science fact

en-noun

science fact (countable and uncountable, plural science facts)

From science + fact, by analogy with science fiction.

Is it that science fact has gone beyond science fiction?

2004, Ray Bradbury, Steven L. Aggelis, Conversations with Ray Bradbury, page 108:

It is based on science fact.

2005, Rosemary Feasey, Creative Science: Achieving the WOW Factor with 5-11 Year Olds:

Is it real or fictional? Does it represent science fiction, or does it represent science fact?

2013, Nick Hubble, Aris Mousoutzanis, The Science Fiction Handbook:

(fiction) Reality, especially scientific and technological reality, as contrasted with what is depicted in science fiction.


thirteener

From thirteen + -er (suffix denoting people characterized by something, or people or things to which certain measurements or numbers apply).

affix

oner · twoer · fiver · sixer · Sevener · niner · tenner · elevener · twelver · fourteener · fifteener · sixteener · hundreder · thousander · twenty-five-thousander

[T]he peculiar Latin thir'''teener so popular in the Middle Ages, and best known by the lines attributed to Mapes—Meum est propositum in taberna mori [My purpose is to die in a tavern].

1910, George Saintsbury, “Origins of Lines and Stanzas”, in Historical Manual of English Prosody, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC, book IV (Auxiliary Apparatus), page 325:

By the third decade of the eighteenth century, the syllabic line that really threatened to stay was an uncouth thing of thirteen syllables (counting the obligative feminine terminal), with a caesura after the seventh syllable: […] The order of the stresses in the thirteener went in jumps and jolts and varied from line to line. The only rule (followed only by purists) was that the seventh, caesural, syllable must bear a beat.

1964, Vladimir Nabokov, “The Origination of Metrical Verse in Russia”, in Notes on Prosody […] (Bollingen Series; LXXIIa), New York, N.Y.: Bollingen Foundation, →OCLC, page 35:

The lines are almost uniformly decasyllabic (though the syntax breaks up the iambs early in the sequence), and there are some notable exceptions which mainly cluster toward the end of the final sonnet (one line is a thirteener).

1992, Peter Quartermain, “‘Not at All Surprised by Science’: Louis Zukofsky’s First Half of ‘A’ – 9”, in Disjunctive Poetics: From Gertrude Stein and Louis Zukofsky to Susan Howe (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 74:

The term "poulter's measure"—a poulter was a poultry retailer—was originally a joke-name based on the fact that if one bought a dozen eggs in Tudor England a thirteenth was free, like the later "baker's dozen." Thirteener, or poulter's measure, meant couplets (two rhymed lines), the first with six accents or strong beats, the second with seven (often with twelve beats, then fourteen). […] The resembles the standard ballad rhythm, as in Samual Coleridge's famous Rime of the Ancient Mariner: "Water, water, everywhere / And not a drop to drink."

1999, Alan Hager, “The Narrative Source of Romeo and Juliet”, in Understanding Romeo and Juliet: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents (Literature in Context), Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 70:

[…] I would first agree with [Earl] Wasserman that the last line ["[shapes] Which walk upon the sea, and chaunt melodiously"] alludes to Jesus walking on water, the point of the allusion being the kerygmatic expression of a form of transcendence, which is more or less specified by the way the other hemistych of this remarkably balanced thirteener – "and chaunt melodiously" – recalls how it is on the breath of enamored air and song that all the vigorously launched members and voices of this scene are sustaining their courses.

2011, Edward T. Duffy, “Recounting Reverses, Recovering the Initiative: Act II of Prometheus Unbound”, in The Constitution of Shelley’s Poetry: The Argument of Language in Prometheus Unbound (Anthem Nineteenth-century Series), London; New York, N.Y.: Anthem Press, →ISBN, page 144:

(poetry) A thirteen-syllable line or series of lines in a poem.


paradelle

Coined by Billy Collins circa 1997; believed to be from a blend of parody + villanelle.

(poetry) A ridiculously restrictive poetic form consisting of four sestets that must repeat lines and reuse all previous words according to a fixed pattern.


Balaam box

(slang, archaic, journalism) A receptacle for rejected articles.


imposing stone

[The printer] gathers the letters marked as corrections in the margin, together with a quantity of spaces of all sizes, and returns to the forms, which in the meanwhile one of them has laid up on the imposing-stones and unlocked.

1841, Thomas Curson Hansard, Treatise on Printing and Type-founding:

Imposition is the process of arranging type forms in the desired position for printing so that they may be locked-up om readiness for the press. It is commonly known as stone-work to the practical printer, because the forms are placed and handled on an imposing stone, and the workmen are known as Impositors.

1922, Clifford Wilson Hague, Textbook of Printing Occupations, page 137:

After the type form has been proofed, corrected, and tied up again, it is ready for printing and must be locked up. This is done on the imposing stone (called a stone because of the flat marble or sandstone on top of the imposing table.

1971, Technical Manual: TM 8-290: Craft Techniques in Occupational Therapy, United States Department of the Army, page 12-25:

(printing, historical) The stone on which the pages or columns of type are imposed or made into forms.


citizen journalist

en-noun

citizen journalist (plural citizen journalists)

(media) An amateur journalist who engages in citizen journalism.


saas-bahu

(India, fiction) A genre of drama fiction concerning the relationship between the controlling evil mother of a husband (mother-in-law) and her dominated, downtrodden, meek daughter-in-law.


Selenite

From Selene (“the Moon”) + -ite. From Ancient Greek Σελήνη (Selḗnē, “goddess of the Moon”).

uder

My first impression was of some clumsy quadruped with lowered head. Then I perceived it was the slender pinched body and short and extremely attenuated bandy legs of a Selenite, with his head depressed between his shoulders.

1900 December – 1901 August, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Selenite’s Face”, in The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, […], published 1901, →OCLC, page 136:

(science fiction) Synonym of Lunarian (“inhabitant of the Moon”).


Selenite

a Selenite colony

"Come, Diana [a dog]," said he; "come, my girl! thou whose destiny will be marked in the cynegetic annals; […] thou who art rushing into interplanetary space, and wilt perhaps be the Eve of all Selenite dogs! come, Diana, come here."

1873, Jules Verne, “Round the Moon: A Sequel to From the Earth to the Moon. Chapter III. Their Place of Shelter.”, in Louis Mercier [i.e., Lewis Page Mercier], Eleanor E[lizabeth] King, transl., From the Earth to the Moon, Direct in Ninety-seven Hours and Twenty Minutes: And a Trip Round It. […], New York, N.Y.: Scribner, Armstrong & Company, published 1874, →OCLC, page 170:

(science fiction) Pertaining to the inhabitants of Luna (Lunarians/Selenites).


numbers station

en-noun

numbers station (plural numbers stations)

(radio, espionage) A shortwave radio station characterized by unusual broadcasts, often of artificially generated voices reciting streams of numbers, words, etc., supposedly coded messages.


Middle-Earth

(fiction) Alternative letter-case form of Middle-earth


dump months

From the sense that movie studios are "dumping" poor-quality and limited-appeal films during those months.

(film) The two periods of the year, often described as January and February and mid-August through September, when new movie releases are either poor-quality, cheaply made, or intended for niche audiences, since low movie attendance limits the potential box office return.


Earthship

Compound of Earth + ship. In the architectural sense, coined by American architect Michael E. Reynolds.

coinage

(science fiction) A spaceship originating from or belonging to Earth.


supercut

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

Take a few minutes and watch this very well-done supercut of (nearly) every movie that came out in 2010.

2010, All The Movies Of 2010 In One Epic Supercut (VIDEO), The Huffington Post

A supercut of all of the pie and coffee in Twin Peaks, most of it ingested by Agent Dale Cooper, obviously.

2013, Populist: Items of interest this week, The Guardian

Now, Vimeo user Alejandro Prullansky has compiled a super cut of Anderson's slo-mo shots from across the director's filmography, charmingly – and maybe a tad cheekily – set to The Shins' "New Slang."

2014, Jon Blistein, Watch a Supercut of Wes Anderson's Slow-Motion Scenes, Rolling Stone

(film) A montage of short video clips, usually from a film or TV series, illustrating a particular repeated element such as a word or phrase.


throwout

en-noun

throwout (countable and uncountable, plural throwouts)

From throw out, in the sense of having been thrown out of society.

(printing) A folded sheet that opens out to one side; half a gatefold.


plasteel

Grunting, he heaved to his feet and looked out the lucilite port at the surface of Saturn. Cold and rugged it was, lashed by furious gales that tore with futile fury at the plasteel dome which Elmer Dunk called home.

1942 March, Gord Peck, “He Was Poor...But He Was Honest”, in Censored, volume 1, number 3, St. Andrew's College, Aurora, page 7:

The passage, two paces deep, opened through a heavy door into a square office lighted by golden glowglobes. Jessica passed her hand across the door as she entered, was startled to identify plasteel.

(science fiction) A fictional durable substance.


battlesuit

(science fiction) A technologically enhanced suit worn in battle for protection, camouflage, etc.


box-drawing character

box-drawing character (plural box-drawing characters)

(computing, typography) A text character used for creating geometric frames and boxes.


alternative press

alternative press (usually uncountable, plural alternative presses)

Despite shortages of money and supplies, a Government monopoly on printing presses and occasional police harassment, a new generation of samizdat, or self-published, journals is offering an open challenge to the official press. The alternative press now includes dozens of magazines in Moscow and Leningrad, with others reported in the Baltic republics, the Ukraine and Armenia.

1988 January 12, Bill Keller, “For Soviet Alternative Press, Used Computer Is New Tool”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-02-04:

Nonobjective writers gravitate to the alternative press—or to the editorial page.

1999 December 5, M. Lewis Stein, “Letters to the Editor: Just the Facts, Ma'am”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2014-02-04:

"A lot of the issues in the magazine were the things we cared about in the early Seventies: racial equality, non-discrimination against gays, police harassment, housing. There weren't a lot of voices flying the flag for all those issues. Time Out, like others in the alternative press, flew all those flags."

2006 June 26, Ian Burrell, “Tony Elliott: Time Lord”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2014-02-04:

(publishing, uncountable) Collectively, newspapers or other printed publications which provide an editorial perspective and information differing from—and often dissenting from—the outlook and information provided by more established, conventional, or official publications.

"If it were not for the existence of feminist-controlled alternative presses, many works of creation and social criticism by women writers would not be published at all," said Ms. Aidoo.

1997 October 22, Lena Williams, “Celebrating Writers Who Defy All the Odds”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-02-04:

(publishing, countable) A particular publisher or publication of this type.


flow motion

(film) A combination of a timelapse, hyperlapse, and regular cinematographic shots.


Titanean

(science fiction) An inhabitant of Titan (the Saturnian moon)


oxia

From the Ancient Greek ὀξεῖᾰ (oxeîă), an elliptical use for ἡ ὀξεῖᾰ προσῳδῐ́ᾱ (hē oxeîă prosōidĭ́ā, “the acute accent”) — ἡ (hē, the nominative feminine singular form of ὁ, ho, “the”, the definite article) + ὀξεῖᾰ (okseia, the nominative feminine singular form of ὀξῠ́ς, oksus, “sharp”, of sound “shrill”, of tones “high-pitched”) + προσῳδῐ́ᾱ (prosōdiā, “variation in pitch of the speaking voice”, “pronunciation of a syllable on a certain pitch”, “a mark [i.e., a diacritic] indicating normally unwritten differences of pronunciation, viz. vowel quantity, breathing, and pitch”).

(orthography and typography) An Ancient Greek pitch-marking diacritic: ⟨ ´ ⟩; written atop vowels, it denotes high pitch on short vowels, and rising pitch on long vowels and diphthongs.

οξεία

Ancient Greek diacritic marking high or rising pitch


outworlder

It is a thing no outworlder may know except those very few who have been involved.

1967, “Amok Time”, in Star Trek: The Original Series, season 2, spoken by Spock (Leonard Nimoy):

He speaks with the outworlder tongue!
What else were you expecting from a male, sister Dykstra?

1995, Among Friends And Enemies, Part 3: The Magical Mystery Tour (Gen13), volume 2, number 3 (comic), page 19:

Let each government make sure that rich and poor alike, dirtborn and outworlder, Terran and Variant, all have equal access to the outernet and its resources.

1998, Celia S. Friedman, This Alien Shore:

(science fiction, fantasy) One who comes from another planet, or from a society so culturally foreign as to be a different world.


chapter book

Such books are typically divided into short chapters, to suit limited attention spans.

(authorship) An illustrated storybook intended for intermediate readers, generally aged from 7 to 10.


magical Negro

(film, literature) A black supporting stock character in media, especially American cinema, who is portrayed as coming to the aid of a white protagonist.


galley slice

(printing, obsolete) A sliding false bottom to a large galley.


run upon sorts

en-verb

run upon sorts (third-person singular simple present runs upon sorts, present participle running upon sorts, simple past ran upon sorts, past participle run upon sorts)

runs upon sorts (present singular third-person)
running upon sorts (participle present)
ran upon sorts (past)
run upon sorts (participle past)

The writer remembers once printing a large index of map titles, which ran upon sorts so peculiarly that a two hundred-pound font of body letter had to be provided with two hundred pounds of sorts before the job was completed.

American Printer and Lithographer (volume 25, page 327)

(printing, dated) To use or require a greater number of some particular letters or symbols than the regular proportion, as, for example, when making an index.


pantropy

From Ancient Greek παν- (pan-, “all”) + τροπή (tropḗ, “transformation”, literally “turning”), coined by American science-fiction writer James Blish and first attested in 1952.

coinage

(science fiction) The process of adapting humans through genetic and/or cybernetic means to thrive in environments otherwise inhospitable to them, such as outer space, the deep sea or other planets.


line-height

Therefore, you could give an inline nonreplaced element a line-height of 1em and still have its background overlap the content of other lines.

2006, Eric Meyer, CSS: The Definitive Guide, page 194:

(typography) The height of a line of text.


hengeyokai

1985, David Cook, Oriental Adventures, TSR Inc., →ISBN
Hengeyokai are intelligent, shape-changing animals. Several subraces exist, each a different type of animal. They are found throughout the Oriental world, usually on the fringes of human-settled lands.

1998-01-28, Lee Gold, Re: B5 Filk: You Picked A Fine Time To Leave Us Sinclair, rec.music.filk
If a hengeyokai fails to concentrate (or perhaps gets distracted -- due to being beaten, seeing a mouse, fatigue), the human form's ears may get pointed or a tail may appear.

Hengeyokai transfer between forms almost instantly, though when in human form, they often retain some mark of characteristic of their true animal nature.

2001, Laurence C. Bush, Asian Horror Encyclopedia: Asian Horror Culture in Literature, Manga and Folklore, Writers Club Press, page 69:

2013-10-12, Jasin Zujovic, Hengeyokai level adjustment, rec.games.frp.dnd
I've been watching Inuyasha yesterday (too bad that's a German dub and I can understand almost nothing) and that got me wanting to make myself a hengeyokai character... and then I remembered the level adjustment.

(folklore) A legendary Japanese animal with the ability to shapeshift into human form.


scoutship

(science fiction) A spaceship that carries out reconnaissance.


stardrive

From star + drive.
From the ability of the drive to propel the vehicle to the stars.

Stardrive section of a Galaxy-class starship.
Memory Alpha, Secondary hull, 2005

Atlantis, utilizing its star drive, was able to travel from the Milky Way Galaxy to the Pegasus Galaxy, a distance of between 3.26 and 3.5 million light years.
GateWorld, Stardrive

Scorpio is damaged in a collision course with a asteroid and the Scorpio crew require a star-drive from Federation scientist Dr. Plaxton so they can out-run all Federation pursuit ships
IMDB, "Stardrive"

Nebula moved back to her main console and looked to the stardrive unit's monitors immediately discovering the grim truth.
iUniverse, "The Godmaker Legacy: The Derelict: A Novel", Kirkland D. Casey, 2003, pp.171, →ISBN

The StarDrive was discovered on the planet Centaurus
NESFA Hymnal, "Reminder", B. Coulson, 1976, pp.12

no star drive yet devised could produce that kind of acceleration
"Orbitsville Departure", B. Shaw, 1983, pp.190

Every race they met on their way through the Core had a 'star drive based on a different theory.
"Light", M.J. Harrison, 2002, pp.135

The voice of the Organic Computer began counting down the seconds until the star drive was cut
Amazing Stories, "We All Died At Breakaway Stations", B.C. Meredith, 1969

Man's horizons exploded to the rims of the universe with the perfection of the star drive
Astounding SF, "Blood's Rover", C. Oliver, 1952

They'll know the principles of the star drive in a few more generations
Astounding SF, "Genius", P. Anderson, 1948

We will have to wait until they move off. I should be able to calculate their direction and get a rough idea of the distance from the power signature when they activate their Stardrive
Aliens, "Guardian Generations", Clive Osborne Rapley, 2010, pp.67, →ISBN

When they engaged the Star Drive to escape, the hunter mine had closed to ninety metres, inside the Star Drive's field of influence.
Trafford Publishing, "Origin: The Heritage Files - Phase One", Roger Hydes, 2008, →ISBN

—or century: humans can endure star-drive!
Arc Manor, "The Colors of Space", Marion Zimmer Bradley, 2008, pp.97, →ISBN

He was also beginning to lose faith that the recently recovered and bizarrely incoherent Ehrehin was really capable of delivering a working singularity- powered stardrive prototype any time in the foreseeable future.
Simon and Schuster, "The Star Trek: Enterprise: The Good That Men Do", Andy Mangels, Michael A. Martin, 2007, pp.434, →ISBN

Whatever kind of creatures they were, and whatever the disaster that threatened their planet, they had a star-drive to take them out of the solar system to another star.
Prologue Books, "Scavengers in Space", Alan E. Nourse, 2013, →ISBN

What could be gleaned from study of the landing craft was as far from the stardrive as their first steam engine had been from that spaceship itself; there was no chance of premature contact with other races.
"The Far Side of Evil", Sylvia Louise Engdahl, 1989, pp.158

(science fiction) a device used to propel a spacecraft through interstellar distances


bioreading

(science fiction) A measurement of the presence and properties of a living thing.


holorecording

(science fiction) A holographic recording.


gentlebeing

From gentle + being, modelled on gentleman.

Ladies and gentlebeings, let me introduce to you Doctor N'looma and her assistant L'raan, the Yularians who, along with other medical staff, were instrumental in giving me a new lease on life!

2016, James R. Lane, Last Dance of the Phoenix, page 204:

(science fiction, usually in the plural, sometimes humorous) Polite term of address for any sentient being, human or otherwise.


starfighter

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

(science fiction) A fictional type of spacecraft that is intended to be used like a fighter plane in outer space.


starcruiser

(science fiction) A spaceship analogous to a cruiser.


DTTV

digital terrestrial television
digital terrestrial television#English

(television) Initialism of digital terrestrial television.


antiacceleration

en-adj

antiacceleration (comparative more antiacceleration, superlative most antiacceleration)

more antiacceleration (comparative)
most antiacceleration (superlative)

(science fiction) Preventing or counteracting acceleration.


antiepic

John Lewkenor, for example, challenges Virgil and the hierarchies of epic in a Petronius-style antiepic.

2008, Tanya Caldwell, Virgil Made English, page 124:

(literature) A literary work challenging the conventions of the epic.

antiépico

a literary work challenging the conventions of the epic


antiepic

antiepic (comparative more antiepic, superlative most antiepic)

more antiepic (comparative)
most antiepic (superlative)

(literature) Challenging the conventions of the epic.


antinovelistic

antinovelistic (comparative more antinovelistic, superlative most antinovelistic)

more antinovelistic (comparative)
most antinovelistic (superlative)

(literature) Of or relating to an antinovel.


antipastoral

antipastoral (comparative more antipastoral, superlative most antipastoral)

more antipastoral (comparative)
most antipastoral (superlative)

(literature, sociology) Eschewing pastoral literary themes and conventions.


antipastoral

(literature) A work that eschews pastoral literary themes and conventions.


fleshling

(fantasy, science fiction, derogatory) A creature made of flesh; a human being.


werejackal

(fiction) A shapeshifter who can assume the shape of a jackal.


hypertravel

(science fiction) travel through hyperspace


secretary hand

en-noun

secretary hand (countable and uncountable, plural secretary hands)

It is written in three different Secretary hands: the first finishing at stanza 9 but with stanzas unnumbered,[…].

1961, Bernard Mellor, The Poems of Sir Francis Hubert, page 280:

When Mercy Harvey advised the nobleman to imitate her handwriting, she specified that he should write the address on the outside of the letter in "a small raggid secretary hand."

1998, Eve Rachele Sanders, Gender and Literacy on Stage in Early Modern England, page 173:

There are five scribes, all using variations on Secretary hands consistent with the third quarter of the fifteenth century.

2004, “Introduction”, in Stephen H. A. Shepherd, editor, Turpines Story, page xvi:

While originating at the end of the medieval period, the secretary hand was not widely employed until the early modern period, by which time it had completely displaced the earlier court hands.

2004, “Introduction”, in Helen Ostovich, Elizabeth Sauer, editors, Reading Early Modern Women: An Anthology of Texts in Manuscript and Print, 1550 - 1700, page 7:

Most authors, including dramatists, used both a separate secretary and an italic hand; in many cases the secretary hand was used for composing (that is, cursive or fluent) writing and italic for more formal copying.

2006, Grace Ioppolo, Dramatists and Their Manuscripts in the Age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Heywood, page 84:

(historical, calligraphy) A style of handwriting developed in Europe and used during the 16th and 17th centuries for writing English, German, Welsh and Gaelic; a variety of this style.


printer's ream

(UK, printing, dated) Twenty-one and a half quires of paper.


chancery hand

It begins like a transcript, at the top of the page, without the least appearance or form of an intended original : it is written in the common secretary hand of ,the age, which Crawford mistook for a chancery hand;[…].

1819, Malcolm Laing, The History of Scotland, volume 1, page 373:

Her name, from Crawford's example of it, seems to me to be written in the same chancery hand, which renders the supposed forgery a mere copy, mistaken by Welwood for the original.

1830, John Pinkerton, The Literary Correspondence of John Pinkerton, Esq., volume 2, page 112:

But, unlike his posterity, Hercolani did not carry this sort of pleasantry too far, and his book remains a splendid specimen of the late chancery hand distinguished by decorative treatment of the ascenders and descenders and a discreet flourishing of initial and terminal letters.

2009, Stanley Morison, Selected Essays on the History of Letter-forms in Manuscript and Print, page 165:

(calligraphy, historical) Either of two styles of handwriting: a written form of black letter used in France and England from about 1350, developed in the Lateran chancelry in the 13th century, or a style of cursive handwriting introduced in the 1420s by Niccolò de' Niccoli, developed from humanist minuscule; a variety of either of these styles.


holovision

They'll be materializing before them in the special reception chambers, transmitted by way of the wires and beams, and reproduced by the three-dimensional holovision system in all their natural solidity.

1968, Michael Frayn, A Very Private Life, Collins, page 4:

But pass up the sci-fi stuff for now, like for instance the holovision technology that's put TV and radio in museums.

1973 October, James Tiptree, Jr., “The Girl Who Was Plugged In”, in Robert Silverberg, editor, New Dimensions 3, page 81:

Flinging open the control booth door, he sprinted around the carpeted perimeter behind the array of holovision cameras.

2003 February 1, William Walling, Triage, Virtualbookworm.com, →ISBN:

(science fiction) holographic television


dirtside

Many spacers hated leaving port – any port – and so spent as much time dirtside as possible. One evening, all three of these factors lined up in my favor. Kelly and John were dirtside, keeping an eye on Boris and the auctioneer, and Captain Gus was topside, supervising loading of supplies. Our new crewmembers were still dirtside as well, partying before shipping out.

(science fiction) On the surface of a planet or moon (i.e. not in space)


dirtsider

He really hadn't been in space before. You can always tell a dirtsider by the twinkle in their eyes at the idea of seeing their planet from above.

1998, Jerry Oltion, Where Sea Meets Sky, Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 23:

So you tell me, Senyor Parrige, how many habitats would be willing to take on their maximum possible population load in the form of half-starved, uneducated, indigent, disease-ridden dirtsiders who know nothing of habitat life and have no skills that are of much use in space?

2001, Roger MacBride Allen, The Depths of Time, Random House, →ISBN, page 378:

As a dirtsider, the idea of dying in the cold of space terrified him, though he'd never admit it to his space-loving mate.

2010, Shayla Kersten, Angel Moon, Ellora's Cave, →ISBN, page 52:

(science fiction, often derogatory) Someone who lives on the surface of a planet or moon, as opposed to in space.


ambush journalism

De Niro spokesman Stan Rosenfield said the actor was the victim of a new breed of "rat crew" video paparazzi who provoke celebrities into scenes and then sell the footage to high-paying tabloid television shows. "When our forefathers wrote the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of the press, they did not know about rat video packs who engage in ambush journalism," Rosenfield said.

1995 October 9, George Rush, “Raging De Niro flips lid over vid”, in New York Daily News, retrieved 2014-04-20:

Television entrapment isn't new: the "Dateline" segments echo Mike Wallace's hidden-camera ambushes on "60 Minutes" in the 70's. . . . But the program's success seems to be inspiring others to try their own brand of ambush journalism.

2006 May 17, Alessandra Stanley, “Gotcha! 'Dateline' Paves a Walk of Shame for Online Predators”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-04-20:

Weir's quarry, Kevin Trudeau, complained about "ambush journalism" when the correspondent stopped him on a Zurich street.

2013 June 10, David Bauder, “ABC's 'The Lookout' a new outlet for 'Nightline'”, in Businessweek, retrieved 2014-04-20:

(journalism) The tactic used by a news reporter who intercepts an uncooperative person in an unexpected place, such as a sidewalk or parking lot, in order to put questions to that individual and elicit spur-of-the-moment responses.


fragmentism

(literature) An Italian literary movement, from the period just before the First World War, characterised by the use of short pieces of dramatic prose and fragmentary images


small pica

(printing, dated) The size of type between long primer and pica, standardized as 11 point.


Galactic

The sepoy spoke again. The meaning of the words finally penetrated. Oddly, Agayan was surprised more by the fact of those words than their actual content. He had not realized that Gha could speak Galactic beyond a few crude and simple phrases.

2001, Eric Flint, “Carthago Delenda Est”, in Foreign Legions, Riverdale, N.Y.: Baen Books, →ISBN, page 253:

universal language
universal language#Noun

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


tear a cat

en-verb

tear a cat (third-person singular simple present tears a cat, present participle tearing a cat, simple past tore a cat, past participle torn a cat)

tears a cat (present singular third-person)
tearing a cat (participle present)
tore a cat (past)
torn a cat (participle past)

Yet my chief humour is for a tyrant. I could play / Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split.

c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, act 1, scene 2:

Sirha is this you would rend and teare the Cat / Upon a Stage, and now march like drown'd rat?

c. 1599, John Marston, Histriomastix, act 5, scene 1, page [53]:

Till, in his periwig combustion / Will. Shakespeare sounds like Irish fustian, / In which Macready tears a cat, / And Shiel, the patriot, writes so pat;

1835, George Daniel, “The Conversazione”, in The Modern Dunciad, William Pickering, page 224:

From this performance there is no doubt in anyone's mind that Hamlet is an amateur actor having a fling at histrionics, or as Guthrie might say, "tearing a cat."

1970, Alfred Rossi, Minneapolis Rehearsals: Tyrone Guthrie Directs Hamlet, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 21:

(obsolete, idiomatic, acting) To overact; to violently rant and rave on stage.


Carolingian minuscule

en-noun

Carolingian minuscule (usually uncountable, plural Carolingian minuscules)

The Carolingian minuscule, which we have already found brought to perfection at Tours and at other centres of France, was the literary hand of the Frankish Empire, and extended its influence and was gradually adopted in neighbouring countries.

1912, Edward Maunde Thompson, An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography, published 2013, page 403:

The Carolingian empire did not endure past the 9th century; yet Carolingian minuscule survived in France well into the 12th century, as it continued to be the preferred style of writing in monastic book production.

1995, William W. Kibler, editor, Medieval France: An Encyclopedia, page 1304:

Later Merovingian hands, however, often from Italy and drawing heavily from half uncials, prefigured the later Carolingian minuscule and achieved a certain graceful legibility.

2001, Steven Roger Fischer, History of Writing, published 2003, page 247:

(calligraphy, historical) A script developed to standardise writing in the Latin alphabet throughout the Holy Roman Empire, used between approximately 800 and 1200 CE.

Written in black ink in Carolingian minuscules, holdings are identified by reference to the vill in which they were situated and their assessment is noted, whilst the lord in 1086 is indicated by an interlineation in red in the same hand.

2000, David Roffe, Domesday: The Inquest and the Book, page 85:

(calligraphy, usually in the plural) A character written in the script.


antigraviton

(chiefly science fiction) The hypothetical antipartner of a graviton.


elf arrow

From the folk belief that they were used by elves.

When they want beef or mutton on any festal occasion, they betake themselves to the Shetlanders' scatholds or townmails, and with elf-arrows bring down their game.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 262:

(folklore, fantasy) A magical arrow (weapon) used by elves or other mythological beings.


Leonine verse

Leonine verse (countable and uncountable, plural Leonine verses)

(poetry) A kind of medieval Latin verse, generally alternative hexameter and pentameter, with rhyming at the middle and end of a line (that is, internal rhyme); also, the form of such verse.


postvisualization

(film) Manipulation of recorded footage in order to change the way a scene is presented.


L cut

From the L shape of a piece of physical film when cut for this purpose.

Without L cuts, a conversation between two people can feel like a tennis match.

(film) An edit transition from one shot to another, where the picture and sound are synchronized but the transitions in each are not coincident.


composing frame

composing frame (plural composing frames)

(printing, dated) A stand for holding cases of type when in use.


composing rule

(printing, historical) A thin slip of brass or steel, against which the type is arranged in a composing stick, or by the aid of which stickfuls or handfuls or type are lifted.


double letter

(printing) Two letters on one shank; a ligature.


photobank

No selenium, no photo-cell banks. No photobanks – well, death by slow broiling is one of the more unpleasant ways of being done in.

(science fiction) A bank of photoelectric cells.


bastard type

(printing, historical) Type having the face of a larger or smaller size than the body.


ornithoid

(science fiction, fantasy) Any bird-like creature.


male rhyme

male rhyme (countable and uncountable, plural male rhymes)

(poetry) A rhyme in which only the last syllable agrees, as in "laid", "afraid", "dismayed".


happy ever after

happy ever after (plural happy ever afters)

(authorship) A happy ending; a good fate, life, or ending to a story.


UHD

The company made headlines with its 85-inch TV with built-in stand, which retailed for $45,000 (it has since come down to $40,000). Smaller UHD TVs started at $5,500.

2014 October 8, Molly Wood, “Sharper Image From 4K TVs Is a Gimmick Worth Having”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Sharp also announced a full complement of 4K UHD TVs, with prices starting at just over $700.

2015 January 5, Molly Wood, “CES: A Push for Higher Resolution and Better-Looking TVs”, in New York Times Bits Blog:

(television) Initialism of ultra-high definition (“3840×2160 (4K), 7680×4320 (8K), 15360 × 8640 (16K)”).


Perdita

Named after the daughter of Leontes and Hermione in William Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale; from Italian perdita (“loss”).

(literature) A character in Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale.


picture-in-picture

(television) A feature of some television receivers and similar devices, where one program or channel is displayed on the full TV screen while another is displayed in an inset window.

畫中畫 /画中画

simultaneous display of full TV screen and inset window


presser beam

We'll have them in three days, and it ought to be fairly simple to dope out the opposite of a tractor, too—a pusher or presser beam.

1931 September, E. E. "Doc" Smith, “Spacehounds of IPC”, in Amazing Stories, volume 6, number 6, page 544:

(science fiction) Alternative form of pressor beam


pressor beam

From press + -or and beam. Analogous to "presser beam", a beam that presses, as the inverse of tractor beam. Coined by American science fiction author E. E. Smith in 1931 in his novel Spacehounds of IPC, first serialized in Amazing Stories.

coin

Onward and upward flashed the gigantic duplex cone, its entire whirling mass laced and latticed together—into one mammoth unit by green tractor beams and red pressors.

1931 September, E. E. "Doc" Smith, “Spacehounds of IPC”, in Amazing Stories, volume 6, number 6, page 560:

By the way they're braced, there are tractor beams and pressor beams and—there are vacuum tubes that have grids but apparently work with cold cathodes.

1945 June, Murray Leinster, “The Ethical Equations”, in Astounding Science Fiction, volume 35, number 4, page 122:

A pressor beam lashed out, and invisible hammer blow of repulsion, five times the strength of the enemy tractor.

1956 September, Poul Anderson, “Margin of Profit”, in Astounding Science Fiction, volume 58, number 1, page 58:

(science fiction) A device that generates a beam that repels other objects; or the beam itself.


repulsor beam

From repulse + -or and beam, a beam that repulses.

Installed at the center of mass and set to repulsor-beam, this one would be able to move the entire planetoid from its orbit.

1958 November, Poul Anderson, “A Bicycle Built for Brew”, in Astounding Science Fiction, volume 62, number 3:

Hooked my model tractor beam into ship's power. Now it's a repulsor beam too. Want in?

1987, Dorothy Catherine Fontana, “The Naked Now”, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 1, episode 3, spoken by Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton):

I always wondered how cloud city in ESB stay afloat and does not fall? Is it some kind of repulsor beam, or what?

1995 July 15, Umut Nurkan, “How does cloud city float?”, in rec.arts.sf.starwars (Usenet), message-ID <1995Jul14.190422.22468@hobbes.kzoo.edu>:

No, that indicates a cloaked Romulan vessel with a repulsor beam.

2008 February 20, Iarnrod, “Re: WTC Towers: The case for controlled demolition”, in alt.conspiracy (Usenet):

(science fiction) A device that emits an energy beam capable of pushing away other objects.


foreign correspondent

en-noun

foreign correspondent (plural foreign correspondents)

Oscar Vincent spent several years abroad, after graduation, acting as foreign correspondent of his father's paper.

1874, Horatio Alger, chapter 36, in Risen from the Ranks:

"Couldn't you be foreign correspondent for your newspaper?"
"We've good men in every European capital now. They've no use for more."

1922, Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton, chapter 35, in Black Oxen:

Now that my spell as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times has ended and I’ve come back home—if a place counts as home when you’ve been away for so long—I’ve had some time to think about how Britain and America have changed.

2013 Auugst 17, Sarah Lyall, "Dispatch: Ta-Ta, London. Hello, Awesome.," New York Times (18 June 2014)

(journalism) A reporter or freelance journalist who is based in a foreign country, and who provides news reports and/or commentary from that place.


andy

From android + -y, coined by Philip K. Dick in his 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

Well, no intelligence test would trap such an andy. But then, intelligence tests hadn't trapped an andy in years, not since the primordial, crude varieties of the '70s.

1968, Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?:

1989, Ron Goulart (ghostwriting as William Shatner), TekWar
These damn andies can pass for humans, as can most of the more expensive andies these days.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Philip K. Dick


fafiate

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

af

After she got that job she became a fafiate.

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


misery lit

(informal, literature) A genre of supposedly biographical literature mostly concerned with the protagonist's triumph over personal trauma or abuse.


space rule

(printing, historical) A fine, thin, short metal rule of the same height as the type, used in printing short lines in tabular matter.


space line

(printing, historical) A thin piece of metal used to open the lines of type to a regular distance from each other, and for other purposes; a lead.


neofan

COMING NEXT ISH: A department devoted to the BNF of tomorrow. 'Twill be the neofan of today who is the Tucker or Laney of tomorrow. So QUANDRY, the BNZ of tomorrow, will bring you biografies^([sic]) of lesser known fen.

1950 October, Lee Hoffman, “Chaos”, in Quandry, archived from the original on 2011-06-07, page 5:

I heard a couple of neofans boasting that they were going to have breakfast with him!

1988, Sharyn McCrumb, Bimbos of the Death Sun:

Huzzah! Hopefully we'll get some fans, neo-fans and even fanlings to join us.

2005 June, Ruth Davidson, “President's Message”, in National Fantasy Fan, volume 5, number 2, page 4:

For a while there, if three fans were swapping apazines, it’s a good bet that I was one of them. Not that I set a record for number of apas. Bruce Pelz, Robert Lichtman and a few other fans had made “omniapan-ism” fashionable among impressionable neofen like me. Bruce was not only in a lot of groups, but it seemed like he was Official Editor of half of them.

2006 May 14, Arnie Katz, “The Thin Veneer”, in confuSon, volume 1, number 4:

(dated, fandom slang, science fiction) A newcomer to science fiction; a fan who is extremely new and inexperienced with the genre; a beginner.


Belter

You noticed a habit of mine once. I never make gestures. All Belters have that trait. It's because on a small mining ship you could hit something waving your arms around.

1966 February, Larry Niven, “The Warriors”, in If, volume 16, number 2 (#99 overall), page 152:

Earth and Mars have been stepping on the necks of the Belters out here for over 100 years and I didn't want to be the boot.

2015 December 22, Remembering the Cant (The Expanse), season 1, episode 3, spoken by Jim Holden (Steven Strait):

(science fiction) An inhabitant of an asteroid belt, especially that between Mars and Jupiter.


ageless sleep

She is, indeed, most wondrous fair: Gold of sunshine in her hair. Lips that shame the red, red rose. In ageless sleep, she finds repose. The years roll by, but a hundred years, to a steadfast heart, are but a day.

1959, Erdman Penner, Sleeping Beauty (film)

(mythology, fiction, fantasy) A magical state of suspended animation, where-in the recipient is placed in a state of ageless, deathless, everlasting sleep. Well-known examples are Endymion (the lover of the Greek moon goddess, Selene), and the princess from Sleeping Beauty.


eternal sleep

She is, indeed, most wondrous fair: Gold of sunshine in her hair. Lips that shame the red red rose. In ageless sleep, she finds repose. The years roll by, but a hundred years, to a steadfast heart, are but a day.

1959, Erdmann Penner, Sleeping Beauty (film)

(mythology, fiction, fantasy) A magical state of suspended animation, a state of ageless, deathless, everlasting sleep. Well-known examples are Endymion (the lover of the Greek moon goddess, Selene), and the princess from "Sleeping Beauty".


dinkus

From dinky (“tiny and cute”). The word was coined by an artist on the Australian periodical, The Bulletin, in the 1920s.

Coordinate term: asterism

More generally a dinkus is a small ornamentation, usually three asterisks, that break up sections of a book chapter, article or other written text.

2023 January 31, Elisabeth Ribbans, “The perils of using journalist jargon outside the newsroom”, in The Guardian:

(typography) A small ornament, usually a line of three asterisks (* * *), especially for the purpose of breaking up sections of a chapter, article, or other text.


Earthie

"Earthgirl?" the guard repeated. "She didn't look like an Earthie."

1947 October, Frederik Pohl, “Donovan Had a Dream”, in Thrilling Wonder Stories, volume 30, number 1, page 27:

The blue men of Mica II discriminated against Earthies, considered them inferior since the Micans had conquered the Earthies a hundred years ago.

1963 May, John Jakes, “Underfollow”, in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, volume 24, number 5 (#144 overall), page 66:

(science fiction, informal, often derogatory) An inhabitant of the Earth.


Earthgirl

You have given me an idea, Earthgirl, and it is one that I am afraid you will live to regret.

1939 February, Harold Kerton Wells, “Moon of Mad Atavism”, in Thrilling Wonder Stories, volume 13, number 1, page 35:

(usually science fiction) A young female inhabitant of Earth.


Earthperson

en-noun

Earthperson (plural Earthpersons or Earthpeople)

Earthpersons (plural)
Earthpeople (plural)

The Venusians, unlike other planetary races, were almost like Earthpeople. There was only one notable difference—they had feathers on their heads instead of hair.

1953 May, Eando Binder, “Interplanetary Tenements”, in Captain Marvel Adventures, volume 24, number 144, page (inside front cover):

And beyond that, the most important equipment of all: the manufacturing units that processed the Earthpeople's food.

1956, Philip Kindred Dick, The World Jones Made, page 198:

My last act as an earthperson, she says, was t' snatch off my landlawd's glasses and punch and punch 'im in the nose.

1974, Donald Newlove, The Drunks, page 140:

"That was an ingenious idea, Earthperson," it said slowly. "There is now a beneficent atmosphere surrounding my pressure envelope, which will enable me to repair the torn fabric and survive until Illensan assistance arrives. Thank you."

1983, James White, Sector General, page 24:

It was Tarna's first demonstration of Earthpersons—or rather Earth robots—in action, an the villagers were hugely impressed.

1986, Arthur C. Clarke, The Songs of Distant Earth, page 81:

(usually science fiction) An inhabitant of the planet Earth.


spox

Modification of the first syllable of spokesman or spokesperson.

Offerdahl, Samantha PRESS SECY & SPOX SO-221

2018 September 14, Senate Telephone Directory: 2018, U.S. Government Printing Office, →ISBN, page 110:

2022 November 11, Lara Seligman, Alexander Ward, Matt Berg, Lawrence Ukenye, “DoD’s new spox gives us his first interview”, in National Security Daily, Politico, retrieved 2023-05-23:

(journalism slang or informal) Abbreviation of spokesperson. (primarily used in headlines)


holodisk

(science fiction) A holographic disk used as a storage medium.


youthsploitation

From youth + -sploitation (from exploitation film).

(film) A genre of exploitation films starring young actors.


manic pixie dream girl

manic pixie dream girl (plural manic pixie dream girls)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-manic pixie dream girl.wav

Coined by the American film and music critic Nathan Rabin (born 1976) in a 2007 review of Elizabethtown (2005) to describe the character Claire Colburn played by Kirsten Dunst: see the quotation.

coinage

Then again, [Susan] Sarandon's character is the very embodiment of gritty neo-realism compared to Kirsten Dunst's stewardess/love interest. Dunst embodies a character type I like to call The Manic Pixie Dream Girl (see Natalie Portman in Garden State for another prime example). The Manic Pixie Dream Girl exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.

2007 January 25, Nathan Rabin, “My Year Of Flops, Case File 1: Elizabethtown: The Bataan Death March of Whimsy”, in The A.V. Club Blog, archived from the original on 2007-02-05:

[page 218] For me, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl was the story that fit. Of course, I didn't think of it in those terms; all I saw was that in the books and series I loved – mainly science fiction, comics and offbeat literature, not the mainstream films that would later make the MPDG trope famous – [...] [page 219] Most of the classic Manic Pixie Dream Girls claim to be ironic re-imaginings of a character trope that they fail to actually interrogate in any way.

2014, Laurie Penny, “Love and Lies”, in Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution, New York, N.Y., London: Bloomsbury, →ISBN, pages 218–219:

Looking for a new apartment, he cute-meets Sofia (Dolores Fonzi), a young woman with a pink bicycle helmet, yellow tights, a vaguely exotic background and all the other signs of manic-pixie-dream-girl status.

2015 May 14, A[nthony] O[liver] Scott, “Review: In ‘The Film Critic,’ a snob is tripped up by his heartstrings”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2015-05-17:

A guy who understands women based on movies or television will never have a chance at understanding a real woman, because we aren't like that. We aren't the "career-focused ice queen" or the "sweet helpless damsel in distress" or the "manic pixie dream girl" [...]. But at times, we might be some of them. Or all of them. And then we'll change again, into something much more complex. You can't pin us down.

2016 April, Bethenny Frankel, Eve Adamson, “Woman, Know Thyself”, in I Suck at Relationships So You Don’t Have To: 10 Rules for Not Screwing Up Your Happily Ever After, 1st Touchstone paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 34:

Your love for her is getting embarrassing. [...] She's gorgeous, she has buckets of charisma she couldn't hide if she tried, and she makes all the boys fall in love with her. That sounds like Manic Pixie Dreamgirl territory, my friend—which, news flash again, is a cliché.

2017 October, James Patterson, Emily Raymond, chapter 30, in Expelled, New York, N.Y.: Jimmy Patterson Books/Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN; republished as The Injustice, New York, N.Y.: Jimmy Patterson Books/Little, Brown and Company, 2018, →ISBN:

But even as Gina's behavior dips past manic pixie dream girl to merely manic, the director never deviates from the detached tone of his prologue.

2017 September 17, Teo Bugbee, “Review: ‘Thirst Street’ hollows out Hollywood obsession”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-03-12:

A precursor to the “manic pixie dreamgirl” trope of today, the femme-enfant’s youth was to be mooned over, her naïveté aspired to, her pure countenance captured in poetry and paint.

2019 June, Pam Grossman, “The Dark Arts: Magic Makers and Craft Women”, in Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power, New York, N.Y.: Gallery Books, →ISBN, page 179:

(film, sometimes derogatory) A stock female character, typically characterized as a bubbly, quirky free spirit, whose main purpose within a narrative is to teach a young male protagonist to embrace the mysteries and adventures of life.

Audrey Hepburn
Elizabethtown (film)
Kirsten Dunst
Roman Holiday


foot stick

(printing, historical) A bevelled piece of furniture placed against the foot of the page, to hold the type in place.


piece to camera

en-noun

piece to camera (plural pieces to camera)

(film, television) A speech given by a presenter or character directly to the viewing audience through the camera.


academy leader

(film) A style of leader (blank introductory portion of film) with numbers marked every foot, counting down from 11 to 3.


RBC

The government started cracking down on small news outlets in 2012 (it had taken over the mass-audience national television channels a decade earlier), but in the past two years the editors of RBC had operated as though they were unaware of the official pressure and pervasive self-censorship.

2016 May 18, Masha Lipman, “The Demise of RBC and Investigative Reporting in Russia”, in The New Yorker:

RBC discovered around 120 Facebook, Twitter and Instagram frontgroup accounts with a combined total of 6 million followers and likes.

2017 November 2, Micah White, “I started Occupy Wall Street. Russia tried to co-opt me”, in The Guardian:

(media) Initialism of RosBiznesConsulting, a large Russian media group headquartered in Moscow.


protag

When things have gotten as bad as they can get for the protags, with seemingly no way out, just as they are about to be overpowered by the superior horrific force, something enables them to triumph […]

2008, Robert Brewer, The Craft & Business Of Writing, page 116:

(informal, fiction, writing) Clipping of protagonist.


mock-heroic

en-adj

mock-heroic (comparative more mock-heroic, superlative most mock-heroic)

more mock-heroic (comparative)
most mock-heroic (superlative)

(literature) Pertaining to a literary mode in which trivial subjects or characters are treated using the elaborate language devices of the heroic style.

scig-ghaisciúil

pertaining to a literary mode in which trivial subjects or characters are treated using the elaborate language devices of the heroic style


mock-heroic

(literature) A work in the mockheroic style.


repulsor

(science fiction) A device used to deflect or repel other objects, or for flight stability.


medkit

(usually science fiction, video games) A small bag or case containing medical supplies


proof sheet

Across his face were the proof-sheets of his first, small, delicate-looking volume…A small page, the type black and still odorous!

1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not… (Parade's End), Penguin, published 2012, page 12:

(printing) A page of proofed text; a sheet used to make corrections, emendations etc. before being printed for use.


datapad

She produced a small datapad, tapped out a rapid sequence on the keys, and shoved it in front of Ma'adrys. “Does it look like this?”
Ma'adrys drew back from the datapad until Geordi leaned over her shoulder to whisper a few words of reassurance

(science fiction) A small handheld device used to gather, send, or process data.


logaoedic

/lɒɡəˈiːdɪk/

From Latin logaoedicus, from Ancient Greek λογᾰοιδῐκός (logăoidĭkós), from λόγος (lógos, “speech, prose”) + ἀοιδή (aoidḗ, “song”) + -ῐκός (-ĭkós, “-ic”).

affix

Hence this metre was frequently used by the Æolians, and their strophes were principally formed by connecting logaœdic rhythms with trochees, iambi, and Æolic dactyls.

1840, Karl Otfried Müller (author of the original German), George Cornewall Lewis (translator of chapters I–XXII), “The Æolic School of Lyric Poetry.” (chapter XIII, pages 164–189), in History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Library of Useful Knowledge), volume I, London: printed by William Clowes and Sons for Baldwin and Cradock, page 171:

The Glyconeus, which has a logaœdic order.

1844, Major, Guide Gr. Trag., second edition, page 159:

Anapæstic Logaœdics are identical in their rhythm with…Logaœdic Dactyls.

1855, Linwood, Greek Tragic Metres, page 79:

The essential difference between choreic and logaoedic rhythm is that of ictus.

1883, Jebb, Œdipus Tyran., Introduction, page 72:

(poetry) Of any metre rhythmically intermediate between ordinary speech (or prose) and song (or poetry), typically combining dactyls and trochees.

logaœdique

of metres rhythmically between speech and song


logaoedic

/lɒɡəˈiːdɪk/

Chorees and logaoedics can be extended to Series of six measures.

1879, J. W. White, transl., Schmidt’s Rhythmic & Metric, § 21, page 65:


r rotunda

en-noun

r rotunda (plural rs rotunda or rs rotundae)

rs rotunda (plural)
rs rotundae (plural)

/ˌɑː.ɹəʊˈtʌn.də/

/ˌɑɹ.ɹoʊˈtʌn.də/

From or representing Latin r rotunda (literally “round ‘r’”). The adjective rotunda is the feminine form of rotundus, inflected to agree with littera (“letter”), elliptically omitted (compare e caudata). The phrase is little attested in Latin, and might have been formed in English, or been borrowed from another language which formed it from those Latin roots.

Coordinate term: straight r

[…] completely informed about the decisions made and the reasons to make them, e.g. r rotunda does not figure in the transcription as the use of straight r and r rotunda is governed by the preceding character and thus completely predictable.

1989, Arend Quak, Florus (Floor) Rhee, Palaeogermanica et onomastica., Rodopi, page 3

And certain geminated consonants are represented by capitals : ɢ, ɴ, ʀ, ꜱ. Does a form like haʀ mean a long r, or is it a scribal habit on the level of the usage of r rotunda, not straight r, after round letters? The occurrence of forms with -rr […]

2000, Anna A. Grotans, Heinrich Beck, Anton Schwob, De consolatione philogiae: studies in honor of Evelyn S. Firchow, volume 2, page 624:

The distinction between r rotunda and straight r has not been kept in the transcription, as the usage of r rotunda is predictable from the preceding character: r rotunda is used after round letters.

2017, Andrea de Leeuw van Weenen, editor, A Grammar of Möðruvallabók, BRILL, →ISBN, page 11:

(typography) A curved form of the letter r, found in some medieval and fraktur scripts: ⟨ ꝛ ⟩.


broodling

(science fiction) a member of a brood in science fiction


brevis in longo

(poetry, Greek and Latin meter) The situation where a short syllable at the end of a line can be counted as long.


48mo (usually uncountable, plural 48mos)


Gibsonesque

en-adj

Gibsonesque (comparative more Gibsonesque, superlative most Gibsonesque)

more Gibsonesque (comparative)
most Gibsonesque (superlative)

Rather than Gibsonesque warnings of the extinction of individuality in corporate hyperspace, for instance, current African writers tentatively advance versions of virtual identity that centre around relative location in motion.

2005, Gerald Gaylard, After Colonialism: African Postmodernism and Magical Realism, Witwatersrand University Press:

Chang even invoked American-Canadian sci-fi cyberpunk author William Gibson, talking of Dizzee's Gibsonesque “mirror-world” in which “patterns [are] de/recontextualized at the edge of recognition and seen in syrupy slo-mo.”

2011, Paul Lester, Bonkers: The Story of Dizzee Rascal, Omnibus Press, →ISBN:

(literature) Reminiscent of the works of William Gibson (born 1948), American-Canadian novelist and essayist who popularized the science fiction concept of cyberspace.


skinwalking

(folklore, mythology) In certain Native American mythologies, the ability to transform into any animal when wearing its pelt.


graser

Acronym of Gamma Ray Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

acronym

The Russians are working on the graser. One B. V. Chirkov has published a theoretical study in the Soviet Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics. He thinks a very pure crystal, "pumped" with a powerful source of radiation (such a "hard" X rays), much as a ruby crystal is pumped with high-intensity light in one form of laser, could be stimulated to emit coherent gamma rays—pulses of high-energy radiation perfectly in step.

1964 February, Wallace Cloud, “Science newsfront”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 184, number 2, →ISSN, page 29:

Not lasers. Grasers. Gamma Ray Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

1974 October, Harlan Ellison, “Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W”, in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, volume 47, number 4, page 59:

electromagnetic radiation
electromagnetic radiation

(physics, science fiction) A device for the coherent amplification or generation of electromagnetic radiation in the gamma ray wavelength by the use of excitation energy in resonant atomic or molecular systems.


Petrarchanism

/pɪˈtɹɑːkənɪzəm/

/pɛˈtɹɑɹkənɪzəm/

(literature) The influential style of Petrarch.


wire copy

en-noun

wire copy (countable and uncountable, plural wire copies)

When you have read the wire copy carefully, set it aside and tell the story in your own words. Talk it into your computer or your typewriter. Refer to the wire copy only to check details, such as numbers and the spelling of proper names.

1994, Edward Bliss, Writing News for Broadcast, page 145:

(journalism) A news item published by a wire service.


scriptura continua

scriptio continua
scriptio continua#English

(typography) Synonym of scriptio continua


scriptio continua

From Latin scriptiō (“writing”) + continua (“continuous, held together”).

(typography, epigraphy) A style of writing without spacing between the words of the text, particularly writing without any punctuation at all.


undecasyllabic

The subdivision forms octave stanzas of the Italian form, undecasyllabic triple measure, in feminine rhyme, of triple alternating lines, with a finishing couplet.

1886, Hubert Howe Bancroft, The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft: History of Central America. 1886-1887, page 61:

(linguistics, poetry) Having eleven syllables.


moon rune

Compound of moon + rune. Possibly influenced by moon-letters, a secret writing system in J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit.

Pull the lever to turn the Moon Rune bridge around so you can get the Moon Rune.

2000, Mel Odom, Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm official strategy guide

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see moon, rune.

(science fiction and fantasy) A runestone or similar object associated with the moon.

This knowledge, then, was to come – as the Moon rune, or rune of the night, signified – in the form of dreams.

2011, David Bilsborough, The Wanderer's Tale, page 73:

(science fiction and fantasy) A rune or other writing indicating or associated with the moon.


making-of

/ˈmeɪkɪŋ ˌɒv/

/ˈmeɪkɪŋ ˌʌv/

(television, film) A documentary about how a film or television show was made, with behind-the-scenes footage.

com-s'ha-fet

a video featuring behind-the-scenes footage


moeblob

What really bugs me is that they changed Yotsuba's speech pattern. I don't want my favorite manga character to sound like a moeblob.

2009 September 14, José Manuel García-Patos, “Re: Yotsuba”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

I think it should have been qualified as "people who like K-on _because it has schoolgirls_". I liked K-on for the funny and slice-of-life parts. It was no Azumanga Daioh, but it had moeblobs AND writing.

2010 January 16, Megane, “Re: 2ch and the 2 types of otaku”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

A young girl is growing up in the town of Muhlenberg, somewhere in Germany (looks like it is based on Rothenburg from the end titles), but she is growing up without her parents. Her father never really gets a mention but it seems that her mother, a talented pianist, was killed a few years before the opening of this story and, as a result, Saga is now living with her grandmother. She is, however, NOT a moeblob.

2010 March 27, Chika, “Review - A Little Snow Fairy Sugar”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

(Japanese fiction, fandom slang) A moe character with a generic design and no defining personality traits.


vidtape

1989, Ron Goulart (ghostwriting as William Shatner), TekWar
She was standing in the center of their living room, wearing the same pale green fakesilk dress she'd had on in the vidtape. She looked fine now, though, not weary or ill.


voicer

This is a news report from the scene of the event. When a voicer and an actuality are combined into one complete story, it's known as a wrap.

2005, Alan R. Stephenson, David E. Reese, Mary E. Beadle, Broadcast Announcing Worktext, page 164:

These reports usually come in the form of voice reports, or voicers, and voice-actuality reports.

2015, Carl Hausman, Frank Messere, Philip Benoit, Modern Radio and Audio Production: Programming and Performance:

(radio) A spoken report to be broadcast.


radio star

From radio + star; see star (“celebrity”).

(radio) A celebrity famous for appearances in radio broadcasts.


smooth breathing

(orthography) A diacritic mark (᾿/◌̓) in Ancient, Medieval and Modern Greek used to indicate absence of aspiration for an initial vowel, and sometimes for rho, e.g. ἀ, ῤ


robot revolution

robot revolution (plural robot revolutions)

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

(science fiction) A violent uprising by sapient robots, aimed at overthrowing human government.


filmhood

Soon the Germans would see me on their screens and hear me barking. There was also plenty of work for me in Hollywood. The Food of the Gods was never to achieve filmhood, nor was the projected musical on Shakespeare's life called Will!

By stripping down film to the minimal conditions for filmhood, the filmmaker highlighted those conditions in ways that can lead viewers to comprehend Serene Velocity's philosophical point.

(film) The quality, state, or condition of a film, especially in reference to its cinematic completion, achievement, accomplishment, or success.


movielore

Whether you intend to captivate your friends with your cinematic erudition or baffle your acquaintances by displaying your PhD. in movielore, this is the book to buy for hours of enchanting entertainment.

Or, as the movielore surrounding a manly male like John Wayne commands, "A man's gotta do (pause) what a man's gotta do."

1994, Wayne Wilson, Sexuality in the Land of Oz:

(film) The knowledge, study, history, or culture relating to movies and filmmaking; filmlore.


dandere

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

Borrowed from Japanese ダンデレ (dandere), a portmanteau of 黙り (danmari, “keeping completely silent”), emphatic noun form of verb 黙る (damaru, “to be silent”), and デレデレ (dere-dere, “in a lovey-dovey, infatuated, or lovestruck manner”, adverb).

A tsundere-type character will engender a hostile on the outside but sweet on the inside reaction towards the player, while a dandere will show little to know emotion except for subtle displays of affection.

2017, Luca Paolo Bruno, "Grand Narratives Blossom still: Character database and political narratives in the Muv Luv franchise", thesis submitted to Ca' Foscari University of Venice, page 13

The kuudere and dandere characters have more reserved personalities, hence those qualities are also reflected in their designs.

2019, Samneang Peo, "Visual Development Of A Visual Novel: Visual Storytelling in an Interactive Game", thesis submitted to South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, page 12

Then there is Yuri, the blue oni to Natsuki’s red oni, who is shy, cute, and literary but hides a maddening love for the player; she is the archetypical dandere character thought to emerge from the blue-haired Rei Ayanami of the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion […]

2022 March, Christopher B. Patterson, “Making Queer Asiatic Worlds: Performance and Racial Interaction in North American Visual Novels”, in American Literature, volume 94, number 1:

(chiefly Japanese fiction) A character archetype who stays silent, not expressing their feelings.


robocop

From robo- + cop, after the film RoboCop (1987).

1990, Library and Information Technology Association (U.S.). National Conference, Michael Gorman, Convergence: Proceedings of the Second National Conference...
As the World Wars were succeeded by the Korean War, which melded into the Vietnam War, science fiction pictured numerous dystopias controlled by means of ever-watchful computer and robocops.

Opposite of natural monsters there are technological monsters such as terminators, cyborgs, and robocops—all of which undermine dichotomies between the artificial and the organic, the prosthetic and the natural.

2010, Tyson E. Lewis, Richard Kahn, Education Out of Bounds, page 1:

(science fiction) A cyborg police officer.


painstick

(science fiction) A weapon consisting of a baton capable of delivering a jolt of pain on contact with the body.


unlead

en-verb

unlead (third-person singular simple present unleads, present participle unleading, simple past and past participle unleaded)

unleads (present singular third-person)
unleading (participle present)
unleaded (participle past)
unleaded (past)

(transitive, printing, historical) To take out the leads from (printed matter that has been set up).


typecase

(printing, historical) A case containing the printer's type characters.


little folk

(folklore, fantasy) Small magical humanoid creatures, such as elves, leprechauns, and fairies.


blastor

Well it was for me that, in obedience to Hul Jok's imperative command, I was holding my Blastor pointing ahead of me; for as I blundered full upon the monstrosity it upheaved its ugly bulk—how I do not know, for I saw no legs nor did it have wings—to one edge and would have flopped down upon me, but instinctively I slid forward the catch on the tiny Blastor, and the foul thing vanished—save for a few fragments of its edges—smitten into nothingness by the vibration hurled forth from that powerful little disintegrator.

1925 April, Nictzin Dyalhis, “When the Green Star Waned”, in Weird Tales, volume 5, number 4, page 6:

(science fiction) Alternative form of blaster (“hand weapon”)


ultrabold

en-adj

ultrabold (comparative more ultrabold, superlative most ultrabold)

more ultrabold (comparative)
most ultrabold (superlative)

Many commercial typefaces come in an "ultrabold" or "heavy bold" weight that is even larger than the regular bold available on the Mac. You can create ultrabold lettering in MacPaint as follows […]

1986, Lon Poole, Lon Poole's Mac Insights, page 195:

In England, a classification standard has been developed that contains eight weights: extralight, light, semilight, medium, semibold, bold, extrabold, and ultrabold.

2014, Rob Carter, Philip B[axter] Meggs, Ben Day, Sandra Maxa, Mark Sanders, Typographic Design: Form and Communication (Edition 6), →ISBN, page 45:

In Frutiger LT, for instance, the lowercase a of the regular font features a rather round curve terminal compared to a fairly flat one in the ultrabold font.

2021, Heidrun Osterer, Philipp Stamm, Adrian Frutiger – Typefaces. The Complete Works (Edition 3), →ISBN, page 260:

(typography) Bolder than a typical bold typeface.


EPUB

en-noun

EPUB (countable and uncountable, plural EPUBs)

(publishing) An electronic publishing standard designed to facilitate optimization of text across different devices

(publishing, computing) A file format based on this standard


nani

Nani the fuck?


IJP

(printing technology) Initialism of inkjet printing.


AIP

(printing technology) acoustic inkjet printing


galactography

Either galactic + -graphy or blend of galactic + geography. Coined by American science fiction author Isaac Asimov in 1950 in the final installment of the novella "...And Now You Don't" (collected as part of Second Foundation).

coin

‘Galactography,’ said the mayor, ‘is our greatest enemy. Our admirals make no secret of our almost hopeless, strategic position.’

1950 January, Isaac Asimov, “...And Now You Don't”, in Astounding Science-Fiction, volume 44, number 5, page 113:

Well, one knows that. I mean, one studies galactography and gets to recognize the stars with inhabited planets in the sky at night.

1960, John Brunner, Slavers of Space, Ace Books, page 22:

(science fiction) The science of charting and mapping galaxies.


galactographer

From galactography (“science of charting and mapping galaxies”) + -er. Coined by American science fiction author Edmond Hamilton in his 1965 novelette The Shores of Infinity.

suffix

Early galactographers had defined it as that part of the galaxy which lay between the eastern and southern kingdoms, and the edge of the island-universe.

1965 April, Edmond Hamilton, “The Shores of Infinity”, in Amazing Stories, volume 39, number 4, page 24:

It seems like these 'cats might be left over from wetter days. I found a brief study of Rhyl done by a couple galactographers, and they reported this was once a cooler planet.

1978, Robert Edward Vardeman, The Sandcats of Rhyl, →ISBN:

Some galactographers have estimated that there may be up to ten thousand inhabited planets that aren't listed at all.

1982, Isaac Asimov, Foundation's Edge, →ISBN, page 99:

(science fiction) A specialist in galactography.


HFR

(journalism) Initialism of hold for release.


galactographic

en-adj

galactographic (comparative more galactographic, superlative most galactographic)

more galactographic (comparative)
most galactographic (superlative)

From galactography (“science of charting and mapping galaxies”) + -ic. Coined by American science fiction author Isaac Asimov in 1950 in the final installment of the novella "...And Now You Don't" (collected as part of Second Foundation).

suffix

Nor were the galactographic verities of the situation lost upon Stettin.

1950 January, Isaac Asimov, “...And Now You Don't”, in Astounding Science-Fiction, volume 44, number 5, page 115:

Is there some place here where we can make some galactographic computations?

1969 May, Edmond Hamilton, “The Horror from the Magellanic”, in Amazing Stories, volume 43, number 1, page 11:

This new planet didn't have a name. It could just about support life, but not a lot, and as opposed to Beta Caprisis—where entirely too many interesting things had happened for it to be inhabited—this planet simply wasn't interesting enough. It had a galactographic classification, in a desultory sort of way, but for various reasons you‟re not going to get it out of me.

1999, Dave Stone, The Mary-Sue Extrusion, →ISBN:

(science fiction) Pertaining to galactography; to the charting and mapping galaxies.


airstaff

And, in general, programmers are counselling their colleagues to look beyond the usual suspects for funny additions to their airstaffs: local comedy clubs, theater groups, supermarkets, whatever!

1987 December 26, Kim Freeman, “Humor on the Airwaves: What's So Funny About Comedy Radio?”, in Billboard, page C-10:

He also credits the airstaff, which he proudly describes as among the best in the nation.

1993 August 14, Phyllis Stark, “Billboard's PD of the Week”, in Billboard, page 71:

The second most common reason for an airstaff to seek union representation is the overall treatment by the station, especially in terms of scheduling.

1996, Eric G Norberg, Radio Programming: Tactics and Strategy, page 46:

While there was a great spirit of community and cooperation between the airstaffs, the top management was willing to break wiretapping laws to get a competitive edge.

2003, Mike Olszewski, Radio Daze: Stories from the Front in Cleveland's FM Air Wars, page 64:

Seeing an opportunity in our ratings improvement, I sent Fisher and JC a memo noting that the airstaff had been having problems with two turntables for well over a week.

2007, John Gorman, The Buzzard: Inside the Glory Days of WMMS and Cleveland Rock Radio--a Memoir, page 40:

(US, broadcasting) The staff of a radio station whose voices are broadcast.


great primer

From primer (“prayer book”), with the qualifier distinguishing it from primer or long primer, a smaller size.

(printing, historical) The size of type between English and paragon, standardized as 18-point, used in the printing of large-format English bibles.


Vancian

en-adj

Vancian (comparative more Vancian, superlative most Vancian)

more Vancian (comparative)
most Vancian (superlative)

Vance has, in short, more than any other science fiction writer ‘colonised’ the entirely new imaginative space created by the nineteenth- and twentieth-century science of anthropology, […] Is it merely local colour? To answer that, one has to note, beneath the constant Vancean surface of strange ‘xenography’,⁸ the recurrent Vancean theme of human ‘plasticity’.

2016, Tom Shippey, ““People are Plastic”: Jack Vance and the Dilemma of Cultural Relativism”, in Hard Reading: Learning from Science Fiction, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, →ISBN, →JSTOR, page 111:

(literature) Of or relating to Jack Vance (1916–2013), American writer of mystery, fantasy, and science fiction stories.


sideshadowing

(literature) A literary technique that uses references not in the current text.


crossline

(journalism) A small headline running across one or more columns, but not extending to the full width of the page.


partheniac

Borrowed from Ancient Greek παρθένος (parthénos, “maiden; virgin”) + -ac.

bor

(Ancient Greek and Latin poetry) of or pertaining to some form of irregular anapestic meter


partheniac

(Ancient Greek and Latin poetry, obsolete) a line of partheniac meter


Partheniac

From Ancient Greek παρθένος (parthénos, “maiden; virgin”) + -ac.

(Ancient Greek and Latin poetry, obsolete) Alternative form of partheniac


isosyllabism

From isosyllabic + -ism, from iso- + syllabic.

(linguistics, poetry) the use of isosyllabic verse


anisosyllabism

From anisosyllabic + -ism, from an- + iso- + syllabic.

(linguistics, poetry) the use of anisosyllabic verse


isosyllabicity

From isosyllabic + -ity, from iso- + syllabic.


anisosyllabic

From aniso- + syllabic or an- + iso- + syllabic.

(linguistics, poetry) of or pertaining to metrical systems in which syllables are of differing lengths

anisosillabico

of meters with syllables of differing length


isosyllabic

(linguistics, poetry) of or pertaining to metrical systems in which syllables are of equal length

isosyllabique

of meters with syllables of equal length


Acme

Acme
Acme Corporation
Looney Tunes
Warner Bros.
trademark
yellow pages

From acme (“highest, best”). As a threading, from the original 1894 manufacturer, the Acme Screw Machine Company of Hartford, Connecticut. In its use as a generic company for comedic effect or to avoid trademark issues, most popularized by the Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes cartoons but already very commonly used by 20th century American companies as a way to lead the professional listings in yellow page phone books.

Henry knew better than to alienate one of the Acme secretaries.

1968 July, Stan Dryer, “The Fully Automated Love Life of Henry Keanridge”, in Playboy Magazine, page 152:

[ Netanyahu ] showed everybody how close Iran was to getting nuclear weapons by having this spherical cartoon bomb with a wick coming up like Acme style. I was watching this thing thinking, are we worried about Ahmadinejad or are we worried about Inspector Clouseau?

2012 September 29, Adam Felber, “Wait, Wait... Don’t Tell Me!”, in National Public Radio:

(fiction) A generic or monopoly company.


proto-science fiction

(science fiction) Any of various early literature that contained elements that would develop into science fiction


electromancer

(science fiction) Someone who practices the divination of electricity.


Niven ring

Named after American science fiction writer Larry Niven, who wrote the famous science-fiction novel Ringworld that popularized the idea.

named-after

(science fiction) A solid ring type Dyson ring around a star, capable of containing an interior surface that could be terraformed into a habitat with an inner ring of occultation panels to provide a day-night cycle.


final girl

Coined by film theorist Carol J. Clover in her 1992 book Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film.

(film) A female character in a horror or thriller film who is the last person alive to confront the killer/monster, and often the sole survivor.

Carol J. Clover
Men, Women, and Chainsaws
final girl


hixploitation

The apotheosis of the hixploitation movement was Smokey and the Bandit (1977), the directorial debut of Tennessee-born veteran stuntman Hal Needham, who actually cast Mel Tillis, Foster Brooks, and Ruth Buzzi for unironic effect.

2006, David Kamp, Lawrence Levi, The Film Snob*s Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Filmological Knowledge, Broadway Books, →ISBN, page 48:

While Black Snake Moan seems to unfold in a realm of synthetic fantasy—a hybrid of hip-hop's Dirty South, a bluesman's back roads, and the Dixie of '70s hixploitation flicks—it's actually set in a corner of Tennessee where a white girl named Rae (Ricci) holds the title of town slut.

2007 February, Troy Patterson, “Chick Flicked”, in Spin, page 92:

Historians of what Scott Von Doviak dubbed "Hick Flicks" in his 2005 book by that name, point out that a "Southern" genre of film never emerged to compete with the western as such for a national audience, though there was a rise of hixploitation films in the 1970s whose success hinged on and ultimately died with the demise of the drive-in regional theater (French, Von Doviak).

2011, Tara Powell, “'You Taste of America': Talladega Nights, Deliverance, and Southern Studies”, in Andrew B. Leiter, editor, Southerners on Film: Essays on Hollywood Portrayals Since the 1970s, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 220:

(film) A genre of exploitation film that relies on the stereotypical (and often negative) depiction of rural whites of the American South and Appalachia.


Raj

(India, journalism) Abbreviation of Rajasthan.


virch

en-noun

virch (countable and uncountable, plural virches)

(He won't use virch goggles; their simulated environments cut him off too thoroughly from me, and that scares him.)

1995, Michael Bishop, “Cri de Coeur”, in Gardner Dozois, editor, The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twelfth Annual Collection, page 428:

"Yeah. Why vid, anyway? Why not virch?"

2002, Candas Jane Dorsey, A Paradigm of Earth, page 108:

Knowing Noah will be content in his virch for as long as he is left undisturbed, she begins mapping new ideas […]

2015, James Bradley, Clade, unnumbered page:

(informal, science fiction) virtual reality


xenozoology

(science fiction) The branch of xenology dealing with extraterrestrial animals.

Xenozoologie

xenology dealing with extraterrestrial cultures


xenopaleontology

Text excerpts from: An Introduction to Xenopaleontology: The Study of Ancient Extraterrestrial Life. Interplanetary Council Public Document #3664. 18, Mulburn, Peters, et. al., 2 May 2389.

1981 June, Joel Hagen, “Xenopaleontology”, in Heavy Metal, volume 5, number 3, page 42:

J. Q. R. Forster, professor of xenopaleontology and xenoarchaeology at King's College, London, was engrossed in a leather-bound volume from a shelf of 19th-century classics when Blake and the commander entered the library.

1990, Paul Preuss, The Medusa Encounter, Avon Books, →ISBN, page 122:

I would vehemently hope that in some far-future day a real, honest-to-goodness human geology/xenopaleontology crew is sent to Mars and that it sets down in that same area and seriously examines some of these things up close and^([sic]) great detail.

2004 March 9, Herb Schaltegger, “Re: "Avoiding the 'F word' on Mars -- F*SSIL" -- Oberg”, in alt.alien.visitors (Usenet):

When it had left the system, the tool-users were in the middle of a spirited attempt to wipe themselves out, which led the frigate to one hypothesis that the biological material the freighter was carrying had been some sort of xenopalaeontology expedition to preserve the species; […]

2014, Gavin Deas, Empires: Extraction, Hachette UK, →ISBN, page 26:

(rare, science fiction) The study of past extraterrestrial life forms.


pool spray

When we are not holding we are most likely "rolling"—hustling to get on a bus to go to things like a "bilat pool spray" (a photo-op of a bilateral meeting between the president and some world leader).

2002 July 2, Martha Brant, “West Wing Story: Pool-Duty Survival Kit”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2015-03-04:

Pool spray is the term for an event where a representative pool of journalists is brought in to record the president meeting with a foreign leader or discussing a policy initiative.

[2010 February 4, Peter Baker, “Few News Conferences, but Still Taking Questions”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

First comes the “pool spray,” where the two leaders exchange pleasantries before the cameras.

2010 November 13, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Reporter’s Notebook: Heartfelt Moments on an Up-and-Down Global Trip”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-03-04:

At an international summit […] [t]he press is let in only for a few moments at the beginning or the end in what is known as a "pool spray." Sometimes the world leaders say a few words; other times, they pretend not to notice the reporters and keep interacting in a stilted way.

2014 November 16, David Nakamura, “Watch: President Obama reacts to media scrum in Brisbane”, in Washington Post, retrieved 2015-03-04:

(US politics, journalism) An event in which photographers and other members of the news media are allowed to visit briefly with the US President or other top US government officials, especially on the occasion of a meeting with leaders or high-level officials from other countries.


Alcmanian

en-adj

Alcmanian (comparative more Alcmanian, superlative most Alcmanian)

more Alcmanian (comparative)
most Alcmanian (superlative)

(poetry) A verse comprising four dactyls, a dactylic tetrameter.


nunsploitation

Making nunsploitation films also appealed to producers because, as with peplums and westerns, it was possible to recycle sets and costumes and therefore lower production costs.

2004, Tamao Nakahara, “Barred Nuns: Italian Nunsploitation Films”, in Ernest Mathijs, editor, Alternative Europe: Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945, Wallflower Press, →ISBN, page 126:

Perhaps the world's first nunsploitation film, it centres on a morphine-addicted nun recovering from neurosurgery, who is accused of a series of horrific murders.

2008 July 4, “Random top tens: The least convincing nuns ever”, in The Scotsman:

In the early 1970s, the nunsploitation film emerged as a widely popular genre, energized by several key cinematic, literary, and historical catalysts: […]

2013, Ian Olney, Euro Horror: Classic European Horror Cinema in Contemporary American Culture, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 175:

(film) A genre of exploitation film focusing on Christian nuns.


Ozploitation

While a number of Ozploitation films conformed to the 'trashy' aesthetics and marginal audience reception that historically characterizes exploitation cinema, a notable handful display production values considerably higher than those connoted by the term itself, and also experienced significant box office success, both in Australia and, at times, internationally.

2010, Ben Goldsmith, Geoffrey Lealand, editors, Australia and New Zealand, Intellect Books, →ISBN, page 239:

While the film is rich with moments of explicit sexual threat — most notably the naked photographs and Sparks' attempted rape — the image of Jessica tied to the front of the ute remains one of the most excessive and horrific images of violence against women not only in Australian “Ozploitation” film, but in rape-revenge as a whole.

2011, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study, McFarland & Company (201), page 111

The name was originally explained on the event's website as being inspired by 1974 Ozploitation film, Stone, about motor bike gangs.

2014, Hilary Du Cros, Lee Jolliffe, The Arts and Events, Routledge, →ISBN, page 74:

(film) A genre of low-budget films produced in Australia, chiefly during the 1970s and 1980s.


Mexploitation

Remember that crazy-funny fake trailer for the nonexistent ’70s Mexploitation flick Machete that preceded the “Planet Terror” segment of Grindhouse a few years back?

2010 September 2, MaryAnn Johanson, “Class Warrior: Machete provides a slice of surprisingly effective entertainment – and political commentary”, in Monterey County Now:

The Mexploitation fall-out runs to explosives, rape, death by flame-thrower and a cavalcade of unconvincing plot turns.

2012 September 21, Tara Brady, “Savages”, in The Irish Times:

Robert Rodriguez, 45, creator of the "Mexico" trilogy and "Spy Kids" films, arguably sired the Mexploitation genre in 1992 with the campy vengeance film "El Mariachi."

2013 October 10, Ray Monell, “Robert Rodriguez corners Mexploitation film market with ‘Machete Kills’”, in New York Daily News:

(film) A genre of exploitation films produced in and/or set in Mexico, and often featuring plots dealing with crime, drugs, and sex.


Nazisploitation

You should see “Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS,” the notorious sleazefest now considered a touchstone of the Nazisploitation craze of the 1970s.

2008 August 14, Nathan Lee, “Nazisploitation Making a Comeback”, in The New York Times:

As a result, Nazisploitation has ensured that Nazi evil has had an impressive staying power.

2010, Claire M. Hall, “Where Does Evil Sit in the Classroom?: Problematizing Teaching about Hitler, Nasty Nazis, and the Holocaust”, in Sara Buttsworth, Maartje M. Abbenhuis, editors, Monsters in the Mirror: Representations of Nazism in Post-war Popular Culture, Praeger, →ISBN, page 227:

In general, Nazisploitation movies encompass those that use the fascination of Nazi imagery, ideology, symbols and artifacts to increase its commercial appeal.

2012, Benedikt Eppenberger, “Eine Armee Gretchen: Nazisploitation Made in Switzerland”, in Daniel H. Magilow, Elizabeth Bridges, Kristin T. Vander Lugt, editors, Nazisploitation!: The Nazi Image in Low-Brow Cinema and Culture, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 155:

(film) A subgenre of exploitation film that involves villainous Nazis committing criminal acts of a sexual nature, typically against people held in their concentration camps and prisons during World War II.


whitesploitation

While the Pam Grier Collection has "Foxy Brown," "Coffy," and "Friday Foster," The Elvis Gift Set (Paramount, $59.80) offers five classic whitesploitation flicks: "Fun in Acapulco," "G. I. Blues," "Paradise, Hawaiian Style," "Blue Hawaii" and "King Creole."

You had whitesploitation films, too: Chained Heat, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and all that junk.

2003, Joe Bobb Briggs, Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies that Changed History!, Universe, →ISBN, page 125:

What Ken never understood was that the only thing Harold and I really excelled at was fucking around—coming up with idiotic ideas and filthy daydreams, projects like the pornographic version of The Cat in the Hat, the whitesploitation film Kung-Fu Honky, […]

2012, Tim Kreider, We Learn Nothing: Essays and Cartoons, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 107:

(film) A type of film that portrays white people in a stereotypical manner, intended to appeal to lurid or lowbrow tastes.


Canuxploitation

Canuxploitation films form a constant undercurrent in both English Canada and Quebec, swelling at certain points to near-tidal proportions.

2002, “Introduction: What Is Canadian Cinema?”, in Eugene P. Walz, editor, Canada's Best Features: Critical Essays on 15 Canadian Films, Rodopi, →ISBN, page xvii:

As a classic example of 1970s B-grade “Canuxploitation,” Death Weekend has retrospectively developed a cult audience beyond the lackluster response it garnered upon its initial release.

2011, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study, McFarland & Company (201), page 113

How can we account for the career of quintessentially Canadian directors such as William Fruet and Paul Lynch, whose extensive filmographies include both realist classics such as Fruet's gruelling depiction of Albertan patriarchy, Wedding in White (1972), and Lynch's loser drama of an aging country-music singer on the road in small-town Ontario, The Hard Part Begins (1973), and Canuxploitation horror such as Fruet's Death Weekend (1976), Spasms (1983), Killer Party (1986), and Blue Monkey (1987), […]

2012, David Lawrence Pike, Canadian Cinema Since the 1980s: At the Heart of the World, University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 185:

(film) A genre of low-budget films produced in Canada, chiefly during the 1970s and 1980s.


Britsploitation

Wright, whose mock Britsploitation trailer Don't is currently playing during the intermission between Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse double-bill, manages to integrate these disparate parts into a cohesive, intelligent whole.

2007 April 18, Neil Morris, “Hot Fuzz and Fracture”, in Indy Week:

Cult Britsploitation flicks Terror and Prey were released at the fag-end of the 70s and have all the elements you’d expect for that period: lesbian butchery, sinister parties, deranged parrots, heartless aliens, curb-crawlers and lovingly inventive, drawn-out death sequences.

2009, "Tony Molester," album review, Vice, Volume 7, Number 8, August 2009, page 161

Yet, surely the audience for a Cardiff documentary would be just as interested in his Britsploitation thrillers like “Dark of the Sun” and “The Liquidator.”

2011, Joe Bendel, "Love for the cameraman, the greatest ever colour cinematographer", The Epoch Times, 19 May 2011 - 25 May 2011, P9

(film) A genre of low-budget films produced and/or set in the United Kingdom.


carsploitation

Death Race is a rehash of the 1975 carsploitation flick Death Race 2000 that predicted a new millennium in which David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone mow down old people for points.

2008 August 27, Emiliano Garcia-Sarnoff, “Total Drag (Race)”, in Santa Fe Reporter:

Cage redefines "up for anything" in this goofy carsploitation movie as a vengeful grandpa on the trail of devil-worshippers who have slaughtered his daughter and kidnapped his granddaughter for sacrificial purposes.

2011 June 2, Randall King, chapter DVD, in Winnipeg Free Press:

The film hurtles toward tragic inevitability like Vanishing Point, the classic carsploitation film that Death Proof revises with the triumph of the collective.

2014, Claire Henry, Revisionist Rape-Revenge: Redefining a Film Genre, Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, pages 164–165:

(film) A genre of exploitation films focused on cars, typified by scenes of racing and crashing.


drugsploitation

Meanwhile, newfangled drugsploitation flicks like Maryjane and The Hooked Generation invaded drive-ins, providing cautionary tales while the smell of those funny scented cigarettes filled the night air.

2004, Irv Slifkin, VideoHound's Groovy Movies: Far-out Films of the Psychedelic Era, Visible Ink Press, →ISBN, page 201:

Such shots are to be found throughout the genre from early 'drug hysteria' and 'drugsploitation' movies through to its most recent examples.

2006, David Boothroyd, Culture on Drugs: Narco-cultural Studies of High Modernity, Manchester University Press, →ISBN:

Fonda persuaded director Roger Corman to hire the band for his drugsploitation movie The Trip, a paean to LSD scripted by Jack Nicholson.

2006, Barney Hoskyns, Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends, Wiley, →ISBN, page 61:

(film) A genre of exploitation films which focus on the use of recreational drugs, typically featuring lurid scenes of drug-induced behaviour framed as a cautionary tale/morality play.


sharksploitation

Hunky James Caan look-alike Andrés Garcia – the nominal hero who is apparently sponsored by Adidas – became a pin-up of these adventures, appearing in the sharksploitation movie Tintorera! (1977), Tonino Ricci's Cave of the Sharks and in The Bermuda Triangle (1978), with John Huston and Claudine Auger.

2011, Howard Hughes, Cinema Italiano: The Complete Guide from Classics to Cult, I. B. Tauris & Co Ltd, →ISBN, page 282:

After their yacht runs aground in Australian waters, four of them decide to swim for land but are soon stalked by a huge great white shark. While the story stutters and starts, sharksploitation fans will lap it up.

2011 January 21, David Edwards, “New Releases; DVDs”, in The Mirror, UK:

Spoofing the sharksploitation genre is Ghost Shark 2: Urban Jaws (“And for God's sake, stay out of the water!”).

2014, Gene Helfman, George H. Burgess, Sharks: The Animal Answer Guide, Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 210:

(film) A genre of exploitation films focusing on sharks and shark attacks.


Jewsploitation

The Hebrew Hammer may very well be the first "Jewsploitation" comedy, but star Adam Goldberg promises the film avoids the truly offensive.

2002 July, Diane Vadino, “Movie News”, in Spin, page 47:

Saturday night I went to the Gershman Y to see the new "Jewsploitation" film The Hebrew Hammer, which I'm guessing is going to raise some hackles in the same way my headline did.

2003 December 10, Liz Spikol, “Hammer Time”, in Philadelphia Weekly:

The film, one of the first to emerge from the burgeoning "Jewsploitation" genre, is ripped from true-crime headlines and follows an impressionable youth (Eisenberg) from an Orthodox Brooklyn community.

2007 November 15, Gregg Goldstein, “Eisenberg, Bartha in the 'Holy' land”, in The Hollywood Reporter:

(film) A genre of exploitation films focusing on Jews and Jewish experiences.


back porch

(television) The portion of each scan line between the end (rising edge) of the horizontal sync pulse and the start of active video, used to restore the black level reference in analog video.


front porch

(television) A brief period inserted between the end of each transmitted line of picture and the leading edge of the next line sync pulse, intended to allow voltage levels to stabilise in older televisions, preventing interference between picture lines.


mumak

Introduced by J. R. R. Tolkien in the form mûmak.

If you see a mumak and do not have a way of killing it before it gets near you, run.

2008, rpresser, “YAASP”, in rec.games.roguelike.nethack (Usenet):

(fantasy fiction) A creature resembling a huge elephant.


anopisthograph

(palaeography) Written on one side only.


subdeck

If there's a strapline or subdeck, write these after the main deck and don't use the same words. A strapline goes above the main headline and a subdeck below it.

2005, Richard Keeble, Print Journalism: A Critical Introduction, page 114:


Dyson swarm

Named after American theoretical physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson

named-after

(science fiction) A system of movable, independent satellites that as a whole compose a Dyson sphere.


ottava rima

en-noun

ottava rima (usually uncountable, plural ottave rime)

/ɒˌtɑːvə ˈɹiːmə/

/oʊˌtɑvə ˈɹimə/

Borrowed from Italian ottava rima (literally “eighth rhyme”).

bor

(poetry) An arrangement of stanzas of eight lines in heroic verse, with three rhymes, the first six lines rhyming alternately and the last two forming a couplet (ab ab ab cc).

օկտավ

arrangement of stanzas of eight lines rhyming ab ab ab cc


star lifting

(science fiction) A hypothetical process wherein a portion of a star's mass is removed, generally to serve as an energy source.


von Neumann probe

en-noun

von Neumann probe (plural von Neumann probes)

(science fiction) A von Neumann machine, or machine capable of self-replication, that is sent on interstellar voyages to investigate or terraform.


bioship

(science fiction) A spaceship that is partially or wholly composed of biological material.


sleeper ship

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

(science fiction) A spaceship, all or some of whose passengers are in suspended animation.


Dyson tree

genetically engineered
genetically engineered

(science fiction) A hypothetical genetically engineered plant that could grow in a comet.


TiVo

From TiVo, a specific digital video recorder introduced in 1999.

Lost, season 4, begins in early February, after one of the most thrilling season enders in a decade of television: […] Set your TiVo.

2008 January–February, Matt Bean, “Your cultural calendar: 7 things to look forward to this year”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 134:

digital video recorder
digital video recorder

(television) A digital video recorder (of any brand).