teratoid

I wanted to explore how at the launch of a new millennium many people were beginning to feel like teratoids in the global commodity exchange.

2002, Lance Olsen, “Omniphage: Rock 'n' Roll and Avant-Pop Science Fiction”, in Edging Into the Future: Science Fiction and Contemporary Cultural Transformation, →ISBN, page 51:

The objects floating in the bath and lazing about on the bathroom's floor are all monsters, teratoids dehumanized by the husking of their clothes.

2002, Aiko Ito, Graeme Wilson, I Am a Cat, volume 2, translation of original by Natsume Soseki, →ISBN, page 345:

He had little time, however, to ponder his lack of reflex, for new incident forced his attention back to the ridge where the four teratoids had first broken from cover.

2007, Geoffrey Verdegast, Of Staves and Sigmas: Souls of Ergos Book One, →ISBN, page 67:


coded

en-adj

coded (comparative more coded, superlative most coded)

more coded (comparative)
most coded (superlative)

The character comes across as being female-coded.

This character is coded as autistic.

He is aware of a number of programs with more "capable" characters like Sheldon, from The Big Bang Theory, who are autistic coded without being explicitly named as such. James notes that, despite being more visible, the autistic traits of these characters tend to be used for comic relief, while autistic people in everyday situations are never seen.

2020 May 21, Noah Adams, Bridget Liang, Trans and Autistic: Stories from Life at the Intersection, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 72:

(fiction, slang) Portrayed in a way that suggests or resembles having a specific trait or inspiration, without being officially explicitly stated as having that trait.


text box

The graphic design of secondary schoolbooks, which includes many text boxes, captions, labelled diagrams, thought bubbles, etc., introduced a certain level of noise into the scanning and OCR[.]

2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Position vectors, homologous chromosomes and gamma rays: Promoting disciplinary literacy through Secondary Phrase Lists”, in English for Specific Purposes, →DOI, page 4:

(typography) A block of printed text contained within borders that is intended to be read separately from the major text of the page.


ABCs

(obsolete, poetry) A type of poem in which the lines start with the letters of the alphabet in order.


book signing

(authorship) An event where an author signs copies of her/his books for fans.


rhubarb rhubarb

Chosen as a word for producing indistinct background noise because it contains no very sharp or recognizable phonemes: see rhubarb (“noise”).

Those glottals glugged like poured pop, each /rebarbative syllable, remembrancer, raise /‘mob' rhubarb-rhubarb to a tribune's speech /crossing the crackle as the hayracks blaze...

1981: Tony Harrison, The Rhubarbarians I in collection Continuous: 50 sonnets from 'The School of Eloquence' . Rex Collings, London (1981)

(stage direction) They all rise and drink. Rhubarb, rhubarb...To convey the next stage of To convey the next stage of general inebriation, the remarks that follow are spoken in a sing-song.

1983, Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, Victory Celebrations:

(film stage direction) Pan to a shot of the crowd of humanists surging forward and murmuring "Rhubarb, rhubarb".

1995, Sandra M. Gilbert, Susan Gubar, Masterpiece Theatre: An Academic Melodrama:

(film) Background noise of simultaneous conversations, none of which is decipherable since the actors are repeating the word rhubarb or other words with similar attributes.


little green man

en-noun

little green man (plural little green men)

[ˌlɪ.ɾɫ̩ ˈɡɹɪ̃i̯m ˌmɛ̃ə̯n̆]

[ˌlɪ.t͡ʔɫ̩ ˈɡɹɪ̃i̯m ˌmãn̆]

[ˌlɘ.ɾɯ ˈɡɹɘ̯ĩm ˌmɛ̞̃n̆]

կանաչ մարդուկ

humorous: space alien, Martian — see also alien

An engram is NOT [...] One of the little green men Americans claim have crashed in flying saucers.

1950 December 6, The Sydney Morning Herald, page 3, column 5:

(chiefly science fiction) A conventional fictional alien from outer space in the form of a small humanoid with green skin.

It was the pantomime of "Jack and the Bean Stalk," and as the Hallicots entered a large number of little green men were hammering on anvils in a gloomy and spacious cave.

1866 May 5, The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, page 4, column 1:

How funny to see the little green men, and the fairies in gossamer and dewdrops.

1883 March 17, The Brisbane Courier, page 3, column 3:

In an uncautions moment, once upon a time, I had informed Sweetheart that on the branches of that tree in years long past, when I used to trudge past it on foot, there used to be seen little green men, moping and mowing. So every time we pass that way Sweetheart requires the story with out variations. Not a single fairy must be added or subtracted.

1896 January 25, The Australasian, page 41, column 3:

Still the Green Isle is supposed to specialise in fairies - the little green men and fairy sprites have in spired many poems and stories of that distressful country[.]

1921 January 23, The Truth, page 8, column 4:

"Sure...the Little Green Men can't be as spiteful as some people say!"

1932 March 5, The Daily Mercury, page 14, column 2:

(folklore) A type of diminutive sprite or fairy that wears green clothing.


spear carrier

[A]ctors would get annual raises through 2008, when even the lowliest spear carrier will make more than $1,500 a week for being on Broadway.

2004 July 15, Jesse McKinley, “Close Call On Broadway Had Its Roots On the Road”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-03-19:

(acting) A person in a play or movie with a minimal part; an extra.


segment

From Latin segmentum (“a piece cut off, a strip, segment of the earth, a strip of tinsel”), from secāre (“to cut”).

der

The news showed a segment on global warming.

In “Treehouse Of Horror” episodes, the rules aren’t just different—they don’t even exist. If writers want Homer to kill Flanders or for a segment to end with a marriage between a woman and a giant ape, they can do so without worrying about continuity or consistency or fans griping that the gang is behaving out of character.

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

(broadcasting) A part of a broadcast program, devoted to a topic.

osio

broadcasting: part of a program devoted to a topic


electrotype

(printing) a plate, made by electroplating a mold, such as used in letterpress printing


monophonic

From a similar selection, says M. Remusat, the Coreans have made a monophonic alphabet of nine vowels and fifteen consonants, with which they write their language.

1828 July 7, Peter S. Du Ponceau, “On some Points connected with the Nature of the Chinese Language (enclosure in letter from Basil Hall)”, in The Philosophical magazine, volume 5:

(orthography) having simple one-to-one mapping between letters and phonemes


futanari

en-noun

futanari (countable and uncountable, plural futanari or futanaris)

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From Japanese ふたなり (futanari, “hermaphrodite”), from 二(ふた)つ (futatsu, “two”) + 形(なり) (nari, “shape, form”) or 態(なり) (nari).

(uncountable, Japanese pornography) A genre of Japanese pornography featuring intersex or hermaphroditic characters that are depicted as attractive, usually works containing female characters with a penis and sometimes testicles.

فُوتَانَارِي

genre of pornography featuring intersex characters

(countable, Japanese pornography) An intersex or hermaphroditic character, usually female and with a penis, in such works.


cinematographer

кінематаграфі́ст

a movie photographer, especially one who is in charge of shooting a movie

(cinematography) A photographer who oversees the operations of the cameras and lighting when making a film. The cinematographer may also double as the camera operator of the movie camera, though this is usually done by a cameraman. The film director may also double as the cinematographer, though this is usually a different person.


sandman

E.T.A. Hoffmann
The Sandman (short story)
sandman

From sand + -man. The mythological sense may be from German Sandmann, Sandmännchen, as it is apparently first attested in English in the context of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s novella The Sandman (1816). The German is attested in the relevant sense since at least the mid-18th century.

This then was the Sandman; but what was his occupation, and what was his purpose ? The nursery-maid being applied to, gave a nursery-maid's explanation, that the Sandman was a bad man, who flung sand in the eyes of little children who did not go to bed.

1827, “On the Supernatural in Composition; and particularly on the Works of Ernest Theodore William Hoffman”, in Museum of Foreign Literature and Science, volume 11, page 458:

(folklore) A figure that brings sleep and dreams by sprinkling magical sand into people's eyes.


one-shot

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And with the added bonuses of color and videotape coupled with the disadvantages of higher production costs, a lot of syndie producers forsook weekly series in favor of one-shot specials — and it didn't take long for the airwaves to become thick with one-shots.

2001, Hal Erickson, Syndicated Television: The First Forty Years, 1947-1987, →ISBN, page 106:

The Mummy belongs in a chapter devoted to one-shots as its progeny are different breeds rather than direct sequels.

2013, B. Forshaw, British Gothic Cinema, →ISBN:

This spectacular, free one-shot also includes original short stories from Sean Rubin's upcoming, enchanting dinosaur tale, Bolivar; Jim Henson's fantasy classic, Labyrinth (an Archaia original graphic novelby Ted Naifeh, Adrianne Ambrose, and Cory Godbey is in the works); and Nate Cosby and Chris Eliopoulos' justice-seekin' boy hereo, Cow Boy.

2014, Louis Zampini, A Father's Guide to Comics, →ISBN:

The one-shot trend continued in Japan, where fans are used to paying what Western audiences consider absurdly high prices for anime, but this hampered them from Western release until companies began to bundle one-shots together.

2015, Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy, The Anime Encyclopedia, 3rd Revised Edition, →ISBN:

(television, film, comics) A television program, film, or comic book that is not part of a series.

The smaller frame means that Hill uses a lot of tight one-shots, mixed in with more expressive images like an endless sea of skaters fleeing from cops or a slow push-in on Stevie and Ian having an uncomfortable conversation while playing video games on their couch.

15 October 2018, Jesse Hassenger, AV Club Jonah Hill makes his auspicious if uneven filmmaking debut with a Mid90s nostalgia triphttps://web.archive.org/web/20181015200214/https://film.avclub.com/jonah-hill-makes-his-auspicious-if-uneven-filmmaking-de-1829744755

(film) A cinematographic shot of a person talking to camera; a talking head.


ogonek

From Polish ogonek (literally “little tail”).

The pangram “Pchnąć w tę łódź jeża lub ośm skrzyń fig” (To push a hedgehog or eight boxes of figs into that boat) highlights a few of the language-specific diacritical marks, such as L with stroke (ł) and ogoneks (ą, ę) necessary to write in Polish—demonstrating how a writing system can accommodate many languages with thorough character inclusion.

2023, Mia Cinelli, Giving Type Meaning: Context and Craft in Typography, Bloomsbury, →ISBN:

(orthography) A hook-shaped diacritical mark ⟨◌̨⟩ attached underneath a vowel, typically to indicate nasalization, as in Ąą, Ęę, Įį, Ǫǫ or Ųų.


flagging

flagging (countable and uncountable, plural flaggings)

väsyminen

tiring or exhausting, such as after exercise

Because older TVs are not able to respond quickly enough to the horizontal time-base errors introduced from the VCR, a VCR connected to an older TV may cause severe bending or flagging at the top of the picture yet appear to operate normally on a newer TV set.

1998, Robert Brenner, Gregory Capelo, VCR Troubleshooting and Repair, page 158:

(television) The skewing or bending of the upper part of a television picture due to imperfect synchronization of the video signal.


synchronizer

(film editing) A device for aligning multiple film strips in a replay or editing device.


dubbed

This shows that audiovisual constraints do not always result in loss, but might also contribute to the pretended spontaneity of dubbed dialogue.

2016, Andrea Esser, Iain Robert Smith, Miguel Á. Bernal-Merino, Media Across Borders: Localising TV, Film and Video Games, page 137:

In theaters, most foreign films are not dubbed, while animated films and some films meant for children offer a dubbed version.

2018, George Pierce, Introducing Translational Studies, page 181:

The dubbed statement, however, seems to reflect different connotations.

2019, Sofía Sánchez-Mompeán, The Prosody of Dubbed Speech: Beyond the Character's Words, page 121:

(film, television, video games) Having had the original soundtrack replaced with a synchronized translation.


dish bitch

(slang, derogatory, journalism) A reporter who appears using a satellite connection, and must therefore be close to their satellite dish.


RM

RM (countable and uncountable, plural RMs)

(typography) Initialism of right margin.


on the air

Are we starting? We're starting.
Looks like it.
Are we on the air? No one even told me we're on the air.
We're not on the air.
We're not on the air, you're sure?
No.
Can someone tell us- are we on the air? Someone know?
Nobody knows.
Nobody knows. Nobody knows if we're on the air. Anyway, this is Penn Jillette, in Las Vegas, not even knowing if we're on the air. They just snuck up on us like that. But it's after 11.
It's 11 o'clock, we must be on the air.
Which is 2 o'clock in New York and 1 o'clock in Chicago, and I guess we're on the air.

2006 January 3, Penn Jillette, Michael Goudeau, 0:04 from the start, in Penn Radio, number 1:


cheville

Borrowed from French cheville. Doublet of clavicle.

The genius of prose rejects the cheville no less emphatically than the laws of verse; and the cheville, I should perhaps explain to some of my readers, is any meaningless or very watered phrase employed to strike a balance in the sound.

1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Art of Writing:

The practice of using chevilles was very common in old Irish poetry, and a bad practice it was; for many a good poem is quite spoiled by the constant and wearisome recurrence of these chevilles.

1910, Patrick Weston Joyce, English as we speak it in Ireland, chapter 5:

(poetry) A word or phrase whose only function is to make a sentence metrically balanced.


woodblock

(printing) A wooden block used as a printing form.


tête-bêche

From French tête-bêche (literally “head-to-foot”).

bor

It's an odd little confection, the tête-bêche, but it's oddly pleasing. Each author gets a fair crack of the whip, with their own cover and top-billing, and the illusion of two separate books makes a head-to-tail volume seem somehow to be good value.

2011 July 28, David Barnett, “Tête-bêche books make a speculative return”, in The Guardian:

(publishing) A book where two texts are bound together, with one text rotated 180° relative to the other, such that when one text runs head-to-tail, the other runs tail-to-head.


wraparound

en-noun

wraparound (countable and uncountable, plural wraparounds)

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(countable, television, radio) A segment where material featuring one person (such as a reporter) is introduced and concluded by another person.


wigwag

From wig (“to wag, waggle”) + wag (“to swing”). The noun is derived from the verb.

com

I parked near a big sound stage building; lamped a red wig-wag signal rocking back and forth to indicate a scene being shot inside. This meant no admittance until the cameras had stopped grinding. Presently a bell jingled and the wig-wag died.

1943 March, Robert Leslie Bellem, “Russian Run-around”, in Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective, Wilmington, Del.: Culture Publications, →OCLC; republished as Russian Run-around, [Prineville, Or.]: eStar Books, 2014, →ISBN:

WIG-WAG The red flashing light outside of a stage indicating that filming is going on.

[2002, Michael G. Uva, Sabrina Uva, “WIG-WAG”, in Uva’s Basic Grip Book, updated edition, Boston, Mass.: Focal Press, →ISBN:

Any of a number of mechanical or electrical devices which cause a component to oscillate between two states.

A device that causes one or more lights to flash in a preset pattern.

(film, television) A red light near the door of a sound stage that flashes to indicate that cameras are rolling inside the stage and that all people and vehicles outside should remain quiet; a red-eye.


drop cap

(typography) A large initial letter that drops below the first line of a paragraph, usually used at the beginning of a section or chapter of a book.


day for night

(film) A cinematographic technique in which a crew films in a high-contrast situation, typically in the early morning or late afternoon, with a blue filter, causing the scene to look as if it were shot in moonlight.


day for night

The Sandcrawler scene in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was shot day for night.

(cinematography) In the daytime, with a blue filter, causing the scene to look as if it were shot in moonlight.


letter case

en-noun

letter case (countable and uncountable, plural letter cases)

(typography, uncountable) The distinction between majuscule (uppercase) and minuscule (lowercase) letters.


blaster

Blast out the lakes and canals—whittle down the peaks and mounds with atomic blasters—file them into the shape of gigantic buildings.

1938 April, Henry Kuttner, “Hollywood on the Moon”, in Thrilling Wonder Stories, volume 11, number 2, page 26:

One slender hand clung near a singular jewel, like a great white snow crystal, that hung from her throat. And the other, with a practiced and familiar grip, held a barytron blaster of the newest legion design. An unwilling little glisten had come into the violet eyes. Her blond head flung angrily. She caught her breath, and lifted the barytron blaster. Its bright tube pointed straight between his shoulders. He would never even know.

1939 June, Jack Williamson, “One Against the Legion”, in Astounding Science-Fiction, volume 23, number 4, page 138:

(science fiction) An unspecified powerful hand weapon, usually one that fires an energy pulse or beam.


checkerboard

(film) A style of negative cutting that avoids visible splice marks.


stereotypy

stereotypy (countable and uncountable, plural stereotypies)

(uncountable, printing) The process of making stereotype plates and printing from them.


humanist

(typography) Of a typeface: resembling classical handwritten monumental Roman letters rather than the 19th-century grotesque typefaces.


death ray

(science fiction) A beam of radiation that can kill.


ray gun

Keep your 'lectric eye on me babe / Put your ray gun to my head

1972, “Moonage Daydream”, in The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, performed by David Bowie:

(science fiction, weaponry) A weapon that shoots harmful rays.


halftone

(printing) A picture made by using the process of half-toning.


radiogram

Either:
* a blend of radio + gram(ophone); or
* a clipping of radiogram(ophone).

/ˈɹeɪ.di.əˌɡɹæm/

She comes in with a worried, puzzled expression. Then her spirits suddenly revive; she switches on the radiogram and dances gaily for her own amusement.

1935, Michael Egan, The Dominant Sex: A Play in Three Acts, London: Victor Gollancz, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 86:

Inter-train radio communication facilities between the Royal and pilot trains are provided, as well as train to land station contact, and the lounges throughout the train have radiograms. The King's study will have a radio receiving set of wide range.

1947 January–February, “South African Royal Train”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 36:

He opens the plywood door that conceals the radiogram. The record is already on the turntable: Miles Davis letting loose.

2017, Fiona Farrell, Decline and Fall on Savage Street, Auckland: RHNZ Vintage, →ISBN, page 96:

(radio, historical) Synonym of radiogramophone (“a gramophone record player that incorporates a radio receiver”)


bearding

(television) An undesirable video artifact whereby darker parts of a signal bleed across horizontally into the brighter parts.


perfecting

perfecting (usually uncountable, plural perfectings)

(printing) The process of printing on both sides of the printed-on material during its single pass through the printing press.


billing

billing (countable and uncountable, plural billings)

Actors that may have higher status in the industry won't always get top billing: if they only played a bitpart then it would go to the person whose character was the main focus of the movie.

2014, Nicolae Sfetcu, The Art of Movies:

When Corbyn finally gave a speech – in a stunning piece of billing that could only happen at Glastonbury, he appeared between hip-hop duo Run the Jewels and Southampton’s foremost R&B loverman Craig David – the crowd brought the entire area around the Pyramid stage to a standstill

2017 June 26, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and more”, in the Guardian:

(chiefly film, theater) The act or situation of including someone or something among those that make up a complete list.


sunlamp

(film, photography) A high-intensity lamp, used to produce an illusion of daylight.


superluminal

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The first thing to understand about superluminal expansion is that it isn't visible to the unaided eye. The objects that appear to be moving faster than light are emitting radio waves, not visible light.

1984, Edward Edelson, “Faster than light?”, in Popular Science, retrieved 2013-11-20, page 70:

(astronomy, physics, fiction, fantasy) Faster than light; having a speed greater than light.

(unpreferred translation due to hyperphoton, hyperphotonic: υπερφωτονικός m (yperfotonikós), υπερφωτονική f (yperfotonikí), υπερφωτονικό n (yperfotonikó))


headpiece

Coordinate term: frontispiece

A view of a Wenford train headed by this locomotive forms the headpiece to the present article.

1940 December, Charles E. Lee, “The Wenford Mineral Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 643:

(publishing, printing) A decorative page heading used at the start of volumes or chapters.


earthbound

en-adj

earthbound (comparative more earthbound, superlative most earthbound)

more earthbound (comparative)
most earthbound (superlative)

(science fiction) Heading towards Earth.

a föld felé tartó/közeledő/haladó/irányuló


snuff film

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Their whole case that porn is violent rests on classifying s/m porn as violent, and lumping it in with the snuff film.

1981 August 15, Nancy Wechsler, Gayle Rubin, Pat Califia, “Sadomasochism: Fears, Facts, Fantasies”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 5, page 7:

(film) A film that shows, or purports to show, the actual deliberate killing of one of the performers.


Spock

en-proper noun

Spock (countable and uncountable, plural Spocks)

Alternative form: Mr. Spock

This caricature called economic man was not only completely self-centered, he was also entirely rational in all his decisions, whether consuming or investing—a veritable Mr. Spock.

2010, William McDonald Wallace, The Decline and Fall of the U.S. Economy: How Liberals and Conservatives Both Got It Wrong, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, page 48:

Phelps's calorie intake may seem superhuman, and his 6' 4", 185-pound body may recall Greek statuary, but fans are also drawn to him by a goofy grin and oversized ears that led to his being called Spock on the school bus.

2008 December 2, “Sportsman of the Year: Michael Phelps”, in Sports Illustrated:

(science fiction) In Star Trek, a Starfleet commander and science officer of the USS Enterprise, especially known for his Vulcan logic, reason, and stoicism and his distinctive pointed ears.


K-hed

(US, journalism) A brief news item in a newspaper consisting of a one-line heading and a single paragraph, especially one of little interest added to fill space.


hed

Deliberately altered spelling of head, to distinguish the word as not belonging in a journalistic story. Compare lede (“lead, introduction”). Also an archaic spelling.

(journalism, slang) The headline of a news story.


rubai

Borrowed from Arabic رُبَاعِيّ (rubāʕiyy).

(poetry) A quatrain in classical Arabic, Persian, Turkic or Urdu poetry.


burn off

en-verb

burn off (third-person singular simple present burns off, present participle burning off, simple past and past participle burned off or burnt off)

burns off (present singular third-person)
burning off (participle present)
burned off (participle past)
burned off (past)
burnt off (participle past)
burnt off (past)

(transitive, intransitive, television) To fill (low-value air time) with programming not suitable for its original purpose.


bagatelle

en-noun

bagatelle (countable and uncountable, plural bagatelles)

Borrowed from French bagatelle, from Italian bagattella.

One afternoon in 1920. a young pianist sat down in a shuttered room in the capital of defeated Germany and played a Bagatelle by Beethoven.

2007, Norman Lebrecht, The Life And Death of Classical Music, page 7:

(literature, music) A short piece of literature or of instrumental music, typically light or playful in character.


warp factor

From the science-fiction series Star Trek.

(science fiction) A hypothetical figure indicating a space vessel's speed greater than the speed of light.


principal photography

(cinematography) The phase of film production during which the film is actually shot, as distinct from pre-production and post-production.


dipinto

Borrowed from Italian dipinto (literally “painting”).

(archaeology, epigraphy) a sketched or painted (as opposed to engraved) inscription.


Earthican

Blend of Earth + American. Possibly popularized by the adult animated sitcom Futurama.

I went to an Earth Day event in San Francisco and there was this huge Earthican flag, circa 3000 A.D., with the red and white stripes and an image of Earth up in the corner.

2002 April 23, Jym Dyer, “Earthican Day”, in alt.tv.futurama (Usenet):

Just consider that, over time, on a scale of millions of years, earthican continents have had *lots* of different configurations

2004 October 18, Wayne Throop, “Early parallel-universe stories”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet):

You may remember him [Paul Hellyer] from such news articles as "Is there a party Paul hasn't belonged to or at least tried to join?" and "How dare the Americans threaten the delicate Earthican-Alien relationship by [planning] to emplace armed bases on the Moon?"

2006 May 25, James Nicoll, “Spider's Heinlein novel [was: Re: ConCarolinas 2006 is coming!]”, in rec.arts.sf.fandom (Usenet):

that first step is enough to make direct attacks rather tricky, to make most of the Earthican powers' armed forces useless.

2006 June 27, John Schilling, “David Drake - Leary and the RCN”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet):

(nonstandard, humorous, science fiction) Of or from the planet Earth.


Earthican

Fry: Well, if you're going to be Earthicans, we're going to have to teach you.

2001 April, “A Leela of Her Own”, in Futurama, season 4, episode 10:

(nonstandard, humorous, science fiction) An inhabitant of planet Earth.


smell-o-vision

/ˈsmɛləˌvɪʒən/

From smell + -o- (interfix used for ease of pronunciation) + vision, probably popularized by Smell-O-Vision (proper noun) which was recoined in 1959 by Mike Todd Jr. (1929–2002), the American producer of the film Scent of Mystery (1960), as the name of the system invented by the Swiss scientist Hans Laube (1900–1976) used for the film. The term was possibly modelled after terms used in the motion picture industry such as Panavision (a company manufacturing cameras and lenses) and VistaVision (an early widescreen motion picture film format).
The variant spelling smellevision is possibly a blend of smell + television.

affix

"Magnificent!" shouted our supercritical photographer as he leveled his eye at this picture [of a ham]. […] Perhaps "smell-o-vision" is needed to enjoy fully this Easter treat. Or, better still, taste SUNNYFIELD HAM yourself—either smoked or cooked ready-to-eat.

1942 March 30, “We Disagree with the Photographer! [advertisement]”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Life, volume 12, number 13, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 74, column 1:

SMELLEVISION REPLACES TELEVISION! Carl Stalling sez, "It will never work!"

1944 October 28, Michael Sasanoff, Bob Clampett, director, “The Old Grey Hare”, in Merrie Melodies, Burbank, Calif.: Warner Bros. Pictures; Vitaphone Corporation, →OCLC:

New model cars come out each year; the split-T and the soccer kick are new football offensive weapons. Black-and-white, then color TV and pretty soon smell-o-vision—that's progress.

1966 March, Joseph A. Brunton, Jr., “A Few Words from the Chief: ‘Is the Good Turn Obsolete?’”, in Robert Hood, editor, Boys’ Life: The Magazine for All Boys, volume LVI, number 3, New Brunswick, N.J.: Boy Scouts of America, →OCLC, page 46, column 3:

Other techno-mancers forecast fax in the home, "smellevision" (television sets equipped to emit appropriate odors for each scene), and luminescent paints that store sunlight during the day and glow at night. These new products would surely brighten the future.

1991, Michael Brian Schiffer, “A Portable Depression”, in The Portable Radio in American Life, Tucson, Ariz.; London: University of Arizona Press, →ISBN, page 116:

The film includes some marvelous 3-D special effects as well as flashing lights, a bubblemaker, smell-o-vision, and a surprise from the skies as well as a live actor and a cannon.

1994, Corey Sandler, Econoguide 1995: Walt Disney World, Epcot and Universal Studios Florida, Chicago, Ill.: Contemporary Books, →ISBN, page 140:

Meanwhile, in far-off laboratories of the Military-Infotainment Complex (to advance upon Stuart Moulthrop's phrase) at Disney or—yea, verily, even unto—Apple, some scientists work on synchronous smell-o-vision with real-time simulated fragrance degradation shifting from fresh ink to old mold; […]

1995, Michael Joyce, “‘So Much Time, so Little to Do’: Empowering Silence and the Electric Book”, in Of Two Minds: Hypertext Pedagogy and Poetics (Studies in Literature and Science), Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 97:

So, until Netscape comes up with Smell-o-vision, reading about and looking at food on the Web will have to stave off those hunger pains.

1999, Nora Paul, Margot Williams, “Food Resources on the Web”, in Paula J. Hane, editor, Great Scouts! Cyberguides for Subject Searching on the Web, Medford, N.J.: CyberAge Books, Information Today, →ISBN, part I (Life & Times), page 25:

Perhaps someday the SML (smelly markup language) standard will make it possible to connect a smell-o-vision peripheral to my FireWire port, and I'll be able to sniff the circle of boiled dough [a bagel] on the screen.

1999 July 1, Thomas H[ayes] Davenport, “ThinkTank: The Net Changes (Almost) Nothing”, in Abbie Lundberg, editor, CIO, volume 12, number 18, Framingham, Mass.: CIO Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 24, column 3:

What will happen to our spiritual senses when the next step is taken, i.e. when rituals are performed purely in the realm of the virtual? […] [I]f the full sensory experience of the ritual is diminished by its reduction to the text, sound, and imagery now possible on the Web (I don't think we're ready for networked smell-o-vision), what in turn may be gained by working within these limitations, and what are the possibilities of transcending them?

2005, Stephen D. O’Leary, “Utopian and Dystopian Possibilities of Networked Religion in the New Millennium”, in Morten T. Højsgaard, Margit Warburg, editors, Religion and Cyberspace, Abington, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, part I (Coming to Terms with Religion and Cyberspace), page 43:

The dream of layering smells onto movie-watching is nearly as old as movie-watching itself. This history is a pileup of interesting failures, technical experiments, and overweening optimism in smell-o-vision’s eventual appeal. […] Most interestingly, people who’d bought tickets to see these movies seemed sneakily pleased when smell-o-vision failed.

2021, Jude Stewart, “Introduction: Why a Book on Smell?”, in Revelations in Air: A Guidebook to Smell, Penguin Books, →ISBN, page xvii:

(originally and chiefly US, film, television, humorous) A (supposed) technology consisting of cinematography with the addition of olfaction, often portrayed as far-fetched or futuristic.

Mike Todd Jr.
Panavision
Scent of Mystery
VistaVision


nahualism

From nahual + -ism. The first element is from Nahuatl nahualli (“sorcerer, spirit, animal form a person may take”).

uder

(folklore, mythology) The Mesoamerican belief that certain human beings can transform into animals.


Dyson sphere

Named after American theoretical physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson, who originally described the concept in 1960.

named-after

"But there's more to a Dyson sphere than collecting solar power.
"Say you make the sphere one astronomical unit in radius. You've got to clear out the solar system anyway, so you use all the solar planets in the construction. That gives you a shell of, say, chrome steel a few yards thick. Now you put gravity generators all over the shell. You'd have a surface area a billion times as big as the Earth's surface. A trillion people could wander all their lives without ever meeting one another."

1970 October, Larry Niven, Ringworld, →ISBN, page 106:

Aye, an actual Dyson sphere. Can you imagine the engineering skills needed to even design such a structure?

1992 October 12, Ronald D. Moore, “Relics”, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 7, episode 4, spoken by Scotty (James Doohan):

You could even extend the argument to say why, on purely selfish grounds, a benign intelligence might remain benevolently engaged with the rest of the universe, rather than hiding away in a Dyson sphere and literally wireheading itself - because the payoff for expansive engagement will necessarily eventually exceed any possible payoff accompanying solitary self-reconstruction.

2005 August 19, Mitchell Porter, “Re: Paperclip monster, demise of.”, in SL4 mailing list, message-ID <BAY103-F40D2C8C3B70C9EB8A834EACAB50@phx.gbl>:

Meridian is a construct akin to a Dyson sphere: a vast, hollow shell encompassing a power source that provides heat and light to lush green biomes in the interior.

2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Meridian Codex entry:

(science fiction) A solid shell of matter enclosing a star.


skyline

(journalism) A panel on the front page of a newspaper outlining some of the features to be found inside.


Newspeak

Newspeak
Newspeak (programming language)
Nineteen Eighty-Four

From new + speak, coined by George Orwell in 1949 in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The programming language was so named because of its “shrinkable” design, following Orwell's idea of a continually diminishing vocabulary in Newspeak.

(fiction) The fictional language devised to meet the needs of Ingsoc and designed to restrict the words, and thereby the thoughts, of the citizens of Oceania in the 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.


rubdown

(typography, attributive) Synonym of dry transfer


runaround

(printing) A section of type that is narrower than that of the column it is part of; typically next to an illustration.


runabout

(science fiction) A small, relatively maneuverable spacecraft or shuttlecraft.


beanstalk

If we don't build a Beanstalk, somebody else will—and once one is working, the number of rocket launches will drop to zero. That's the source of more than half our income.

1979, Charles Sheffield, The Web Between the Worlds:

I have never liked riding the Beanstalk. My distaste was full-blown even before the disaster to the Quito Skyhook. A cable that goes up into the sky with nothing to hold it up smells too much of magic.

1982, Robert A[nson] Heinlein, Friday, page 1:

Space elevators proposed for the Earth require novel high-strength materials and a substantial counterweight for their implementation. The problem becomes easier for Mars. There is no available "counterweight" for a synchronous "beanstalk" but Phobos proves a substantial anchor in non-synchronous orbit. A tether extending 1456 km from Phobos could release objects into an orbit just entering the Martian atmosphere, providing a launch and recovery device for Mars Excursion Modules. Extending the "beanstalk" to a length of 5832 km would place the end at the fringes of the Martian atmosphere.

2005 May 14, Bob Parkinson, “Partial Beanstalks for Mars Exploration”, in Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, volume 58, number 05/06, page 197:

(chiefly science fiction) A space elevator.


gynoid

She was obviously a skillful surgeon. She expertly cleaned and sterilized the gaping holes in the gynoid’s chest and back.

2000, Thomas J. Sanders, God's Fire, Trafford Publishing, page 58:

Purchased as sex toys, the gynoids are programmed to love and sexually serve male humans; the aberrant violence of one particular model, called "Hadaly," is a mystery to the company that manufactures them. They should not be able to kill humans, nor should they have any desire to commit suicide, since they should have no real sense of self.⁴⁴ Batõ and his new partner, Togusa (who was Kusanagi's partner in the previous film), spend the rest of the film trying to discover how the gynoids have acquired their faulty programming—is it the work of a terrorist hacker, for example, targeting prominent men?

2006, Sharalyn Orbagh, “5: Frankenstein and the Cyborg Metropolis: The Evolution of Body and City in Science Fiction Narratives”, in Steven T. Brown, editor, Cinema Anime: Critical Engagements with Japanese Animation, Springer, page 99:

She is embodied as a bright blue feminized robot, much like the mechanized gynoids in the classic film Metropolis (1928).

2013, Nickie D. Phillips, Staci Strobl, Comic Book Crime: Truth, Justice, and the American Way, New York University Press, page 82:

(science fiction) An android (humanoid robot) in female form.


black letter

en-noun

black letter (countable and uncountable, plural black letters)

Also we discovered what is still more curious, an English version of the black-letter Latin.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

The original boldface printing types are the blackletters used by Gutenberg in the 1440s. For the next two centuries, blackletter fonts were widely used not only in Germany but in France, Spain, the Netherlands and Engand.

2002, Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style (version 2.5), Vancouver: Hartley & Marks, →ISBN, page 103:

(calligraphy) A highly calligraphic Western European script style used from approximately 1150.

(typography) A Northern European style of type based on the script, with contrasting thick-and-thin, angular strokes forming upright letterforms, and usually set with a dark typographic colour on the page.


sudsy

en-adj

sudsy (comparative sudsier, superlative sudsiest)

sudsier (comparative)
sudsiest (superlative)

By the end of that season, four sudsy series ranked in the Top 10: Dynasty in first place, Dallas second, Knots Landing ninth, and Falcon Crest tied for tenth.

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

(television) Soapy; resembling a soap opera.


tabbing

en-noun

tabbing (countable and uncountable, plural tabbings)

These juxtapositions of perspective are generally indicated typographically, by a verse being tabbed in or out from the one above it: such tabbings indicate breaks in time, space, or voice.

2003, Stephen J. Hartnett, Incarceration Nation, page 23:


pantsing

pantsing (countable and uncountable, plural pantsings)

Coordinate term: plotting

Here's how to painlessly make pantsing your backup. The unknown can be intimidating. The key to pantsing is to not worry about how it will all hang together. Just start writing.

2017, The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing, Penguin, →ISBN:

(informal, writing) An improvised style of writing without an outline.


sharecropper

(publishing, attributive) A fiction book set in a fictional universe created by a different author, typically produced under licence.


hedera

From the genus name Hedera, in turn from Latin hedera (“ivy”).

(typography) A fleuron depicting an ivy leaf.


cancrine

en-adj

cancrine (comparative more cancrine, superlative most cancrine)

more cancrine (comparative)
most cancrine (superlative)

From Latin cancer (“crab”) + -īnus, as if from *cancrīnus. The poetry sense comes from the fact that most species of crab can walk sideways, either left or right.

[…] the prodigious variety of ſo many kinds of verſe, Leonine, Alexandrine, Acroſtic, Chronologic, Hieroglyphic, Cancrine, Croſs-formed, Labyrinthic, Pyramidal, and a thouſand other follies […]

1772, José Francisco de Isla, translated by Thomas Nugent, The History of the Famous Preacher Friar Gerund de Campazas: Otherwise Gerund Zotes, volume I, London: T. Davies, page 233:

A marble bénitier, vessel for holy water, is surrounded with what Alvarez has denominated a recurrent, or Cancrine verse, which forms the same words beginning at each end: ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ.

1814, “A Short Sketch of a Short Trip to Paris”, in Abraham John Valpy, editor, The Pamphleteer, volume III, number VI, page 532:

(poetry) Palindromic; reading the same forwards or backwards.


GH

(television) Initialism of General Hospital, an American daytime television medical drama first aired in 1963.


spiritus lenis

Learned borrowing from Latin spīritus lēnis.

lbor

smooth breathing
smooth breathing#English

(orthography) Synonym of smooth breathing


spiritus asper

From Latin spīritus asper (literally “rough breath”).

bor

The spiritus asper mark looks like an opening single quote, as in the word εὑρίσκω (heurískõ), the word εὕρηκα (heúrēka), or the word ἕξις (héxis, "habit").

h, as an aspirate, is very frequent in Chinese ; it is generally a stronger aspirate than in English : in the dialects of the south it is often changed into f, in the north into s, or sh. To mark an aspirate after a consonant, we use the Greek spiritus asper in preference to h.

1836 May, “System of Orthography for Chinese words”, in The Chinese Repository, volume V, number I, page 27:

(orthography) A diacritic mark ( ʻ ) in Ancient Greek used to indicate aspiration of an initial vowel or rho; also used for a similar sound in the Wade–Giles system of romanization for Mandarin Chinese.

examples from the Wade–Giles romanization system


AFI

American Film Institute
w:American Film Institute

(film) Initialism of American Film Institute.


switcher

(television) Synonym of vision mixer (“device for selecting between video sources”)


subscript

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

In chemical formulas the number of atoms in a molecule is written as a subscript, so we write H₂O for water which has two atoms of hydrogen for each one of oxygen.

(typography) A type of lettering form written lower than the things around it.


subscript

en-verb

subscript (third-person singular simple present subscripts, present participle subscripting, simple past and past participle subscripted)

subscripts (present singular third-person)
subscripting (participle present)
subscripted (participle past)
subscripted (past)

As in the chapters on the synchronous model, we use the convention of subscripting a variable by the index of the process at which the variable resides.

1996, Nancy A. Lynch, Distributed Algorithms, Elsevier, page 210:

The elements of these matrices are subscripted with a row–column index, that is, with two integers that give the row and column position in the array.

2011, William M. Davis (original author Cifford E. Dykstra), Physical Chemistry: A Modern Introduction (Second Edition), CRC Press, page 424

(mathematics, sciences, typography, transitive, of a variable) To provide with a subscript.

If your presentation covers chemistry or some other scientific field, you'll need to subscript and superscript characters (think H2O).

2007, Emily A. Vander Veer, PowerPoint 2007: The Missing Manual:

(mathematics, sciences, typography, transitive, of a text) To convert to a subscript form.


slasher

Realizing there was a fresh market for a style of movie that studios had written off as niche material, Scream’s gonzo profits ushered in a wave of subsequent slashers trying to capitalize on a new generation’s discovery of the subgenre, as Gen Xers and Gen Yers alike learned (or re-learned) the fundamental pleasures of a good old-fashioned murder spree by a crazed killer, supernatural or otherwise.

2017 October 27, Alex McLevy, “Making a Killing: The Brief Life and Bloody Death of the Post-Scream Slasher Revival”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-03-05:

(informal, film) A horror movie with graphic blood and violence; a slasher movie.


skimmer

Kondric stood beside the skimmer for a moment, looking back at his warriors. They shouted and banged their swords on their shields. He raised his hand in farewell, and followed Violet into the cabin.

2015, Aurora Springer, Grand Master's Pawn:

They said no one landed on other planets. They said there was no such thing as a skimmer. Rocky hadn't believed them. They didn't know everything. He wished they could see the skimmer.

2000, Carlie Simonsen, Rocky to the Rescue, page 2:

(science fiction) A small, fast-moving spacecraft.


title track

(music, film) An audio track having the same name as the album, EP or film that it is taken from.

nimiraita

music, film: audio track with same name as the album, film etc. it is taken from


esper

From ESP + -er from ESP (“extrasensory perception”).

I don't know why anybody would be spying on me, either, but—I'm neither a Lensman nor an esper, but I'd swear that somebody's peeking over my shoulder half the time.

1942 June 14, Edward Elmer Smith, “Storm Cloud on Deka”, in Astonishing Stories, volume 3, number 4:

But Espers can’t pick up any EK brain pattern farther than the horizon. It’s direct wave transmission. Even large objects cannot be penetrated. A building, say, or a—

1950 August 14, Alfred Bester, “The Devil's Invention”, in Astounding Science Fiction, volume 45, number 6, page 139:

extrasensory perception
extrasensory perception

(chiefly science fiction) A person who has extrasensory perception.


planeteer

Blend of planet + volunteer or planet + -eer.

(science fiction, rare) Someone who makes interplanetary journeys.


copyholder

(dated, publishing) A device that holds copy in place for typesetting.

kézirattartó

a device that holds copy in place for typesetting

(dated, publishing) A person who holds copy and reads it aloud to a proofreader, who checks the typeset text against it.


grawlix

National Cartoonists Society
The Slate Group

A meaningless word coined by the American comic strip writer Mort Walker (1923–2018) in a humorous article entitled “Let’s Get Down to Grawlixes” published in The Cartoonist (1964), possibly influenced by growl.

kirosanojen sensurointimerkki

There is a wealth of comicana waiting for the student with enough drive and depth of understanding. Once he masters the secret of the waftarom, the solrad, and the grawlix, he can mix in any art circle but he's own his own from here on.

1975, Mort Walker, “50-50 or Fight”, in Backstage at the Strips, [New York, N.Y.]: A&W Visual Library, →ISBN, page 31:

Even in today's permissive society many four letter words are not permissible in the comics. […] So the creative mind came up with a variety of "jarns," "quimps," "nittles," and "grawlixes" to help convey a sergeant's strong emotion and add color and dimension to his personality.

1980, Mort Walker, “Indicia”, in The Lexicon of Comicana, Authors Guild Backinprint.com edition, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, published 2000, →ISBN, page 52:

He does all the Popeye voices, but prefers Olive Oyl's. He has noises for the nittles, the grawlix, the quimps, the jarns. He blows each balloon up before your ears. He reels home, +'s on his eyes, singing the spurl that rises like heat from his head.

1995 February 21, William H[oward] Gass, “Culp”, in The Tunnel, Normal, Ill.: Dalkey Archive Press, published 2014, →ISBN, page 159:

Thus, in a singles bar you’re probably better to stick with jarns, nettles, grawlices, and quimps (comic-book swearing).

1997, Ken Weber, Five Minute Challenge #1, Toronto, Ont.: Stoddart Publishing Co. Limited, →ISBN, page 148:

A series of images or symbols used in speech bubbles in comic strips to indicate one or more swear words.

An image resembling an illegible scribble used for this purpose.

When Chicago-based author and illustrator Anders Nilsen was a political-minded college student at University of New Mexico, grawlix granted him a glimmer of fame. Demonstrating against a newly-enacted law, Nilsen wielded a hand-painted sign reading "F*&# Proposition 187." […] As a fellow comic writer, [Paul] Hornschemeier prefers what he calls "the other species" of grawlix, which is when the entire expletive is replaced by symbols. "When you see just the pure symbols, you imagine, 'OK, these are some dirty words,'" he says. "But the reader definitely becomes the author of that filth."

2011 May 18, Heidi Stevens, “What the grawlix?”, in Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill.: Tribune Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-16:

The symbols that work best are those that fill up space: @, #, $, %, and &. Hyphens, plus signs, asterisks and carets (^) leave too much white space within the body of the grawlix for it to look like a single word. […] Because it represents words spoken in anger or excitement, the grawlix should always end with an exclamation mark, even if it's an interrogative grawlix: @#$%&?! Finally, as a word of caution, you should reserve your use of grawlixes for emails to close friends. Grawlixes are highly inappropriate for any professional writing. And about that, at least, I'm not kidding.

2014, Bill Schmalz, edited by Sabita Naheswaran, The Architect’s Guide to Writing: For Design and Construction Professionals, Mulgrave, Vic.: The Images Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 88:

The work in this first section also involved identifying the purpose of grawlixes, the visual representation of swearing in comic strips. […] The students discussed the aim of grawlixes, raising their awareness of the effectiveness of graphic displays.

2016, Sonia Zyngier, Vander Viana, “Literary Awareness in a High-school EFL Learning Environment: An Empirical Evaluation”, in Michael Burke, Olivia Fialho, Sonia Zyngier, editors, Scientific Approaches to Literature in Learning Environments (Linguistic Approaches to Literature; 24), Amsterdam, Philadelphia, Pa.: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →DOI, →ISBN, page 287:

If I told you that a grawlix infestation is inevitable, you'd probably respond with something to the effect of, "What the $#@! are you talking about?" […] I have responded to most of 2020 with a series of grawlixes. For instance, when I learned that we've had more than 26 hurricanes, so the hurricane-naming people move to the Greek alphabet to start naming hurricanes, I said, "You've got to be &#@$ kidding me!"

2020 December 6, Curtis Honeycutt, “Grammar Guy: Saying goodbye to the year of the grawlix”, in Marc Chase, editor, The Times (Lifestyle section), Porter County edition, volume 112, number 125; volume 110, number 85, Munster, Ind.: The Times Media Company, Lee Publications, Lee Enterprises, →OCLC, page D11, columns 4–5:

Hate mail is just straightforward abuse. It's a verbal stinkbomb, a middle finger from a car window, the equivalent of what is called, in the comic-strip trade, grawlixes: @%&&#!!

2021 June 20, Jim Beckerman, “Matters of Fact: Why do people hate newspapers?”, in Daily Record, volume 34, number 205, Parsippany, N.J.: Gannett, →OCLC, page 5D:

A string of typographical symbols (such as "@[[#]]$%&!") used for this purpose.

A series of violence-related images (such as bombs, daggers, and skulls) used for this purpose.


VOC

(broadcasting) Initialism of voiceover credits.


VOC

VSC

volatile sulphur compound/volatile sulfur compound

(Canada, radio, historical) Voice of Canada; former name of RCI (Radio Canada International)

(television, China) Voice of China; international cultural television programming from China


WaPo

It's quite impressive that the WaPo editorial board has come out with both barrels against <b₂> their own journalists <c₂>. (Black 2016)

2017, Scott A. Eldridge II, Online Journalism from the Periphery: Interloper Media and the Journalistic Field, Routledge, →ISBN:

(informal, newspapers) Clipping of Washington Post, a newspaper from the United States.


terraform

en-verb

terraform (third-person singular simple present terraforms, present participle terraforming, simple past and past participle terraformed)

terraforms (present singular third-person)
terraforming (participle present)
terraformed (participle past)
terraformed (past)

/ˈtɛɹəfɔː(ɹ)m/

From Terra (“planet Earth”) + -form (“having the form of”). Coined by American science fiction author Jack Williamson in 1942 as part of his novella Collision Orbit.

coin

He had been the original claimant of Obania, forty years ago; and Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock, only two kilometers through—by sinking a shaft to its heart for the paragravity installation, generating oxygen and water from mineral oxides, releasing absorptive gases to trap the feeble heat of the far-off Sun.

1942 July, Jack Williamson, “Collision Orbit”, in Astounding Science-Fiction, volume 29, number 5, page 82:

(chiefly science fiction) To transform the atmosphere (or biosphere) of another planet into one having the characteristics of Earth.

maankaltaistaa

transform into one having the characteristics of Earth


camera ready

en-adj

camera ready (comparative more camera ready, superlative most camera ready)

more camera ready (comparative)
most camera ready (superlative)

(publishing) Of artwork or hard copy: ready to be photographed, without requiring any additional editing.


princeps

Borrowed from Latin prī̆nceps (“first, foremost”). Doublet of prince and principe.

bor+

(printing) The editio princeps, or first edition of a book.


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 run in because a free-hanging style would just be a waste of column inches.

One of the best headings for saving space is the heading that is run in.

1956, Daniel Melcher, Nancy Larrick, Printing and Promotion Handbook:

Third subheadings begin paragraphs (are indented and run in).

1976, American Institute of Physics, Editorial Handbook, page 17:

You can select how far you want subentries indented, how many lines between each entry and alphabetical block, and whether you want the final index indented (each sub- and sub-subheading indented under its parent) or run in (subheadings in paragraph form under the main heading).

1985 April 16, Charles Anderson, “The Ins and Outs of Indexing”, in PC Mag, volume 4, number 8, page 322:

Heading levels 3 through 7 are run in headings — the text that follows the heading appears on the same line as the heading.

1987, Rachel Morgan, Henry McGilton, Introducing UNIX System V, page 333:

Secondary headings are flush left, in regular type, and capitalized headline style. Tertiary headings are run in at the beginning of a paragraph, in bold type, capitalized sentence style, and followed by a period.

2019, Editorial staff, “Guide to Authors”, in Nagoya Journal of Medical Science, archived from the original on 2021-12-23:

participial adjective
participial adjective

Alternative form of run-in (adj) (styled open when in predicative position)

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


run in

en-verb

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

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

Coordinate term: run down

With these subsections, it is better to run their headings in.

(typography, printing) To insert (a word, etc.) without making a line break or new paragraph (so that it is not free-hanging).

(printing) To alter the position of matter to fill vacant space.


rondeau

From Middle French rondeau, from Old French rondel. Doublet of rondo.

Though we have the English rondels of Occleve and a set of rondeaus in the Rolliad (written by Dr. Lawrence, the friend of Burke, according to Mr. Edmund Gosse, who has given us an admirable essay upon exotic forms of verse), […].

1914, Theodore Watts-Dunton, Poetry and The Renascence of Wonder, page 198:

First of all, the two rondeaux appear in the 1538 version of the previously published Adoleseenee Clementine at the end of the section of poems of the same genre.

1991, Doranne Fenoaltea, David Lee Rubin, The Ladder of High Designs, page 50:

(poetry) A fixed form of verse based on two rhyme sounds and consisting usually of 13 lines in three stanzas with the opening words of the first line of the first stanza used as an independent refrain after the second and third stanzas.


deflector

The blasters are those beams of ravening destruction which take care of recalcitrant meteorites in a spaceship's course when the deflectors can't handle them.

1945 May 14, Murray Leinster, “First Contact”, in Astounding Stories, volume 35, number 3:

Deflectors say there's something there, sensors say there isn't. Density negative. Radiation negative. Energy negative.

1966 September 22, Samuel A. Peeples, Where No Man Has Gone Before (Star Trek), episode 3, spoken by Spock (Leonard Nimoy):

PICARD: If the Romulans have returned to this sector we should know about that. Mister Worf, any further activity?
WORF: Negative, sir.
PICARD: Slow to half impulse.
LAFORGE: Going to one half impulse. ... Now entering quadrant nine-zero-seven, mark three.
PICARD: Shields and deflectors up. Go to Yellow Alert.

1988 March 21, Heart of Glory (Star Trek: The Next Generation) (Science Fiction), Paramount Domestic Television, →OCLC:

(science fiction) A force field; an invisible barrier used as a protective shield.


tea wagon

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

(US, film, slang) An audio mixing console on wheels.


windowing

en-noun

windowing (usually uncountable, plural windowings)

(film) The scheduling of the exhibition and distribution of a film, involving for example a period of theatrical showings before release on home media.


pantser

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

From the expression fly by the seat of one's pants.

Coordinate term: plotter

(slang, writing) An author who writes their story without a plan or an outline.


spin-off

carveout

partial spin-off in a corporate reorganization

tie-in

work of fiction based on an original media property

"Frasier" was a spin-off from the sitcom "Cheers".

The Harry Potter spin-off prequel series Fantastic Beasts has been “parked” by Warner Bros, according to its director David Yates.

2023 October 27, “Fantastic Beasts: JK Rowling franchise has been ‘parked’, director says”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(fiction) A fictional work where the protagonist was introduced in a preceding work or at least shares the same setting, often in a different aspect.


butterfly effect

butterfly effect (plural butterfly effects)

A Sound of Thunder
Chaos: Making a New Science
Edward Lorenz
Lorenz attractor
Ray Bradbury
butterfly effect

Coined by American author and historian of science James Gleick in 1987 in his book Chaos: Making a New Science, whose first chapter bears the title “The Butterfly Effect”, and in which he discusses “the paradox of the butterfly’s wings” potentially making the difference whether a hurricane will or will not arise somewhere else later. Meteorologist Edward Lorenz, the founder of modern chaos theory, had in 1972, at a scientific meeting, presented a paper entitled “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings set off a tornado in Texas?” without using the specific term butterfly effect. Lorenz also notes that representations of the strange attractor now known as the “Lorenz attractor” resemble a butterfly, as well as that correspondents have drawn his attention to Ray Bradbury’s short science fiction story “A Sound of Thunder”, in which a time traveler’s crushing a butterfly in the Late Cretaceous changes the outcome of a present-day presidential election. But the metaphorical butterfly was actually introduced in the title of the 1972 presentation by meteorologist Philip Merilees, who was not familiar with Bradbury’s story.

coinage

Example of butterfly effect: stepping on a bug 4,000 years ago causes a different person to win the presidential election today.

(by extension, science fiction) The notion that small changes in the past via time travel can cause disproportionately large and unforeseeable consequences in the present.


soliloquize

en-verb

soliloquize (third-person singular simple present soliloquizes, present participle soliloquizing, simple past and past participle soliloquized)

term-label

(American spelling, Oxford British English)

soliloquizes (present singular third-person)
soliloquizing (participle present)
soliloquized (participle past)
soliloquized (past)

"Now, I am quite sure that our beautiful hostess has been making an assignation," soliloquised Charles, who, for want of something better to do, had been watching the various actions of the group in the principal chamber in the castle, […]

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXXIV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 276:

I rubbed my hands with delight over my happy notion, and soliloquised aloud, "What a joy there is in going about doing good actions."

1899, Knut Hamsun, “Part III”, in George Egerton [pseudonym; Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright], transl., Hunger […], London: Leonard Smithers and Co […], →OCLC, page 164:

(intransitive, drama) Of a character: to perform a soliloquy, to talk to oneself.


blacktress

[…] this literary/arts center presents Manifesto Night, with readings by such notable playwrights, poets, teachers, and blacktresses as John Baldessari, Max Benevidez, Pam Gregg, Sue Spaid, David Schweizer, and Ms. Vaginal Creme Davis.

(slang, film, rare) An African American woman who is a pioneer of the film industry.


strikethrough

en-noun

strikethrough (countable and uncountable, plural strikethroughs)

Deverbal from strike through; the verb, in at least some cases, is a back-formation from the noun, despite being redundant to strike through.

In HTML, wrapping text with the code <del> and </del> produces a strikethrough.

(typography) An horizontal line overlaid on other characters.

(horizontal)

(oblique)

(typography) A horizontal or oblique line overlaid on individual characters.


encomium

/ɛŋˈkəʊ.mɪ.əm/

From Latin encōmium (“praise, eulogy”), from Ancient Greek ἐγκώμιον (enkṓmion, “laudatory ode, praise”), from ἐγκώμιος (enkṓmios, “of or pertaining to the victor”), from κῶμος (kômos, “festival, revel, ode”).

der

(literature) A genre of literature that included five elements: prologue, birth and upbringing, acts of the person's life, comparisons used to praise the subject, and an epilogue.


imaginist

One evening, with no boisterous or bibulous Imaginists about her and no sign of any other callers, she suggested to the secretary of the school that they ought to play with the ouija board.

1929, Irma Duncan, Allan Ross Macdougall, chapter 16, in Isadora Duncan’s Russian Days and Her Last Years in France, London: Victor Gollancz, page 133:

[…] during the years of the civil war, scarcely any works of pure literature were printed at all. Poetry was recited orally: futurists and their close literary allies, the imaginists, organized poetry soirées, open to the public, in Moscow cafés.

1938, N. de Basily, Russia under Soviet Rule: Twenty Years of Bolshevik Experiment, London: George Allen & Unwin, Chapter 8, p. 427, note 3:

During the worst days of Bolshevík tyranny, when book publishing had become impossible, the imaginists were a living reminder of undying freedom; they were the only independent group that were not afraid to make themselves noticed by the authorities, and they were wonderfully skilled in getting their slender little collections and manifestoes printed by fair means or foul.

1949, D. S. Mirsky, A History of Russian Literature, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, Book Two, Chapter 6, pp. 494-5:

(literature) One of the Russian poets belonging to the imaginism movement.


foreshadowing

en-noun

foreshadowing (usually uncountable, plural foreshadowings)

The roses blooming before Rose herself bloomed was excellent foreshadowing.

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

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

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


duopoly

duopoly (countable and uncountable, plural duopolies)

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From duo- (prefix meaning ‘two’) + -poly (suffix meaning ‘pertaining to the number of sellers in a market’), by analogy with monopoly.

confix

(broadcasting) A situation in which two or more radio or television stations in the same city or community share common ownership.


sloka meter

(poetry, Hinduism) A Sanskrit meter consisting of two lines of sixteen syllables each.


two-decker

(journalism) Synonym of double-decker (“headline covering two lines”)


monotype

en-noun

monotype (countable and uncountable, plural monotypes)

From mono- + type or mono- + -type. The printing technique is so called because it allows only one impression to be taken.

(art, printing) A print made by creating the design using oil paint or printer's ink on metal or glass, then transferring the image directly to paper.

monotype

a print of some design created on metal or glass

(art, printing, uncountable) The technique of making such prints.


sausage factory

sausage factory (plural sausage factories)

In the sense of a gathering without women, sausage is a euphemism for penis. In other figurative senses, it is an example of a food that may be made from distasteful ingredients.

(literature) An unappealing process to generate something familiar.

(journalism) The process of creating news, involving the pursuit of stories, sources and research.


Pinkerton syndrome

John Pinkerton
Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Named after Scottish antiquarian, author and historian John Pinkerton (1758–1826), coined by J. Derrick McClure: see 1985 quotation.

[page 57] The language of writers who are safely dead, and can be studied without fear of their exerting a subversive influence, bears the respectable label 'old Scots dialect'; the same tongue spoken by the living compatriots of these writers is 'bad grammar'. […] This attitude is of course not new; though perhaps seldom expressed so blatantly. I call it the Pinkerton syndrome, after one of the many memorable figures in out national gallimaufray of scholarly eccentrics. John Pinkerton (1758–1826), poet, critic, historian, dramatist and Celtophobe, in 1786 produced a book, entitled Ancient Scotish Poems, never before in print: […] [H]e wrote: "none can more sincerely wish a total extinction of the Scotish colloquial dialect than I do, for there are few modern Scoticisms which are not barbarisms ... Yet, I believe, no man of either kingdom would wish an extinction of the Scotish dialect in poetry." […] [page 58] This is the Pinkerton syndrome: the practice of paying lip-service, and sometimes much more than this, to the Scottish culture of the past while denigrating the Scots language of the present. And it is still prevalent today.

1985, J. Derrick McClure, “The Pinkerton Syndrome”, in Chapman: Scotland's Quality Literary Magazine, Edinburgh: Chapman Magazine and Publications, OCLC 55590049, pages 2–8; reprinted in Scots and Its Literature (Varieties of English around the World, General Series; 14), Amsterdam; Philadelphia, Pa., John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1996, ISBN 978-90-272-4872-5, pages 57–58

James Beattie personifies the Pinkerton syndrome perfectly, for, while publishing lists of Scotticisms to be avoided, he still found time to write the occasional verse in Scots himself.

1986, Billy Kay, Scots: The Mither Tongue, Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, →ISBN:

(literature, Scotland) Having esteem for older Scottish literature but not the modern Scottish tongue.


spidery

en-adj

spidery (comparative more spidery, superlative most spidery)

more spidery (comparative)
most spidery (superlative)

(writing, figurative) Cramped or illegible; especially when spiky.


MSM

en-noun

MSM (countable and uncountable, plural MSM or MSMs)

Who can doubt there ought to be a law when the MSM shills for environmentalist scaremongers?

2005 July 25, David Hogberg, “Soaking in Chemical Stews”, in The American Spectator, archived from the original on 2021-05-06:

Interesting that initial reports from MSM failed to mention that Lombard is gay and this his adopted son is Black.

2022 February 27, Hillary and the Russian payroll, “Frank Lombard is Duke Professor Gay Adoptive Rapist Dad: MSM Doesn't Care”, in alt.politics.usa.republican (Usenet):

(media, often derogatory) Initialism of mainstream media.


run time

run time (countable and uncountable, plural run times)

(media) The length of a film, television program or audio track in minutes, usually with end credits included


overactor

/ˌoʊvɚˈæktɚ/

/ˌəʊvəɹˈæktə/


OOP

(publishing) Initialism of out of print.


prime time

(television, radio) The block of programming on television during the middle of the evening, usually between 7:00 pm and 11:00 pm.


prime time

(television, radio) Showing or broadcasting during prime time.


double-decker

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

(journalism) A headline that is two lines long.


overact

en-verb

overact (third-person singular simple present overacts, present participle overacting, simple past and past participle overacted)

overacts (present singular third-person)
overacting (participle present)
overacted (participle past)
overacted (past)

/ˌəʊvəɹˈækt/

He overacted his part.

If governments overact and become oppressive, the terrorists will have won, for their theory is that repression will eventually lead to revolution.

1989, Susheela Bhan, Terrorism: an Annotated Bibliography, page 116:

The scenework proves unsuccessful when Carmichael recalls not the source of her misandry but another episode of overacting, that of castratively biting off the moustache of an amorous man.

2016, Leslie H. Abramson, Hitchcock & the Anxiety of Authorship:

(chiefly acting) To act in an exaggerated manner.


topic sentence

(authorship) A sentence at the beginning of a paragraph indicating the general matter to be discussed later in that paragraph.


slow motion

(cinematography) A technique of film, photography, and video to stretch time and allow visibility of things normally happening too fast to be conveniently examined.


high-hat

(television) A low camera mount without tripod legs.


tagline

(journalism, dated) Synonym of subheadline.


OP

(publishing) Abbreviation of out of print.


mindwipe

mindwipe (third-person singular simple present mindwipes, present participle mindwiping, simple past and past participle mindwiped)

mindwipes (present singular third-person)
mindwiping (participle present)
mindwiped (participle past)
mindwiped (past)

Whether they were mindwiped upon their return to base, or simply terminated like useless equipment, Deutsch never knew.

2001, Jeffrey A Carver, James A Carver, Eternity's End:

In Adventures of Superman #636, Superman told Wonder Woman and Batman about how the League had mindwiped Dr. Light...

2006, Jeffery Klaehn, Inside the World of Comic Books:

(transitive, science fiction) To erase the memories and personality, while still leaving an intact, living brain and body. This is frequently portrayed as a form of capital punishment, which leaves a viable body into which a different personality or mind can be uploaded.


mindwipe

The mindwipe of Magneto is a necessary action and it is also a wrong one, but it appears to be the only way to save the human population from extinction.

2009, Andrew Terjesen, “Dirty Hands and Dirty Minds: The Ethics of Mind Reading and Mindwriting”, in X-Men and Philosophy:

(science fiction) The act of mindwiping.


transcribed

a transcribed drama series

(radio) Prerecorded for later broadcasting.


wordlist

(publishing) The section of a style guide that lists particular words and terms, arranged alphabetically, to show for each one the preferred orthographic styling (e.g., hyphenation, spelling variant), as well as any usage prescription to be enforced about its usage.


flyaway

Unless the TV crew has its own flyaway, the locals can still defeat a story they couldn't prevent reporters from covering by cutting it off at the pass, when it is being birded through their facilities.

1995, David D. Pearce, Wary Partners: Diplomats and the Media, page 43:

satellite television
satellite television

(television) A portable satellite television antenna.


reiteration

en-noun

reiteration (countable and uncountable, plural reiterations)

From reiterate + -ion, equivalent to re- + iteration.

(printing, historical, countable) The form that backs or perfects paper already printed on one side.


red top

The titles of these newspapers are traditionally presented on a red banner at the top of the front page.

Just as broadsheets only exceptionally outsell any of the tabloids, so middle-market tabloids—the Mail and Express—only rarely outsell the red tops (although the upmarket Sunday Times outsells the mid-market Express on Sunday and The Mail on Sunday outsells The People).

1997 August 13, Brian Macarthur, “Diana: mover and shaker”, in The Times:

Tabloids have their own language. Maybe it's because the pages are smaller than the broadsheet papers, or perhaps it's because they have to make room to fit all those pictures of Jordan in her knickers in each day, but tabloidese is a language and a skill peculiar to the red tops.

2010, Sharon Marshall, Tabloid Girl, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

(UK, Ireland, journalism) A tabloid newspaper, particularly one of those considered to have lower journalistic standards than the broadsheets.


media circus

(media, journalism, informal) A large gathering of reporters at the scene of a news event.


beam up

en-verb

beam up (third-person singular simple present beams up, present participle beaming up, simple past and past participle beamed up)

beams up (present singular third-person)
beaming up (participle present)
beamed up (participle past)
beamed up (past)

(science fiction, transitive) To teleport (someone or something) using a (fictional) device, especially from the surface of a planet to an orbiting starship.

(science fiction, intransitive) To be teleported, or to teleport oneself, in this manner.


eight-ball

en-noun

eight-ball (countable and uncountable, plural eight-balls)

(countable, broadcasting) A kind of spherical microphone.


sestina

From Italian sestina. Doublet of sextain.

Although the sestina is of medieval French origin, attributed to Arnaut Daniel in the late twelfth century and used by other Gallic poets and by Italians including Petrarch and Dante (from whom it received its Italian name), […]

2002, Annie Finch, Kathrine Varnes, An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art, University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 290:

Would he let others toil to support him while he languished all afternoon over his sestinas?

(poetry) A highly structured poem consisting of six six-line stanzas followed by a tercet or envoy, for a total of thirty-nine lines.


procedural

/pɹəˈsiːd͡ʒ(ə)ɹəl/

It is only fitting that the investigation of place-based police procedurals begins in America, where the police procedural was invented and turned into a literary art form.

2000, Gary Hausladen, Places for Dead Bodies, page 35:

David Fincher’s horribly addictive samurai procedural, adapted by Andrew Kevin Walker from the graphic novel by Alexis Nolent, stars Michael Fassbender as the un-named titular hitman[…]

2023 September 3, Peter Bradshaw, “The Killer review – terrific David Fincher thriller about a philosophising hitman”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(literature, film) A type of literature, film, or television program involving a sequence of technical detail.


force-field

(chemistry, physics, science fiction) Alternative spelling of force field


forcefield

Penny's world seemed only to make sense to her as a forcefield of detestations.

2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:


communicator

‘Observation Officer of the Z12Q, attention!’ snapped from the tight-beam headquarters communicator. ‘Cut off those spy rays and report yourself under arrest for treason!’

1934 August 14, Edward Elmer Smith, “Skylark of Valeron”, in Astounding Stories, volume 13, number 6:

Captain, if the Iotians, who are very bright an imitative people, should take that communicator apart...

1968 January 12, David P. Harmon, Gene L. Coon, A Piece of the Action (Star Trek), season 2, episode 17, spoken by Spock (Leonard Nimoy):

(science fiction) A usually portable communications device.


force field

(science fiction) An invisible barrier used as a protective shield.


transversion

transversion (countable and uncountable, plural transversions)

(literature) The changing from prose into verse, or verse into prose.


zoomorphism

(art, literature) The use of animal figures in art and design or of animal symbols in literature.

zoomorfizm

the use of animal figures in art and design or of animal symbols in literature


hivemind

Kevin Kelly (editor)
Out of Control (Kelly book)

From hive + mind, originally applied to beehives. As a metaphor for collective intelligence popularized in Out of Control (1992) by Kevin Kelly.

It traces the growth of homo gestalt with the uniting of six lovely outcasts of society who have psi powers and come together as a hive mind, thus creating a gestalt super-being.

2005, Michael Ashley, Transformations: The History of the Science Fiction Magazine 1950 to 1970, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, page 133:

Though now extinct, the rachni once threatened every species in Citadel space. Over 2000 years ago, explorers foolishly opened a mass relay to a previously-unknown system and encountered something never seen before or since: a species of spacefaring insects guided by a hive-mind intelligence.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Rachni Codex entry:

We have the villainous Borg of Star Trek: a hive mind of individuals robbed of their individuality, communicating with each other not by touch or even speech but by omnipresent computer networks.

2011 February 15, Michael Chorost, “‘World Wide Mind’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(science fiction) A collection of minds somehow linked or unified, possibly as if by telepathy.


time tunnel

(science fiction) A passageway enabling time travel.


cultism

cultism (countable and uncountable, plural cultisms)


cutoff

изключване

point at which something terminates or to which it is limited

Light-face type, cutoffs, borders and rules are the universal plan. No black body matter and almost no black headlines appear.

(journalism) A horizontal line separating sections of the page.


crosscut

en-verb

crosscut (third-person singular simple present crosscuts, present participle crosscutting, simple past and past participle crosscut)

crosscuts (present singular third-person)
crosscutting (participle present)
crosscut (participle past)
crosscut (past)

(film) To cut repeatedly between two concurrent scenes.


obelus

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

From Middle English obelus, obelo, from Old English obelus, from Late Latin obelus (“critical mark”), from Koine Greek ὀβελός (obelós, “critical mark”), Ancient Greek ὀβελός (obelós, “rod, spit; obelisk; critical mark”). The further etymology is uncertain; a derivation from βέλος (bélos, “arrow, dart, missile”) (from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to pierce; to reach; to throw; to hit by throwing”)) has been suggested, but the initial vowel remains unexplained. Compare obelisk.
The plural form obeli is derived from Late Latin obeli, from Ancient Greek ὀβελοί (obeloí).

der

The ancienteſt of all is that of the Library of M. Colbert, which contains part of Exodus, Numbers, and Leviticus, of the Tranſlation of the Septuagint, with Lines call'd Obeli and Aſteriſks, as we find them in the Hexapla of Origen.

1707, “Palæographia Græca, […] i.e. The Ancient Greek Way of Writing, or a Treatise of the Origin and Progress of Greek Letters, and of the Several Sorts of Greek Writing in All Ages: […] By D. Bernard of Montfaucon, […] At Paris 1708. […]”, in The History of the Works of the Learned. Or, An Impartial Account of Books Lately Printed in All Parts of Europe. […] For the Month of September 1708. […], volume X, London: […] H. Rhodes, […]; A. Bell, […]; and D[aniel] Midwinter, […], →OCLC, paragraph III, page 514:

'Tis pretended that the Divines of Louvain paſs'd the ſame judgment upon the miſplacing this obelus 150 years ago: but they have only ſaid that the Manuſcripts of [Robert] Stephens had the Text of the 7ᵗʰ Verſe entire, and ſo as 'tis printed, unleſs the obelus be placed wrong: I would my ſelf ſay as much, tho' I maintain that it is in its true place.

1722, David Martin, “Of the Obelus Plac’d in the Middle of the 7ᵗʰ Verse, […]”, in The Genuineness of the Text of the First Epistle of Saint John. Chap. v. Ꝟ. 7. […], London: […] W[illiam] and J[ohn] Innys […], →OCLC, page 93:

In A.D. 1550, Robert Stephens gave a third edition to the world, on a larger ſcale: in which he diſtinguiſhed the different Greek MSS, which he had collated, by Greek letters (β, γ, &c.) and the various readings by an obelus, and ſemi-parentheſis, or crotchet; which, wherever inſerted, were meant to denote, that, from the word, before which the obelus was placed, to the ſtation where the ſemi-parentheſis was found, in the Greek text, the whole of that verſe, or verſes, word, or words, was wanting in the particular MSS cited in the margin.

1785, George Travis, “Letter I.”, in Letters to Edward Gibbon, Esq. […], 2nd edition, London: […] C[harles] F[rancis] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], →OCLC, pages 5–6:

He, therefore, publiſhed another edition. In this he made few alterations in the text itſelf, but ſhewed by obeluſes and aſteriſks, where it differed from the Septuagint, or the Hebrew.

1797, Charles Butler, chapter XIV, in Horæ Biblicæ, [London]: [s.n.], →OCLC, paragraph 2, page 97:

Dr. W[hite] has here given those readings which, according to the opinion of [Johann Jakob] Griesbach, ought to make a part of the text; he has rejected, or at least stigmatized with the obelus, those which, on the evidence of the most antient MSS. and versions, are not intitled to admission; [...]

1801 May, “Art. X. Quatuor Evangelia Græce. Textum receptum, signis distinctum ad instar Origenianæ ΤΩΝ Ό. recensionis edivit J. White, S.T.P. Ling. Arab. Prof.—Syriacæ Philoxenianæ Novi Testamenti Versionis Interpres. 8vo. pp. 335. Printed at Oxford. [book review]”, in The Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal, Enlarged, volume XXXV, London: […] A[ndrew] Strahan, […], and R[alph] Griffiths; and sold by T[homas] Becket, […], →OCLC, page 66:

The text of the Philoxenian as revised by Thomas [of Harqel] is furnished with obeli and asterisks. Most of the MSS. too have critical remarks and readings in the margin.

1853, Samuel Davidson, “The Philoxenian Version”, in A Treatise of Biblical Criticism Exhibiting a Systematic View of that Science, volume II (The New Testament), Boston, Mass.: Gould and Lincoln […], →OCLC, page 189:

In the Septuagint column, additions, to which nothing corresponded in the Hebrew, were marked by an obelus prefixed (÷ … ⸔); omissions, where words standing in the Hebrew were not represented in the Greek, were filled in by him, usually from Theodotion, and noted similarly by an asterisk (※ … ⸔). [Footnote 1: The sign ⸔ indicates the close of the words to which the obelus or asterisk refers.]

1890, S[amuel] R[olles] Driver, “Introduction”, in Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, § 2 (Early Hebrew Orthography), paragraph 4, page xlv:

The critical marks introduced by Origen were retained in the Syro-Hexapla, so that every page contained asterisks and obeli: [...]

1931, A[lec] E[li] Silverstone, “Onkelos and Peshitta”, in Aquila and Onkelos (Publications of the University of Manchester; no. I; Semitic Languages Series; no. CCXIV), Manchester: Manchester University Press, →OCLC, page 123:

Moreover, owing to a deficient understanding of the characteristics of the individual manuscripts, I have not included in this analysis those readings that are lacking in MT [Masoretic Text] but are in Syh [the Syro-Hexapla] without an obelus. [...] In all probability, the obeli were more readily discarded than the asterisks given that the attitudes towards the text made deletion somewhat taboo: unlike the asterisked portions, the obelised readings had already been part of the Church's text.

2011, Timothy Michael Law, “Hexaplaric Material outside of Syh”, in Anneli Aejmelaeus, Kristin De Troyer, Wolfgang Kraus, Emanuel Tov, editors, Origenes Orientalis: The Preservation of Origen’s Hexapla in the Syrohexapla of 3 Kingdoms (De Septuaginta Investigationes; 2), Göttingen, Lower Saxony: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, →ISBN, page 317:

(historical) A symbol resembling a horizontal line (–), sometimes together with one or two dots (for example, ⨪ or ÷), which was used in ancient manuscripts and texts to mark a word or passage as doubtful or spurious, or redundant; an obelisk.

օբելիուս

symbol used in ancient manuscripts and texts to mark a word or passage as doubtful or spurious, or redundant

And, with respect to the Homer of Aristarchus, it is to be considered, that besides the lines, sentences, and long passages, to which that Herod of critics affixed his obelus (†) or stiletto, there were entire books which he found no use on obelising piecemeal; because it was not this line or that line into which he wished to thrust his dagger, but the whole rabble of lines—"tag, rag, and bobtail."

1862, Thomas De Quincey, “Homer and the Homeridæ”, in Dr Samuel Parr or Whiggism in Its Relations to Literature and Other Writings (De Quincey’s Works; V), Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, →OCLC, page 313:

I have translated the Oxford Classical Text of C[harles] Hude (3rd edn., Oxford, 1927), except at the places marked in the translation with an obelus (†), which refer the interested reader to a note in the Textual Notes.

1998, Robin Waterfield, “Translator’s Note”, in Herodotus, translated by Robin Waterfield, The Histories: A New Translation (Oxford World’s Classics), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, published 2008, →ISBN, page xlii:

The obeli (†) bring the letter into alignment with the Irish ninth century illuminated gospel manuscript, the Book of Kells: on the recto of folio 219, there are four red obeli that run down the middle of the page between the lines, and others around the margins. As such, these obeli thus correspond to the 'cardinal' and 'doubtful points' [...] also found in the letter.

2009, Peter Mahon, “The Language(s) and Structure(s) of Finnegans Wake”, in Joyce: A Guide for the Perplexed, London, New York, N.Y.: Continuum International Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 167:

Note: Square brackets […] indicate editorial excisions from the text, and angled brackets <…> editorial additions, while obeli † show that the text is unsound and that the translation gives only an opinion of what Livy might have been saying at that point.

2013, Livy, “Appendix 1: List of Variations from the Oxford Classical Text of Walters and Conway”, in J. C. Yardley, transl., Rome’s Italian Wars: Books Six to Ten (Oxford’s World Classics), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 288:

A dagger symbol (†), which is used in printed matter as a reference mark to refer the reader to a footnote, marginal note, etc.; beside a person's name to indicate that the person is deceased; or beside a date to indicate that it is a person's death date; an obelisk.


miniaturize

en-verb

miniaturize (third-person singular simple present miniaturizes, present participle miniaturizing, simple past and past participle miniaturized)

miniaturizes (present singular third-person)
miniaturizing (participle present)
miniaturized (participle past)
miniaturized (past)

(science fiction) To physically shrink in size, i.e. through the use of a shrink ray.


freeball

But the freeballs it has done on its own, Farmer's Daughter, Hazel, Bewitched, have proven the gambit.

Then there was no dearth of venture capital to provide freeball pilots for the market.

1970, Federal Communications Commission Reports:

At this time virtually no active producers go so far as to commission a "freeball" script without prior consultation with the network.

1984, Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Consumer Protection, and Finance, page 138:

(television) A show that is developed by the station without participation by the network.


chu

From the Japanese ちゅっ (chu', onomatopoeia).

By the way, isn't it interesting that the Japanese hear the sound "chu" when someone kisses? In the US, we usually say, "smooch," "smack," "smerp," or even "swock." Now, everytime^([sic]) I kiss my husband, I'm listening to hear if it sounds like "chu."

1996 August 12, Kathleen Webb, “Re: Zoicite a guy!!!”, in alt.fan.sailor-moon (Usenet):

>Eldrick Tobin - Kiss worthiness of sig pending.
<chu!>
Seems fine to me. ^_^

2000 August 4, Fish Eye no Miko [username], “Re: [POLL] Which anime characters could be Ohtori students?”, in alt.fan.utena (Usenet):

movie Akio: [shoots a kiss to himself] Chu! ^.~

2000 August 19, Verthandi, “Re: [META] Ohha! Gally desu!”, in alt.fan.utena (Usenet):

(anime and manga fandom slang) The sound of a kiss.


hyperdrive

The ship's hyperdrive had failed, leaving them stranded years from any repair base.

(science fiction) A spaceship engine that allows faster-than-light travel by entering hyperspace.


BEM

Incidentally, Mr. Bergey, the BEM's on your latest smear have extremely jovial expressions on their pans to be as tough a bunch of eggs as Friend made them out.

1940 November, Parmer Farrell, “The Reader Speaks”, in Thrilling Wonder Stories, volume 18, number 2, page 120:

This is my first time in active BEM service. They've never let me near the Bugs before.

1997, Lawrence Miles, Alien Bodies, →ISBN, page 89:

(science fiction, fandom slang, often derogatory) A stock character in science fiction; a grotesque creature, often an extraterrestrial, that menaces the protagonists.


dust jacket

(printing, publishing) The detachable paper cover of a book; used to protect the binding, and to provide blurb.


priming

(media) A cognitive process in which media information increases temporarily the accessibility of knowledge units in the memory of an individual.


chunking

en-noun

chunking (countable and uncountable, plural chunkings)

(writing) A method of presenting information which splits concepts into small pieces or "chunks" of information to make reading and understanding faster and easier, using such methods as bulleted lists, short subheadings, or short sentences with one or two ideas per sentence.


dawn chorus

/dɔːn ˈkɔːɹəs/

[T]he dawn chorus usually has a characteristic chirpy sound, but at times changes into a hiss not unlike tube noise. […] Several investigators, including the author, have at times noticed a tendency for the dawn chorus to change intensity for a short period immediately following some lightning strokes. This may indicate a change in propagation conditions due to the electromagnetic or ionization effect of the strokes.

1956 September 14, Harold E. Dinger, “The Dawn Chorus”, in Whistling Atmospherics (NRL Report; 4825), Washington, D.C.: Naval Research Laboratory, →OCLC, page 14:

It is known that chorus, or ‘dawn chorus’, exhibits a pronounced diurnal variation in its occurrence and that different stations show different local times for the diurnal maxima. These maxima have been shown to be a function of geomagnetic latitude […]

1960 January 9, Joseph H. Pope, “Effect of Latitude on Diurnal Maximum of ‘Dawn Chorus’”, in Nature: A Weekly Journal of Science, volume 185, number 4706, London: Macmillan and Co.; New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →OCLC, page 87, column 1:

The frequency spectrum (Fig. 1) includes micropulsations (Pₜ, P_c, LP_c, PP, SIP, IPDP), gyromagnetic resonances, Schumann resonance, solar whistlers[…], dawn chorus, hiss, whistlers and sferics.

1964, D[avid] F[ranklin] Bleil, “Introductory Talk”, in D. F. Bleil, editor, Natural Electromagnetic Phenomena below 30 kc/s: Proceedings of a NATO Advanced Study Institute Held in Bad Homburg, Germany, July 22 – August 2, 1963, New York, N.Y.: Plenum Press, →OCLC, page 2:

Both authors used data from other stations to show that the time of maximum dawn chorus activity increased with geomagnetic latitude. [G. McK.] Allcock argued that this characteristic could be related to the precipitation of positively charged solar particles that might produce the dawn chorus by exciting proton plasma oscillations in the outer ionosphere. These oscillations would then reach the earth in the whistler mode.

1965, Robert A. Helliwell, “History”, in Whistlers and Related Ionospheric Phenomena, Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, published 2006, →ISBN, page 21:

Alvin Lucier's (US) Sferics (1980) is a recording ot electromagnetic "tweaks," "bonks," and "swishes" originating in the ionosphere, the result of self-immolating meteorites, the dawn chorus, and the Aurora Borealis.

2006, Nicolas Collins, “Circuit Sniffing: Using Radios and Coils to Eavesdrop on Hidden Electromagnetic Music”, in Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking, New York, N.Y.; London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 12:

(electromagnetism, radio) Radio interference sometimes experienced at sunrise.

aamukuoro

radio interference sometimes experienced at sunrise


ithyphallic

en-adj

ithyphallic (comparative more ithyphallic, superlative most ithyphallic)

more ithyphallic (comparative)
most ithyphallic (superlative)

/ˌɪθɪˈfælɪk/

/ˌɪθɪˈfælɪk/

Borrowed from Late Latin ithyphallicus, from Ancient Greek ἰθυφαλλικός (ithuphallikós), from ῑ̓θῠ́φαλλος (īthŭ́phallos, “phallus carried in festivals of Bacchus; ode sung in honour of the phallus; dance accompanying such an ode; dancer performing such a dance”) + -ῐκός (-ĭkós, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’). ῑ̓θῠ́φαλλος is derived from ἰθῠ́ς (ithŭ́s) (variant of εὐθῠ́ς (euthŭ́s, “straight”)) + φαλλός (phallós, “penis; image of a penis, phallus”). The English word can be analysed as ithyphallus + -ic.
As regards the noun, compare Latin ithyphallicum (“poem with the same metre as the hymns to Priapus”).

refn

From the collection of the Museum of London in London, England, UK.

cog

(poetry) Pertaining to a metrical combination of two trochees followed by one spondee.


memorate

From Latin memorātus, past participle of memorāre (“to bring to remembrance, mention, recount”), from memor (“remembering”); see memory.

An undemonstrable legend is no legend at all. One must postulate that every fabulate is based on a memorate.

1974, Linda Dégh, Andrew Vázsonyi, “The memorate and the proto-memorate”, in The Journal of American Folklore, volume 87, →DOI, page 232:

(folklore) an oral narrative from memory relating a personal experience, especially the precursor of a legend.


seg

The usual partisanship for bankrollers of radio segs is shown on TV stations.

In 1992, Mort's doing a political/chat show for the Christian Scientists Monitor Channel, and in January did a seg singing praises for Garrison.

1992 February 2, Mitzel, “Clay Shaw, The Quean Network & That Kennedy Killing”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 28, page 12:


Morlock

Author's coinage; possibly influenced by Morlach or Moloch.

Coordinate term: Eloi

(literature) A member of a troglodyte cannibalistic race described in H. G. Wells' novel The Time Machine (1895).


JNTSC

(video games, DVD) The Japanese version of NTSC, which differs from NTSC only in using the black level and blanking level of PAL rather than the differing ones of North American NTSC.


soucouyant

1986, Kenneth Ramchand, “Wayne Vincent Brown”, in Daryl Cumber Dance (ed.), Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 90,
We can notice, for example, that “Vampire” combines the folkloric soucouyant (blood-sucking old woman in the shape of a ball of fire), a science fiction creature (“clammy, from its bed of hairs / And thirsty” [p. 24]), the moon again (Brown’s poems are obsessed by the moon); …

2002, David E. Jones, Evil in Our Midst: A Chilling Glimpse of the World's Most Feared and Frightening Demons, Square One Publishers, Inc., →ISBN, page 133,
The Soucouyant is an evil fire, a kind of witch, that robes itself entirely in the skin of an old woman to hide its true identity from neighbors.

“The soucouyant is an old woman that sheds her skin,” Beth said. “She flies out of her house and looks for human blood. When she finds it, she changes into an animal of some kind and sucks the blood away.”

2003, Ken Douglas, Jack Stewart, Diamond Sky, Bootleg Press, →ISBN, page 110:

(Caribbean, folklore) A night witch who sucks people's blood, sheds her skin, and can transform into a fireball and fly.


finisher

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