James in one story is that Doyle forgot his given name had already been established as John.

Referring to a perspective or view from the real world, in contrast to a perspective from within the fictional world.


omniverse

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


in-universe

Referring to Lord Voldemort as the most feared person in the world is an in-universe classification in the Harry Potter series.

And in Mass Effect 2, you can find a secret dossier on the synthetic Geth sniper called Legion, which was created solely to preserve its species. This dossier shows that this apparently serious Geth spends a lot of processing time playing video games — ranging from playing as a Level 612 Ardat-Yakshi Necromancer in Galaxy of Fantasy, an in-universe MMO with over eleven billion players, to being a max-scoring sniper in Code of Honor: Medal of Duty.

2017, Jordan Erica Webber, Daniel Griliopoulos, “On utilitarianism: BioWare's baddies”, in Ten Things Video Games can Teach Us, Little, Brown Book Group, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 243:

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

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

Referring to a perspective or view from the context of a fictional world, in contrast to a perspective from the real world.


the man

The man gets you down.

I'm sorry I couldn’t meet you earlier, but I spent all night working for the man.

It starts when you're always afraid / Step out of line, the man come and take you away

1966 December, Stephen Stills, “For What It's Worth”performed by Buffalo Springfield:

“Bitch, shut up that noise!” Cowboy hissed hotly from somewhere in the darkness ahead of her. “You wanna bring the man down on me or somethin’? […]”

1968, Nathan C. Heard, Howard Street, New York: The New American Library, pages 22–23:

Left a good job in the city / Workin' for the man every night and day

1969, John Fogerty (lyrics and music), “Proud Mary”, in Bayou Country, performed by Creedence Clearwater Revival:

And in between sips of Coke / He told me that he thought we were sellin' out / Layin' down, suckin' up to the man / Well now I've got some / Advice for you, little buddy / Before you point the finger / You should know that I'm the man / I'm the man and you're the man / And he's the man as well

1996, “Hooker with a Penis”, performed by Tool:

[…]once people such as Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk show up to your party, there is no longer anything countercultural about it. You are not rebelling against the man. You are the man.

2023 September 5, Arwa Mahdawi, “Why all the Burning Man schadenfreude? Where do I start ...”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

The oppressive powers that be, including the government and corporations; the system, as coordinated outside of one’s control.


narrative structure

en-noun

narrative structure (plural narrative structures)

(narratology) The structural framework that underlies the order and manner in which a narrative is presented to a reader, listener, or viewer.


subplot

1978, R.B. Lee & R. Misiorowski, Script Models: A Handbook for the Media Writer,
Subplot, a story line enclosed within the principal story to provide relief from the main plot's tension, add character dimension, etc.

Structurally, the two most variant scenes (outside of Scene ii) are Scenes 3 and 4 in which the compiler works out the variant subplot.

1998, Stephen Roy Miller, The Taming of a Shrew: the 1594 quarto:

In a sense, Superman's romance with Lois Lane was a subplot and [...]

2001, Dennis O'Neil, The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics:

2001, Nancy Arbuthnot Johnson, Vic Neufield, Forging Links for Health Research,
But this story has a subplot — a subplot about fairness and how people have divergent levels of access to knowledge and resources.

A plot within a story, subsidiary to the main plot.


Hibernia

/hɪˈbɜː(ɹ)nɪə/

Learned borrowing from Latin Hibernia, which see.


shinigami

/ˌʃɪn.ɪˈɡɑːmi/

Borrowing from Japanese 死に神 (shinigami).

(Japanese mythology) A deity and/or personification of death.


John Law

A personification of law enforcement; a police officer.


King Cotton

/ˌkɪŋˈkɒtn̩/

(obsolete) A personification of the cotton production of the southern United States.


foreshadowing

foreshadowing (usually uncountable, plural foreshadowings)

The roses blooming before Rose herself bloomed was excellent foreshadowing.

As an experienced editor I disapprove of backflashes, foreshadowings and tricksy devices […]

2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN:

(literature, usually uncountable) A literary device whereby an author drops hints or symbolic representations of plot developments to come later in the story.


retcon

A blend of retroactive + continuity. The term retroactive continuity was popularized by comics writer Roy Thomas, who was known for writing superhero comic books set decades in the past such as All-Star Squadron, and attributes it to an anonymous source.

TLC: What do you say to the Legion fans who have become disenfranchised with the series due to its various retcons and reboots?

2003, Glen Cadigan, The Legion Companion, page 152:

Fans talk of retcon—retroactive continuity—giving information that explains an earlier event, especially seeming plot contradictions or lacunae.

2005, Rhonda Wilcox, Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, page 9:

It's a little trick called retcon, short for "retroactive continuity," […]
Yet I'm unsure even Millar is fully aware of the power given him by the retcon.

2006, Glenn Yeffeth, editor, The Man from Krypton: A Closer Look at Superman, page 155:

A situation, in a soap opera or other fiction, in which a new storyline explains or changes a previous event or attaches a new significance to it.


dreamworld

From dream + world. Compare West Frisian dreamwrâld (“dreamworld”), Dutch droomwereld, dromenwereld (“dreamworld”), German Traumwelt (“dreamworld”), Danish drømmeverden (“dreamworld”), Swedish drömvärld (“dreamworld”).

At midnight they left the air-conditioned dream-world and entered the oven of the street.

1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 358:

An imaginary world, such as experienced while dreaming.


straight man

For many years Bud Abbott served brilliantly as Lou Costello's deadpan straight man.

Recently he had successfully concluded a case featuring a poet who wore only latex, lived on liquorice allsorts and worshipped a horse she believed to be the reincarnation of Radclyffe Hall. And she was the straight man.

2010, Caroline Graham, A Ghost in the Machine, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

She was the straight man, he was the comedian, and their audience was “standing room only” when they stepped up to the microphone.

1982 April, Pam Hait, “Sandra Day O’Connor: Warm, Witty and Wise”, in The Ladies' Home Journal, volume 99, page 46:

(idiomatic) A member (of any gender) of a team of comic performers who plays a supporting role by helping to set up jokes and punch lines through engaging in dialog with another comedian playing a more eccentric or otherwise more interesting character; a foil who plays such a role in theatrical comedy.

hétköznapi embert/figurát játszó/alakító komikus

бе́лый кло́ун m (bélyj klóun, literally “white clown”)


novum

novum (countable and uncountable, plural novums or nova)

In his book Metamorphoses of Science Fiction (1979), Suvin introduced a number of ideas that remain central in sf criticism: cognitive estrangement, the novum and sf's genetic link with utopia.[…]Even more influential in sf theory than cognitive estrangement is Suvin's concept of the novum.[…]Suvin adopts the concept of the novum from the work of Ernst Bloch, for whom the term refers to those concrete innovations of lived history that awaken human collective consciousness out of a static present to awareness that history can be changed. The novum thus inspires hope for positive historical transformations.

2003, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., “7: Marxist theory and science fiction”, in Edward James, Farah Mendlesohn, editors, The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, Cambridge University Press, page 118:

It seems that this ‘point of difference’, the thing or things that differentiate the world portrayed in science fiction from the world we recognise around us, is the crucial separator between SF and other forms of imaginative or fantastic literature. The critic Darko Suvin has usefully coined the term ‘novum’, the Latin for ‘new’ or ‘new thing’, to refer to this ‘point of difference’ (the plural is ‘nova’). An SF text may be based on one novum, such as [...]. More usually it will be predicated on a number of interrelated nova, such as [...]. This ‘novum’ must not be supernatural but need not necessarily be a piece of technology.

2006, Adam Roberts, Science Fiction, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), pages 6–7:

cognitive estrangement
cognitive estrangement

(narratology, science fiction) An innovation which is fictional, but, following the logic of cognitive estrangement (characteristic of science fiction), is afforded plausibility by the assumption that the fictional setting is scientifically consistent.


supervillain

A fantasy-fiction criminal or evil-doer, often with supernatural powers or equipment, in popular children's and fantasy literature who can present a credible challenge for a superhero.

суперзлодей

a fictional criminal or evil-doer with superpowers


dangler

/ˈdæŋɡlə(ɹ)/

Similarly, participles ending in “ing” often cause danglers in scientific writing: […]

2014, Silvia M. Rogers, Mastering Scientific and Medical Writing: A Self-help Guide, page 43:

(grammar, informal) A dangling participle.


presto change-o

"It doesn't just go one, two, three, presto, change-o, you're cured."

1975, Laura Keane Zametkin Hobson, Consenting Adult, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 85:

1984, Audrey Wood, Presto Change-O, Child's Play, →ISBN:

Then tell them to read the sentence on the front of each flap, open the flap, and read the sentence inside. Presto Change-o! Common nouns are transformed into proper nouns, right before nouns, right before their eyes!

2001, Karen Kellaher, Writing Skills Made Fun: Parts of Speech, →ISBN, page 13:

But then that little psychopath Willie Bosket murdered a couple of subway riders for the hell of it when he was fifteen and -- presto change-o! -- a new law was born.

2006, Peter Blauner, Slipping Into Darkness: A Novel, Little, Brown, →ISBN, page 3:

(informal) Alternative form of presto chango


in medias res

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-in medias res.wav

Borrowed from Latin in mediās rēs (literally “into the middle of things”).

bor

Anyway, the characters have been introduced but by no means established. I know Final Fantasy’s always been big on in medias res, but even the most basic questions about the plot remain unanswered. Who the fuck are these people? What is going on? Why should I care? Can I stop playing now? Please?

2010 (March 31ˢᵗ, 5:00pm): Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, “Final Fantasy XIII” reviewed by Zero Punctuation, 2:03–2:16


happy ending

And how was this happy ending to be brought about? Why, by this very eaſy and trite expedient; to wit, by reforming Lovelace, and marrying him to Clariſſa.

1784, The Novelist's Magazine, volume XV, London: Harrison and Co., page 1263, column 1:

The heroine was killed, and since then the happy ending has only been preserved in an appendix in the play.

1827 June 8, The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, page 4, column 3:

Life is not to be conceived on the analogy of a melodrama in which the hero and heroine go through incredible misfortunes for which they are compensated by a happy ending.

1930, Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness:

Death ends all things and so is the comprehensive conclusion of a story, but marriage finishes it very properly too and the sophisticated are ill-advised to sneer at what is by convention termed a happy ending.

1944, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 1, in The Razor’s Edge […], 1st American edition, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co., →OCLC, section i, page 1:

Well, what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?

1957 July 6, What’s Opera, Doc?, spoken by Bugs Bunny (Mel Blanc):

Modern romance, like Greek tragedy, celebrates the mystery of dismemberment, which is life in time. The happy ending is justly scorned as a misrepresentation; for the world, as we know it, as we have seen it, yields but one ending: death, disintegration, dismemberment, and the crucifixion of our heart with the passing of the forms that we have loved.

1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 25:

And she said: / "Don't you know that storybook loves, / Always have a happy ending."

1987, “Storybook Love”, Willy DeVille (music):

(literature) A clichéd conclusion in which all loose ends are tied up and all main characters are content.


happily ever after

en-noun

happily ever after (plural happily ever afters)

A story with such a happy ending, such as a romance novel or fairy tale.


alternate universe

alternate universe (plural alternate universes)

There are moments when he seems to be writing something on the order of Jorge Luis Borges's "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"—an amazing fragment about the alternate universe where every book contains its counterbook, where things become duplicated and "also tend to become effaced and lose their details when they are forgotten."

1980, Maxine Greene, “Response to Philip Jackson,”, in Curriculum Inquiry, volume 10, number 2, page 173:

This American President exists in an alternate universe from the one the real Bill Clinton must inhabit.

1995 November 20, Richard Corliss, “Where Nice Guys Finish First”, in Time:

(literature, narratology) An imaginary realm, often a variant form of the real world, depicting a different way events could have unfolded or the universe could have functioned.


MacGuffin

Alfred Hitchcock
MacGuffin#History_and_use
Ulster

Used by Alfred Hitchcock, as an arbitrary Scottish surname. The actual name comes from Ulster: Mc- (“son of”) + Irish dubh (“black”) + Irish Fionn (literally “fairheaded”).
See also Wikipedia's MacGuffin § History and use.

af

" […] But we wound up realizing you really can't top yourself. You just tell a different story and hope the new MacGuffin is as compelling as the last MacGuffin."

2000, Steven Spielberg, Lester D. Friedman, Brent Notbohm, Steven Spielberg: Interviews:

A paleontologist lately returned from an expedition to Wyoming, where he unearthed the bones of the first brontosaurus (and supplied guns to the Indians on behalf of the Foreign Office, which had succeeded in its policy of balkanizing the North American continent) Mallory comes into possession of the MacGuffin during a Derby Day encounter with Byron's daughter (and Babbage's protégée) Ada. Thereafter he is hounded by a whole rogue's gallery of villains bent on reclaiming the MacGuffin.

(narratology) A plot element or other device used to catch the audience's attention and maintain suspense, but whose exact nature has fairly little influence over the storyline.


flashforward

This "Lone Ranger" begins and ends in a flash-forward, with an elderly Tonto installed in a carnival diorama behind a sign that reads "The Noble Savage."

2013, “Depp’s Tonto: an upgrade on a stereotype or just an updated stereotype?”, in The Washington Post:

(narratology) A dramatic device in which a future event is inserted into the normal chronological flow of a narrative.


Mother Earth

We had not gone thirty paces from the shaft when far down in the depths my iron dart shot into the nerve ganglion of old Mother Earth and the great moment had arrived.

1928 February 25 – March 3, Arthur Conan Doyle, “When the World Screamed”, in The Professor Challenger Stories […], London: John Murray, […], published [1952], →OCLC, page 574:

The personification of the Earth, (chiefly) conceived as a fertile, nurturing, and loving mother.


autodiegetic

(literary) Pertaining to a narrator who is also the protagonist.


heterodiegetic

(narratology) Of or relating to a narrator that does not take part in the plot.


magic carpet

Have you ever been, have you ever been, to Electric Ladyland? / The magic carpet waits for you, so don't you be late

1968, Jimi Hendrix (lyrics and music), “Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)”, in Electric Ladyland, performed by The Jimi Hendrix Experience:

(fiction) A carpet capable either of magical flight, or instantaneous transport from one place to another, used as a means of travel.


love interest

Some of the greatest and most widely-appreciated literary achievements have been wholly or mainly independent of love-interest or love-inspiration. Religious fervour, zeal for liberty, admiration of abstract virtue, philanthropy, desire to search the heart of man, and contemplation of the beauties and splendours of the outward world,—all these prove to be motives as capable of firing and exalting the imagination as the more directly personal stimulus of love.

1875 July, “the London Hermit” [pseudonym], “Essays and Sketches. On Love in Fiction.”, in Dublin University Magazine. A Literary and Political Journal, volume LXXXVI, number DXI, Dublin: George Herbert, […], London: Hurst & Blackett, Melbourne, Vic.: George Robertson, →OCLC, page 113, column 1:

"The Hand of Peril" is subtitled by its author, Mr. Arthur Stringer, "a novel of adventure," whereas I should label it a six-cylinder detective story. […] Incidentally, the ligament that holds these six morsels together is, of course, a "love-interest" between the detective and the chief criminal's putative daughter and assistant.

1915 September, Henry Brinsley, “Latest News from the Literary Trenches”, in Frank Crowninshield, editor, Vanity Fair, volume 5, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Vanity Fair Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 94, column 1:

The love interest is supplied by the Colonel's grandson and the daughter of the inventor of a horseless wagon.

1926 December, [Arthur Hornblow, Sr.], “Mr. Hornblow Goes to the Play”, in F. E. Allardt, editor, Theatre Magazine: For the Lovers of the Stage and the Screen, volume XLIV, number 309, New York, N.Y.: Theatre Magazine Company, →OCLC, page 72, column 2:

(film, literature) A romantic plot or subplot in a film or book.


Aunt Flo

Pun on flow and Flo (nickname for Florence, Flora, etc).

Aunt Flo came to visit last night: that's why I was so ratty.

(euphemistic slang) A personification of the menstrual period or menstruation.

大姨媽

slang, personification of the menstrual period


deuteragonist

From Ancient Greek δευτεραγωνιστής (deuteragōnistḗs, literally “second actor”), originally in Greek drama, from ἀγωνιστής (agōnistḗs, “a combatant, pleader, actor”).
By surface analysis, deuter- (“second”) + agonist (“combatant, participant”).

der

δευτεραγωνιστής

surf

The issue is no longer about the artistic representation of woman going on within the story: rather, the art object, now unrelated to the actual woman (at a literal level, at any rate), becomes her deuteragonist and antagonist, and the opposition thus settled becomes further complicated by reversal, exchanges, shifts in their respective positions.

2001, Donatella Izzo, Portraying the Lady: Technologies of Gender in the Short Stories of Henry James, University of Nebraska Press, page 58:

(narratology) A secondary character; specifically, the second most important character (after the protagonist).


Johnny Canuck

1869, Johnny + Canuck, a character in political cartoons.

(chiefly World War I, World War II) A Canadian soldier.


shazaam

and before you can say "Shazaam!" he is translated into Sgt. Moffatt of the Laguna Hills security force.

1968, Michael T. Malloy, The Art of Retirement, page 74:

Suddenly, you find yourself worrying about the strength of the dollar versus the euro and — shazaam — you switch from parasympathetic to sympathetic far faster than you wanted.

2004, Robert M. Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, page 125:


Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (canonical)

en-au-Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.ogg

"This is a graph of the death rate from infectious disease in this country. The heroes of my field have slain one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. While the heroes of your field gathered in the desert to create a new one."

2015 May 4, Randall Munroe, xkcd (webcomic), Degree-Off:

(biblical) Four beings in Revelation 6:1–8 that bring about the Apocalypse, each embodied as a horseman riding a different-colored horse that represents a different aspect of the Apocalypse.

אַרְבַּעַת פָּרָשֵׁי הָאָפּוֹקָלִיפְּסָה

náhodeesdzáago dįltʼéego łį́į́ʼ bił níjééʼ


alakazam

Unknown, with various theories ranging from spontaneous usage as a nonsense chant, to less likely sources from Arabic, Latin, and Hindi.
Some etymologists suggest an origin from Arabic القَسَم (al-qasam, “the oath”).

A magic word used in conjuring; presto, shazaam.


Mary Sue

From the name of an intentionally over-the-top character in the 1973 Star Trek parody fan fiction A Trekkie's Tale by Paula Smith.

Bella may be a Mary Sue, but if we don't identify with her, and even if we do, there's no other interpretive place for us in the universe.

2010 August 3, Ta-Nehisi Coates, “A Whole New World”, in The Atlantic:

She was a mashup of ideals that made her feel very fake; a Mary Sue who was popular, pretty, athletic, artistic, all the while loved by everyone who met her.

2015 January 20, Sian Cain, “Why a non-white Nancy Drew could be amazing”, in The Guardian:

So here's a radical suggestion: instead of being concerned about whether her Mary Sue flawlessness is a problem, why not, just this once, enjoy it for what it is?

2015 December 19, Tasha Robinson, “With Star Wars' Rey, we've reached Peak Strong Female Character”, in The Verge:

There is one, and only one, previously unheard of flaw that keeps Nanase from being the merriest of Mary Sues. That flaw is...

2022 August 18, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive - EGS:NP (webcomic), Comic for Thursday, Aug 18, 2022:

(fandom slang, usually derogatory) A fictional character, usually female, whose implausible talents and likeability weaken the story.


plot device

An element introduced into a story, film, etc. to advance its plot.


Ah Puch

(Maya mythology) The personification of death in Maya mythology.


Ankou

Borrowed from French Ankou, from Breton Ankoù.

(Celtic mythology) The personification of death in Celtic mythology.


Mother Nature

But when you’re in a struggle with one of Mother Nature’s challenges — like a virus or a climate change — the goal is not to defeat her. No one can. She’s just chemistry, biology and physics. The goal is to adapt.

2020 April 28, Thomas L. Friedman, “Is Sweden Doing It Right?”, in New York Times:

A personification of nature as woman, emphasizing fertility and fecundity.

Mare Naturalesa

the personification of Nature and the Earth's biosphere as a woman


info-dump

(literature) A long section in a work of fiction that reveals often tedious expository information through the voice of the narrator.


story arc

This story arc about "hunting the buffalo" is part of a larger story arc about "developing relationships with the Indians".

1992, Linda Seger, The Art of Adaptation: Turning Fact and Fiction into Film:

A story arc can be developed continuously until it is completed, but it is more usual for a drama series to treat a story arc discontinuously...

2005, David Schmid, Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture:

An extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television or comic books.


homodiegetic

The second part of the novella, including chapters 13-15, is more personal and reflective. Here, our apparently heterodiegetic narrator reveals himself to be homodiegetic: to be Tanner's sidekick BB Trane, previously referred to in the third person.

2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 185:

(literature, film) Of or relating to the narrator of a dramatic work who is also the protagonist or other character in the work.


premake

From pre- + make. The narratological sense is patterned after remake using pre- (“before”).


archvillain

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

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

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

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

arkkivihollinen

a supreme villain; the most evil or powerful villain


Lady Justice

In a mythological personification, justice symbolized as a blindfolded young lady, similar to Lady Luck.


midquel

(narratology) A work that is set during the timeframe of a previous work, rather than before or after it.


slow burn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


antiheroic

en-adj

antiheroic (comparative more antiheroic, superlative most antiheroic)

more antiheroic (comparative)
most antiheroic (superlative)

“Monsieur Verdoux” may once again be timely, but the audacity of its statement derives less from Chaplin’s antiwar polemic than from his antiheroic pose.

2008 June 8, J. Hoberman, “When Chaplin Became the Enemy”, in New York Times:

(narratology) Of, pertaining to or typical of an antihero.


eucatastrophe

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

coinage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

eucatastrophe

catastrophe that results in the protagonist's well-being


analepsis

en-noun

analepsis (countable and uncountable, plural analepses)

From Ancient Greek ἀνάληψις (análēpsis).

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


Tommy Atkins

Said to be a fictitious name inserted in document templates given to soldiers to guide them in filling out account blanks, etc. Found in the publication Soldier's Account Book (1815) and later in King's Regulations (1837).

O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play

A voice I don't want to listen to tells me that this is England's last land triumph; that our military history ends here[…]. Tommy Atkins will serve with pluck and valor wherever he fights hereafter, as always; but the conduct of the war is passing out of our hands.

1978, Herman Wouk, War and Remembrance, Back Bay Books, published 2002, page 507:


Helvetia

Helvetia
Helvetia (disambiguation)
Helvetii

A ghost town in Pima County, Arizona, United States.

Washington County
Washington County#English

An unincorporated community in Washington County, Oregon, United States.

census-designated place
census-designated place

A census-designated place in Randolph County, West Virginia, United States.

A town in Waupaca County, Wisconsin, United States.


Johnny Foreigner

UK late-20th century. The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang says "first recorded in 1990 but in use earlier". From John or Johnny as a personified idea. Compare Johnny Canuck (“Canadian”), Johnny Crapaud (“Frenchman”), Johnny Reb (“Confederate American”).

No wonder Johnny Foreigner lays in supplies of the stale bread rolls whenever he appears over the horizon.

1983, Richard Ingrams, John Wells, Private Eye - Issues 550-575, page 70:

Mr. King's message was that Johnny Foreigner does it better than us. In Germany, in Japan and in the United States, these bottlenecks just do not happen.

1984 December 3, John Torode, “Why must training for tomorrow be a dead turn-off?”, in The Guardian, page 18:

A time when Johnny Foreigner knew his place. A time when beautiful women from other countries existed primarily to be seduced...

1999, James Chapman, Licence to thrill: a cultural history of the James Bond films:

...the constant threat of spontaneous outbreaks of singing on Centre Court by pop has-beens and the occasional ungentlemanly antics of Johnny Foreigner...

2004, Charles Godfrey-Faussett, Footprint England:

(UK, informal, derogatory) Foreigners collectively; people who are not British.


plot hole

Invited to collaborate with Hitch, Shaffer watched several of the director's previous films and noticed in North by Northwest a glaring plot hole; Cary Grant hides aboard a train that he has selected randomly yet, somehow, his pursuers lie in wait aboard the same train.

2012, Allan Brown, Inside the Wicker Man, Birlinn, →ISBN:

(authorship) A gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot.


focalization

focalization (countable and uncountable, plural focalizations)

From focal + -ization or focalize + -ation.

(narratology) The perspective through which a narrative is presented.


to be continued

(writing, television) Used at the end of an episode of a serial publication or program to indicate that the story continues in the next episode.

EMH: Computer, freeze programme.
PARIS: Doc, this is the final chapter. Satan's Robot Conquers the World. We can't stop now.
EMH: Does the phrase to be continued mean anything to you?
PARIS: Your opera can wait.

1998, Star Trek: Voyager (TV series), "Night" (episode)

EMH: This programme is a waste of photonic energy.

(colloquial) Used to indicate that a story under discussion has not concluded, either in narration or in reality.


focalize

en-verb

focalize (third-person singular simple present focalizes, present participle focalizing, simple past and past participle focalized)

focalizes (present singular third-person)
focalizing (participle present)
focalized (participle past)
focalized (past)

(narratology) To switch to a particular perspective (focalization)


direct speech

(grammar, narratology) the writing of speech, using the exact words of the speaker, usually between quotation marks


worldbuilding

The purpose of worldbuilding isn't just to do a cool exercise, but to give a sense of place — and all of your thought experiments absolutely have to result in something vivid and alive.

2013 February 8, Charlie Jane Anders, “7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding”, in io9, archived from the original on 2016-11-25:

High fantasy of the George RR Martin kind hinges on world-building. When there really is a whole world to build, and not just a historical period or a particular country, world-building does not take a few paragraphs in a short story; it takes chapters.

2015 May 20, Natasha Pulley, “Fantasy cannot build its imaginary worlds in short fiction”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(fiction) The conception and description of a fictional world, often as the setting of a work of fiction, particularly in speculative fiction.

աշխարհկառուցում

act or process of building of a fictional world


sequelitis

For an exhilarating period, until spectacle and sequelitis restored formula to the throne, experimentation became big box-office.

1996, Peter Travers, The Rolling stone film reader:

Suffering a bad case of sequelitis, this Sister Act follow-up is too formulaic and frequently pauses to sermonize at the expense of entertaining.

2000, Derek Elley, Variety Portable Movie Guide:

(informal, derogatory) The tendency of a well-received work to spawn many inferior sequels.


throughline

From through (“passing from one side of something to the other”, adjective) + line. Compare Middle English thurghline (“a brail or buntline”).

cog

Produced by none other than Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, Good Boys again most closely resembles a kind of junior-varsity tryout for that duo's Superbad, down to its modestly affecting emotional through-line: an acceptance of the fact that childhood friendships, forged out of proximity and convenience, aren't always destined to last.

2019 August 14, A. A. Dowd, “Good Boys Puts a Tween Spin on the R-rated Teen Comedy, to Mostly Funny Effect”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2021-03-04:

The Russian rockets fell on Babyn Yar, 80 years after the Nazi atrocities it commemorates; Zelenskiy’s face was enough to hammer home the gravity of the thematic throughline.

2022 March 8, Zoe Williams, “Zelenskiy brings down the house with his speech to the Commons”, in The Guardian:

(narratology) In full through line of action: a theme that runs through the plot of a book, film, or other narrative work, or a series of such related works.

fil conducteur

theme that runs through the plot of a narrative work, or a series of such related works


Ma Bell

Like Ma Bell, I've Got The Ill Communications

1994, “Get it together”, in Ill Communication, performed by Beastie Boys:

(US, telecommunications, informal, historical) Collectively, the family of companies associated with American Telephone & Telegraph, providing telephone service in the United States for many years through 1983.


tritagonist

Ancient Greek, originally in Greek drama, from ἀγωνιστής (agōnistḗs, “a combatant, pleader, actor”). By surface analysis, trit- (“third”) + agonist (“combatant, participant”).

surf

In Greek drama, the actor who played the third role (after the protagonist and deuteragonist)


Chekhov's gun

Calque of Russian Чеховское ружьё (Čexovskoje ružʹjó). The principle was articulated by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov and reported in various forms.

cal

Чеховское ружьё

The episode of the sun-god's island is the Odyssey's equivalent of Chekhov's gun, announced in the poem's earliest lines as the occasion of the companions' downfall and anticipated ever since.

2005, John Miles Foley, A companion to ancient epic, →ISBN, page 324:

He is Chekhov's gun on the wall, destined to go off at the crucial moment.

2007, John Updike, Due considerations: essays and criticism, →ISBN, page 336:

An element that is introduced early in the story whose significance to the plot does not become clear until later.


mytharc

Blend of mythology + story arc, used originally and most commonly in reference to The X-Files.

This [Neon Genesis Evangelion] is one show that -really- has me sucked in. And yes, their mytharc has to be the most perfectly constructed thing I've ever seen. :)

1999, Heath Smith, “TAN: Neon Genesis and how to do the mytharc properly”, in aus.tv.x-files (Usenet):

I think this is what you seek to avoid in mytharcs - a plot that drowns out the character-based drama and morality plays that are still Gene's finest legacy.

2000, Allronix, “An open letter to Ms. Roddenberry”, in alt.tv.earth-final-conflict (Usenet):

The mytharc is a continuous story line about the government's involvement in a plot to cover up the presence of extraterrestrials on Earth.

2008, J. P. Telotte, The essential science fiction television reader, page 234:

(fandom slang) The ongoing story arc that underpins all episodes of a television series.


reset button

But after a year of sagging ratings, Dallas hit the reset button, by having Pam wake up to see Bobby, very much alive, lathering up in their shower. The entire 1985–86 season, including Bobby's death, had been a bad dream of Pam's, and now that she was awake, Dallas could go on the way it should have, with the previous year's events effectively wiped away.

2016, David Bianculli, The Platinum Age of Television […] , Anchor, →ISBN, page 140:

Voyager the show ambles and meanders just like Voyager the ship, hypothetically exploring new territory but actually doomed to retreads and consequence-free episodic storytelling (heavy on what fans came to call “the Reset Button” that restores the status quo), exacerbated by overuse of technobabble.

2020, Murray Leeder, “Confessions of an Anti-Fan”, in Robert L. Lively, editor, Exploring Star Trek: Voyager: Critical Essays, McFarland, →ISBN, page 250:

(fiction) A plot device that interrupts continuity in works of fiction, by returning characters and situations to the status quo they held before certain changes were introduced.


shoulder angel

An angel representing a person's conscience in works of fiction, portrayed as sitting on one shoulder while a shoulder devil occupies the other.


shoulder devil

Coordinate term: shoulder angel

A devil representing a person's temptations in works of fiction, portrayed as sitting on one shoulder while a shoulder angel occupies the other.


title character

en-noun

title character (plural title characters)

A fictional character whose name or a short description is present in the title of the work where the character appears.


antinarrative

(narratology) A narrative, as of a play or novel, that deliberately avoids the typical conventions of the narrative, such as a coherent plot and resolution.

antinarrativa

a narrative that deliberately avoids the typical conventions of the narrative


nondiegetic

(film music) That does not occur as part of the action, and cannot be heard by the film's characters; background.


handwavium

From hand waving + -ium (“the chemical element suffix”).

af

My handwavium was an invented mineral, but - reading up - what about platinum? Could I substitute platinum for handwavium?

2008 February 3, Jacey Bedford <jacey@artisan-harmony.com>, “Handwavium”, in rec.arts.sf.composition (Usenet):

It made no sense to him that their very impossibility was their pleasure. He puzzled over the spacecraft and their handwavium drives. "The thousand and one nights of Scheherazade, told by an engineering student who failed his graduation exams," was his literary judgment.

2008 March, Alexander Jablokov, “The Boarder”, in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, volume 114, number 3, Concord, N.H.: Fantasy House, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9:

She writes romantic fantasy and science fiction, and makes liberal use of the substance known as handwavium.

2012, Imogen Howson, Blood of the Volcano, Cincinnati, Oh.: Samhain Publishing, →ISBN, page 167:

(informal, fiction) Any hypothetical but unobtainable material with desirable engineering properties.


big red button

A real, fictional, or figurative button that controls a function of critical importance and that is usually large and red, ensuring quick identification.


spiritual sequel

en-noun

spiritual sequel (plural spiritual sequels)

A successor to a work of fiction which does not directly build upon the storyline established by a previous work as do most traditional prequels or sequels, but nevertheless features many of the same elements, themes, and styles as its source material.


Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu

the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu (canonical)

law (“rule”) + of + conservation (“preservation”) + of + ninjutsu (“a martial art used by ninjas”)
The law implies that each team of ninjas has the same finite amount of "power" of martial arts, therefore a team with fewer ninjas has more powerful ninjas.

> The more creativity and ingenuity you give your aliens, the less is
> available for your humans, generally the protagonists, which means
> things will end poorly for Our Heroes. [...]
Sort of like a SCIENCE application of the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu?

2007 December 3, sw <sw@eyrie.org>, “Re: Why so few creative aliens?”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet), message-ID <slrnfl8dbu.6gg.sw@haven.eyrie.org>:

In other words, if I can tweak the minion->normal->elite->solo system into a^([sic]) in-game representation of the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu, there will be much win.

2008 May 19, Nockermensch <ralgomes@gmail.com>, “Re: Ampersand: The Scoop on D&D Insider”, in rec.games.frp.dnd (Usenet), message-ID <11398510-50ce-4342-a223-ca68b86c8b89@25g2000hsx.googlegroups.com>:

The Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu was working in the main characters' favor, but even so, it was hard going.

2011 February 19, Andrew Perron <pwerdna@gmail.com>, “LNH/RACCies: Just Imagine Saxon Brenton vs. Andrew Perron in the Return of the RACCies! #10: Poledancing Phantoms of Limbo”, in rec.arts.comics.creative (Usenet), message-ID <1hmvlegtnnkih$.1p14289mto1ro.dlg@40tude.net>:

(narratology, fiction, informal, humorous) The ability of one or few people to win fights against many opponents.


sequel hook

(narratology, informal) A plot device where information or characters are placed into a plot that can provide the basis for subsequent sequel stories.


Father Sky

The personification of the Sky and its biosphere.

Ciel-Père

the personification of the Sky and its biosphere


self-insertion

self-insertion (countable and uncountable, plural self-insertions)

(narratology) A literary device in which the author writes himself or herself into the story as a character.


queerbait

en-verb

queerbait (third-person singular simple present queerbaits, present participle queerbaiting, simple past and past participle queerbaited)

queerbaits (present singular third-person)
queerbaiting (participle present)
queerbaited (participle past)
queerbaited (past)

From queer + -bait (manipulation to elicit a particular response).

af

(LGBT, fandom slang) To engage in queerbaiting (creating homoerotic tension, but not developing it, in a narrative work to reel in an LGBT audience).


Lady Liberty

In a mythological personification, liberty symbolized as a young lady, holding up a torch.


meet cute

Claudette Colbert
Ernst Lubitsch
Gary Cooper

Accidentally coined by German-American film director Ernst Lubitsch (1892–1947), who had difficulty speaking English, to describe the encounter between the characters played by Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper in the 1938 film Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife.

If this is a distortion of reality, it is a knowingly utopian gesture, and the wit of such conceits lies in placing in tension the ideal with the real and so being more than a series of fancy ‘meet cutes’: […]

1989, Bruce Babington, Peter William Evans, Affairs to Remember: The Hollywood Comedy of the Sexes, Manchester, New York, N.Y.: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 11:

The hunt for love saturates Western culture. […] Romantic comedies have characters discover one another serendipitously, called "meet-cutes." The lead clumsily spills a drink on his future love interest, setting off a chain of events to love. Meet-cutes affirm the idea that possibility is all around us: love can happen anywhere, at anytime, and with anyone.

2013, Jaime Woo, “How to Find Love on Grindr (if You Hafta)”, in Meet Grindr: How One App Changed the Way We Connect, Canada: [Lulu.com], →ISBN, page 108, column 1:

In some respects, it might be too faithful to the genre it savages; as in many real rom-coms, the energy flags during the plot’s backstretch, and audiences may share the drifting interest of Kyle (Bill Hader) and Karen (Ellie Kemper), who come to regret ever asking Joel and Molly to chronicle their meet-cute.

2014 June 26, A. A. Dowd, “Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler Spoof Rom-com Clichés in They Came Together”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2017-12-07:

When Wade first crosses paths with Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), the ass-kicking fellow “gunter” (or egg hunter) with whom he becomes infatuated, the pair’s meet cute is predicated on the swapping of favorite pop-culture quotes.

2018 March 26, A. A. Dowd, “Steven Spielberg Finds Fun, and maybe even a Soul, in the Pandering Pastiche of Ready Player One”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-05-31:

Café Pick Me Up was a cosy little place with a low pressed-metal ceiling, crammed full of tiny tables, with French cafe chairs and mellow lighting. If you were to write a romcom featuring a meet cute, you’d set it there.

2021 December 26, Alys Fowler, “My winter of love: I was homesick in New York. The quiet Danish poet was just what I was longing for”, in The Guardian:

(narratology, informal) A situation in a film, television series, etc., in which a potential romantic couple meet for the first time in a way that is considered adorable, amusing, or cute.


shark-jumping

From shark + jumping, from jump the shark.

Christian Lander (2008) Stuff White People Like, →ISBN, page 171: “But if you must declare a shark-jumping moment, the best bet is to say that the show jumped between the two “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” episodes.”

To me this dinner, with its tasting notes and the rest, seemed like the dernier cri in shark-jumping foodie bullshit.

2012 April 20, Oliver Thring, “Me and my spoon”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), The Guardian:

Becoming unbelievable or disappointing due to plot developments.


worldbuilder

Many mistake my approach as hostile to the sacrosanct memory of J. R. R. Tolkien, undoubtedly one of the greatest worldbuilders of the 20th century and indirectly the father of both a literary and a gaming genre.

2001, Neal Hallford, Jana Hallford, Swords and circuitry: a designer's guide to computer role playing games, page 207:

We are weary of theoretical worldbuilders who strive to construct logical designs that weave together all components of the social fabric.

1989, Stanford M. Lyman, Marvin B. Scott, A Sociology of the Absurd:

One who constructs a world, especially a convincing fictional world for literature etc.


requel

Patterned after sequel using re- (“again, anew”).

"We want the character to look different, feel different, sound different. The back story of the character's different, the origin of the story is expanded upon in ways that the first movie didn't hint at, at all. […] It's pretty much a reboot, only with the same actor, which makes it: a requel. Or a seboot."

2011 March 21, “Ghost Rider 2 is 'very different'”, in Belfast Telegraph:

A movie which revisits the subject matter of an earlier film but is not a remake or a linear continuation of its plot (i.e. a sequel or prequel).

新傳

a movie revisits the same subject matter as an earlier one but not a sequel or prequel


framing device

“Treehouse Of Horror III”’s framing device finds the good folks of Springfield telling stories during a Halloween party.

2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(narratology) An introductory or main narrative that provides a framework for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories.


Billy Yank

American Civil War
American Civil War#English

(US, dated) A soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War.


-verse

Women's lib in the BSGverse.

2008, Lynnette Porter, David Lavery, Hillary Robson, Finding Battlestar Galactica, page 150:

This is Uhura's – and Uhura's fans' – big moment, the moment in which she blazingly comes alive as a member of the Trekverse.

2009, David Greven, Gender and Sexuality in Star Trek, page 216:

Forming compounds nouns denoting the fictional world of a given character, television series etc.


tragic flaw

When a heroine's tragic flaw takes the form of uncontrollable love for an outlaw, the paths of momentary glory can lead but to defeat.

1948 May 31, Harold V. Cohen, "'Green Grass of Wyoming'" (film review), Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p. 28 (retrieved 5 July 2012)

If the jury, who begin their final deliberations tomorrow, find the black All-American hero guilty of murdering his white wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, they will have concluded that he succumbed to the oldest tragic flaw in the book, the green-eyed monster of jealousy.

1995 October 1, John Carlin, “OJ's guilt is a black and white choice”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2012-07-05:

The control-freak instinct runs too deep. . . . This runs the risk of becoming a tragic flaw.

2002 February 25, J. F. O. McAllistair, “Blair the Bungee Jumper”, in Time:

(chiefly literary criticism) A personality trait or other characteristic of a real or fictional individual which is immoral, destructive, or otherwise faulty and which leads to the ruin or profound suffering of that individual.


worldmaking

The creation of a world, as for example in writing fiction.


balonium

From baloney + -ium. See baloney (“nonsense”).

I assumed starship fuel (antimatter or balonium) could be produced from electricity with perfect conversion, so it cost exactly what electricity did — good enough for the one-digit-or-so accuracy needed.

1990, Analog science fact, science fiction: Volume 110:

Suppose that we have a Geiger counter and we are able to make measurements, during a ten hour period, of the balonium sample.

1993, American Statistical Association, Proceedings of the Section on Statistical Education:

The data in Table 7.7 were taken for the highly radioactive element balonium-245.

2004, Mark T. Holtzapple, W. Dan Reece, Concepts in Engineering:

List of fictional elements, materials, isotopes and subatomic particles


paracosmos

Day dreaming and fantasies which are flights into the paracosmos, are an antithesis of creativity which is the most intense land of action.

1961, The American Journal of Psychiatry, volume 117, page 96:

More simply stated, the paracosmos reflects a writer's interest in examining a (generally) rather small number of persons, or types of persons, in a variety of circumstances and relationships: he has marked out a portion of the world as his own and works upon it to make it his.

1975, Roger Johnson, Editha S. Neumann, Guy T. Trail, editors, Molière and the Commonwealth of Letters: Patrimony and Posterity, University Press of Mississippi, page 421:

Such artists tend to create an imaginary world, a paracosmos where good and evil are starkly represented, where evil powers always challenge the good ones and need to be vanquished time and again.

2011, Claire Golomb, The Creation of Imaginary Worlds: The Role of Art, Magic and Dreams in Child Development, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 80:

(rare) The realm of imagination; an imaginary world.


paracosm

From English para- (prefix meaning ‘alongside, beside’) (from Ancient Greek παρα- (para-, prefix meaning ‘beside’)) + English cosm(os) (“universe”) (from Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos, “the earth, world; universe”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱems-, *ḱens- (“to put in order”)).

der

Imaginary playmates and paracosms may chiefly represent the vast creative potential of inherently talented people, but in less elaborated forms, they may also represent what childhood imagination can offer to the growing person. Humanity has already benefited from the paracosmic visions of Plato, Thomas More, Aldous Huxley, Thomas Hobbes, Arthur Tappan Wright^([sic – meaning Austin Tappan Wright]) (Islandia), and J. R. R. Tolkien.

1990, Dorothy G. Singer, Jerome L. Singer, “Imaginary Playmates and Imaginary Worlds”, in The House of Make-Believe: Children’s Play and the Developing Imagination, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, →ISBN; paperback edition, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992, →ISBN, page 116:

Occasionally the fantasies of older childhood go well beyond the invention of a pretend friend. In fact, some children, typically at about 9 or 10 years of age, create "paracosms"—entire societies or worlds for the imaginary people to inhabit. [...] How common is it for children to create such elaborate fantasies, and what does the invention of a paracosm say about its creator?

1999, Marjorie Taylor, “Do Older Children and Adults Create Imaginary Companions?”, in Imaginary Companions and the Children Who Create Them, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 136:

As Emily [Brontë] turned in on herself for resources, she created a new paracosm, the Kingdom of Gondal, which she shared with Anne [Brontë]. The paracosm of Gondal became a way of life for the sisters; they shared its secrets for the rest of their lives.

2005, Delmont C. Morrison, Shirley Linden Morrison, Memories of Loss and Dreams of Perfection: Unsuccessful Childhood Grieving and Adult Creativity (Imagery and Human Development Series), Amityville, N.Y.: Baywood Publishing, →ISBN, page 72:

One paracosm in their study was a country called Branmail consisting totally of cats — except for its creator, a six-year-old girl named Holly who had access to the world by scaling a height called Bumpety Banks.

2007, Thomas Armstrong, “Middle Childhood: Entering the Civilized World”, in The Human Odyssey: Navigating the Twelve Stages of Life, New York, N.Y.: Sterling Publishing, →ISBN, page 93:

The children created these inner worlds for a number of reasons, though each paracosm tends to be a long-lasting, heavily structured, and internally consistent.

2010, Sarah Lynne Bowman, “Role-playing as Alteration of Identity”, in The Functions of Role-playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identity, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 130:

A detailed imaginary world, especially one created by a child.

exocosm

outside the cosmos, for example parallel universe


bed trick

A plot device in traditional literature and theatre where a character begins sexual activity with someone else, then steals away after the lights are off, allowing another character to continue instead.


UST

en-noun

UST (countable and uncountable, plural USTs)

Being a hard-core "noromo" (parlance for "no romancer," someone who believes the show's UST, or unresolved sexual tension, is the key to its vitality), I have also flamed "shippers" ("relationshippers," those who want Mulder and Scully to get it on in the film) with now embarrassing vituperations, such as, "Why don't you just go get the lame job you're destined for at the state budget office?"

1998 June 22, John Cloud, “Cinema: An X-Phile Confesses”, in Time:

Fanny has to be wooed with tenderness and humility - cue much UST (Hollywoodese for Unresolved Sexual Tension) as their slow-burn romance creates an incredible chemistry between Russell and Marion.

2006 October 20, Maureen Paton, “Self-made Marion”, in Daily Mail:

Oyelowo is a fashion victim and trots around her new patch in pretty stilettos. She changes her outfit and hair at least four times in each episode and spends a lot of time bickering with her new boss. Oh, did I mention they were an item long ago? Hence all that UST.

2008 June 7, Rosalie Higson, “Light touches add amusement to crime”, in The Australian:

(narratology) Initialism of unresolved sexual tension.


pale rider

A reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as the rider of a pale horse is Death.

(idiomatic) Death, the Grim Reaper or angel of death; and one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.


Conquest

The personification of conquest, often depicted riding a white horse.


black rider

A reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as the rider of a black horse is Famine.

(idiomatic) Famine, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.


red rider

A reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as the rider of a red horse is War.

(idiomatic) War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.


white rider

A reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as the rider of a white horse is Conquest/Pestilence.

(idiomatic) Conquest or Pestilence, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Victor Vasnetsov


Famine

(mythology) The personification of famine, often depicted riding a black horse.


War

Through much of the War, Hitler carried his painter's kit, did water colors of War-ruined buildings.

1939 October 30, “Paintings by Adolf Hitler”, in Life, volume 7, number 18, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 52:

Preceded by the: designating a particularly notable war.

(chiefly British, informal) World War II.

The personification of war, often depicted in armour and riding a red horse; the red rider.


Pestilence

The personification of pestilence, often depicted riding a white horse.


Shinigami

/ˌʃɪn.ɪˈɡɑːmi/

(Japanese mythology, Shinto) The deity and/or personification of death. (Compare Izanami and Enma).


Watsonian

en-adj

Watsonian (comparative more Watsonian, superlative most Watsonian)

more Watsonian (comparative)
most Watsonian (superlative)

From Watson + -ian. "In-universe" sense formed in reference to Dr. John Watson, the fictional author within the text of the Sherlock Holmes stories, in contrast to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as the real author of the stories. Started in Sherlock Holmes fandom before spreading to other fandoms. Possibly originating in the "Baker Street Irregulars" fan club and entering the science fiction fandom usage (fanspeak) via the Lois McMaster Bujold mailing list.

I would accept that many of them behave like humans born on earth would, but that must be an artefact of poor translation or our poor understanding of their motives and objectives [Watsonian] or lack of vision on the writers part [Doylist - to borrow some terms from the Bujold mailing list - think 'as written by' Dr Watson or by Arthur Conan Doyle].

2000 October 6, Martin Bonham, “Banks was Re: Multi-culturalism in space?”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet), message-ID <970804830.406747@hermes>:

IIRC, Wells specifically described the choice of Southern England as being as much about "bridgehead" as about "decapitation strike". I think he said something about settling in to the island and building up strength before spreading out to the continent and planet.¶ That's the Watsonian explanation of course, the Doyleist explanation is that he was writing an allegory of white men wiping about the Tasmanians, from the point of view of the Tasmanians. He needed to set it where his English readers would be horrified by the destruction, and the Martian invasion of Korea or Florida or Sri Lanka, or even Ireland, wouldn't have had as much of an impact.

2005 May 30, Del Cotter, “Re: The past as a foreign country”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet), message-ID <oZTd7a9563mCFw2X@branta.demon.co.uk>:

While fans recognize and do engage in Doylist readings, they tend to find Watsonian readings more engaging. Fan fiction writers in particular engage with the text intradiegetically.

2012, Laurie Cubbison, “Russell T Davies, 'Nine Hysterical Women,' and the Death of Ianto Jones”, in New Media Literacies and Participatory Popular Culture Across Borders, →ISBN:

I think the best Watsonian explanation is that shopkeepers aren't quite right in the head. They know that most players intend to rob them blind, but don't understand how the successful ones are doing it.

2014 March 28, Michael Deutschmann, “Re: WhichDevTeam-enabled actions seem like cheating to you?”, in rec.games.roguelike.nethack (Usenet), message-ID <%gcXNTpsfY@bagheera.talosis.ca>:

(fandom slang, narratology) From an in-universe perspective; of or relating to an explanation within the text; internal to the narrative.


Moros

From Ancient Greek Μόρος (Móros), from Ancient Greek μόρος (móros, literally “fate, doom”).

uder

(Greek mythology) The personification of impending doom, who drives mortals to their deadly fate


Santa Muerte

Unadapted borrowing from Spanish Santa Muerte (literally “Holy Death”).

ubor

A female folk saint venerated primarily in Mexico and among Mexican-Americans in the United States. A personification of death, also associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to the afterlife.


Brother Jonathan

Said to have originated from George Washington referring to the patriotic Jonathan Trumbull, governor of Connecticut, by this name.

The personification and emblem of New England. He is also an allegory of capitalism and transcendent aspirations, and, in the past, has occasionally been the national personification of the entire United States.


Johnny Crapaud

"I say, you fellows, Johnny Crapaud says he can play cricket!” exclaimed Crow one morning. “What fun!”

1887 July 5, Henry Frith, “Our Cricket-Match at Sandilands”, in The Boy's Own Paper, number 101, Canadian reprint of volume 9, number 438 (June 4, 1887), Toronto: Warwick & Sons, page 579:

The French were very sore about the unceremonious manner in which the Dual Control was dispensed with. Their simple statesmen seemed to think that we, who had complacently picked the chestnuts out of the fire, were going to share them. Earl Granville, in kindness of heart, offered Johnny Crapaud a consolation sop in the form of the Presidency of the Public Debt Department, which was sulkily refused, and Johnny Crapaud retired to his tent, thence to cause us petty annoyances whenever he could.

1901, Edward Vizetelly, “Cairo After the Occupation”, in From Cyprus to Zanzibar, by the Egyptian Delta, page 231:

(offensive, derogatory, ethnic slur) A Frenchman.


John Chinaman

John Chinaman is playing the devil with us shipmasters of the English nation.

1840 March 25, The Colonist, Sydney, page 2, column 1:

The simple cup of tea, and frugal meal of rice and salt fish, are the principal factors to " John Chinaman's " success wherever he goes.

1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 234:

My head was full of stories about John Chinaman: opium, slavery, how they ate the hands of Christian babies.

1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 193:

(now offensive) A Chinese man; the Chinese people generally.


jump scare

They'd do something horrible, maybe kill off a few protagonists, and then make people sit around waiting for the next terrible thing to come along. They called it “setting up a jump scare.”

2011, Mira Grant, Deadline, Orbit, published 2011, →ISBN:

Drag Me to Hell capitalizes on the jump scare, scattering it liberally throughout the film to the point where it becomes almost numbing.

2011, John Rosenberg, The Healthy Edit: Creative Techniques for Perfecting Your Movie, Focal Press, →ISBN, pages 80–81:

This quiet is broken suddenly with an initial jump scare of the puppet's iconic laughter.

2013, Jeffrey Bullins, “Hearing the Game: Sound Design”, in James Aston, editor, To See the Saw Movies: Essays on Torture Porn and Post-9/11 Horror, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 188:

(narratology) The technique, typically used in horror films and video games, of having something occur suddenly and without warning to frighten the audience.

säikäytys

a technique to suddenly scare the audience


mytheme

From myth + -eme, popularized by Claude Lévi-Strauss.


bibbidi-bobbidi-boo

Originated in the 1948 novelty song “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”, used in the 1950 film Cinderella.

(informal) A light-hearted magical incantation.

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo
Cinderella (1950 film)


conworld

From constructed world; equivalent to con- (“constructed”) + world.

However, you will have created a pile of crossword puzzles you'll be proud to submit to Will Shortz, or a conworld that's so rich and real the inhabitants have actually attained sapience and now worship you as their god.

2007, Ron Hale-Evans, Marty Hale-Evans, Mindhacker: 60 Tips, Tricks, and Games to Take Your Mind to the Next Level, Wiley Publishing, published 2011, →ISBN:

The most respected languages in the conlang community often have years of work behind them, and may even be attached to whole "conworlds" or "concultures" that help give them coherence and a model "literature."

2009, Arika Okrent, In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language, Spiegel & Grau, published 2009, →ISBN, page 287:

[…] in my conworld Almea the great navigators of southern Ereláe were the Jei, and undoubtedly Jei-based pidgins sprung up.

2012, Mark Rosenfelder, Advanced Language Construction, →ISBN, page 78:

An imaginary world, especially one with highly-detailed cultures, languages, and geography.


play of words

1683, William Atwood, Three Letters to Dr. Sherlock Concerning Church-communion, Jonathan Robinson, page 16,
Great is Diana of the Epheſians, and great is the uſe of the word Church, when good Crafts-maſters have the handling of it; and of all Men thoſe of Rome have ſucceeded beſt at this play of words.

1988, Span, Issue 26, University of Queensland, page 104,
At the outset the reader is fascinated by the complex surface play of words. In the poem 'Paraphrase' the play of words is likened to the play of imagery on the surface of a lake; words 'beckon' and 'whisper', luring the reader towards an undisclosed meaning or goal.

The components of that analysis will be: characterization of a main figure in the narrative, the use of time and the patterning play of words.

2000, John A. Beck, Translators as Storytellers, Peter Lang, page 81:

2000, Stephanie Quinn, Why Vergil?, Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, page 3,
In addition, the selections are organized to make a case for the value of the play of words and for their power, about ideas and history, and art.

(narratology, rhetoric) The ordering of words in a text, speech, etc., taking regard for both the individual words (their meanings, sounds, etc.) and the interplay between them.


queerbaiting

Queerbaiting is erasure. It’s telling queer people that they don’t exist, or that our stories aren’t worth telling, and it’s harmful.

2013 October 7, Matthew Ellison, “Queerbaiting”, in Salient, volume 76, number 23, Victoria University of Wellington, page 39:

Some feel that fan pressure to emphasize Buffy and Spike’s relationship spoiled the last few seasons of Joss Whedon’s show, and many fans were alienated by Teen Wolf’s recent queer-baiting.

2013 November 20, Mollie Forman, “Eat the executive”, in Post, Brown University:

Criticism of queerbaiting also does not imply that creators need to be dictated to by fans on how to run their show; […]

2014 June 29, Maneesha Dullewe, “A brief guide to queerbaiting”, in Ceylon Today:

And as a much better NYT comment piece on queerbaiting put it last year: “As self-serving as some celebrity caginess can be, you can’t build a world in which everyone feels free to self-identify by ordering everyone to self-identify.”

2024 January 10, Laura Snapes, “Taylor Swift’s people shut down speculation about her sexuality – but risked rebuking her LGBTQ fans”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(LGBT, fandom slang) The practice of creating homoerotic tension between two characters in a narrative work (particularly a television series) without the intention of ever developing it into an actual same-sex relationship or explicitly addressing the question of either character's sexuality.


Old Man Winter

[…] the media like to humanize the weather, to suggest that we’re in some kind of grim battle with Old Man Winter when it’s cold or snowy […]

2001, Sara Foss, The Daily Gazette: Speaking of the weather:

It is interesting how we personalize or humanize certain forces which we cannot control like "Mother Nature" and "Old Man Winter".

2002, Robert H. Claxton, Claxton on Williams and Duedall, Florida Hurricanes and Tropical Storms, 1871-2001:

They also have humanized time and weather, with such references as "Father Time" and "Old Man Winter", "Mother Earth" and "Hurricane Floyd".

2003, Scotland Miles, Don't Take Me To Your Leader, →ISBN, pages 28–29:

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press


HoYay

From a contraction of "homoeroticism, yay!", after a thread so named on the forum Television Without Pity.

This should really help the HoYay! quotient on BtVS, which was largely lacking in S5, Willow and Tara notwithstanding (it's not as much fun if it's *text*).

2001 June 28, Mike Zeares, “Re: New writer joins BUFFY staff”, in alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer (Usenet):

Tangentially, speaking of HoYay! movies, the local movie reviewer here said about "The Count of Monte Cristo" that he's seen less homoerotic subtext in a Village People video.

2002 January 26, Shadowy Moon [username], “Re: Religious groups praise "Lord Of The Rings"”, in alt.gossip.celebrities (Usenet):

Considering fans' previous seemingly blanket endorsement of everything queer, one has to ask why HoYay! fans don't favor the queer Lex/Lana/Clark triangle.

2008, Melanie E. S. Kohnen, “The Adventures of a Repressed Farm Boy and the Billionaire Who Loves Him: Queer Spectatorship in Smallville Fandom”, in Sharon Marie Ross, Louisa Ellen Stein, editors, Teen Television: Essays on Programming and Fandom, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, pages 214–215:

(fandom slang) Homoerotic subtext in a television show, film, book etc.


secondary world

en-noun

secondary world (plural secondary worlds)

Coined by J. R. R. Tolkien in his 1947 essay "On Fairy-Stories".

What really happens is that the story-maker proves a successful 'sub-creator'. He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is 'true': it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside.

1947, J.R.R. Tolkien, “On Fairy-Stories”, in Essays Presented to Charles Williams, page 60:

From beginning to end of the fiction we are in the secondary world.

1982, Frederick M. Burelbach, “An Introduction to Naming in the Literature of Fantasy”, in Literary Onomastics Studies, volume 9, number 11, archived from the original on 2021-05-16, page 133:

The girls stress the internal logic of the Secondary World as the crucial point for fantasy pleasure. Mastering the elaborate structure of the Secondary World is part and parcel of the reader's quest to experience a text such as Harry Potter, although the central hero would identify the text as masculine.

2004, Holly Virginia Blackford, “It's Like a Fantasy World”, in Out of this World: Why Literature Matters to Girls, Teachers College Press, →ISBN, page 48:

The world to which the protagonist belongs is the 'primary' or 'domestic' world. The secondary world is often a binary opposite of the primary world; an inverse, or mirror-image of the consensual reality of the text.

2012, Jane Suzanne Carroll, “The Sanctuary Topos”, in Landscape in Children's Literature, Routledge, →ISBN, page 26:

(fantasy) An internally consistent, fictional, fantasy world or setting that is different from the real "primary world".


primary world

Now, this secondary world can be made to stand entirely on its own, so that there is no primary world in the fiction and the only reference points to the real world are those the reader brings with him or forges for himself. This is generally the case with what is commonly called "high" fantasy, such as J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

1982, Frederick M. Burelbach, “An Introduction to Naming in the Literature of Fantasy”, in Literary Onomastics Studies, volume 9, number 11, archived from the original on 2021-05-16, page 132:

Fantasy fiction has been categorized and described in different ways. One classification divides fantasy into two major types:¶ low fantasy, which takes place in the primary world (our world);¶ high fantasy, which takes place in alternative worlds.

2008, Nikki Gamble, Sally Yates, “Fantasy and Realism”, in Exploring Children's Literature, →ISBN, page 120:

(fantasy) The real world of the reader or viewer, as opposed to the imaginary "secondary world" of a work of fiction.


extradiegetic

en-adj

extradiegetic (comparative more extradiegetic, superlative most extradiegetic)

more extradiegetic (comparative)
most extradiegetic (superlative)

This voice-over functions very differently from the extradiegetic narrator of the radio soap opera however, who tended to impose ideological coherence on the text, as well as serve as spokesman for the products being sold.

2011, Harry M. Benshoff, Dark Shadows, Wayne State University Press, published 2011, →ISBN, page 38:

However, in this sequence Colleen's actions alone do not make her horrific. Rather, the extradiegetic music condemns her.

2011, Alison Peirse, “Horrible Women: Abjection, Gender and Ageing in Nip/Tuck”, in Roz Kaveney, Jennifer Stoy, editors, Nip/Tuck: Television That Gets Under Your Skin, I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, →ISBN, page 76:

Instead, an extradiegetic narrator renders detached testimony of the hero's traumatic story in the Thatcher era.

2011, José M. Yebra, “A Terrible Beauty: Ethics, Aesthetics, and the Trauma of Gayness in Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty”, in Susana Onega, Jean-Michel Ganteau, editors, Ethics and Trauma in Contemporary British Fiction, Rodopi, →ISBN, page 183:


intradiegetic

intradiegetic (comparative more intradiegetic, superlative most intradiegetic)

more intradiegetic (comparative)
most intradiegetic (superlative)

One of the most famous examples of an intradiegetic narrator is Scherezade, the narrator of the tales in Arabian Nights (1954), who does belong in the general narrative frame despite that not involving her own but other people's stories.

2010, Nina Nørgaard, Beatrix Busse, & Rocío Montoro, Key Terms in Stylistics, Continuum, published 2010, →ISBN, page 125:

Intradiegetic music continues to be used to very stirring effect throughout the film, especially a solo performance of the sixties folk hymn “Five Hundred Miles” sung by Croxen's daughter, […]

2011, Thomas Waugh, The Right to Play Oneself: Looking Back on Documentary Film, University of Minnesota Press, published 2011, →ISBN, page 169:

One well-known example of an intradiegetic narrator is Marlow in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, who recounts his African adventures to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary.

2014, Susanne Klinger, Translation and Linguistic Hybridity: Constructing World-View, Routledge, published 2014, →ISBN:


Doylist

Doylist (comparative more Doylist, superlative most Doylist)

more Doylist (comparative)
most Doylist (superlative)

From Doyle + -ist, with reference to Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
Adjective formed by analogy to Doyle as the real author of the text, as opposed to Dr. John Watson as the fictional author within the text. Started in Sherlock Holmes fandom before spreading to other fandoms. Possibly originating in the "Baker Street Irregulars" fan club and entering the science fiction fandom usage (fanspeak) via the Lois McMaster Bujold mailing list.

I would accept that many of them behave like humans born on earth would, but that must be an artefact of poor translation or our poor understanding of their motives and objectives [Watsonian] or lack of vision on the writers part [Doylist - to borrow some terms from the Bujold mailing list - think 'as written by' Dr Watson or by Arthur Conan Doyle].

2000 October 6, Martin Bonham, “Banks was Re: Multi-culturalism in space?”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet), message-ID <970804830.406747@hermes>:

Roddenberry's official explaination^([sic]) was "They always looked like that. We just didn't have the budjet^([sic]) in the 1960's to show them properly."¶ This is one case where I prefer the Doylist explaination^([sic]).

2001 September 30, Rob Wynne, “Re: OK, Enterprise...”, in rec.music.filk (Usenet), message-ID <74Jt7.875$oL3.24397@eagle.america.net>:

While fans recognize and do engage in Doylist readings, they tend to find Watsonian readings more engaging. Fan fiction writers in particular engage with the text intradiegetically.

2012, Laurie Cubbison, “Russell T Davies, 'Nine Hysterical Women,' and the Death of Ianto Jones”, in New Media Literacies and Participatory Popular Culture Across Borders, →ISBN:

(fandom slang, narratology) From a real-world perspective; of or relating to an explanation outside the text; external to the narrative.


metadiegetic

metadiegetic (comparative more metadiegetic, superlative most metadiegetic)

more metadiegetic (comparative)
most metadiegetic (superlative)

A particularly striking example appears in Hawthorne's next romance, The House of the Seven Gables, in which Chapter 13 consists entirely of a metadiegetic narrative entitled "Alice Pyncheon," composed and read by the diegetic character Holgrave.

1995, Michael Dunne, Hawthorne’s Narrative Strategies, page 87:

The diegetic and metadiegetic aspects of the Joker's use of music also persist. Prince's "Trust" features diegetically in the festival parade as the Joker rides on his birthday-cake float, while the Straussian waltz reappears metadiegetically in the in the cue "Waltz," for the battle between Batman and the Joker's henchman as the Joker waltzes with a semiconscious Vicki in the background. This, and his comment, "shall we dance?" to Batman just before the cue starts again positions this as music that the Joker has control cover: it is more than simply heard in his head.

2004, Janet K. Halfyard, Danny Elfman's Batman: A Film Score Guide, page 108:

Sound effects are often enlisted to externalize a characters' inner thoughts, nightmares, hallucinations, dreams, or wishes. We might hear, for example, the laughter of a child as a woman picks up a doll from childhood. This gives the scene a surreal feeling. This effect is often called meta-diegetic.

2005, Jennifer Van Sijll, “Sound Effects”, in Cinematic Storytelling, →ISBN, page 90:

(narratology) Pertaining to a secondary narrative embedded within the primary narrative (a story within a story).


hypodiegetic

hypodiegetic (comparative more hypodiegetic, superlative most hypodiegetic)

more hypodiegetic (comparative)
most hypodiegetic (superlative)

In Jane Eyre this hypodiegetic level is only attained four times again, first in chapter fifteen, in which Rochester tells Jane about his mistress Celine Varens, second in chapter twenty-seven [...]

1999, Esther Schönberger-Schleicher, Charlotte and Emily Brontë: a narrative analysis of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, →ISBN, page 182:

Gretta's story, by contrast, has all the force of an authentic performance, a spontaneous speech-act that recreates its own referential validity. As such, it is the most coherent and integrated hypodiegetic act of narration in Dubliners.

2004, Gerald Doherty, Dubliners' Dozen, page 132:

Continuing this issue of depth: backgrounds are also used throughout some issues of Sandman, for example in Sandman #6 (“24 Hours”) where they provide mood, or Sandman #3 (“Dream a Little Dream of Me”) where a hypodiegetic dream story underlies the pages (see for example page 22), with the diegetic narrative sequence overlaid.

2014, Julia Round, Gothic in Comics and Graphic Novels, page 71:


Auntie Beeb

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, affectionate nickname) The BBC.


horse and hattock

From the Scottish folk tradition that this is the cry that fairies make when they leave a place.

...but one of their number being, it seems, a little more bold and confident than his companion, said Horse and hattock with my top!' and immediately they all saw the top lifted up from the ground, but could not see which way it was carried, by reason of a cloud of dust which was raised at the same time.

1835, Fraser's magazine for town and country - Volume 11, page 219:

Archroy had noticed that his old Morris Minor, which his wife described as 'an eyesore', was no longer upon its blocks in the garage but seemed to have cried horse and hattock and been carried away by the fairies.

1992, Robert Rankin, The Antipope, →ISBN, page 18:

The Miscellanies of John Aubrey (1626-97) noted two cases involving the phrase "Horse and Hattock" and fairy levitation.

2001, Lizanne Henderson, Edward J. Cowan, Scottish Fairy Belief: A History, →ISBN, page 37:

A call that invokes the fairies to transport someone or something.


John Q. Law

Now if we cross the path of any John Q. Laws, nobody does a fuckin' thing 'til I do something.

1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by The Wolf (Harvey Keitel):


focalizer

(narratology) A character through which the story is told, and whose perspective the story is told from.


authorial intent

en-noun

authorial intent (plural authorial intents)

The intent of an author as encoded in their work.


Belly of the Whale

Coined by Joseph Campbell in 1949. Probably an allusion to the book of Jonah in the Bible, in which Jonah was swallowed by a great fish.

A story element which represents the final separation from a hero's known world and self.


shared universe

shared universe (plural shared universes)

A fictional universe encompassing multiple separate works of fiction.


Old Frizzle

An ace of spades with a duty tax stamp similar to a banknote.


Uncle Sugar

Blend of Uncle Sam + sugar daddy. Popularized by Mike Huckabee, though not original to him.

“Uncle Sugar provides well for me. Because of Uncle Sugar I have a good education and the opportunity to retire when I'm thirty-five years old."

2004, Shane Russell, Living Hell, page 25:

[An Obama campaign ad] depicted a woman named Julia who from cradle to grave was dependent on all things "government" and could live her life only with the ever-present and all-guiding hand of Uncle Sugar.

2014, Mike Huckabee, God, Guns, Grits and Gravy, page 102:

(chiefly Southern US) A personification of the American welfare state.


abracadabrangle

A representation of the word "abracadabra" in the visual form of a triangle, used as an amulet or charm.


motifeme

A basic unit of story, such as a character or a situation, used in the comparative analysis of folktales.


timeskip

From time + skip, cf. Japanese 時とばし (toki tobashi).

Akira Toriyama uses a timeskip to rejoin us with Gokū and friends in Dragon Ball Chapter 113, three years after Gokū leaves Uranai Baba's Palace for his global trek.

2016, Derek Padula, Dragon Ball Culture Volume 5: Demons, Derek Padula, →ISBN, page 8:

(fandom slang) An instance of fast-forwarding a substantial amount of time, such as years or decades, as a narrative device in a story, quickly aging characters and developing events.


love quadrangle

love quadrangle (plural love quadrangles)

(rare) A situation in which three people vie for the love of a fourth person.


hey pass

(obsolete) A conjurer's exclamation on performing a magic trick; hey presto.


love rectangle

But the breakup and awkward love rectangle were a recurring topic in Google's gossip mill, adding even more tension.

2022, Mark Bergen, Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination, Penguin, →ISBN:


pourquoi story

pourquoi story (plural pourquoi stories)

(narratology) A fictional narrative that explains why something is the way it is.


origin story

More unsettling was the origin story of the infamous tell-all book Princess in Love. Diana claimed to be outraged in 1994 when Daily Express journalist Anna Pasternak spilled the beans of her affair with former army officer James Hewitt[…]

2022 April 5, Tina Brown, “How Princess Diana’s Dance With the Media Impacted William and Harry”, in Vanity Fair:

Premiering July 10, The Anarchists[…]circles loosely around these dilemmas throughout six episodes that alternate between origin story, character study, true crime, and trend report.

2022 July 8, Judy Berman, “The Anarchists Is a Messy, Gripping Anarcho-Capitalist Saga”, in Time:

George Miller returns to direct an origin story for the character that Charlize Theron played in 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road,” with Anya Taylor-Joy in the Furiosa role.

2024 January 1, Holland Cotter, Alissa Wilkinson, Mike Hale, Salamishah Tillet, Jesse Green, “What Our Critics Are Looking Forward to in 2024”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(narratology) An account of how a fictional character or characters became a protagonist or antagonist.


conculture

From con- (“constructed”) + culture; compare conlang, conworld.

The most respected languages in the conlang community often have years of work behind them, and may even be attached to whole "conworlds" or "concultures" that help give them coherence and a model "literature."

2009, Arika Okrent, In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language, Spiegel & Grau, published 2009, →ISBN, page 287:

An imaginary culture, especially one associated with a conworld or conlang.


dialogue tag

Not every paragraph of dialogue needs to have a dialogue tag attached to it.

Sometimes inexperienced writers will discover the useful tool of tacking on detail to a dialog tag with a present participal or adverbial phrase: "It's too late," she said, closing the door.

2000, Tom Romano, Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers, →ISBN, page 63:

A dialogue tag has to indicate sound

2004, Leslie Wainger, Writing a Romance Novel For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons:

An alternative style forsakes italics altogether and assigns a dialogue tag: This is going nowhere, he thought.

2011, Deborah Halverson, Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons:

A line of dialogue followed by a dialogue tag looks like this: “Nothing suits me better than a fried egg on toast early in the morning,” Billy said.

2015, Kris James with Laura E. Koons and Stefanie Spangler Buswell, Beyond the Style Manual: Bundle #1, Red Adept Publishing:

(narratology, authorship) A sentence part that attributes a piece of written dialogue to its speaker. (e.g. In "Get out of here," he said, "he said" is a dialogue tag.)


expository lump

expository lump (plural expository lumps)

(authorship) A portion of a story that contains an excessive amount of exposition.


John Company

British East India Company
British East India Company

(archaic, colloquial) The British East India Company.


common thread

What is the common thread in these three stories?

A common thread links the social world of barbershop with the neighbouring social worlds of jazz and classical music as these were sketched in the first chapter. The common thread is the general musical lifestyle shared by the musicians who […]

1996, Robert A. Stebbins, The Barbershop Singer: Inside the Social World of a Musical Hobby, University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 100:

My experiences in education, network consulting, service provider support, and certification have shown me that there is a common thread that frustrates people in all of these arenas. That common thread is documentation.

2001, William R. Parkhurst, Cisco BGP-4 Command and Configuration Handbook, Cisco Press, →ISBN:

It is not difficult to see that in this preoccupation with middle-class identity, there is a common thread to all the narratives I discussed. This common thread has to do with the attempts by the Victorian writers to dramatize finance capitalism at […]

2004, Borislav Knezevic, Figures of Finance Capitalism: Writing, Class and Capital in Mid-Victorian Narratives, Routledge, →ISBN, page 152:

A recurring characteristic or theme present in different events or areas.


Uncle Whiskers

The network canceled—nonco-operation their legal shysters said. Suing me, for, for ten million clams, damages to sponsors, agencies. Internal Revenue-Uncle Whiskers says I owe them a mint.


Aion

From Ancient Greek Αἰών (Aiṓn, “Greek god or personification, Gnostic spirit”).

bor

(Greek mythology) A Hellenistic deity associated with time, the orb or circle encompassing the universe, and the zodiac.

Eon

Greek god associate with time, the universe and the zodiac


Ourea

The primordial gods of the mountains in Greek mythology


Johnny Turk

(obsolete, informal, military slang) An Ottoman soldier in World War One, particularly a Turkish one.


phlebotinum

(science fiction) A fictional material used by authors to develop a plot requiring a material with properties not possessed by any real material.


cognitive estrangement

Coined by Yugoslav-born academic, writer and critic Darko Suvin in his 1979 book Metamorphoses of Science Fiction.

In his book Metamorphoses of Science Fiction (1979), Suvin introduced a number of ideas that remain central in sf criticism: cognitive estrangement, the novum and sf's genetic link with utopia. In the notion of cognitive estrangement, Suvin conflate two distinct, but related, ideas of estrangement from earlier literary theory: ostranenie (de-familiarization) from the Russian Formalists, and Berthold Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt (alienation effect).[…]Even more influential in sf theory than cognitive estrangement is Suvin's concept of the novum.

2003, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., “7: Marxist theory and science fiction”, in Edward James, Farah Mendlesohn, editors, The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, Cambridge University Press, page 118:

Cognitive estrangement can therefore be seen as defining the textual effects of such work: the text faces its audience with something that will not fit into the existing patterns of verisimilitude, yet is being asserted and explored as fact.

2005, Jan Johnson-Smith, American Science Fiction TV: Star Trek, Stargate and Beyond, I.B. Tauris, page 26:

Darko Suvin, the eminent theorist of science fiction, defined science fiction as a literature of cognitive estrangement, a genre in which the reader enters an imaginative world different or estranged from his or her empirical world, but different in a way that obeys rational causation or scientific law: thus, it is estranged cognitively.

2011, Roger Luckhurst, “1: In the Zone: Topologies of Genre Weirdness”, in Sara Wasson, Emily Alder, editors, Gothic Science Fiction 1980-2010, Liverpool University Press, page 21:

(literature, narratology) A narrative logic, characteristic of science fiction, whereby devices used in the story are afforded plausibility by their being placed in the context of the fictional setting, which is envisioned to be scientifically consistent.

spoznajnog očuđenja

narrative logic characteristic of science fiction


allohistorical

/æləˌhɪˈstɔːɹɪkəl/

From allo- (prefix meaning ‘different, other’) + historical.

prefix

If [Alexander] Demandt's essay served as a strident example of the German desire for normalcy, a more subtle example was provided by a brief allohistorical depiction of a Nazi victory in World War II written by German historian Michael Salewski in 1999.

2005, Gavriel D[avid] Rosenfeld, “Germany’s Wartime Triumph: From Dystopia to Normalcy”, in The World Hitler Never Made: Alternate History and the Memory of Nazism, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, part I (The Nazis Win World War II), page 182:

Thus Django becomes the carrier of the “public use of one's reason”—the Kantian road to enlightenment given to him by the German “Forty-Eighter” dentist–turned-bounty hunter Dr. “King” Schultz, and represents the fictive, allohistorical beginning of the battle against slavery and racism in the United States.

2014, Robert von Dassanowsky, “Dr. ‘King’ Schultz as Ideologue and Emblem: The German Enlightenment and the Legacy of the 1848 Revolutions in Django Unchained”, in Oliver C. Speck, editor, Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained: The Continuation of Metacinema, New York, N.Y., London: Bloomsbury Academic, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, part 1 (Cultural Roots and Intertexts: Germany, France, and the United States), page 25:

The question of the plausibility of the counter-factual is seen as key in all three discussions of allohistorical fiction (as it is in [Alexander] Demandt's and [Niall] Ferguson's examinations of allohistory)[…].

2014, David Malcolm, “The Great War Re-remembered: Allohistory and Allohistorical Fiction”, in Martin Löschnigg, Marzena Sokolowska-Paryz, editors, The Great War in Post-memory Literature and Film, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 173:

(narratology) Relating to alternate history, either as a discipline or genre, or as a specific counterfactual sequence of events.


Johnny no mates

en-noun

Johnny no mates (plural Johnny no mates)

(British, slang) Synonym of Billy no mates (“a person with few or no friends”)


plot coupon

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

[…] pain to see Clute single-handedly tackle multi-volume fantasy extrusion-product, with its flimsy plot coupons and its stale eucatastrophes.

2004, Foundation, volume 33, numbers 90-92, page 126:

(fandom slang) An object sought by a character in a story in order to achieve some objective, having little purpose beyond advancing the plot.