Matrix

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Post

en-proper noun

Post (countable and uncountable, plural Posts)

(newspapers) A common name (often in combination) for a newspaper or periodical, such as The Washington Post or the New York Post.

bưu báo

common name for a newspaper or periodical


Shylock

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

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


Standard

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

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

universal language
universal language#Noun

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


Times

Mr. Campion seated himself in the client’s chair and crossed his long legs. His hat, his gloves and his folded Times newspaper he held upon his knee.

1963, Margery Allingham, “Off the Record”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 73:

(newspapers) A common name (often in combination) for a newspaper or periodical, especially The Times (published in the United Kingdom), but also The New York Times, The Times of India, Radio Times, etc.


Tonto

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

cal

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


Luna

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

Luna that ne'er shines by day.

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

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

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

The different visible shapes of Luna are called her phases.

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

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

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

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


Yahoo

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

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

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

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

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


Sol

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


shuck

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


Tellus

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

bor+

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

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

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


Winter

en-proper noun

Winter (countable and uncountable, plural Winters)


MAC

en-noun

MAC (countable and uncountable, plural MACs)

(science fiction) Initialism of magnetic accelerator cannon.


DB

(television) Initialism of delayed broadcast.


boutique

→ Cebuano: botik

Borrowed from French boutique. Doublet of apotheke and bodega.

(film) A film production company making only a few movies per year.


long shot

The term arose from the accuracy of early naval guns, which were effective only at close range and unlikely to hit the mark at any great distance.

(film) A master shot, the primary wide shot of a scene into which the closeups will be edited later.


Sun

From Middle English sunne, from Old English sunna, sunne (“sun; the Sun”), from Proto-Germanic *sunnǭ, from the heteroclitic inanimate Proto-Indo-European *sh₂wén-, oblique form of *sóh₂wl̥ (“sun; the Sun”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Sunne, West Frisian sinne, Dutch zon, Old Dutch sunna, German Low German Sünn, Old Saxon sunna, German Sonne, Old High German sunna, Faroese sunna, Icelandic sunna, Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌽𐌽𐍉 (sunnō). More at sun.

inh

(newspapers) An English tabloid newspaper.


DV

en-noun

DV (countable and uncountable, plural DVs)

Vincent opened it and found a video camera, a Panasonic. She recognized it as one of the new kind that took DV tapes, but it still had an unexpected weight.

2020, Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel, Picador (2021), page 67:

(television) Initialism of digital video.

(television) Initialism of described video.


Martial

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

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

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

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


Roman

en-adj

Roman (comparative more Roman, superlative most Roman)

more Roman (comparative)
most Roman (superlative)

From Old French Romain, from Latin Rōmānus. In reference to the Byzantine Empire, via the Byzantine Greek endonym Ῥωμαῖος (Rhōmaîos). By surface analysis, Rome + -an. Doublet of Romano.

(typography) A font that is upright, as opposed to oblique or italic. (See roman font.)


Roman

(printing, countable) A single letter or character in Roman type.


fondu

en-noun

fondu (countable and uncountable, plural fondus)

Borrowed from French fondu (“melted”). Compare fondue.

(printing) The graded shift from one color into another.


Latin

en-proper noun

Latin (countable and uncountable, plural Latins)

From Middle English Latin, Latyn, from Old English Lǣden, from Vulgar Latin *ladinum (“Latin”) and Old French latin (“Latin”); all from Latin Latinus (“belonging to Latium”). Later influenced in form by the Latin word. Compare Dutch Latijn (“Latin”), German Latein (“Latin”), Swedish Latin (“Latin”).

(printing) The nonsense placeholder text (often based on real Latin) used in greeking.


middle-earth

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


cruft

Circa 1959, MIT Tech Model Railroad Club. Unknown origin; possibly from Cruft Hall, built in 1915 as a gift from a donor named Harriet Otis Cruft. Cruft Hall was the radar laboratory of Harvard's physics department during the Second World War, which contained much old and unused technical equipment. Possibly blend of crust + fluff, both of which may form on old abandoned things, or influenced by crud.

(film, slang) Meaningless or gratuitous content displayed on computer consoles in visual entertainment productions.


DD

(India, broadcasting) Abbreviation of Doordarshan, a state public broadcaster of India.


vox

From Latin vōx (“voice”). Doublet of voice.

The junior can offer to do the voxes, gaining experience and sparing the senior journalist the trouble. Always remember to think how the clips will edit together. If you're the lucky junior sent to do voxes, there are some technical matters […]

2018, Gary Hudson, Sarah Rowlands, The Broadcast Journalism Handbook:

(broadcasting, informal) Ellipsis of vox pop.


stop press

From stop the presses, US newspaper-printing jargon.

stop-press when used as a noun in attribution

1989, Textual Introduction to The Anatomy of Melancholy, Robert Burton http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=C64iQVqCm3MC&pg=RA1-PR51&lpg=RA1-PR51&sig=JpcrTaGG5EdPxJjr2U8VwuilsEw
Three of the errata corrections had already been made as stop-press corrections …

Faked Stop Press! announcements in newspapers. A valuable trick because it can always be claimed that the announcement was ‘hushed up’. It is also easy to fake the printing of the Stop Press.

2002, Russell Miller, Behind the Lines http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=iAtuxaBlfRkC&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&sig=erWM7_pq0H8pCDJnv5W4-5bxlv0

2005, Mary Norway, The Sinn Fein Rebellion As I Saw It, http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=kdp6DLzb6KcC&pg=PA65&lpg=PA65&sig=TWkyRKxWPtmbwiGPh_BvuIQNwlA
Another lady thought she would drive a lesson home, so she said: “But you said it was a ‘Stop press,’ and you knew it was not.”
“It is, miss, but sure they hadn’t time to print the ‘stop press’ on it!!”
(“Stop press” is the latest news, usually printed on the back of the paper.)

STOP PRESS: As this issue of RAIL went to press, the RMT announced that it too would be taking strike action on the Tube on March 15

2023 March 8, “Tube drivers announce "first day of action"”, in RAIL, number 978, page 11:

(UK, journalism) The event or news article important enough to delay or interrupt the print, or require a reprint, of a publication, particularly of a newspaper edition.


elegant variation

en-noun

elegant variation (countable and uncountable, plural elegant variations)

Introduced by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler in The King's English (1906).

A closely related rule for encoding legal texts is the same meaning, same form principle. We saw previously that this rule requires lawyers to avoid elegant variation. Instead, they should consistently use one word if they mean the same thing.

1999, Peter M. Tiersma, Legal Language, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 131:

(journalism, literature) A form of journalese characterized by the overuse of synonyms for fear of repeating a word.

Francis George Fowler
H. W. Fowler
The King's English


CMYK

(computing, printing) Initialism of cyan, magenta, yellow, key: the colour model used in colour printing.


D

D (countable and uncountable, plural Ds)

(printing) Abbreviation of duodecimo, as adopted by the American Library Association.


TNN

The Nashville Network
w:The Nashville Network

(US, television, historical) Initialism of The Nashville Network.


H

Coordinate term: Q (“quarter”)

We expect the amendment to enter into force in H2 2013.


H

(UK, film, historical) Abbreviation of horrific. (former film classification)


P

P (countable and uncountable, plural Ps)

product placement
product placement#English

(UK, television) Initialism of product placement. (displayed on screen as an indicator to viewers)


masthead

(television, by extension) The logo of a broadcaster used in an ident.


run down

en-verb

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

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

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

Coordinate term: run in

If they occasionally supply any additional copy after this element, run it down with a manual line break.

(transitive, typography) To move (some copy) down to the next line.


M

en-noun

M (countable and uncountable, plural Ms)

(US, film) A film with the content rating M.


martial

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

der

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

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


K

Abbreviations.
# (stenoscript) Abbreviation of counter, prefix counter-, sequence contr.

ng

prefix <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">counter-</i>, sequence contr.


interpunct

From Latin interpunctus, from inter- (“between, mid-”) + punctus (“point”).


pulp

en-adj

pulp (comparative more pulp, superlative most pulp)

more pulp (comparative)
most pulp (superlative)

From Middle English pulpe, from Latin pulpa.

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

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

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

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

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


kicker

Hammers are, in essence, reverse kickers. Instead of being set in smaller type like kickers, hammers are set in larger type than headlines.

1981, Harry W. Stonecipher, Edward C. Nicholls, Douglas A. Anderson, Electronic Age News Editing, page 104:

(journalism) Small text above a headline that indicates the topic of the story.

Dachzeile

journalism: Small text above a headline that indicates the topic of the story

(journalism) The last one or two paragraphs of a story.

lopetus

journalism: the last paragraph or two of a story

(journalism) Synonym of lead-in (“start of photo caption”)

[…] international news and politics, and heavy on the light stuff: local news, entertainment and merry little kickers […]

1984, Media Report to Women, volume 12, page 46:

Instead, a reporter can carve out a niche as an entertainment/community reporter, thus concentrating their efforts on filing feature stories for the E block, where the kickers are slated. Kickers are feel-good pieces placed at the end of the newscast to leave viewers in a good mood […]

2013, Frank Barnas, Ted White, Broadcast News Writing, Reporting, and Producing, page 77:

(radio, television) A lighthearted or humorous item used to round off a news broadcast.

In a printing machine, the combination of a kicker mechanism for displacing a newspaper […]

1931, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, page 490:

(printing) A device that periodically displaces a newspaper from the print production line, to aid in gathering the newspapers into fixed-size bundles.

(film, television) A backlight positioned at an angle.


scoop

From Middle English scope, schoupe, a borrowing from Middle Dutch scoep, scuep, schope, schoepe (“bucket for bailing water”) and Middle Dutch schoppe, scoppe, schuppe ("a scoop, shovel"; > Modern Dutch schop (“spade”)), from Proto-Germanic *skuppǭ, *skuppijǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kep- (“to cut, to scrape, to hack”). Cognate with Old Frisian skuppe (“shovel”), Middle Low German schōpe (“scoop, shovel”), German Low German Schüppe, Schüpp (“shovel”), German Schüppe, Schippe (“shovel, spade”). Related to English shovel.

gloss

"a scoop, shovel"; > Modern Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">schop</i> (“spade”)

cog

(film, television) A kind of floodlight with a reflector.


O

en-noun

O (countable and uncountable, plural Os)

American Library Association
w:American Library Association

(printing) American Library Association abbreviation of octavo, a book size (20-25 cm).


ADR

ADR (countable and uncountable, plural ADRs)

/eɪ diː ˈɑː/

(broadcasting, uncountable) Initialism of automatic dialogue replacement.

(film, uncountable) Initialism of additional/audio dialogue replacement.


squib

Possibly imitative of a small explosion.

unk

Possibly

(film, theater) In special effects, a small explosive used to replicate a bullet hitting a surface or a gunshot wound on an actor.


APA

amateur press association
amateur press association#English

(media) Initialism of amateur press association.


OCD

Oxford Classical Dictionary
w:Oxford Classical Dictionary

(publishing, history) Initialism of Oxford Classical Dictionary.


zombify

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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

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


improv

en-noun

improv (countable and uncountable, plural improvs)

(acting) A form of live entertainment characterized by improvisation and interaction with the audience.


Japanimation

Japanimation (countable and uncountable, plural Japanimations)

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

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


SIU

(broadcasting) Initialism of (television or radio) sets in use.


MAV

MAV (countable and uncountable, plural MAVs)

(Australia, television, uncountable) Initialism of mature adult audience (“Strong Violence”).


AMC

(television) Initialism of All My Children: an American television soap opera broadcast from 1970 to 2013.


AMC

(media) Initialism of Alt-Media Community.


FTA

(broadcasting, telecommunications) Abbreviation of free to air.


S

S (countable and uncountable, plural Ss)

Abbreviation.
S
# (stenoscript) the sound sequence /st/ in a word, e.g. it's the transcription of the suffix -ist.
# (stenoscript) the prefix sub-
#: [some manuals advise lower-case s for the prefix sub-]
# (stenoscript) Abbreviation of south.
# (education) Initialism of satisfactory.


caesura

Latin caesūra (“cutting, hewing”), from caesus, perfect passive participle of caedō (“I cut down, hew”).


TBS

Turner Broadcasting System
w:Turner Broadcasting System

(US, television) Initialism of Turner Broadcasting System.


uplift

en-verb

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

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

извисявам

to raise something or someone to a higher level

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

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

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

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


Q

(literature, pseudonym) Arthur Quiller-Couch.


CCTV

China Central Television
w:China Central Television

(broadcasting, China) Initialism of China Central Television.


Jovian

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

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


volte-face

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

Shakespeare often used volte-faces in the rhyming couplets at the end of his sonnets.

(literature, chiefly poetry) A dramatic change in mood or tone.


ACE

en-noun

ACE (countable and uncountable, plural ACEs)

human recombinant soluble angiotensin-converting enzyme 2

(film) A member of American Cinema Editors


DP

DP (countable and uncountable, plural DPs)

From the shotlist, the DP can figure out, to some extent, how many lighting changes each scene will require.

2013, Arthur Vincie, Preparing for Takeoff: Preproduction for the Independent Filmmaker:

From the first, jungle-set shot, the redoubtable d.p. Hélène Louvart gives the film the daubed, traffic-light palette of a ripe mango; were it possible, you’d expect it to have an aroma to match.

2019 May 25, Guy Lodge, “Film Review: ‘The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão’”, in Variety:

director of photography
director of photography#English

(film) Initialism of director of photography.


WGA

The use of AI in the production of film and television – either to write scripts, generate actors’ likenesses, or cut corners in paying creative work, has been a major point of contention in negotiations between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and Sag and the Writers Guild of America (WGA).

2023 July 26, Adrian Horton, “Netflix lists AI job worth $900,000 amid twin Hollywood strikes”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

The W.G.A.’s negotiating committee recognized that A.I. had to be on the table, and not simply as something to be resisted or refused.

2023 September 29, Adam Seth Litwin, “Hollywood’s Deal With Screenwriters Just Rewrote the Rules Around A.I.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Writers Guild of America
w:Writers Guild of America

(US, film, television) Initialism of Writers Guild of America, the labor union representing writers of film and television.


OB

OB (countable and uncountable, plural OBs)

(television, radio) Initialism of outside broadcast.

(television, radio) Initialism of outside broadcasting.


annum

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

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


EPS

Encapsulated PostScript
w:Encapsulated PostScript

(computing, publishing, file format) Initialism of Encapsulated PostScript: a typographically set publishing format with vector graphics


qwertz

(computing, typography) A style of keyboard layout used in some European countries.


R&F

(broadcasting) Initialism of reach and frequency.


talker

From Middle English talkere, equivalent to talk + -er.

(informal, media) An all-talk radio station.

The royal engagement is likely to be a top talker right through the wedding.

(informal, media) A popular topic of conversation.


emission

All too often, such shows result in destroying any idea that the topic just _could possibly_ be serious. I also discussed with gothic friends, telling they once were interviewed by people claiming to be creating an emission about gothics... just to discover later that the real topic was sects!

2002 June 13, Laura Dove, “Documentary about vampires”, in alt.vampyres (Usenet), retrieved 2022-12-18:

(non-native speakers' English, broadcasting) A show; a program.


Neptunian

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

suffix

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


fey

en-noun

fey (countable and uncountable, plural fey or feys)

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


RH

RH (countable and uncountable, plural RHs)

(pornography, literature) Initialism of reverse harem (a genre of fiction in which a woman has multiple male sexual partners or love interests).


newscast

(broadcasting, journalism) A broadcast of the news; a news report that is transmitted over the air for television, radio, etc.


CMS

Chicago Manual of Style
w:en:Chicago Manual of Style

(media, US) Initialism of Chicago Manual of Style.


personal video recorder

personal video recorder (plural personal video recorders)

(television, Canada, UK, Ireland) A device that can record broadcast television programmes, or the images from a video camera, for subsequent playback through a television set


newscaster

Take Linda, a thirty-nine-year-old newscaster who relished her career but began to hear the alarm ringing on her biological clock.

1994, Rugh Winter, Bonnie Eaker-Weil, Adultery, the Forgivable Sin:

Yet, a few US newscasters will go on the air at 6 pm or later and say, "Moscow said tonight.["] ... A careful writer would make his script read, "Moscow said today. ..."

1997, Mervin Block, Writing Broadcast News: Shorter, Sharper, Stronger, →ISBN, page 154:

It is still considered embarrassing if people in authority like teachers or newscasters “shrub.”

2019 April 19, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, “Harro! I shrub because, really, I have no otherwise, do I?”, in The East African, archived from the original on 2023-04-16:

(broadcasting, journalism) One who delivers the news for broadcast on television, radio, etc; a newsreader.


tallyho

1772, UK, probably alteration of French taïaut (interjection used in deer-hunting), from Middle French tahou, tayo, from Old French taho, ta ho, tielau (interjection given to hounds to return) (second half of 13th century), composed of ta (particle used to prod animals) + ho ! (“halt!, hold!”). More at ho.

uder

(Air Traffic Control): Speedbird 123, New York, traffic at two o’clock, seven miles, a Boeing 737, west-bound, at 4000 feet.”

(Pilot): New York, Speedbird 123, tallyho.


actuality

en-noun

actuality (countable and uncountable, plural actualities)

From actual + -ity.
* (television): Influenced by French actualité.

A cabled despatch is better than nothing, but a voicecast of tolerable quality is preferable, and in certain types of story a voicecast with live or recorded actuality is best of all. Correspondents all have portable tape recorders.

1964, European Broadcasting Union, EBU Review: Programmes, Administration, Law, volume 83, page 22:

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:

(television) Live reporting on current affairs.

By 1903, the actuality film had reached its peak; in 1903, the Edison and Biograph companies, combined, registered three hundred fifty one actuality films for copyright protection. By 1908 that number had dropped to two.

1999, “The Variety Stage collection”, in Selected Materials from the Library of Congress:

(historical, film) A short early motion picture.


Alcaic verse

(poetry) A Greek meter, supposedly invented by Alcaeus, consisting of combinations of spondee, iambs and dactyls.


takeoff

takeoff (countable and uncountable, plural takeoffs)

(printing, UK, historical) The removal of sheets from the press.


e-journal

(publishing) An electronic journal, an academic journal published in electronic form.


broadcaster

/ˈbɹɔːdˌkɑːstə/

From broadcast (“to transmit a message or signal through radio waves or electronic means”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

suffix

A piece of equipment used to transmit audio and/or video content, or messages, to be received by radios or televisions, over the internet, etc.

lähetin

An organization or station that engages in the activity of such broadcasting.

放送局

or referring to broadcasting in Japan or Korea

A person whose job it is to effect such broadcasts; specifically, one who presents radio or television programmes (especially documentaries or news programmes); a presenter.


judder

en-noun

judder (countable and uncountable, plural judders)

(television) Jerky playback caused by converting between frame rates; telecine judder


literal

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-literal.wav

From Middle English literal, from Old French literal, from Late Latin litteralis, also literalis (“of or pertaining to letters or to writing”), from Latin littera, litera (“a letter”); see letter.

(epigraphy, typography) A misprint (or occasionally a scribal error) that affects a letter.


graf

Phonetic respelling of clipping of paragraph.

Brooks lays out the crux of his case his case in his first three grafs of his article:

2010 January 27, Matt Taibbi, “Populism: Just Like Racism!”, in True/Slant, archived from the original on 2013-01-19:


VOA

(US, radio) Initialism of Voice of America.


int

(film) Clipping of interior (describing the location of a shot in a film script, etc.)


PGA

Producers Guild of America
W:Producers Guild of America

(film) Initialism of Producers Guild of America, a trade organization representing television producers, film producers and New Media producers in the United States.


pullout

pullout (countable and uncountable, plural pullouts)

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

(typography) Synonym of liftout (“quotation given special visual treatment”)


continuity

continuity (countable and uncountable, plural continuities)

Borrowed from Middle French continuité, from Latin continuitas, equivalent to continue + -ity.

(uncountable, film) Consistency between multiple shots depicting the same scene but possibly filmed on different occasions.

(uncountable, radio, television) The announcements and messages inserted by the broadcaster between programmes.


takeout

takeout (countable and uncountable, plural takeouts)

desc

Japanese: テイクアウト (teikuauto), テークアウト (tēkuauto)

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

Takeouts on important running topics in the news are one way to add a valuable dimension to the evening news. One consequence, however, has been that there are fewer minutes available on the broadcast for hard news out of Washington.

1994, Penn Kimball, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Downsizing the news: network cutbacks in the nation's capital (page 19)


SAP

en-noun

SAP (countable and uncountable, plural SAPs)

second audio program
w:second audio program

(television) Initialism of second audio program.


royalty

royalty (countable and uncountable, plural royalties)

→ Danish: royalty

→ German: Royalty

→ Italian: royalty

→ Norwegian Bokmål: royalty

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: royalty

→ Portuguese: royalty

→ Swedish: royalty

From Middle English royaltee, roialtee, royalte, from Old French roialté, roiauté, realté (compare earlier Old French realted (“realm, kingdom”)), from Vulgar Latin *rēgālitās, from Latin rēgālis, equivalent to royal + -ty.

Until the total of advances in that contract has been earned out by royalties from any or all books in that contract, the author will not receive additional royalties.

2014, Richard Curtis, Mastering the Business of Writing:

(authorship) To make more money from a book than it cost to run an advertising campaign for it; to make enough in royalties to cover the advance a book received.


supplement

From Latin supplementum (“that which is added to supply a shortage”), from supplere (“to provide something”).

der

Coordinate term: (journals) special issue

the literary supplement

"Mid-Lent, and the Enemy grins," remarked Selwyn as he started for church with Nina and the children. Austin, knee-deep in a dozen Sunday supplements, refused to stir; poor little Eileen was now convalescent from grippe, but still unsteady on her legs; her maid had taken the grippe, and now moaned all day: "Mon dieu! Mon dieu! Che fais mourir!"

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IV, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

(journalism, scientific literature) An additional section of a newspaper devoted to a specific subject; an additional section of a journal issue, or an additional issue, for a similar purpose.


IPC

International Publishing Company
w:International Publishing Company

(publishing) Initialism of International Publishing Company. (Now IPC Media.)


AV

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

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


cunny

en-noun

cunny (countable and uncountable, plural cunnies)

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

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

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


ligate

en-verb

ligate (third-person singular simple present ligates, present participle ligating, simple past and past participle ligated)

ligates (present singular third-person)
ligating (participle present)
ligated (participle past)
ligated (past)

Latin ligātus, perfect passive participle of ligō (“I bind”). Doublet of legato. Compare league.

(transitive, typography) To connect text characters with a ligature.


reptilian

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

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

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

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

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

The reptilians are the creation of the Carians.

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

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

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

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


extradimensional

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

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


WCG

(television) Initialism of wide color gamut.


opt-out

en-noun

opt-out (countable and uncountable, plural opt-outs)

National television channels (descendant network) with regional or local slots or opt-outs: […]

1995, Pierre Musso, Philippe Souêtre, Lionel Levasseur, The Printed Press and Television in the Regions of Europe:

There is no limitation to the number of regional and local opt-outs that France 3 can operate; nor are there any guidelines in the channel's remit as to the length and content of such news programmes.

2003, Michael Scriven, Emily Roberts, Group Identities on French and British Television, page 27:

(television, radio, countable) A regional broadcast that other stations in the network may elect not to include.


YA

22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Gameshttp://www.avclub.com/articles/the-hunger-games,71293/
While Collins does include a love triangle, a coming-of-age story, and other YA-friendly elements in the mix, they serve as a Trojan horse to smuggle readers into a hopeless world where love becomes a stratagem and growing up is a matter of basic survival.


aug

(science fiction) Clipping of augmentation.


empathy

empathy (countable and uncountable, plural empathies)

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

coin

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


filler

(television, music) material of lower cost or quality that is used to fill a certain television time slot or physical medium, such as a music album


webbing

en-noun

webbing (countable and uncountable, plural webbings)

(printing) Tapes conducting webs of paper in a printing machine.


MPA

Motion Picture Association
w:Motion Picture Association

(film) Initialism of Motion Picture Association.


(publishing) Initialism of pulled-to-publish.


recto

verso

antonym(s) of “front side of a flat object”

reverso

antonym(s) of “right-hand page of a book”

Borrowed from Latin rēctō foliō (“on the right leaf, on the right page”), the ablative case of the Latin rēctus (“right”). Compare versus (“turned”).

The front side of a flat object which is to be examined visually, as for reading, such as a sheet, leaf, coin or medal.

(printing) The right-hand page of a book of a script which reads from left to right, usually having an odd page number.


stanza

From Italian stanza, from Vulgar Latin *stantia (“standing, stopping-place”), from Latin stāns, stantis, from stō, stāre, from Proto-Italic *staēō, from Proto-Indo-European *sth₂éh₁yeti, stative verb from *steh₂- (whence English stand). Doublet of stance.

der

(poetry) A unit of a poem, written or printed as a paragraph; equivalent to a verse.

Actually NBC and other webs have used similar devices in the past, particularly during the war, when net used plattered segments for its news and documentary stanzas. As far as can be determined, however, this is the first post-war instance in which the net has allowed even a partial plattering of a regularly skedded commercial stanza.

1957 December 30, “NBC Breaks Wax Rule for Hope's Britain Shows”, in Billboard, volume 59, number 45, page 5:

(broadcasting) A segment; a portion of a broadcast devoted to a particular topic.


Norse

Partly from Dutch Noorsch (now Noors (“Norwegian”)), from noordsch (“northern; nordic”); and partly from Danish norsk (“Norwegian”). Both equivalent to north + -ish. Doublet of Norsk.

(US printing, rare, dated) A size of type between Saxon and excelsior, 2+¹⁄₂-point type.


solidus

From Middle English solidus, from classical Latin solidus (“solid”), see below. Doublet of sol, sold, soldo, solid, sou, and xu.
In numismatic and weight senses, via medieval Latin solidus (“various coins”), from Late Latin solidus (“a gold coin of the Roman Empire”). In chemical sense, via German Solidus, coined by H.W.B. Roozeboom in his 1899 Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie, Stöchiometrie, und Verwandtschaftslehre (XXX, page 387).
In typography, from the shilling mark originally being an abbreviation (a long s ⟨ſ⟩), of Medieval Latin solidus meaning shilling.

der

slash (typography)
solidus (coin)
solidus (disambiguation)

(typography) Synonym of slash ⟨/⟩, originally (UK) in its use as the shilling mark and now its formal designation by the ISO and Unicode.

slash

(typography) The formal name of the oblique strikethrough overlay (as in A̷ and B̸) in Unicode.

(typography) The division line between the numerator and the denominator of a fraction, whether horizontal or oblique.


planer

the compositor "planes down" the "forme," to make a the surface of the type stand flat and even, by blows of the mallet upon a piece of smooth wood laid upon the pages, called, from its use, "a planer;" and it is then ready for the pressman

1825, Thomas Curson Hansard, Typographia, an Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Printing:

(archaic, printing) A wooden block used for forcing down the type in a form, and making the surface even.


RFT

(newspapers) Initialism of Riverfront Times.


run out

en-verb

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

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

(obsolete, printing) To fill a line with quadrats or full points.


ROC

(statistics, radio) Initialism of receiver operating characteristic.


verso

recto

antonym(s) of “back side of a flat object”

recto

antonym(s) of “left-hand page of a book”

From Latin in versō foliō (“on the turned leaf, on the turned page”), the ablative case of the Latin versus (“turned, changed”) from the perfect passive participle of vertō (“turn”). Compare rēctus (“right”).

der

The back side of a flat object which is to be examined visually, as for reading, such as a sheet, leaf, coin or medal;

(printing) The left-hand page of a book of a script which reads from left to right, usually having an even page number.

лява страница

на отворена книга


sentient

en-adj

sentient (comparative more sentient, superlative most sentient)

more sentient (comparative)
most sentient (superlative)

From Latin sentiēns (“feeling, perceiving”), present active participle of sentiō.

Not even a microbe? I don't want to blow up something that could evolve into a sentient species in a couple of billion years.

2002, André Bormanis, “Silent Enemy”, in Star Trek: Enterprise, season 1, episode 12, spoken by Jonathan Archer:

Lemoine has been placed on “paid administrative leave” after publishing a transcript of conversations with LaMDA which he claims support his belief that the chatbot is sentient and comparable to a seven- or eight-year-old child. […] While Lemoine no doubt genuinely believes his claims, LaMDA is likely to be as sentient as a traffic light.

2022 June 14, Toby Walsh, “Labelling Google’s LaMDA chatbot as sentient is fanciful. But it’s very human to be taken in by machines”, in The Guardian:

After more than 25 years as an artificial intelligence researcher[…]Dr. Goertzel knew he had finally reached the end goal: Desdemona, a machine he had built, was sentient. But a few minutes later, he realized this was nonsense.

2022 August 5, Cade Metz, “A.I. Is Not Sentient. Why Do People Say It Is?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(loosely, chiefly science fiction) Possessing human-like awareness and intelligence.

բանական

science fiction: possessing human-like awareness, knowledge and intelligence


sentient

The merpeople and the sentients who lived on the beach often hitched rides on these creatures, steering them by pressure on exposed nerve centers.

1965, Philip José Farmer, The Maker of Universes:

(loosely, chiefly science fiction) An intelligent, self-aware being.


roller

→ Welsh: rholer

* From Middle English rollere, equivalent to roll + -er.
* (credits in TV or film): These were originally printed on a physical cylinder that was rotated in front of the camera.

I learned a lot from watching, but the part that I should have studied harder was the roller. The names of the writers went on for ever.

2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 69:

(television, film) A roll of titles or (especially) credits played over film or video; television or film credits.


destroyer

/dəˈstɹɔɪ.ɚ/

From destroy + -er. Designating a warship, it is ellipsis of torpedo-boat destroyer, the longer term appearing at the end of the 19th century and the shorter form early in the 20th.

(military, nautical) A larger warship with guided missile armament, usually intended for air defence or anti-ship roles. Often, but not always, larger than a frigate and smaller than a cruiser.

(science fiction, by extension) A starship of comparable role.


cockatrice

First attested 1382 as Middle English cocatrice (“basilisk”), from Old French cocatriz, from Late Latin calcātrīx (“she who treads upon something”), from Latin calcō (“tread”), from calx (“heel, hoof”).

der

For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 8:17:

(fantasy, folklore) A snake or serpent that appears to be hatched from a rooster, or cock's, egg.


impressionism

en-noun

impressionism (countable and uncountable, plural impressionisms)

(poetry) A style that used imagery and symbolism to portray the poet's impressions.


colorize

en-verb

colorize (third-person singular simple present colorizes, present participle colorizing, simple past and past participle colorized)

colorizes (present singular third-person)
colorizing (participle present)
colorized (participle past)
colorized (past)

There is a colorized version of Casablanca.

What we see are beautiful overlapping NASA satellite photographs of the American mainland, […]taken in black and white and then luminously colorized by computer for scientific reasons.

1988 August 26, Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Looking for America”, in Chicago Reader:

(photography, cinematography) To convert black and white media to color by digital post production (as is often done in digital photography and in video special effects).

värittää

to convert a black and white media to color


seven-league boots

en-noun

seven-league boots pl (normally plural, singular seven-league boot)

The Count strode away as if he had secured seven-league boots, and in less time than it seemed possible, though it was an age to Lady Anne (...), he returned with two bank of England notes in his hand, which he put into the bailiff's, saying,—"There's your money for yourself and all. You have proper behavour, and will make no say of this littel matter."

1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XL, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 211:

(folklore, fairy tale) A pair of boots enabling the wearer to cross seven leagues at one stride.


lede

A deliberate misspelling of lead, originally used in instructions given to printers to indicate which paragraphs constitute the lede, intended to avoid confusion with the word lead which may actually appear in the text of an article. Compare dek (“subhead”) (modified from deck) and hed (“headline”) (from head).

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

Readers usually see the lead picture and read its caption first, before reading the lede of the article, so the article lede should not be a repetition of the caption.

1979, J. W. Click, Russell N. Baird, Magazine Editing and Production, 2nd edition, Dubuque, Iowa: W[illiam] C. Brown, →ISBN, page 90:

"How can Mr. On-line Guy learn to be a journalist if he didn't go through what I went through?" they [newspaper journalists] ask. "I needed the city editor to tell me how to write a graceful sentence, and I was a year into the job before I could craft a decent lede?"

1999, Mike Godwin, “Who’s a Journalist?—II: Welcome the New Journalists on the Internet”, in Robert H. Giles, Robert W. Snyder, editors, What’s Next?: Problems & Prospects of Journalism, New Brunswick, N.J., London: Transaction Publishers, published 2001, →ISBN, page 46:

I was thrilled to be in possession of this nugget, which could probably take over the lede of my story. This essentially and truly implicated one of the most respected homicide detectives in Boston, all based on my initial tip.

2007 February, Brian McGrory, chapter 40, in Strangled, New York, N.Y.: Atria Books, →ISBN, page 314:

The lede (as we spell it) story in today's NYT [The New York Times] is all about their new poll showing that [John] McCain is hurting himself, not [Barack] Obama, with the attacks. […] If something's the lede in the NYT, it tends to get discussed on cable TV all day, etc.

2008 October 15, Michael Tomasky, “Michael Tomasky’s Blog: This Morning’s Stuff You Need to Know”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, archived from the original on 2016-03-06:

Like all forms of writing, there's no hard and fast rule about what makes a great lede. A good lede changes depending on the story you're writing. […] Ledes vary wildly, but you'll start to notice patterns and, more importantly, what kinds of ledes you like and feel are effective.

2018, Branden Salas, “Reporting for Print Media”, in Basic Concept of Journalism, Waltham Abbey, Essex: Ed-Tech Press, published 2020, →ISBN, page 253:

Here are some different types of ledes: […] · Scenario ledes use narrative elements to describe a place of particular importance to the story. / · Narrative ledes begin at a chronological beginning. […] · First-person anecdotal ledes begin with a relevant anecdote that involves the writer. Service and celebrity pieces often begin with first-person ledes.

2019, Naveed Saleh, “Narrative: Beginnings, Middles, and Ends”, in The Writer’s Guide to Self-editing: Essential Tips for Online and Print Publishing, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, part VII (Global Considerations), page 225:

(chiefly US, journalism) The introductory paragraph or paragraphs of a newspaper, or a news or other type of article; the lead or lead-in.

լիդ

introductory paragraph or paragraphs of a newspaper or other news article


sector

Sector (Star Trek)
Sector (instrument)
sector

(science fiction) a fictional region of space designated for navigational or governance purposes.


unjustified

en-adj

unjustified (comparative more unjustified, superlative most unjustified)

more unjustified (comparative)
most unjustified (superlative)

unjustified text in a wordprocessor

(typography) Not justified (of text, arranged on a page or a computer screen such that the left and right ends of all lines within paragraphs are aligned)


plateau

Borrowed from French plateau, diminutive of plat (“a plate”); see plate. Doublet of platter.

(sports, broadcasting) A notable level of attainment or achievement.


velociraptor

From New Latin Velociraptor genus name, from vēlōx (“swift”) + raptor (“thief”).
The application to Deinonychus came about because Gregory S. Paul proposed that Velociraptor and Deinonychus were the same genus and this idea was taken up in the book leading to the Jurassic Park film series.

This is my favorite velociraptor, and that is saying a lot....That this species is sunk into Velociraptor is rather unfortunate, because the name Deinonychus Ostrom 1969a is a fine one.

1988, Gregory S. Paul, Predatory Dinosaurs of the World, New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Tokyo: Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, pages 366–7:


Uranian

Aphrodite Pandemos
Aphrodite Urania
Louvre
Voyager 2

/jʊˈɹeɪnɪən/

[T]he fury of a fiery hot-brained Marsian, may kindle immediate and incessant wrangling and feuds; whilst a quiet placid Uranian, in his turn, may yet at times be excessively annoyed, ay, worried and tormented, by the tardiness, listlessness and inactivity of his dronish companion.

1839, A Fantastical Excursion into the Planets, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, page 172:

And obviously, since the year of the Uranians lasts 84 of our years, the continuance of the sun above the horizon would last for many years. [...] And as with the summer day, so with the winter night, years elapse before either comes to an end. For upwards of 20 years, in a latitude corresponding to that of London, the Uranians—if there are any—never see the small Uranian sun.

1872, Richard A[nthony] Proctor, “Uranus and Neptune, the Arctic Planets”, in Other Worlds than Ours: The Plurality of Worlds Studied under the Light of Recent Scientific Researches, 3rd edition, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, pages 171–172:

(chiefly science fiction) An inhabitant of the planet Uranus.


CBBC

(television) Initialism of Children's BBC.


BE

en-noun

BE (countable and uncountable, plural BEs)

(pornography) Initialism of breast expansion.


stringer

And he told a few stories about time he had spent in New York in the 1950s as a stringer for the Asahi newspapers… about meeting Diana Vreeland and Truman Capote and Judy Holiday.

1991, Douglas Coupland, “Enter Hyperspace”, in Generation X, New York: St. Martin's Press, →OCLC:

(journalism) A freelance correspondent not on the regular newspaper staff, especially one retained on a part-time basis to report on events in a particular place.


smear

smear (countable and uncountable, plural smears)

From Middle English smeren, smerien, from Old English smerian, smyrian, smierwan (“to anoint or rub with grease, oil, etc.”), from Proto-West Germanic *smirwijan, from Proto-Germanic *smirwijaną. Doublet of schmear.
Cognate with Saterland Frisian smeere, Dutch smeren, Low German smeren, German schmieren.

In television terms, a certain amount of smear, ringing, and anticipatory overshoot are indigenous to VSB transmission.

1954, Radio & Television News: Radio-electronic engineering section:

Results show the reduction in intelligibility produced by changing the filter condition was much greater than reductions caused by altering smear duration.

1972, Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports:

(radio, television, uncountable) Any of various forms of distortion that make a signal harder to see or hear.


dead donkey

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

From the saying that no one ever sees a dead donkey, hence a rarity. This then became a stock example of a slow-news-day story, which was popularized by the title of the British sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey.

Swap these ages around to produce a 59-year-old father and a 45-year-old mother and what was previously a hot news story becomes a dead donkey.

1994, New Scientist, volume 141, numbers 1907–1912, page 3:

Those are the people who should have some protection from media excesses, even if only to gain some form of compensation for the damage sustained once the media has left and they, like the proverbial dead donkey, are dropped, their lives in tatters, because they were used by the media in an unsavoury ciruclation or viewing war.

1999, Council of Europe. Parliamentary Assembly, Official Report of Debates, volume 2, page 525:

When disaster strikes, the dead donkey does not get dropped, but merely occurs later on the television news.

2003, Peter Narváez, Of corpse: death and humor in folklore and popular culture, page 25:

(journalism) A news item of no real significance, usually of whimsical or sentimental nature, placed at the end of a news bulletin or in a newspaper as filler. A dead donkey can often be removed from the programme or publication if a more significant story needs extra time or space.


blooper

WLK. First radio station. On December 31, 1921, local engineer Francis F. Hamilton's radio station, 9ZJ, signed on with an address from Mayor Samuel (Lew) Shank. Broadcasting from Hamilton's garage at 2011 North Alabama Street, Shank made the city's first radio blooper: "Hamilton, do you mean to tell me that people can actually hear me over that damn' dingus?"

1921 December 31, “WLK”, in David J. Bodenhamer and Robert G[raham] Barrows, with the assistance of David G[ordon] Vanderstel, editors, The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, Bloominton, Indianapolis, Ind.: Indiana University Press, published 1994, →ISBN, page 1399, column 2:

The 10th anniversary of the Kermit Schafer Blooper LP's on Jubilee will be marked by a brand-new blooper LP called "Washington Bloopers." Set is the 12th in the blooper series which started in 1953. […] Schafer's blooper packages have become so popular that he has formed a Blooper Snooper Club. Members of the club get prizes for blooper contributions, and it will soon have a monthly newsletter.

1963 August 24, “Some Goof: Success through Mistakes”, in Lee Zhito, editor, Billboard: The International Music-record Newsweekly, volume 75, number 34, Cincinnati, Oh.: The Billboard Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 7, columns 1 and 3:

With DVDs steadily joining VHS cassettes as extinct technology, what has become of the fun, insightful mixed bag that movie fans came to know as bonus features — the audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, bloopers, deleted scenes and alternate endings?

2018 April 6, Fabrice Robinet, “Oh for the Days of the Making-Of Featurette — Seriously”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(film, informal) A filmed or videotaped outtake that has recorded an amusing accident and/or mistake.

pilalle mennyt otos (or otto, kohtaus instead of otos)


ghostwrite

en-verb

ghostwrite (third-person singular simple present ghostwrites, present participle ghostwriting, simple past ghostwrote, past participle ghostwritten)

ghostwrites (present singular third-person)
ghostwriting (participle present)
ghostwrote (past)
ghostwritten (participle past)

Mariana would rather not ghostwrite for a living because she finds it a thankless task.

(authorship, intransitive) To write under the name of another (especially literary works).

The president has someone to ghostwrite his addresses.

(authorship, transitive) To author a literary work or speech in the place of another.


sound bite

The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudo-science and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.

1995, Carl Sagan, “Science and Hope”, in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1st edition, New York: Random House, →ISBN, pages 25–26:

(journalism, television) An extract from a speech or interview used as edited into a news or other broadcast; an interview clip, especially seen as particularly expressive or pithy.


sleeper

(science fiction) A pod or similar device containing a person in cryosleep.


ditty bag

Suggested to be a clipping of commodity bag, a British naval term.

(television) A cameraman's bag containing various small tools.


KBS

Korean Broadcasting System
w:Korean Broadcasting System

(South Korea, broadcasting) Initialism of Korean Broadcasting System.

Kyoto Broadcasting System
w:Kyoto Broadcasting System

(Japan, broadcasting) Initialism of Kyoto Broadcasting System.


cross the line

cross the line (third-person singular simple present crosses the line, present participle crossing the line, simple past and past participle crossed the line)

crosses the line (present singular third-person)
crossing the line (participle present)
crossed the line (participle past)
crossed the line (past)

(cinematography) To film from the opposite side of an imaginary axis on set in order to view the actors from the opposite direction.


synaesthesia

en-noun

synaesthesia (countable and uncountable, plural synaesthesiae or synaesthesias)

synaesthesiae (plural)
synaesthesias (plural)

/ˌsɪn.ɪsˈθiː.ʒə/

From Ancient Greek σύν (sún, “with”) + αἴσθησις (aísthēsis, “sensation”), modelled after anaesthesia. It is analysable as syn- + -aesthesia.

Linking moods with colours is one example of synaesthesia. […] As a tool for improving writing, the idea of synaesthesia is versatile and innovative. Why use only visual references to describe visual impressions? Why just describe sounds using sound-related words? Play with cross-matching the senses.

2006, Stephen Bowkett, “Descriptive Writing”, in Boys and Writing (Pocket PAL), London: Network Continuum Education, Continuum International Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 38:

[I]t may be stated that the concept of synaesthesia is instrumental for understanding music videos, since videos are based on the soundtrack's visual associations. Yet to discuss associations here may cause some problems. […] [Nicholas Cook] seems to be relying on a rather normative conception of synaesthesia, which for its part supports the idea of absolute, nonrepresentational music. The implication of his discussion is that the "true" forms of music–image synaesthesia come only in the forms of perception of color or light when hearing a certain musical sound.

2007, Antti-Ville Kärjä, “Visions of a Sound Nation: Finnish Music Videos and Secured Otherness”, in Roger Beebe, Jason Middleton, editors, Medium Cool: Music Videos from Soundies to Cellphones, Durham, N.C., London: Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 181:

(art, literature) A literary or artistic device whereby one kind of sensation is described in the terms of another.


jingle

/ˈd͡ʒɪŋɡ(ə)l/

The verb, which is older than the noun, is from Middle English gyngle. Onomatopoeic; compare jangle.

That used-car dealership's jingle has been stuck in my head since we heard that song.

The best of friends become the worst of enemies when Barney makes a hilarious attack ad where he viciously pummels a cardboard cut-out of Homer before special guest star Linda Ronstadt joins the fun to both continue the attack on the helpless Homer stand-in and croon a slanderously accurate, insanely catchy jingle about how “Mr. Plow is a loser/And I think he is a boozer.”

2012 June 3, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Mr. Plow” (season 4, episode 9; originally aired 11/19/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(broadcasting, advertising, music) A memorable short song, or in some cases a snippet of a popular song with its lyrics modified, used for the purposes of advertising a product or service in a TV or radio commercial.


streamer

From Middle English stremer, stremere, equivalent to stream + -er.

(journalism) A newspaper headline that runs along the top of a page.

koko sivun levyinen otsikko

newspaper headline that runs across the entire page

Coordinate term: broadcaster

For starters, the business models for American broadcasters like NBC and streamers like Netflix (or Hulu, or Amazon) are drastically different.

2016 February 23, Jason Mittell, “Why Netflix Doesn’t Release Its Ratings”, in The Atlantic, retrieved 2022-11-01:

So where HBO used to boast that it was “not TV,” modern streamers send the message, “We’ll give you a whole lot of TV.”

2024 April 27, James Poniewozik, “The Comfortable Problem of Mid TV”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(television, Internet) A subscription service that streams content to an audience.


stylish

en-adj

stylish (comparative more stylish, superlative most stylish)

more stylish (comparative)
most stylish (superlative)

→ German: stylisch

(film) Having a particular directing style or cinematography.


sequential art

(art, comics) A form of art where the content is presented in a series of artistic items positioned in a specific order to convey its message or effect, such as a comic strip.


monologue

dialogue

antonym(s) of “a monopolizing utterance”

First attested in c. 1550. Borrowed from Middle French monologue, modeled on dialogue, ultimately from Byzantine Greek μονόλογος (monólogos, “soliloquy, monologue”).

der

(drama, authorship) A long speech by one person in a play; sometimes a soliloquy; other times spoken to other characters.


widescreen

(film) Filmed in a greater aspect ratio than the 1.33:1 or 1.37:1 aspect ratio.


pan and scan

Paul disdained pan and scan DVD releases, always holding out for the widescreen special editions.

(film) Formatted to fit within proportions of a 1.33:1 or 1.78:1 aspect ratio television screen, with sides of the original widescreen image (especially 2.35:1 aspect ratio) cropped off.


pan and scan

en-noun

pan and scan (countable and uncountable, plural pan and scans)

Alicia hated the person who had invented pan and scan, since the heightened panning effect aggravated her nausea when watching action movies.

(uncountable, film) The method or practice of adjusting widescreen film images, especially 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 aspect ratio, so that they can be shown within the proportions of a 1.33:1 or 1.78:1 aspect ratio television screen, by cropping off sides of the original widescreen image, as opposed to letterboxing.

In the discount bin by the door sat a pile of pan and scans, mostly comedies, that no one would touch.

(film) A movie recording employing this technology.


pan and scan

en-verb

pan and scan (third-person singular simple present pans and scans, present participle panning and scanning, simple past and past participle panned and scanned)

pans and scans (present singular third-person)
panning and scanning (participle present)
panned and scanned (participle past)
panned and scanned (past)

(film) To adjust widescreen film images so that they can be shown with standard television aspect ratios by cropping the original image, i.e. using pan and scan methods.

In the full-screen version of Star Wars Episode II, only Anakin and Obi-Wan appear in the scene because Padmé was panned and scanned out.

(film) To crop out (a character or object) when performing the pan and scan process, resulting in the deletion of a character or object.


filmology

[title] International Bureau of Filmology ¶ When the International Film Congress met in Paris in 1947 a plan was approved for the organization of a “Bureau International de Filmologie.”

1949, Renée Jeanne Fulton, “Theatre, Film, and Radio Notes”, in The French Review, volume 22, number 3, American Association of Teachers of French, page 279:

Pervy's research in filmology may eventually open wider applications of films in modern languages.

1949, Renée Jeanne Fulton, “Theatre, Film, and Radio Notes”, in The French Review, volume 23, number 2, American Association of Teachers of French, page 144:

[title]

1950, Adolphe Pervy, “Filmology Applied to the Fields of Vocabulary Growth and Modern Language Methods”, in Modern Language Forum, v 35 (March–June), pp 42–53

So the University of Paris set out to study the science of filmology—after Cohen-Séat's important book had given rise to an institute, a review, and a whole series of investigations.

1956, Jean Debrix, “Cinema and Poetry”, in Yale French Studies, number 17, Yale University Press, page 88:

The fourth approach is that of filmology—of the scientific study conducted from outside by psychologists, psychiatrists, aestheticians, sociologists, educators, and biologists. [contrasted with film criticism, the history of the cinema, and the “theory of cinema”]

1991, Christian Metz, Michael Taylor, Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema, University of Chicago Press, page 90:

190: According to Marc Soriano, secretary editor of the institute's review, “Before filmology, one was restricted to verifying a basic truth, that the projection of a film affected the audience. As far as how and why, that was another question. It was thus this ‘how and why’ that the nascent filmology tackled.”
198: This problem of the film spectator, which we have just begun to address, was already at the center of the filmology movement's debates during the 1950s.

1992, Jacques Aumont et al, Richand Neupert transl., Aesthetics of Film, University of Texas Press

In the history of the filmology movement this conjuncture of disciplines underwent a gradual but unrelenting reconfiguration wherein the disciplines of psychology and sociology (at this time overwhelmingly Durkheimian in cast) acquired such prominence that aesthetic or hermeneutic concerns were virtually eliminated.

1992, John Mowitt, Text, Duke University Press, page 143:

9: Filmology once again set an example, by explicitly proposing a new vocabulary (“filmofanic,” “profilmic,” “diegetic,” etc.), just as semiotics and psychoanalysis would become exemplary in the 1960s and 1970s by tending toward private lexemes (“syntagmatic,” “icon,” “suture,” etc.).
103: It should be noted that filmology is not the only branch of the ongoing research, however; but we have had strong reasons for privileging it so far. It cannot be said too often that filmology introduced a scientific approach to cinema for the first time and that, during the 1950s and 1960s, it hosted the most important psychological contributions to the topic. But when the references to this experience started disappearing, especially in the second half of the 1970s, other lines of enquiry emerged, close to filmology in spirit.

1999, Francesco Casetti, Elizabeth Gard Bartolini-Salimbeni, Theories of Cinema, 1945–1995:

If filmology, for its part, has not shown much interest in films, it has significantly contributed to the shift in film theory's center of gravity by determining it in relation to certain “scientific” achievements, and, despite the generality of its stakes, has sometimes wound up touching several levels of textual singularity—and above all reviving a concern for method, which will have more or less long term direct effects on the analysis of film, thanks to a progressive displacement at work from filmology toward semiology.

2000, Raymond Bellour, Constance Penley, The Analysis of Film, Indiana University Press, page 6:

(film) A 1950s–60s movement of theoretical study relating to film.


stinger

From sting + -er. Both figurative and literal senses appeared in the 16th century.

(slang, television and film) An extension cord.


letterbox

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

(film) Transferred to home video formats while preserving the original aspect ratio, having black bars above and below the picture area.


letterbox

letterbox (third-person singular simple present letterboxes, present participle letterboxing, simple past and past participle letterboxed)

letterboxes (present singular third-person)
letterboxing (participle present)
letterboxed (participle past)
letterboxed (past)

(film, transitive) To transfer a widescreen motion picture to home video formats while preserving the original aspect ratio, with the placing of black bars above and below the picture area.


backing

en-noun

backing (countable and uncountable, plural backings)

The simplest and cheapest answer is to introduce a scenic backing of some kind, a backdrop, a drape, some flats to restrict the shot and obscure whatever is outside.

2013, Gerald Millerson, TV Scenic Design, page 134:


ARC

ARC (countable and uncountable, plural ARCs)

“One of them came up to me in a signing line and asked for a blurb,” says Jen. “Can you believe it? Title I’ve never heard of, from some small press I’ve never heard of, and she comes up to me with a bound ARC, beaming, like of course I’m going to say yes.”

2023, R. F. Kuang, Yellowface, The Borough Press, page 90:

(publishing) Acronym of advance reader's copy, a copy of a book given to a reviewer free in advance for review purposes.


shape-shifter

(fantasy, mythology, science fiction) Alternative form of shapeshifter


sweeps

(US, television) The Nielsen ratings used to measure television show viewership several times a year.


hard-boiled

en-adj

hard-boiled (comparative more hard-boiled, superlative most hard-boiled)

more hard-boiled (comparative)
most hard-boiled (superlative)

(literature, especially detective fiction) Written in a laconic, dispassionate, often ironic style for a realistic, unsentimental effect.


formalism

en-noun

formalism (countable and uncountable, plural formalisms)

/ˈfɔɹml̩ˌɪzm̩/

(literature) An approach to interpretation and/or evaluation focused on the (usually linguistic) structure of a literary work rather than on the contexts of its origin or reception.

形式主義 /形式主义

literature: structural approach to interpretation


shoot 'em up

My wife won't watch this movie; it's a shoot ’em up.

The arcaders have it easy. All they need to do is drop a quarter into a machine to find out how good the latest shoot 'em up game really is. But for the home computer owner, it's another story.

1983 August, Popular Mechanics, volume 160, number 2, page 88:

An unmissable shoot 'em up.

1989, Duncan Macdonald, R-Type (video game review) in Your Sinclair issue 37, January 1989

(idiomatic, film, television, literature, video games) A piece of media which depicts considerable gunplay.


QWERTY

QWERTY (countable and uncountable, plural QWERTYs)

Christopher Latham Sholes
Henry Holt and Company

From the first six letters on one of the upper rows of such a keyboard.

It was the Monotype model D keyboard introduced in 1907 which became the standard for printers, with a "qwerty" typewriter lay and removable keybars which made the keyboard independent of the matrix case arrangement.

1978, Allen Kent, Harold Lancour, Jay E[lwood] Daily, editors, Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, volumes 24 (Printers and Printing to Public Policy, Copyright), New York, N.Y., Basel: Marcel Dekker, →ISBN, page 109:

The older children we came to know had had a great deal of experience with written language, and they certainly had a firm grasp of the alphabetic sequence. They were annoyed with the arrangement of letters on the typewriter keyboard, which begins at the second from the top row and proceeds left to right with the letters, "Q," "W," "E," "R," "T," and "Y." Computer professionals, who refer to this arrangement as the "QWERTY keyboard," have pointed out that, although it originated in order to avoid jam-ups of frequently used keys on the manual typewriter, the QWERTY arrangement is now completely obsolete but apparently here to stay. Third and fourth graders knew only that QWERTY had no logic that they could discern, and, until they developed basic keyboard familiarity, it greatly delayed their attempts at finding the keys they needed.

1991, Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Cynthia L. Paris, Jessica L. Kahn, “Hunting, Pecking, and Checking: Learning to Write with Word Processing”, in Learning to Write Differently: Beginning Writers and Word Processing (Language and Educational Processes), Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing, →ISBN, page 137:

[…] The Dvorak typewriter keyboard is, it has been claimed, ergonomically superior to the standard "Qwerty" arrangement. But having settled on the current standard keyboard, largely by historical accident, now manufacturers are supposedly reluctant to produce Dvorak keybboards so long as almost all typists are trained on Qwerty, while typists don't want to train on Dvorak when almost all keyboards are Qwerty. Even the inferior keyboard as a matched choice is superior to failing to coordinate at all.

1992, Jack Hirshleifer, John G. Riley, “Strategic Uncertainty and Equilibrium Concepts”, in The Analytics of Uncertainty and Information (Cambridge Surveys of Economic Literature), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, published 2002, →ISBN, section 9.1 (Nash Equilibrium), page 330:

The ‘QWERTY’ layout of keyboards is also a cause for concern. The design means that the fingers of the left hand (the less dominant hand for most Westerners) do 57 per cent of the work in typing English text. RSI symptoms are often found to be more intense in the left hand of keyboard users.

1993 September 11, John Ballard, “RSI on Trial: More People Suffering from Repetitive Strain Injury are Seeking Compensation in Court as Fresh Evidence Comes to Light about the Symptoms and Causes of this Crippling Disorder”, in New Scientist, London: New Scientist Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2016-04-13:

The typewriter using separate characters on type bars striking on a cylinder soon dominated the market. Because adjacent striking bars tended to jam when struck rapidly, manufacturers abandoned the alphabetical placement of letters on the keyboard in favor of the left-to-right "qwerty" disposition that takes into account the frequency and sequence of letters in English.

1994, Henri-Jean Martin, “Beyond Writing”, in Lydia G. Cochrane, transl., The History and Power of Writing, Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 465:

(uncountable, computing, typography) A standard layout of keys on a keyboard for typing, in which the leftmost keys of the top lettered row are Q-W-E-R-T-Y.

كويرتي

If you need to get a grip on a remote workstation, remote-control software can put your fingers on the pearly white QWERTYs of any computer, even half a world away.

1995 February 20, “Windows remote-control software: Reaching beyond your grasp”, Product Comparison, in InfoWorld, volume 17, number 8, San Mateo, Calif.: InfoWorld Publishing Company, →ISSN, page 66:

(countable, computing, typography) A keyboard with such a layout.


uke

From Japanese 受け (uke), derived from the verb 受ける (ukeru, “to receive, to get”).

Yaoi uke in fanfics often bear the brunt of stereotypical "negative female characteristics" such as passivity, helplessness, and masochism.

2008, Tan Bee Kee, “Rewriting Gender and Sexuality in English-language Yaoi Fanfiction”, in Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, Dru Pagliassotti, editors, Boys’ Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 142:

You'd rather have Sebas be an uke?

2010, Pentabu, My Girlfriend’s a Geek, volume 1, Yen Press, published 2012isbn=9780316221801:

Shizuku is so, so, so cute! I love him as an uke so much I can't stand it!

2010, Kyoka Wakatsuki, “Afterword”, in The Selfish Demon King, Digital Manga Publishing, →ISBN:

(Japanese fiction, fandom slang) A passive or submissive male fictional character in a same-sex relationship; a bottom.


headline

The headline on today's newspaper reads "John Doe Wins Wood-Splitting Competition."

Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you.

2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:

(journalism) The heading or title of a magazine or newspaper article.

(printing, dated) The line at the top of a page containing the folio or number of the page.


matte

Matte painting is a tool that filmmakers can use to create a scene that is impossible to achieve with conventional cinematographic means.

(film) A background, often painted or created with computers


OSS

OSS (countable and uncountable, plural OSSes or OSS's or OSSs)

OSSes (plural)
OSS's (plural)
OSSs (plural)

(film) Initialism of over-the-shoulder shot.


exposition

exposition (countable and uncountable, plural expositions)

From Middle English exposicioun, from Old French esposicion, from Latin expositiō, from expōnere (“to put forth”). The sense meaning "exhibition" is a later semantic loan from French exposition.

This essay has too much exposition in it.

My reviewer said she couldn't picture the setting for my story, so I'm improving the exposition.

(authorship) The act or process of declaring or describing something through either speech or writing, in nonfiction or in fiction; the portions and aspects of a piece of writing that exist mainly to describe or explain a set of things (such as, in fiction, the setting, characters and other non-plot elements).

I turned my research into an exposition on the traditional music of Borneo.

(authorship) An essay or speech in which any topic is discussed in detail.

বয়ান

(authorship) An opening section in fiction, in which background information about the characters, events or setting is conveyed.


RTHK

Radio Television Hong Kong
w:Radio Television Hong Kong

(Hong Kong, broadcasting) Initialism of Radio Television Hong Kong: the government broadcaster of Hong Kong.


LTC

LTC (countable and uncountable, plural LTCs)

(broadcasting) Initialism of last telecast.


AFP

When asked about the legal proceedings, Durov reportedly told the AFP that he “trusts the French justice” system but refused to elaborate on the case.

2024 December 7, Zoltan Vardai, “Telegram founder Pavel Durov questioned in Paris court for first time: Report”, in Cointelegraph:

(journalism) Initialism of Agence France-Presse.


comm

My comm was set on silent mode—nothing in or out except emergency transmissions.

2018, Joseph Kainz, Sector 12 and the Art of Burning, page ix:


HT

HT (countable and uncountable, plural HTs)


LWT

London Weekend Television
w:en:London Weekend Television

(UK, television) Initialism of London Weekend Television.


PSB

PSB (countable and uncountable, plural PSBs)

(broadcasting) Initialism of program station basis.


TST

TST (countable and uncountable, plural TSTs)

(broadcasting) Initialism of total story time.


speech bubble

(comics) A rounded outline, containing words, representing speech in a comic.

shtëllungë ligjërimi

rounded outline representing speech in a cartoon


run-in

en-adj

run-in (not generally comparable, comparative more run-in, superlative most run-in)

more run-in (comparative)
most run-in (superlative)

These headings are of the run-in type because a free-hanging style would just be a waste of column inches.

participial adjective
participial adjective

(participial adjective; editing, typography) (not comparable) Having been run in before or behind previous text.


Bruno

en-proper noun

Bruno (countable and uncountable, plural Brunos or Brunoes)

From Italian, German etc continental European Bruno, name of medieval Italian and German saints and royalty, Latinized form of Old High German brūn (“brown”), from Proto-West Germanic *brūn. The surname is mostly borrowed from Italian Bruno. Doublet of Brown.


changeling

/ˈt͡ʃeɪnd͡ʒlɪŋ/

The noun is derived from change + -ling (suffix with the sense ‘immature; small’). Sense 6 (“idiot, simpleton”) is from the idea that foolish children had been left by magical creatures (sense 1).
The adjective is derived from the noun.

suffix

[S]he, as her attendant, hath / A louely boy ſtollen, from an Indian king: / She neuer had ſo ſweete a changeling.

[c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

Every Lover admires his miſtris, though ſhee be very deformed of her ſelfe, [...] her feet ſtinke, ſhee breed lice, a meere changeling, a very monſter, [...]: if he loue her once, he admires her for all this, he takes no notice of any ſuch errors, or imperfections of body or minde.

1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Symptomes or Signes of Love Melancholy, in Body, Minde, Good, Bad, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 2, member 3, subsection 1, page 515:

Juſt as a Changeling ſeems below the reſt / Of Men, or rather is a two-legg’d Beaſt, / So theſe Gigantick Souls amaz'd we find / As much above the reſt of human kind.

1709, Earl of Murlgrave [i.e., John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, formerly Earl of Mulgrave], An Essay on Poetry, London: […] H. Hills, […], →OCLC, page 15:

Nothing will induce parents to show any attention to a child that they suspect of being a changeling.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 263:

It was easy enough to see that the child was a changeling, for it wasn't like other children at all it screamed and cried, as if a knife stuck in it, and it wheezed and hit about with its arms like a huldre-cat, and was as ugly as sin.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 298:

His nurse had told him all about changelings, and how the little people would always try to steal a beautiful human child out of its cradle and put in its stead one of their own ailing, puking brats [...]

1961, Muriel Saint Clare Byrne, Elizabethan Life in Town and Country, 8th edition, London: Methuen & Co., →OCLC, page 285:

(European folklore, also figurative) In pre-modern European folklore: an infant of a magical creature that was secretly exchanged for a human infant. In British, Irish and Scandinavian mythology the exchanged infants were thought to be those of fairies, sprites or trolls; in other places, they were ascribed to demons, devils, or witches.

خائن

infant of a magical creature secretly exchanged for a human infant

(fantasy, science fiction) An organism which can change shape to mimic others; a shape-shifter.


sted

From Middle English sted, from Old English stede (“place, spot, locality”).

der

(This version CORRECTS Corrects title of movie to ‘Echoes of the Rainbow’ sted ‘Echoes of a Rainbow.’)

2010 February 22, “Hong Kong rejoices over Berlin film prize”, in Long Island Press, retrieved 2012-07-25:

Eds: CORRECTS name of city to 'Pass Christian' sted 'Port'. Moving on general news and financial services. AP Video.

2010 May 10, Vicki Smith, Holbrook Mohr, “Gulf Oil Spill: Unemployed Fishermen Struggling To Get By”, in Huffington Post, retrieved 2012-07-25:

(journalism, slang) short for instead of


bring up

en-verb

bring up (third-person singular simple present brings up, present participle bringing up, simple past and past participle brought up)

brings up (present singular third-person)
bringing up (participle present)
brought up (participle past)
brought up (past)

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

From Middle English bring up, dissimilated from Middle English upbringen (“to bring up, raise”). Doublet of upbring.

der

(obsolete, printing) To level type or make it ready for printing by overlaying it.


in-line

An in-line mathematical formula does not have to be on a line of its own.

Parenthetical referencing is a citation style which uses in-line citations enclosed within parentheses.

This is an inline (e.g. mid-sentence) template for marking up text as a Wikipedia self-reference.

(writing) Inserted in the flow of a text.


sestet

From Italian sestetto, from sesto (“sixth”), Latin sextus, from sex (“six”).

(poetry) The last six lines of a sonnet, forming two stanzas of three lines each.


rotunda

Learned borrowing from Latin rotunda, from rotundus (“round”). In the architectural sense, from Sancta Maria Rotunda (the name for a church in the Pantheon).

(typography, frequently capitalized) A Gothic typeface used in early printed books in Northern Italy, based on a rounded script developed in the 13th cent.; the manuscript hand on which this typeface was based.

rotunda

typography: Gothic typeface based on a 13th-C. rounded script


hinting

en-noun

hinting (countable and uncountable, plural hintings)

(typography) The process of adding hints to a computer-based font in order to align the glyphs to a rasterized grid at specific sizes in a visually appealing manner.


pick up

en-verb

pick up (third-person singular simple present picks up, present participle picking up, simple past and past participle picked up)

picks up (present singular third-person)
picking up (participle present)
picked up (participle past)
picked up (past)

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

The story does not seem to have been widely picked up.

News of this notice from the university was picked up by local media and had the effect of raising the ire of some citizens who saw this as an attack on ‘Chinese heritage’[.]

2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 3:

(transitive, media) To obtain and publish a story, news item, etc.


MOS

man on the street
man on the street#English

(broadcasting) Initialism of man on the street.


MOS

Disputed, with many speculative suggestions; see Wikipedia.

(film) Without a synchronous audio track.


glossy

Anna Magnani has been making Hollywood glossies recently, so it was good to see her back again in a native Italian production, The Last Temptation, in which with great artistry and all her usual power she played a Nun who finds a woman's and even a mother's heart beating strongly beneath her 'sister's' habit.

[…] the first home-made guide to TV films by which is meant old films shown on the box, not those new Hollywood glossies made specially for it (though a guide there too would soon be welcome).

1973, Films and Filming, volume 20, page 10:

(film, informal) A film depicting people with glamorous lifestyles.


gen

gen (third-person singular simple present gens, present participle genning, simple past and past participle genned)

gens (present singular third-person)
genning (participle present)
genned (participle past)
genned (past)

Samples could be taken from the original, and plans could be made, but genning could not be initiated until death had occurred.

2008, Bart Dahmer, Primal Screams, →ISBN, page 36:

Her nurturer ears, genned to be hyper-sensitive, had to be hurting from the noise.

2011, Karen Sandler, Tankborn, →ISBN, page 28:

(science fiction) To genetically engineer.


drive out

drive out (third-person singular simple present drives out, present participle driving out, simple past drove out, past participle driven out)

drives out (present singular third-person)
driving out (participle present)
drove out (past)
driven out (participle past)

(obsolete, printing, of type) To set closely; to take up less space because the typesetter uses type that is thinner than the copy or the typesetter whites out more or squeezes in more lines on each page.


longueur

Borrowed from French longueur (literally “length”).

bor+

Most of the reasons given for its disappearance make sense: people are happier, busier; the work done by the anti-Freudian skeptics has finally taken hold of the popular imagination, so that people have no time for analytic longueurs and no patience with its mystifications.

1998 August 17, Adam Gopnik, “Man Goes To See a Doctor”, in The New Yorker:

He cultivated the aura, if not quite of the Anti-Christ, at least of an Anti-Sun King, discountenancing his uncle and shocking the dévots by preferring the intimacy and informality of a clique of drinking companions to the formal longueurs of the courtly round […].

2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 30:

[T]he reader can’t help feeling that a few judicious nips and tucks might have dispersed the longueurs that waft around the third quarter of the book.

2015 October 5, Michiko Kakutani, “Review: ‘City on Fire,’ Garth Risk Hallberg’s Novel of New York in the Bad Old Days”, in New York Times:

Claire Fontaine (who are actually a duo) have queered the phrase, lending its pungency and ambiguity to a biennale that I wish were nearly so succinct. There are longueurs. There are detours and incomprehensible delays.

2024 April 22, Adrian Searle, “Venice Biennale 2024 review – everything everywhere all at once”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(authorship) A lengthy passage in a dramatic or literary work, especially a dull or tedious one; a period of boredom.


chronoscope

/ˈkɹɒnəˌskəʊp/

(science fiction) A device able to directly view other times, past or future.


extended

en-adj

extended (comparative more extended, superlative most extended)

more extended (comparative)
most extended (superlative)

(typography, of a typeface) Wider than usual.


pirate radio

en-noun

pirate radio (countable and uncountable, plural pirate radios)

(radio) The act or practice of broadcasting without having the necessary license that covers the territory where the signals are received.

ràdio pirata

radio station without the necessary license


tin can

For here am I sitting in a tin can / Far above the world / Planet Earth is blue / And there's nothing I can do

1969, David Bowie (lyrics and music), “Space Oddity”:

(science fiction, slang) A metal spaceship or space station.


phaser

* (science fiction): For the fictional weapon coined for Star Trek: originally a "ph(oton ma)ser," later changed canonically to a "phas(ed)-e(nergy) r(ectifier)" (of "nadions", not photons).
* (phase modulation): phase + -er

Captain James Kirk: "Set your phaser on one quarter. I'll leave mine on stun."

1966 September 8, George Clayton Johnson, The Man Trap (Star Trek), season 1, episode 1:

His oddly reserved nature stands out [...]. Whyte sets his phaser on stun, not kill.

A Bajoran rushed past with an armful of phaser rifles, another with a box of hand phasers.

1999, Dafydd ab Hugh, chapter 3, in Fallen Heroes [Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; 5], New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books:

Giolitti's Gold Key art is widely admired, [...] and this is a terrific opportunity to pick up a page—set your phasers on bid.

2004, Hertiage Signature Auction #811, page 185:

I said, "Set phasers on be-a-bastard."

Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press

(science fiction) Fictional energy weapon, with multiple settings for degree of intensity, from the television series Star Trek (1966–69).


phaser

en-verb

phaser (third-person singular simple present phasers, present participle phasering, simple past and past participle phasered)

phasers (present singular third-person)
phasering (participle present)
phasered (participle past)
phasered (past)

(science fiction, transitive) To shoot with a phaser weapon.


DRM

The problem for e-marketing is that the use of DRM in its most restrictive manner limits the value and use of purchased goods (maximum numbers of reinstalls, limited numbers of redownloads of the software).

2011, Stephen Dann, Susan Dann, E-Marketing: Theory and Application:

digital rights management
digital rights management#English

(media) Initialism of digital rights management.

digital restrictions management
digital restrictions management#English

digital handcuffs
digital handcuffs#English

(derogatory) Initialism of digital restrictions management. (digital handcuffs; seen as undesirably restrictive)


frequency modulation

en-noun

frequency modulation (countable and uncountable, plural frequency modulations)

(sound, radio) the use of a modulating wave to vary the instantaneous frequency of a carrier wave


Nordic

From French nordique, from nord (“north”).

Called “Nordics,” the aliens are human-like in appearance, of average height, and often have long, flowing hair. Contactees are typically struck by the beauty of the Nordics, as was Howard Menger (1959): “She seemed to radiate and glow,” Menger explains,

2007, Erich Goode, D. Angus Vail, Extreme Deviance, Pine Forge Press, page 41:

But the third most common alien is called a Nordic, or humanoid.

2012, Kelly Milner Halls, Alien Investigation: Searching for the Truth about UFOs and Aliens, Millbrook Press, page 45:

Known as Nordics, these extraterrestrials are said to have blond hair, blue eyes, and pale skin and are anywhere from 6 to 8 feet (183cm to 244cm) tall.

2012, Patricia D. Netzley, Extraterrestrial Life: Alien Encounters, Reference Point Press, page 33

(ufology, science fiction) A race of extraterrestrials similar in appearance to Nordic humans.