Earthian

Earthians (plural)
Earthean (alternative)

I inquired of one prominent Earthian: "What's of constructing ships and buildings...?"

1940. America: A Catholic Review of the Week, America Press: 1940, page 420

I most likely will be the second Earthian to reach that planet. ...

1955. Fantastic Universe: Science Fiction, Great American Publications, 1955, page 41

(science fiction) A person from planet Earth.


Earthian

According to Fodor's definition, it follows that 'water' in Twin Earthian means XYZ and not H2O.

1997. Diego Marconi. Lexical Competence. MIT Press: 1997, page 102

I thought the females spoke Earthian to you. Improving their Earthian was why they asked for a couple.

2004. Sheri S. Tepper. The Companions. HarperCollins: 2004, page 79

(science fiction, rare) A universal language spoken on Earth.


Earthite

(science fiction, nonstandard) A person from planet Earth.


Earthan

(rare, science fiction, nonstandard) A person or thing from planet Earth; an Earthling.


Earthan

en-adj

Earthan (comparative more Earthan, superlative most Earthan)

more Earthan (comparative)
most Earthan (superlative)

When, for unknown reasons, gene-splicing with Earthan reptiles had failed to take, scientists had turned to the sea dragons found on the water world of Aquatilis, home planet of the merpeople.

2008, Crystal Jordan, Carnal Desires, page 59:

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


disrupter

disrupters (plural)
disruptor (alternative)

(science fiction) An energy weapon in the form of a pistol.


topspin

en-noun

topspin (countable and uncountable, plural topspins)

Well remembered as a visual comedienne, she also had the verbal knack of putting all sorts of topspin on a line.

1994, Richard D. Heldenfels, Television's Greatest Year: 1954, page 70:

Flashdance had a quality known as top spin, in which the casting, the concept and the look and sound of the movie all come together.

2010, Justin Wyatt, High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood:

2016, Quentin Letts, "A Very English Scandal: sex, lies and a murder plot at the heart of the establishment by John Preston - review" (in Evening Standard, 28 April 2016) https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/books/a-very-english-scandal-sex-lies-and-a-murder-plot-at-the-heart-of-the-establishment-by-john-preston-a3236271.html
This fluent, readable book has certainly been polished with a fair degree of what Fleet Street feature editors once called topspin: “Give it some topspin, old boy. Make the copy sing.” In this John Preston more than succeeds.

(uncountable, television, film, publishing) An edgy, quirky or otherwise engaging quality that holds the interest of the audience.


sophont

From sopho- + -ont. First used in the 1966 works by Poul Anderson, coined by his wife Karen Anderson.

Likewise with the psychology of intelligent species. Most sophonts indeed possess basic instincts which diverge more or less from man's. With those of radically alien motivations we have little contact.

I'm honored to meet a sophont of the Soro line in person!

Evil, they argued, could only have meaning on smaller scales, in the hurt that one sophont does to another.

1992, Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep, Tor Books, page 406:

Only one sophont appeared to be involved—and not a sophisticated one.

1997, Spider Robinson, Lifehouse, Baen Books, page 2:

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence

(chiefly science fiction) An intelligent being; a being with a base reasoning capacity roughly equivalent to or greater than that of a human being. The word does not apply to machines unless they have true artificial intelligence, rather than mere processing capacity.


counterpunch

counterpunches (plural)
counter-punch (alternative)

(printing, historical) A punch used in the cutting of other punches, often used to create the negative space in or around a glyph.


WIA

W.I.A. (alternative)
W. I. A. (alternative)

(military fiction) Initialism of wounded in action.


mealiness

mealiness (usually uncountable, plural mealinesses)

(printing) Synonym of foxing: blemishes in a print or printed work.


metricize

en-verb

metricize (third-person singular simple present metricizes, present participle metricizing, simple past and past participle metricized)

metricizes (present singular third-person)
metricizing (participle present)
metricized (participle past)
metricized (past)


characters per inch

Please use a type that is 10 characters per inch.

(design, typography) A unit of measurement of the number of typographic characters that fit on a one inch line of printed type. This unit is mainly used to specify font sizes that have the same width for each character (monospaced), however it may also be used to give an average for fonts with characters of varying widths.


tricorder

The name of such a device in Star Trek, from tri- (referring to its three input keys, which by default cover geological, meteorological, and biological functions) + (re)corder

PLEASE TURN OFF ALL CELL PHONES AND TRICORDERS

1999-2003, Matt Groening, opening title screen from the start, in Futurama, FOX Television Network:

(fiction) A fictional futuristic handheld device used for scanning, which may be specialized for medical, technical, or other purposes.


Antarctican

...customs which the Antarcticans might have. How he wished he had made the trip alone, and need not share with Adam the scientific triumphs to come!
Of course she was—the daughter of Morrison, Hull’s companion who had befriended and protected him against the Antarcticans.

1935, Edison Marshall, Dian of the Lost Land, H. C. Kinsey & Company, Inc., pages 53 and 62

Had the US Navy icebreakers been unable to rescue them from the ice in early 1948 her child might have been the first native-born Antarctican.

1956, Walter Sullivan, Quest for a Continent, McGraw-Hill, page 273:

Gonneville departed this enchanted land...taking with him...an “Indian” prince called Essomeric. The land was not, of course, the southern continent, and Essomeric was not an Antarctican. De Gonneville had probably been to southern Brazil.

2001, Kieran Mulvaney, At the Ends of the Earth: History of the Polar Regions, Island Press, →ISBN, page 67:

Recall the exercise at the end of the previous chapter, and imagine that you discover just one Antarctican, and you measure his or her body temperature. If you know the population mean for Antarcticans (perhaps it is 98.6°F), then you have one piece of information about variability.

2004, R. Brooke Lea, Barry H. Cohen, Essentials of Statistics for the Social and Behavioral Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., →ISBN, page 45:

Part of the reason is that there is an indigenous tradition of consuming seals in the north for subsistence, whereas sealing in the south was done almost exclusively for commercial reasons, there being no native Antarcticans.

2006, William L. Fox, Driving to Mars, Shoemaker & Hoard, →ISBN, page 227:

(fiction or hypothetical) A native of Antarctica.


parablepsis

en-noun

parablepsis (countable and uncountable, plural parablepses)

parablepses (plural)
parablepsia (alternative)
parablepsy (alternative)

From Ancient Greek παρά (pará, “beside”) and βλέπω (blépō, “to look at”).

So too parablepses due to homoioteleuton in the Greek text are irrelevant for the Hebrew text.

1978, International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, Congress Volume, →ISBN, page 400:

Vertical parablebsis does not fit either, since it should be in the range of several lines (two or three lines).

2009, Raymond De Hoop, Marjo Christina Annette Korpel, Stanley E. Porter, The Impact of Unit Delimitation on Exegesis, →ISBN, page 35:

(palaeography) A circumstance in which a scribe miscopies text due to inadvertently looking to the side while copying, or accidentally skips over some of it.


cloaked

(science fiction) rendered invisible by advanced technology.


young adult

My favorite young adult writer, Jen Derbyshire, just published her 50th paperback novel, the latest in an adventure series spanning fifteen years.

Emily said to shelve these books in Young Adult and to make a table display with some of them.

en:adolescent; genre serving adolescent readership

(publishing, often attributive, sometimes capitalized) An adolescent; a genre of writing aimed primarily at this readership.


daimonic

From daimon + -ic; from Latin demon (“spirit”), originally from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “a god, goddess, divine power, genius, guardian spirit”). Doublet of demonic.

der

(psychology, spirituality, mythology, literature) The journey and transition from innocence to experience; part of the process of individuation.

(mythology, literature) The place where light and dark meet.


puff piece

That's your first question? I thought this was supposed to be a puff piece.

2004, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, spoken by Steve Zissou (Bill Murray):

The magazine had sent David Blum to Los Angeles to profile Emilio Estevez, arguably the most famous of the actors in Joel Schumacher's recently released St. Elmo's Fire, and what had been pitched as a typical puff piece quickly warped into a scathing portrayal that soon became scandalous.

2019, Bret Easton Ellis, White, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN:

While I don’t think Chozick’s profile was in any way a puff piece, I understand the anger it has generated. After all, not many mothers facing prison are given a splashy redemption photoshoot in a major paper, are they?

2023 May 9, Arwa Mahdawi, “Elizabeth Holmes is rebranding herself as a sweet, devoted mother. Will anyone buy it?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(journalism, publishing, informal) A journalistic form of puffery; an article or story of exaggerated praise that often ignores or downplays opposing viewpoints or evidence to the contrary.


torcher

/ˈtɔːt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

-ɔː(ɹ)tʃə(ɹ)

(science fiction) The pilot of a spacecraft propelled by a torch drive (a spacecraft engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion).


waitron

(dated, science fiction) A robotic or mechanical waiter.


downstyle

down style (alternative)
down-style (alternative)

(typography, capitalization) Which only capitalizes words (e.g. in headers) that would be capitalized in a normal sentence: which is styled in sentence case.


upstyle

up style (alternative)
up-style (alternative)

Some style guides write north temperate zone upstyle as North Temperate Zone.

(typography, capitalization) Which capitalizes all nouns, adjectives and adverbs (in a title, heading, headline, header, or similar display type element): which is styled in title case.


upstyle

en-noun

upstyle (countable and uncountable, plural upstyles)

upstyles (plural)
up style (alternative)
up-style (alternative)

(uncountable, typography) Upstyle capitalization.


mandragora

mandragora (countable and uncountable, plural mandragoras)

/ˌmænˈdɹæɡ.ə.ɹə/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-mandragora.wav

From Medieval Latin mandragora, from Latin mandragorās.

(folklore) A kind of tiny supernatural being, sometimes described as a demon.


warp bubble

Coined in 1994 by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre.

(astrophysics, science fiction) A detached region of spacetime which is theoretically capable of moving faster than the speed of light.


supercee

Presumed super- + cee, a respelling of the physics symbol c (denoting the speed of light in a vacuum; an abbreviation of both English constant and Latin celeritas (“swiftness”)).

But Man had always been a restless, persistent creature, and the stars called, and in an incredibly short space of time a highly-ingenious refinement of the theta drive gave him supercee.
“What I can’t understand, Psy, is why in the name of Mira the Terrans couldn’t have been admitted to the Federation as soon as they developed supercee. […]”
Offhand I’d say that the Terrans, when they hit on the secret of star-driving a planet, which isn’t much of a trick once the supercee principle is clearly understood, decided to go off on a hunt round the galaxy for a see-tee system.

1930, Information Access Company, Analog Science Fiction/science Fact, pp63, 73, & 77

1960, AUTHOR UNKNOWN, Astounding Science-fiction, pp70, 72, & 73; presumed to be an earlier work (1930 or earlier), as quotations 2 and 3 also appear in:

^({1})“[…] A couple of … after the last rescue ship had lif … into space and shifted into the … of supercee, the star exploded.”
^({2})“Surely you know the answer to that one,” he said after a moment or two, “or have you forgotten all about a little thing called the decrement effect?” The Psychologist nodded. “Precisely. The decrement effect. The factor that makes supercee — supercee as we know it, that is — inoperable in intergalactic space.” He looked thoughtful. “I don’t think anyone’s yet evolved a satisfactory theory to account for the existence of the effect. The only thing that’s certain is that it’s tied up in some way with gravity fields — or, rather, with the absence of g-fields.” He shrugged.
^({3})“What I can’t understand, Psy, is why in the name of Mira the Terrans couldn’t have been admitted to the Federation as soon as they developed supercee. […]”

1930, Information Access Company, Analog Science Fiction/science Fact, page 72:

The core was virtually unreachable at supercee velocities. So the Lost Star’s bleep has been sounding for eighty years, and no ship has reached her.

1979, Frank Northen Magill, Survey of Science Fiction Literature, Salem Press, →ISBN, page 937:

(rare, science fiction) Faster-than-light travelling speed.


callout

Ancient Egypt: Civilization in northeastern Africa that gives reference volumes a chance to change up the pace a little and break up the monotonous, text-heavy format with more graphical elements, timelines, and a few callout boxes.

2012, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge, page 64:

(typography, graphic layout) A pull quote: an excerpt from an article (such as in a news magazine) that is duplicated in a large font alongside the article so as to grab a reader's attention and indicate the article's topic.


double space

en-verb

double space (third-person singular simple present double spaces, present participle double spacing, simple past and past participle double spaced)

double spaces (present singular third-person)
double spacing (participle present)
double spaced (participle past)
double spaced (past)

(ambitransitive, typography) To format (a document) so that every other line is left blank, leaving sufficient whitespace for annotation (e.g. a teacher's corrections).


animalist

(literature) A writer of animal stories.


uncloak

uncloak (third-person singular simple present uncloaks, present participle uncloaking, simple past and past participle uncloaked)

uncloaks (present singular third-person)
uncloaking (participle present)
uncloaked (participle past)
uncloaked (past)

Don't try to target the Klingons as they uncloak, you won't have time. Just use the phasers to make a nofly zone between us and the Takagi.

2011, David Mack, Rise Like Lions (Star Trek: Mirror Universe):

(intransitive, science fiction) To become visible again by turning off a cloaking device.


funny pages

(comics) The section of a newspaper containing comic strips.


replicant

From Latin replicāns, present participle of replicō. The science fiction sense was coined by David Peoples in the 1982 film Blade Runner.

(science fiction) A robot or artificial being that is an exact copy of a genuine lifeform, especially a human.


twelvemo

(printing) a page, book etc. of that size


reverso

(printing) Any of the left-hand pages of a book.


ustav

Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic оуставъ (ustavŭ). Cognate of устав in modern Bulgarian and modern Russian.

The handsomely fashioned writing is of the type described as polu-ustav (semi-uncial), which is midway between the stately ustav and the cursive, . . . —A. Aronson, Rabindranath Through Western Eyes

(palaeography) The earliest style of Cyrillic writing developed from Greek uncial in the late 9th century, predominant in the 11th–14th centuries.


kigo

(poetry) A seasonal word; a word required in haiku to indicate the season.


(poetry, rare) Used to show an unexpectedly stressed syllable, or where the choice of stress is metrically important, e.g. idiosyncratic caléndar; noun rébel as opposed to verb rebél; áll trádes as a spondee rather than iamb.


tommyknocker

Then he's down one of these adits, talking to the tommyknockers, more'n likely.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 335:

(folklore) A mythical creature, like a brownie or leprechaun, believed to live in underground tunnels; later associated with dead miners.


pentimento

[Alt: A blue-tinted painting of a man's bent neck, with a faint image of a woman's face in its background]
Learned borrowing from Italian pentimento (“repentance, penance, penitence; remorse; change of opinion; correction; traces of a previous image or work in an artwork”), from pentìrsi (“to repent; to regret”) + -mento (suffix forming nouns representing the actions of verbs to which it is attached). Pentìrsi is derived from Latin paenitēre, the present active infinitive of paeniteō (“to cause to repent; to repent; to be sorry, regret”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hate; to hurt”).
The plural form is also borrowed from Italian pentimenti.

der

She thought of the painting in the shop, the pentimento. Her life, the one she had so carefully planned for herself had crumbled like the paint on the surface.

2012, Lorraine T. Gilman, chapter 20, in Princeton Pentimento, Bloomington, Ind.: WestBow Press, Thomas Nelson, →ISBN, page 205:

[T]he presence of a pentimento is an extremely valuable entity which supports the conclusion that a painting is an original composition – so, by inference, therefore, refuting any later suggestion that the painting could be the work of a copyist, who would have been engaged upon copying an existing painting as seen! The identification of a pentimento in an artwork can occur in one of two ways: by analytical interrogation of the subsurface using penetrative radiation such as IRR or XRD, or by direct visual observation, where the overlaying paint has worn away […]

2019, Timothy J. Benoy, William A. Edwards, Howell G. M. Edwards, “Evidence of Pentimenti for the Authentication of Paintings: A Challenge for Analytical Science at the Interface with Art History”, in Peter Vandenabeele, Howell Edwards, editors, Raman Spectroscopy in Archaeology and Art History, volume 2, London: Royal Society of Chemistry, →ISBN, page 33:

(art, literature) The presence of traces of a previous work in an artistic or literary work; especially (painting) an image which has been painted over but is still detectable.


555-2368, 1-555-321-2368, and (555)234-2368 are all 555 numbers; they aren’t real.

(Canada, US, fiction) Pertaining to a fake telephone number. The local exchange and area code number 555 was reserved in North American dialing plan for fictional numbers, prior to the 21st century.


flyboy

(printing, historical, slang) A man employed to clear the printed copies from the printing press.


positronic

From positron + -ic. The science fiction sense was coined by American science fiction author Isaac Asimov in 1941 in his short story "Liar!".

coin

By exact count, there are seventy-five thousand, two hundred and thirty-four operations necessary for the manufacture of a single positronic brain.

1941 May, Isaac Asimov, “Liar!”, in Astounding Science-Fiction, volume 27, number 3:

(science fiction) Of or pertaining to a supposed analogue of electronics using positrons


rathole

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


sky marshal

(fiction) A military rank in fiction for air force, space force, or armed forces, usually the topmost rank


shifter

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

(mythology, science fiction, fantasy) A shape-shifter; a person or other being capable of changing their physical form, especially a lycanthrope.


holocube

holocubes (plural)
holo cube (alternative)
holo-cube (alternative)

One wall was a huge holo cube displaying Geneva's table of organization, a spidery orange pyramid with tens of thousands of names connected by lines, from the mayor at the top to the “corridor security” people at the base.

1976, Joe Haldeman, The Forever War, New York: Ballantine Books, page 113:

He snapped a holo-cube into the projector and switched on. I gasped and shrank back in my seat as a great crustacean sprang into being in front of me, blind, chitinous, rust-red, and malevolent.

1978, Charles Sheffield, “The Deimos Plague”, in Stellar Science Fiction Stories, n 4, New York: Del Rey, p 146

And on a little table beside the bed, he found a holocube with a tiny picture of a woman wearing a yellow dress in it. When he moved the ’cube, the woman waved at him and laughed.

1990, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, volume 79, page 113:

Not a cassette, not an infodisk, not a holocube, but an actual book, with a cover and binding and pages.

1992, Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg, The Positronic Man, New York: Doubleday, page 25:

(science fiction) A cube-shaped device that shows or stores holographic pictures.


uncloaked

The result: half of the arriving vessels dematerialize in brilliant flashes, while the other half desperately reposition by a few thousand kilometers. This affords a multi-pronged force of uncloaked harriers opportunity to engage in open beam attacks, swiftly destroying another third.

2013 March 19, Greg Bear, String 25, in Halo: Silentium (Forerunner Saga; 3), New York: Tor, →ISBN, page 213:

(science fiction) rendered visible again by turning off or disabling cloaking technology.


short short story

en-noun

short short story (plural short short stories)

short short stories (plural)
short-short story (alternative)

We do not mean the length of the average short story, but rather that of the "short short story" that ranges from 500 to 1200 words.

1936, E. M. Vickrey, “The Integration of Composition and the Short Story”, in Peabody Journal of Education, volume 13, number 4, page 182:

(literature) A work of fiction that is briefer than a typical short story.


SG

Although Supergirl fans will relish page 4, I believe the first panel of 5 says it all: after a full force ramming by SG, PG just casually tosses her into a wall. Now *that's* Power Girl.

1997 October 25, Lightning, “REVIEW Power Girl #1, uhm, I mean Supergirl #16”, in rec.arts.comics.dc.universe (Usenet), message-ID <62tta5$a7g$1@206.230.70.77>:

Actually, a point could be made that the animated Supergirl is much more like Power Girl than the pre Crisis Supergirl.
For one thing she adopted the name Karen (Karen Starr was the name Kara Zor-L created), also she wears PG's costume colors and has a strong resentment toward's Clark's overprotectiveness. The only difference is that the animated SG has the Kara Zor-El personality more than she does Power Girl's.

1998 May 6, CaptT...@webtv.net, “Re: Why is TV kind of pre-Crisis and comics Post-Crisis”, in rec.arts.comics.dc.universe (Usenet), message-ID <6iouoe$1jf$1@newsd-134.iap.bryant.webtv.net>:

I kinda hate how they made Power Girl (Kara/SG pre-Crisis on World 2 or 3?) evil and a clone of SG. One of my fav comics growing up was Supes, and PG and I think Green Arrow going after Vandal Savage.

2005 September 21, tan...@bellsouth.net, “Re: JLU - WOW”, in alt.tv.cartoon-network (Usenet), message-ID <SL7Ye.4284$xg3.1881@bignews4.bellsouth.net>:

(comics) Initialism of Supergirl (“DC Comics superheroine”).


alternative universe

alternative universe (plural alternative universes)

alternative universes (plural)
alternate universe (alternative US)

This mirroring was marked out by the way in which the Federation of Planets, a voluntary association of different worlds, never existed in the alternative universe; instead we find ourselves confronting a vicious militaristic Terran empire.

2022 June 13, S. Sayyid, Recalling the Caliphate – Decolonization and World Order:

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


slug line

(authorship) A line of abbreviated text at the beginning of each scene in a screenplay that describes the location and time of day.


rime riche

(poetry) A form of rhyme with identical sounds, as in "pear" and "pair".


hatted

(typography) Written with a circumflex ('^'). For example, â.


lobsterman

lobstermen (plural)
lobster-man (alternative)
lobster man (alternative)

So they are unprepared when the lobsterman, in a symbolic evolutionary leap, cracks his shell and steps out as the rock superman; and, unappreciated, he is left to attempt suicide at the end.

2014, Gerald M. Berkowitz, American Drama of the Twentieth Century:

The movie nods to Robot Monster by giving the lobsterman a sidekick who is a gorilla with a space helmet.

2016, Thomas Kent Miller, Mars in the Movies: A History:

As the show progressed during its second season, the Cold War villains disappeared and Voyage settled into an entertaining, kid-friendly “monster of the week” formula, with the Seaview crew encountering aquatic beasts, ghosts, aliens, dinosaurs, an evil brain, a lobsterman, an ancient alchemist, and even a werewolf.

2018, Michael Eury, “Irwin Allen: Voyage to the Bottom of...the Barrel??”, in RetroFan, volume 3, page 33:

Poor Lobsterman. Out there living among regular men with regular hands. Misunderstood. Impaired, Shunned.

2020, Mary Laura Philpott, I Miss You When I Blink: Essays, page 42:

(fiction) A fictional alien or monster that looks like a lobster/human hybrid.


Middle Earth

From Middle English middelerthe, myddyl erthe; an alteration of earlier middel-erde, middelerd; in turn an alteration of earlier middenerd; from Old English middaneard (“Middle Earth”), variant of middanġeard (“Earth, the world”, literally “the middle yard, enclosure, or realm”) mis- or reinterpreting its meaning, from Proto-Germanic *midjagardaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“middle”) and *gʰórdʰos (“enclosure”). Cognate with Norwegian & English Midgard (q.v.) and Danish, Norwegian, & Swedish Midgård.

middle earth (alternative)
middle-earth (alternative)
Middle-earth (alternative)
Middle-Earth (alternative)

Not only are there maps of fantasy, such as those of Oz or Middle Earth, there are also hypotheses that have been made on the basis of mapped information

1994, Academic American Encyclopedia, Grolier, →ISBN, page 141:

The place might as well be called Noplace; it is a sort of magic island, like Thomas More’s Utopia or Homer’s Ogygia or Aristophane’s Cloudcuckooland—or Oz, or Narnia, or Middle Earth, or Disney’s Magic Kingdom.

1999, Frederick Turner, Shakespeare's Twenty-First Century Economics: The Morality of Love, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 180:

Some game ideas (such as the fanciful recreation of Middle Earth where the whole world is modeled with strong AI, 3D graphics capable of great indoor and terrain rendering, where an unlimited number of players can join in on both sides of epic conflict between good and evil) cannot be reconciled with the business parameters[…]

2003, Erik Bethke, Game Development and Production, Wordware Publishing,, →ISBN, page 76:

This is not an account of the Middle Ages, nor is it a tale from Middle Earth. This is our world.

2004, Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 27:

(fiction) Alternative form of Middle-earth: the setting of the Lord of the Rings series.


Eridian

(science fiction) a theoretical inhabitant of the dwarf planet Eris


kerning

kerning (countable and uncountable, plural kernings)

From kern (“part of a letter which extends into the space used by another letter”) + -ing, from French carne (“corner”).

affix

(typography) The adjustment of the horizontal space between selected pairs of glyphs in a typeface.


epical

(literature) Any book containing two or more epics.

(poetry) A lengthy, revered narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation.


transrealism

(science fiction) A literary mode that mixes the techniques of incorporating fantastic elements used in science fiction with the techniques of describing immediate perceptions from naturalistic realism.


come off

en-verb

come off (third-person singular simple present comes off, present participle coming off, simple past came off, past participle come off)

comes off (present singular third-person)
coming off (participle present)
came off (past)
come off (participle past)

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

This one came off easily.

(obsolete, printing, of a printed sheet) To finish being printed.


versal

(typography, calligraphy) Ornamental letter that begins a section


trade book

Most fiction titles are trade books.

(publishing) A book that is marketed to a general audience (as opposed to books that have specialized audiences, such as academic books).


bear walker

bear walkers (plural)
Bear Walker (alternative)
bear-walker (alternative)
bearwalk (alternative)

Calque of Ojibwe me'coubmoosa (“bear walker”).

clq

The hair ornament was worn by the Bear-Walker before and during the casting of spells.

1901, Charles Edward Brown, The Wisconsin Archeologist, page 116:

He told Jim he saw a Bear-walker approaching the house then and there.

1953, Inland Seas, Great Lakes Historical Society, page 13

These bear-walkers owed their powers to their personal manito, the bear, and traveled in disguise at night, causing disease among their victims.

1983, Christopher Vecsey, Traditional Ojibwa Religion and its Historical Changes, →ISBN, page 148:

(Native American, folklore) An evil sorcerer, specifically one who walks by night in the form of a bear.


font name

(computing, typography) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see font, name: the name of a font (typeface).


senarius

(poetry) A verse having six metric feet.


Thor's hammer

Thor's hammers (plural)
Thor's Hammer (alternative)

kinetic energy weapon
kinetic energy weapon

(weaponry, slang, science fiction) An orbital drop hypervelocity kinetic energy weapon (KEW). A theoretical weapon, originating from a U.S. government study, Project Thor, from the 1950s.


white lady

en-noun

white lady (countable and uncountable, plural white ladies)

For quotations using this term, see Citations:white lady.

(folklore) A female ghost dressed in white, who is associated with local legends of tragedy.


catgirl

catgirls (plural)
cat girl (alternative)
cat-girl (alternative)

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But publishers cannot survive on cute catgirls alone.

2009, Jason S. Yadao, The Rough Guide to Manga, page 222:

Back in 1997, the Japanese magazines made a big deal out of the fact that the catgirl detective anime Hyper Police was on at one in the morning[…]

2010, Jonathan Clements, Schoolgirl Milky Crisis: Adventures in the Anime and Manga Trade:

"Why do we need to leave the mall first?" "Even if I can undo this myself, I don't know how to do it or how it works! I might become more cat-like first, or turn you into a cat, or unleash a shockwave of catness that turns everyone in the mall into cat girls!"

2016 October 7, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive - EGS:NP (webcomic), Comic for Friday, Oct 7, 2016:

(Japanese fiction) A female fictional character who has a cat's ears, tail, or other feline characteristics on an otherwise humanoid body.

貓人 /猫人

female character with feline characteristics


hokku

(poetry) Synonym of haiku (“type of Japanese poem”).


supe

supes (plural)
sup (alternative)
super (alternative)


high concept

American Broadcasting Company
Barry Diller
Michael Eisner
Paramount Pictures
Simon & Schuster

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PIE word
 *ḱóm
From high (adjective) + concept (noun), variously attributed to the American media executives Barry Diller (born 1942) when he was working at the American Broadcasting Company in the 1970s, or Michael Eisner (born 1942) during his term as president of Paramount Pictures from 1976 to 1984.

Tim Burton's influence [in Batman Returns] loomed large, as half-finished high concepts, consistent only in avoiding the constraints of plot, motive, and logic, abounded.

1992 December, Jonathan Bernstein, “The Year in Movies”, in Bob Guccione, Jr., editor, Spin, volume 8, number 9, New York, N.Y.: Camouflage Associates, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 81:

[Steven] Spielberg's opinion relates well to the vision of high concept expressed by other Hollywood representatives: a striking, easily reducible narrative which also offers a high degree of marketability.

1994, Justin Wyatt, “A Critical Redefinition: The Concept of High Concept”, in High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood, Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, published 2006, →ISBN, page 13:

An appealing and easily communicable idea for a work (such as a book, film, or television programme).

高概念

High concept, to the degree that it describes an actual phenomenon, seems to me to have little to do with the decline of the auteurists. Rather, it is an intensification of certain elements of the old system resulting from the exponentially rising production costs of films and the unpredictability of the exhibition market.

1999, Kristin Thompson, “Desperately Seeking Susan”, in Storytelling in the New Hollywood: Understanding Classical Narrative Technique, Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 153:

It is important to note that the 'high-tech' visual style typical for high concept changes over time, just as technology advances and popular culture undergoes transitions. […] Another aspect of high concept in television news is the simplification of the story into a marketable concept as already discussed in relation to Hollywood movies.

2014, Chris Veits, “Literature Review”, in Conflict Coverage Promotion: High Quality or High Concept? A Multimodal Analysis of Claims-making in Conflict Coverage Promotional Sports of Al Jazeera English and CNN International, Hamburg: Anchor Academic Publishing, →ISBN, pages 20–21:

A style of work (such as a book, film, or television programme) characterized by appealing and easily communicable ideas.

korkea konsepti

style of work characterized by appealing and easily commmunicable ideas

Von Trier [Lars von Trier]'s high concept is too sloppily executed to suggest he really cares that much. Most of Dancer in the Dark ranges from mediocre (music and choreography) to laughably bad. The needlessly queasy camera movement and smeary visuals, acting that often feels like a read-through, and a script neither based on research (check out the American courtroom protocol) or any real logic. Its compensation is this: At least Dancer in the Dark is bad in a complicated way.

2000 October 6, Liam Lacey, “Bad, but in a complicated way”, in The Globe and Mail, Toronto, Ont.: The Globe and Mail Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2025-05-26:

This is a novel of ideas—brimming with high concepts and complicated philosophical questions. At the same time, it is a novel full of heart.

2009, Tayari Jones, “[Review of Rebel Yell]”, in Alice Randall, Rebel Yell […], New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury USA, →ISBN:

In fact, [Christopher] Nolan admits that it's a lot easier to simply watch the movie and grasp it from there. "That's the fun thing about Tenet for me, is that it's harder to talk about than just watch it and understand it," he said. Nonetheless, he gave additional insight into the machinations behind the highest of high concepts.

2024 February 23, Scott Campbell, “Christopher Nolan explains ‘Tenet’”, in Far Out, London, archived from the original on 2025-02-27:

(by extension, sometimes proscribed) The overarching idea or theme of a work, particularly one perceived as highly artistic or intellectual.


high concept

American Broadcasting Company
Barry Diller
Michael Eisner
Paramount Pictures


TK

Phonetic initialism, with "TK" chosen over "TC" because scarcely any English words contain the sequence "tk," making it easily searchable.

Philip Ng joined SC from Citibank's Hong Kong branch TK years ago.

1993, Wall Street & Technology, volume 11, page 244:

[Q:] Will next week's summit lead to peace between the United States and North Korea?
[A:] TK.

2018 June 2, Avi Selk, “Everything you need to know about Trump’s big envelope from Kim Jong Un and the hope for world peace”, in The Washington Post:

(publishing) Abbreviation of to come (used as a placeholder for information to be filled in before publication).


fictography

(literature) A fictionalized biography; a biography written about a fictional character. For example, Gulliver's Travels written by Jonathan Swift but presented as being written by Lemuel Gulliver, the novel's main character.


Titanian

Titanean (alternative)
Titanic (alternative)

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the yin and the yang, or the Oberonic and the Titanian

2002, Lewis, Anthony Burgess: A Biography, page 387:

(literature) Of or relating to the Shakespearean faerie queen Titania


Titanian

Titanians (plural)
Titanean (alternative)
Titanic (alternative)

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


Callistoan

(science fiction) An inhabitant of Callisto


scale mail

scale mail (countable and uncountable, plural scale mails)

scale mails (plural)
scalemail (alternative)

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(academically obsolete, now fiction, fantasy) Scale armor.


Europan

(science fiction, demonym) An inhabitant of the astronomical body Europa (either the moon of Jupiter or the minor planet of the Main Asteroid Belt).


come in

en-verb

come in (third-person singular simple present comes in, present participle coming in, simple past came in, past participle come in)

comes in (present singular third-person)
coming in (participle present)
came in (past)
come in (participle past)

From Middle English com in, imperative form of Middle English incomen (“to come in; enter”), from Old English incuman (“to come in; enter”), from Proto-Germanic *inkwemaną (“to come in; enter”), equivalent to come + in. Compare Dutch kom in (“come in”), singular imperative form of inkomen (“to come in; enter”), German einkommen (“to come in; enter”). See also income, incoming.

inh

(obsolete, printing, of a copy) To be correctly placed in preparation for printing.


shonen

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From the Japanese 少年 (shōnen, “few years”).

shōnen (alternative)
shounen (alternative)

(anime, manga) A style of Japanese animation and comics aimed at a younger male audience.


shonen

en-adj

shonen (comparative more shonen, superlative most shonen)

more shonen (comparative)
most shonen (superlative)
shōnen (alternative)
shounen (alternative)

(anime, manga) Being in the style of shonen comics or animation.


credit line

1963, Earl Ingerson, "Geological Processes," (Review of Physical Geochemistry by F. Gordon Smith), Science, New Series, vol. 141, no. 3576, p. 146,
Diagrams for ten systems not listed in the table are given, mostly without any credit line or reference in the text or in the legend.

(publishing) A line of printed text attached to written material, an image, illustration, or the like, which identifies the author, photographer, or other source.


Manzonian

Manzonian (comparative more Manzonian, superlative most Manzonian)

more Manzonian (comparative)
most Manzonian (superlative)

(literature) Of, pertaining to, or in the style of Alessandro Manzoni (1785–1873), Italian poet and novelist.

manzonien

of or in the style of Alessandro Manzoni


Manzonian

(literature) A follower of Alessandro Manzoni, or one who writes in his style.

manzonien

follower or imitator of Alessandro Manzoni


magic carpet

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-magic carpet.wav

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

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

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


contraterrene

/ˌkɒntɹətəˈɹiːn/

contra-terrene (alternative)
contra terrene (alternative)

This means just one thing: the instant contraterrene matter struck ordinary matter, a terrific explosion would occur!

1952, Science Digest, volume 31, page 67:

Then I started jacking up the voltage, and modified the thing with a double-polarity field somewhat similar to the molecular motion field except that it works on a sub-nucleonic level. As a result, about half of the lead fed into the chamber became contraterrene lead! The atoms just turned themselves inside out, so to speak, giving us an atom with positrons circling a negatively charged nucleus.

1957, John W. Campbell, Islands of Space:

(obsolete in physics, science fiction) Made of or pertaining to antimatter.


Liebestod

From German Liebestod, from Liebe (“love”) + Tod (“death”).

She saw how his jaw began to slaver and the room was full of the clamour of the forest's Liebestod but the wise child never flinched […]

1979, Angela Carter, “The Company of Wolves”, in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, published 2006, page 138:

(music, literature) An aria or duet performed in opera marking the suicide of lovers; a suicide.


en-noun

32mo (usually uncountable, plural 32mos)

(printing) A book with leaves of such size, about the size of a contemporary trade paperback.


mecha

From Japanese メカ (meka), from an abbreviation of the English mechanical.

Having deprived her of both her mecha and her lover, Masato looks set for a nasty end, but Miku arrives to save him.

1997, Helen McCarthy, The anime movie guide:

A transformation occurs when a mecha character, vehicle, or weapon unfolds and reassembles itself in a totally new form.

2002, Christopher Hart, Anime mania: how to draw characters for Japanese animation:

Porco Rosso evinces a deep fascination with mechanical objects of all sorts but it is by no means a mecha movie...

2006, Dani Cavallaro, The animé art of Hayao Miyazaki:

Each week the good guys fight the bad guys and vanquish them in a mecha battle, only to have the bad guys reappear intact the following week.

2007, Frenchy Lunning, Mechademia 2: Networks of Desire:

[…] to be a “lifter”—to pilot a mecha that can also transform into an air board […]

2007, Robin E. Brenner, Understanding manga and anime, page 170:

In this section, I show you mechas that are large enough to be piloted by humans from the inside. Although most of them are designed for combat, some function as transportation or construction mechas.

2011, Kensuke Okabayashi, Manga For Dummies, page 275:

(anime, manga) A large armoured robot on legs, typically controlled by a pilot seated inside.


trigesimo-secundo

From Latin ablatives of trīgēsimus (“thirtieth”) and secundus (“second”).

(printing) A book size, (3.75"–5" × 2.5"–3.125"), corresponding to the paper size.


thirty-twomo

thirty-twomos (plural)
thirtytwomo (alternative)

(printing) A paper size, (3.75"-5" x 2.5"-3.125"), one thirty-second of an uncut free sheet.

(printing) A book size, corresponding to the paper size.


sextodecimo

From Latin ablative of sextusdecimus (“sixteenth”).

(paper, printing) A size of a sheet of paper resulting from folding and cutting a sheet of paper into sixteenths (3.25"–5" x 5"–6.25").

(printing) A book consisting of pages of that size.


-mo

From Latin ending and apparent suffix of cardinal numbers.

(paper, printing) Used to form page and book sizes.


all caps

all-caps (alternative)
ALL CAPS (alternative)

(typography) Text or a font in which all letters are capitalised.

csupa nagybetűs

text or a font in which all letters are capital letters


title case

From title + case, because it is the casing (letter case pattern) traditionally often used for document titles (as well as headings and other display type) in English orthography.

(publishing, computing) The capitalization of text in which the first letter of each major (important) word is set as a capital.

English orthography
display typeface
microcomputer revolution
style guide


octodecimo

From Latin ablative of octusdecimus (“eighteenth”).

(paper, printing) A size of a sheet of paper resulting from folding and cutting a sheet of paper into eighteenths (3.5"–4.5" x 4.9"–5.9").


fat

en-adj

fat (comparative fatter, superlative fattest)

fatter (comparative)
fattest (superlative)

Of sense: lean

carrying a larger than normal amount of fat; antonym(s) of

Sranan Tongo: fatu

From Middle English fat, from Old English fǣtt (“fatted, fat”), from Proto-West Germanic *faitid (“fatted”), originally the past participle of the verb *faitijan (“to make fat”), from *fait (“fat”).

chubby

a fat take; a fat page

(dated, printing) Of a character which enables the compositor to make large wages; said of matter containing blank, cuts, or many leads, etc.


fat

Sranan Tongo: fatu

From Middle English fat, fatt, fatte, from the adjective above, and possibly from Old English fǣt (“fat”, recorded once), from Proto-West Germanic *fait, from Proto-Germanic *faitą, *faitaz (“fat”).

lard

in animals; derogatory slang when used of human fat

(dated, printing) Work containing much blank, or its equivalent, and therefore profitable to the compositor.


vicesimo-quarto

From Latin ablatives of vīcēsimus (“twentieth”) and quartus (“fourth”).

(printing) A book size, (2.5"–3.3" x 5"–6.25"), corresponding to the paper size.


quadragesimo-octavo

From Latin ablatives of quadrāgēsimus (“fortieth”) and octāvus (“eighth”).

(printing) A book size, (2.5"-3.1" x 2.5"-3.3"), corresponding to the paper size.


sexagesimo-quarto

From Latin ablatives of sexāgēsimus (“sixtieth”) and quartus (“fourth”).

(printing) A book size, (1.87"-2.5" x 2.5"-3.125"), corresponding to the paper size.


horizontal bar

(typography) The dash symbol (―) (used to introduce quoted text)

(typography) The horizontal form of the fraction bar.


type design

en-noun

type design (countable and uncountable, plural type designs)

(typography) The art of designing typefaces.

(typography) A particular style of typeface that has been designed.


just-so story

/ˌd͡ʒʌstˈsəʊ ˌstɔːɹi/

PIE word
 *swé
From just so (“(almost) exactly or precisely like something”, adjective) + story, referring to the series of short stories called Just So Stories (collected in book form in 1902) by the English writer Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) which described how various animals acquired their distinctive characteristics, such as how the leopard got its spots. According to Kipling, the stories were so titled because they were intended to put his daughter Josephine (“Effie”) to sleep, “and you were not allowed to alter those by one single little word. They had to be told just so; or Effie would wake up and put back the missing sentence.”

(literature) A story, especially one for children, featuring animals as characters.


xenolinguistics

(linguistics, science fiction) Study of a language originating from alien species.


capitulum

capitulum (plural capitulums or capitula)

Borrowed from Latin capitulum. Doublet of chapiter and chapter.

(typography, obsolete) The symbol ⸿. It was used to mark chapters or paragraphs, and is the ancestor of the pilcrow (¶).


caps and small caps

(typography) Formatting of text that leaves uppercase letters as they are but converts lowercase letters to small caps.


paper jam

(printing) A malfunction in a computer's printer or a photocopier or similar device occurring when sheets of paper become jammed inside.


love interest

Many people are involved in relationships in which they do not know how their love interest feels about them. […] They may also fear knowing the truth, which may be that their love interest isn't truly interested enough in them to make a commitment to the relationship.

2012, Barbara R. Cohl, “What Unhappy Couples Can Teach Us”, in Success for Modern Day Relationships: Working with Dating, Engaged, and Married Couples, Lanham, Md., Plymouth, Devon: Jason Aronson, →ISBN, page 82:

Items from the "Love Styles" scale (Grote & Frieze, 1994) and the Hatfield and Rapson "Passionate Love" scale (Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986) were used to assess the type of love felt for the other person. One love style measured was eros, or passionate love (Lee, 1976). […] Items were: "I was physically attracted to my love interest"; "I felt we had the right physical chemistry between us"; "Just seeing my love interest excited me"; "I felt that I knew and really understood my love interest"; […]

2015, H. Colleen Sinclair, Irene Hanson Frieze, “Initial Courtship Behavior and Stalking: How Should We Draw the Line?”, in Roland D. Maiuro, editor, Perspectives on Stalking: Victims, Perpetrators, and Cyberstalking, New York, N.Y.: Springer Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 61:

Naturally, Fallout also plays to [Tom] Cruise’s waning appeal as a romantic leading man, supplying him with no less than three potential love interests.

2018 July 25, A. A. Dowd, “Fallout may be the Most Breathlessly Intense Mission: Impossible Adventure Yet”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-07-31:

(film, literature) One who is of interest as a (potential) partner in love.

vlam

one of interest as a (potential) partner in love

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


South Park

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(fiction) A small fictional snow-capped mountainous Colorado town, the setting of the adult animated sitcom South Park.


needler

From Middle English nedlere, equivalent to needle + -er.

en:weapon that fires needles or needlelike darts

(chiefly science fiction) Any of various weapons that fire needles or needlelike darts.


ray-gun

(science fiction, weaponry) Alternative spelling of ray gun.


transmat

Attested since the 1950s, from transmit or transfer and matter; perhaps popularized by the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

One of these days.., they'll invent a Transmat that'll set you down anywhere.

1959 June 7, Laurence Janifer, “Obey that Impulse!”, in Future Science Fiction, number 43, page 40:

Three lines of workers began to vanish into the transmats, heading for their homes in the android compounds of five continents, […]

1970 June 7, Robert Silverberg, “The Tower of Glass”, in Galaxy Science Fiction, volume 30, number 3, page 83:

TIME LORD: Ah. Welcome, Doctor.
DOCTOR: What's going on? Don't you realize how dangerous it is to intercept a transmat beam?
TIME LORD: Oh, come, Doctor, not with our techniques. We Time Lords transcended such simple mechanical devices when the universe was less than half its present size.

1975, Terry Nation, Genesis of the Daleks (Doctor Who, season 12, serial 4), opening dialogue

You are in a TRANS-MAT unit. You see a faulty control panel with a button on it.

1983, The Long Way Home (video game published with 16/48 Magazine)

LYNDA: Oh, that's the transmat. Scrambles your head — I was sick for days.

2005, Russell T Davies, Bad Wolf (Doctor Who series 1, episode 12)

(British, science fiction) A teleporter; a fictional device that transfers/transmits matter from one location to another without the object traversing the intervening distance as itself.


transmat

en-verb

transmat (third-person singular simple present transmats, present participle transmatting, simple past and past participle transmatted)

transmats (present singular third-person)
transmatting (participle present)
transmatted (participle past)
transmatted (past)

It wasn't far enough away to think about transmatting and besides, that was no longer a viable option, what with vandals having wrecked some of the booths in the area.

1991, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Carmen Carter, Robert Greenberger, Doomsday World (Star Trek: The Next Generation; 12), Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 171:

'No, you're not,' Blandish put in smoothly 'You're transmatting down with me. I'll head the away team and I'll consent to let you advise.'

1999, Paul Magrs, Jeremy Hoad, The Blue Angel (Doctor Who: Eighth Doctor Adventures; 27), BBC Worldwide, →ISBN, page 36:

Donna twisted her neck around to try to find the Doctor, but she realised that she'd been transmatted alone.

2010, Mark Michalowski, Shining Darkness (Doctor Who: New Series Adventures; 27), BBC Worldwide, →ISBN, page 17:

(British, science fiction, ambitransitive) To teleport; to (cause to) travel via transmat device.


literary language

(literature) A register of a language that is used in literary writing.

ədəbi dil

register of a language used in literary writing


halfwidth

This would convert any half-width katakana characters to full-width katakana.

1993, GO Corporation, Penpoint Application Writing Guide:

...and half-width (zenkaku, hankaku) alphabets are regarded as separate...

1998, Rick Jelliffe, The XML & SGML Cookbook:

The half-width characters have normal character spacing...

2002, Cay S Horstmann, Gary Cornell, Core Java 2:

(computing, typography) Of a text character, occupying the space of half of a fullwidth character, or one "normal" text column.

半角

occupying half the width of a fullwidth character


auctorial descriptive

en-noun

auctorial descriptive (plural auctorial descriptives)

(literature) An adjective based on an authors' name.


romanette

From Roman (numeral) + -ette (“a diminutive”).

affix

The court held that romanette (ii) of the statute in issue did not limit eligibility for legal relief.

[…] (romanette (ii) in the Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation waiver-of-liability provision included in footnote 1) […]

1993, Dan K. Webb et al., Corporate Internal Investigations, →ISBN, page 3.14:

This can best be visualized with reference to FIGS. 5, illustrating both ends of the preferred embodiment perforation roll 12 side by side, numbered with romanette numerals i-xii corresponding to the hour positions on a clock face.

1999, Greg M. Kauppila, Andrew P. Tijan, Rotary valve assembly and method, US Patent 6539829, page 11:

2000 January, Joseph Kimble, “A Modest Wish List for Legal Writing”, originally in TRIAL, reprinted in Michigan Bar Journal, Volume 79, Number 11 (November 2000), pages 1574–1577,
In numbering, avoid roman numerals and romanettes (like iii). They are too much like a foreign language.

You'll need to use this technique almost every time you see parenthesized romanettes (i, ii, iii) or letters (a, b, c) in the middle of a contractual or legislative paragraph.

2001, Bryan A. Garner, Legal Writing in Plain English, →ISBN, page 101:

2008, United States Supreme Court oral argument, United States v. Hayes, Case no. 07-608https://web.archive.org/web/20081203011317/http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/07-608.pdf, page 9,
MS. SAHARSKY: . . . not looking at this Romanette (i) and (ii), but just looking at that sentence.
CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Romanette?
MS. SAHARSKY: Oh, little Roman numeral.
CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: I've never heard that before. That's -- Romanette.

(colloquial, law, typography, US) A Roman numeral in lower case, such as “ii”, as frequently introduces list items; or, a list item introduced by such.


bimeter

[…] two poems combine tetrameters with trimeters, and two others tetrameters with bimeters.

1982, Willem Pieter Gerritsen, “Coornhert and Boethius: A Side-Light on the Genesis of Dutch Renaissance Verse”, in D.H. Green, editors, From Wolfram and Petrarch to Goethe and Grass, page 310:

(poetry) A meter wherein each line has two metrical feet.


apostrophically

(orthography, humorous) With apostrophes.


songwriting

en-noun

songwriting (usually uncountable, plural songwritings)


copy boy

(publishing) A boy employed to carry copy and run errands.


roman font

roman fonts (plural)
Roman font (alternative)

The Roman fonts of Aldus were eclipsed by his Italic and Greek, but he cut several fine alphabets.

1897, Old Faces of Roman and Medieval Types, De Vinne Press, page 13:

(typography) An oldstyle serif font or typeface (sometimes capitalized "Roman").


alexandrine

alexandrines (plural)
Alexandrine (alternative)

From Middle French alexandrin. So called from its use in old French poems on Alexander the Great (Roman d'Alexandre, c. 1177).

The dominant metre in Les Fleurs du Mal is the twelve-syllable alexandrine, the defining metre of French versification, with the eight-syllable line a distant runner-up and the ten-syllable line barely visible.

2005, Rachel Killick, “Baudelaire's versification: conservative or radical?”, in Rosemary Lloyd, editor, The Cambridge Companion to Baudelaire, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 52:

(poetry) A line of poetic meter having twelve syllables, usually divided into two or three equal parts.


psychohistory

psychohistory (countable and uncountable, plural psychohistories)

/sʌɪkəʊˈhɪstəɹi/

From psycho- + history.
* The science-fictional usage was created by Isaac Asimov in the mid-20th century.

(science fiction) A fictional mathematical statistical science of large population dynamics, where mathematical models can predict general futures, based on activities of quadrillions of individuals. The fictional science first occurs in Asimov's 1950s Foundation series, and has since been picked up by other authors for other works.


Adonic

(poetry) A verse consisting of a dactyl and spondee.


country of origin

country of origin (plural countries of origin)

The country of origin of the work is that in which the work is first published.

1912, Richard Rogers Bowker, Copyright, Its History and Its Law: Being a Summary of the Principles and ..., page 607:

(publishing) Country of first publication.


mother ship

mother ships (plural)
mothership (alternative)

/ˈməðər ʃɪp/

(chiefly science fiction) The largest vessel, especially a spaceship, in a fleet, from which the fleet is commanded; a flagship.


senryū

(poetry) A haiku-like poem of up to 17 syllables that is usually humorous or satirical.


gravure

gravure (countable and uncountable, plural gravures)

for too long have the walls of our houses been adorned with examples of effete Old World portrait gravure.

1916 March 25, Irvin S. Cobb, “"Unaccustomed as I am—"”, in Saturday Evening Post:

THE POCKET ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF BRITISH STEAM LOCOMOTIVES. By O. S. Nock. Blandford Press. 18s.
Mr. Nock, he remarks in his preface, was "incredulous" when the idea of this book of 192 colour gravure illustrations of a representative collection of British steam locomotives from Locomotion to BR's Evening Star was broached to him.

1964 December, “New Books”, in Modern Railways, page 429:

(art, printing) A type of intaglio printing process, in which an image is engraved onto a rotating copper cylinder.


fantastique

Unadapted borrowing from French fantastique. Doublet of fantastic.

ubor

And certainly the film's free-floating fantasy and the blatant transparency of its narrative--its capacity to be seen for the artifice that it is--are a lot closer to fantastique than they are to the more logically circumscribed forms of fancy celebrated in this country.

1988 January 29, Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Invitation to the Trance”, in Chicago Reader:

(film, literature) A genre of literature and film that is characterized by the intrusion of the supernatural into the realistic framework of a story.


virelai

From Old French virelai, alteration (after lai) of vireli.

Now making layes of loue and louers paine, / Bransles, Ballads, virelayes, and verses vaine [...].

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

(historical, poetry) A medieval poetic form consisting of two or more three line units in each stanza, in the form aabaab... and continuing on in that pattern.


orthotic

en-adj

orthotic (comparative more orthotic, superlative most orthotic)

more orthotic (comparative)
most orthotic (superlative)

(typography) Of Greek typography: having an upright form, distinct from the cursive and chancery types.


literary theory

(literature) The theory or the philosophy of the interpretation of literature and literary criticism


literary criticism

In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.

1946, George Orwell, Politics and the English Language:

(literature) The study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature.


literary technique

en-noun

literary technique (plural literary techniques)


literary device

literary device (plural literary devices)

(literature) An identifiable rule of thumb, convention, or structure that is employed in literature and storytelling.


edisonade

From Edison + -ade, coined by Canadian author John Clute in 1993, after inventor Thomas Edison.

coin

(science fiction) A genre of science fiction and adventure fiction featuring a brilliant robust inventor, engineer or scientist hero who has an adventure in the wilds of the world, created from the mid-19th century to early 20th century, mostly American.

scientific romance

European science-fiction genre of the same period


line art

(printing, graphic design) Artwork to be reproduced with one solid color, contrasted with artwork having tone or shading (halftones), or full color (color separations).


NLQ

near letter-quality
near letter-quality#English

(typography, computing) Initialism of near letter-quality.


LQ

en-noun

LQ (countable and uncountable, plural LQs)

(typography, uncountable) Initialism of letter quality.


Chaucerian

en-adj

Chaucerian (comparative more Chaucerian, superlative most Chaucerian)

more Chaucerian (comparative)
most Chaucerian (superlative)

/tʃɔːˈsɪəɹɪ.ən/

/t͡ʃɔˈsɪɹi.ən/

Literary Bengali of prose, during the greater part of the 19th century, was thus a doubly artificial language ; and, with its forms belonging to Middle Bengali, and its vocabulary highly Sanskritised, it could only be compared to a 'Modern English' with a Chaucerian grammar and a super-Johnsonian vocabulary, if such a thing could be conceived.

1926, Suniti Kumar Chatterji, The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language, page 134:

(literature) Of or pertaining to Geoffrey Chaucer or his writings.

chaucérien

of or pertaining to Geoffrey Chaucer or his writings


Chaucerian

/tʃɔːˈsɪəɹɪ.ən/

/t͡ʃɔˈsɪɹi.ən/

(literature) A poet influenced by Chaucer.


POD

en-noun

POD (countable and uncountable, plural PODs)

(uncountable, publishing) Initialism of print on demand.


archigrapheme

From archi- + grapheme, by analogy with archiphoneme.

(typography) a grapheme which represents any of several graphemes (often causing ambiguity), by analogy with the archiphoneme, which represents several phonemes.


iota subscript

iota subscript (plural iotas subscript or iota subscripts)

iotas subscript (plural)
iota subscripts (plural)

(Greek orthography) A small iota written below an alpha, eta or omega – e.g. in ᾠδή (ōidḗ) – representing a vocalic offglide that was pronounced in early Ancient Greek, but later became silent; invented in the Middle Ages in order to mark those vowels which would originally have had such an offglide.


plasma rifle

(science fiction, weaponry) An assault rifle-styled gun that shoots plasma.


anacreontic

From Late Latin Anacreonticus, from Ancient Greek Ἀνακρέων (Anakréōn), Anacreon a Greek poet.

(poetry) A short lyrical piece about love and wine.


belter

(science fiction) A person who mines asteroids for minerals or lives in the vicinity of an asteroid belt.


warp speed

The ship was accelerating to warp speed, when one of the engines failed.

(science fiction) A hypothetical, extremely rapid, speed, resulting from entering a separate dimension, termed hyperspace; much faster than the speed of light.


(poetry) Placed over a vowel letter to indicate that the syllable is long. Also used alone to mark stress in a metrical foot or verse: see ⟨ˉ⟩.


polyschematic

(poetry) Having unusual or multiple metre.


staple character

staple character (plural staple characters)

The mad scientist was a staple character in many horror films.

(writing, theater, film) A stock character, especially one that is overused.


senpai

senpais (plural)
senpai (plural)
sempai (alternative)

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

Borrowed from Japanese 先(せん)輩(ぱい) (senpai). Doublet of sunbae.

(anime and manga, fandom slang) An upperclassman or elder student, in the context of Japan.


multigraph

(historical, printing) A combined rotary typesetting and printing machine for office use. The type is transferred semi-automatically by means of keys from a type-supply drum to a printing drum. The printing may be done by means of an inked ribbon to print "typewritten" letters, or directly from inked type or a stereotype plate, as in a printing press.


terzanelle

(poetry) A poetry form which is a combination of the villanelle and the terza rima.


kabouter

(Dutch folklore) A tiny folkloric man who traditionally wears a pointy red hat, lives in harmony with nature and resides in mushrooms, similar to a gnome, leprechaun or a smurf.


line break

line breaks (plural)
line-break (alternative)
linebreak (alternative)

(typography) A point in writing where text that would normally continue on the same line starts at the beginning of a new line.

斷行 /断行

a point in writing where text that would normally continue on the same line starts at the beginning of a new line or the character indicating that subsequent characters should appear on a separate line of text


antinovel

antinovels (plural)
anti-novel (alternative)

Digressions are usually considered a characteristic feature of the antinovel tradition.

(literature) A novel that deliberately avoids the typical conventions of the novel, such as a coherent plot and protagonist.

antiromaani

a novel that deliberately avoids the typical conventions of the novel

(literature, by extension) Any style of writing that deviates from the norm of technical conventions used in writing literature.


punctum delens

Unadapted borrowing from Latin pūnctum dēlēns.

ubor

(orthography) A dot placed above a letter to indicate that it is a copying error and should be ignored.

(orthography) A dot placed above a consonant in Irish, when it is written in Gaelic script, to indicate that the consonant is lenited.


sub-light

"We are about to test sub-light engine disengage."

2017, A.K. Brown, Humans on the Menu (Champagne Universe Series: Book 2), page 36:

(science fiction) At less than the speed of light.


realspace

(science fiction) Normal, three-dimensional space; as opposed to hyperspace


monoline

[…] monolines appear everywhere in the art of the Western letter, and have shaped the alphabet's development as much as the edged line of the broad pen.

1984, Margaret Shepherd, Calligraphy Now, page 31:

(calligraphy) A font line of consistent width, as occurs when imitating pencil script.

With the straight matter being set on the linotype or monoline, the hand compositor was left with what he claimed was the most 'skilled' part of his old work.

1993, Rae Frances, The Politics of Work: Gender and Labour in Victoria 1880-1939, →ISBN, page 126:

(printing, dated) A type of composing machine in which each line of type is cast as a single slug.


weretiger

(fiction, mythological) A creature of Southeast Asian myth; a shapeshifter who can assume the shape of a tiger.


wererat

The only other animal he'd seen hadn't been an animal at all, but a wererat who had given him a curious look before darting away into an alley.

2006, Christine Warren, Wolf at the Door: A Novel of The Others, page 205:

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


interactive fiction

en-noun

interactive fiction (countable and uncountable, plural interactive fictions)

(literature, uncountable) Text adventures and their descendants.


cyberize

en-verb

cyberize (third-person singular simple present cyberizes, present participle cyberizing, simple past and past participle cyberized)

cyberizes (present singular third-person)
cyberizing (participle present)
cyberized (participle past)
cyberized (past)

At this Nightshade mutters under his breath and begins to metamorphose. Slowly more metal appears on him, and his looks change drastically from a pure human to a fully cyberized hunk of man and machine.

1993 August 25, Robert Johan Enters, “Re: [ADMIN] Re: Newcomer to the Theatre...”, in alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo (Usenet):

I don't see ItX [=Iteration X] forcefully cyberizing anyone against their will. Not only is it wildly unethical, Devices are far too valuble ^([sic]) to waste on people who will try to resist the Union.

2000 March 21, Julian Mensch, “Re: Iteration X Conventionpage for a noble Union [*LONG*]”, in alt.games.whitewolf (Usenet):

But he did report to Starfleet HQ his encounter with a race of cyberized humanoids who are out to assimilate everyone, and T'Pol's estimate that said race would likely return during the 24th century.

2009 May 8, "Tim Bruening" (username), "Re: Archer Vs Borg", on alt.tv.star-trek.enterprise and alt.humor.puns, Usenet

(science fiction, rare) To make into a cyborg; to fit with a cybernetic implant or prosthesis.


x-height

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

(typography) The distance between the baseline and midline in a typeface, typically equal to the height of the lower-case letter x.

x-korkeus

the distance between the baseline and midline in a typeface


fachan

A fachan is a large, fierce monstrosity that is as dangerous as it is strange. A fachan has one eye in the middle of its forehead, a single arm in the middle of its chest and one leg supporting it from underneath. The fachan's[…]

(Can we date this quote?), RuneQuest Monsters, Mongoose Publishing, →ISBN, page 63:

"I can handle a fachan on my own,” Sir Celes said. “Don't worry, my regiment is...” “My father...” It felt so cold all of a sudden. Like a cloud had covered the sun. A fachan. A horrible, one-eyed giant. A terrifying monster that had taken something[…]

2020 April 27, Nao Wakasa, The Extraordinary, the Ordinary, and SOAP! Volume 1, J-Novel Club, →ISBN:

(folklore and now also fantasy) A giant in Irish and Scottish folklore, which has one central leg, one hand protruding from its chest, and one eye.


union bug

Printed matter circulated by the (US) Democratic Party inevitably displays a union bug.

(printing) A maker’s mark imprinted on a work to show that it is sanctioned by members of a trade union. It is often a tiny elongated rhomboid containing and surrounded by, in minuscule typeface, identifying names and the union’s local chapter number.


derezz

derezz (third-person singular simple present derezzes, present participle derezzing, simple past and past participle derezzed)

derezzes (present singular third-person)
derezzing (participle present)
derezzed (participle past)
derezzed (past)
derez (alternative)

From the film Tron, perhaps from de- and resolve or resolution.

(science fiction, intransitive, of an image) To disappear, or dissolve into pixels.


manhua

en-noun

manhua (countable and uncountable, plural manhuas)

Borrowed from Mandarin 漫畫 /漫画 (mànhuà), from Japanese 漫(まん)画(が) (manga). Doublet of manga and manhwa.

(comics) A comic originating in China or Taiwan.


manhwa

Borrowed from Korean 만화(漫畫) (manhwa), from Japanese 漫(まん)画(が) (manga). Doublet of manga and manhua.

In fact, many manga fans don't realize that their favorite comics — such as Priest, Ragnarock, and Island — are actually Korean manhwa!

2004, Christopher Hart, Manhwa Mania: How to Draw Korean Comics, Watson-Guptill Publications, →ISBN, page 7:

Since the Korean language reads left to right (unlike Chinese and Japanese), manhwa are printed left to right in the same format as English books.

2007, Jason Thompson, Manga: The Complete Guide, Del Rey, published 2007, →ISBN:

As the best Japanese titles were mined, the American companies began to look for alternatives, and Tokyopop's founder Stuart Levy already had a budding interest in Korean manhwa.

2008, Mark James Russell, Pop Goes Korea: Behind the Revolution in Movies, Music, and Internet Culture, Stone Bridge Press, published 2008, →ISBN:


info-dump

info-dumps (plural)
infodump (alternative)

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


autofire

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

(science fiction) A feature that allows a weapon to fire automatically.


graveyard poetry

(literature, poetry) A type of morbid poetry which lingers on human mortality, tombs, and burial grounds, popular in the preromantic period of 18th-century Britain.


hench

en-verb

hench (third-person singular simple present henches, present participle henching, simple past and past participle henched)

henches (present singular third-person)
henching (participle present)
henched (participle past)
henched (past)

(comics) To be a henchman or henchwoman, usually for a supervillain.


bookjacket

bookjackets (plural)
book (alternative)
jacket (alternative)

Under certain circumstances and because of the method of application, lamination of all but the flaps of a bookjacket can prove more costly...

1965, The Bookseller: The Organ of the Book Trade:

(printing, publishing) The jacket of a book.


soft hyphen

(computing, typography) A generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed.

weiches Trennzeichen

a generally invisible text character marking a point where hyphenation can occur without forcing a line break in an inconvenient place if the text is later reflowed


exord

One peculiarity of Bello is his having first broken through the custom of religious invocations at the heads of his cantos, in place of which he substituted poetical exords, or reflections on the events of his narrative, or on circumstances connected with them.

1830, “Ferrario -- On Chivalry and Romance and Italian Romantic Poetry”, in Foreign Quarterly Review, volume VI, number XIII, page 387:

(literature) A preface or prefatory passage


electrokinesis

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-electrokinesis.wav

But Grey's electrokinesis and Greenman's telekinesis put me in a tight spot.

2008, A. Lee Martinez, The Automatic Detective, →ISBN, page 138:

(fantasy, science fiction) The generation of electrical force using the mind alone.


cicero

From its use in Pannartz and Sweynheim's Roman edition (1467) of Cicero's Epistulae ad Familiares ("Letters to My Friends").

(typography, Continental printing) The Continental equivalent of the English pica: a measure of 12 Didot points (4.51368 mm or about 0.178 in.) or a body of type in this size.

Pannartz and Sweynheim
cicero (typography)


supernormal

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

Coined from super- + normal between 1865 and 1870.

Not long after John told me of his efforts to make contact with other supernormals he took me into his confidence about his plans for the future.

1935, Olaf Stapledon, Odd John, Gollancz 2012, p. 124

(science fiction) A being with extraordinary powers, as compared to the norm for their species.


psionics

In any case, psionics appears quite legitimately in science fiction.

1976, Reginald Bretnor, The Craft of Science Fiction:

In the 1960s, Campbell abandoned his public obsessions with psionics and pseudo-science.

1998, Gary Westfahl, The Mechanics of Wonder: The Creation of the Idea of Science Fiction:

(science fiction) Mental powers, especially those under conscious control, that affect physical matter, such as telekinesis.


terraformer

(science fiction) A machine that has the capability to terraform.

(chiefly science fiction) A person who terraforms.


lineation

en-noun

lineation (countable and uncountable, plural lineations)

Lineation is very much a matter of syntax, organizing the poem's grammar across its lines in ways significant and central to the poem's meaning.

2001, Shira Wolosky, The Art of Poetry, →ISBN, pages 26–27:

(literature) The way in which line breaks are inserted in a poem


adscript

From Latin adscriptus, past participle of adscribere (“to enroll”). See ascribe.

(typography) Something written or printed immediately after another character and aligned with it.


VF

(typography) Initialism of variable font.


out of print

(publishing, music industry) Not available from the publisher (of a printed work, especially a book, or a music release).


manicule

(typography) A symbol resembling a hand with the index finger extended, used to draw attention to or indicate something.


telepath

(parapsychology, science fiction) A person with telepathic ability, capable of reading the thoughts of others around them.


telepath

en-verb

telepath (third-person singular simple present telepaths, present participle telepathing, simple past and past participle telepathed)

telepaths (present singular third-person)
telepathing (participle present)
telepathed (participle past)
telepathed (past)

Jan. 3rd, 1984.—I was in the front sitting-room and dare not go out of the room for the cold; my plants were awfully dry, and hearing E. [her niece] in the kitchen, I telepathed to her to bring me in some water. She at once came with a jug full and asked if I would water the plants.

1896 October, “A Diary of Telepathic Impressions”, in Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, volume 7, number 132, page 300:

He does not attribute one single experience to what we might term a "ghost" for lack of a better term. Witches, poltergeists, goblins, gremlins, fairies, dwarfs—all of them are real, physical, alive, being either the real thing or the teleported or telepathed image of the real thing.

1947 June, Raymond A. Palmer, “Observatory”, in Amazing Stories, volume 21, number 6, page 9:

Thanos: "Did you not suspect I could tell you had been telepathing?"

1973 February, Stan Lee, Iron Man, number 55

In your mind you have capacities you know / To telepath messages through the vast unknown

1976, John Woloschuk and Terry Draper, “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft”, in 3:47 EST, performed by Klaatu:

(parapsychology, science fiction) To communicate by thought; to use telepathy.


galley proof

(printing) A trial page or proof of continuous text that has not been divided into pages.


page proof

(printing) A trial page or proof that has been made up into pages.


fullwidth

From full + width, as a calque of Japanese 全角 (zenkaku).

(computing, typography) Of a text character, occupying the space of two alphanumeric characters in a monospace font, or two "normal" text columns.

全角

occupying two columns on a traditional text display


Flying Dutchman

(nautical folklore) A mythical Dutch-flagged ghost clipper that is very fast sailing, and never makes it to port, seen on the high seas, where upon being hailed, occupants request information on persons long dead, or leave messages for said people. In European naval folklore, it was considered to portend bad luck.


homodiegetic

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

2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 185:

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


grav

Since there is no such thing as top or bottom in space, the ship's artificial gravs hold you to the floor no matter which end of the vessel points which way.

1950, Nelson Bond, Lancelot Biggs: Spaceman, →ISBN, page 76:

... We will be going to low-gravity just before jump. Passengers should be firmly strapped in at this time." "Good," murmured Muerotte. "Cutting gravs...brace yourself.

2007, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., The Ecolitan Enigma, →ISBN:

Trystin shut down the ventilation system and shifted the last of the power for gravs into the thrusters.

2010, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., The Parafaith War, →ISBN:

(science fiction) An artificial gravity generator.

A starship thundered invisibly close overhead, its gravs at full lift-off power.

The orbot was a speck, a clot, a ball, a toy. It was gliding silently in on gravs, directly overhead.

1992, Gardner Dozois, Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction Of Gardner Dozois, →ISBN, page 83:

Air cars include any vehicle which are grav powered and are capable of flying, but unlike aeroplanes they handle similar to normal ground cars.

2008, Martin Rait, FSpace Roleplaying Conspiracy Convention Skills Guide v1.1, →ISBN, page 7:

I set things up for the grav sled support and the Averonian operation.

2011, R Richard, Second Chance King of Avuls, →ISBN, page 7:

With the gravs, I can land in ten seconds and be cutting a door for you at the same time.

2011, J. E. Murphy, Sanctuary, →ISBN, page 317:

(science fiction) An anti-gravity device.


digital press

(printing) A high-speed industrial digital printer.


intimist

en-adj

intimist (comparative more intimist, superlative most intimist)

more intimist (comparative)
most intimist (superlative)

However, he had not yet at that time fully displayed the principle of expression through intonation, the amazing ability to construct a line of verse in accordance with the most ready-to-hand, most colloquial speech - a characteristic which makes some critics group him with the intimist poets who write of the most complicated inner experiences, ostensibly inaccessible to the ordinary reader of today, and which makes others see him, no less mistakenly, as far too closely continuing the Futurists' methods of fashioning language.

1970, Donald Davie, Angela Livingstone, Pasternak, page 76:

Now its form is a psychological/intimist film which is less perceivable as a genre because it slips over so many (i.e., thrillers, adventure, historical reconstruction, etc.).

2006, Susan Hayward, French National Cinema, →ISBN:

For Barma, the close-up is an essential device to turn Macbeth into an intimist piece, but also to enhance realism and break away from the stage experience.

2013, Sarah Hatchuel, Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin, Victoria Bladen, Shakespeare on screen : Macbeth, →ISBN:

In actual fact, the project of redefining and purifying the Church's orthodox patrimony and the related re-establishment of an inward, intimist dimension of religion, which the head-on opposition in the early part of the century had unilaterally attributed to the Protestant enemy, was destined to gradually lose strength, with the setting of the sun on the generations of ecclesiastics who had themselves promoted the project and especially with the gradual disappearance of the Protestant menace.

2016, Giorgio Caravale, Forbidden Prayer, →ISBN:

(film, literature) Introspective; concerned with inner life and psychological experiences.


geokinesis

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-geokinesis.wav

(parapsychology, fantasy, science fiction) The ability to manipulate the movement of minerals in the earth using supposed psychic powers.


chronokinesis

(science fiction) The ability to manipulate the flow of time.


ferrokinesis

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-ferrokinesis.wav

(parapsychology, fantasy, science fiction) The ability to mentally manipulate iron and other metals.


laydown

en-noun

laydown (countable and uncountable, plural laydowns)

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

It was a week's worth of laydowns portraying the full line of athletic clothing for that season […]

2006, Susan Linnet Cox, Photo Styling, →ISBN, page 114:

(publishing) A physical mockup or layout of a page design.


metal master

(printing) A metal sheet used in offset printing for carrying ink onto the rubber printing form.


tendency writing

tendency writing (countable and uncountable, plural tendency writings)

The name is borrowed from German forms such as Tendenzschrift, Tendenzroman ("tendency novel"), and Tendenzdrama.

(literature) Literature produced in order to promote a cause or serve a rhetorical purpose that the writing itself never makes explicit. These purposes are typically social, political, or moral.


playwriting

playwriting (usually uncountable, plural playwritings)

playwritings (plural)
play-writing (alternative)


empath

She was the empath who would betray empaths if she got the chance. So they'd tried to fix things so that she didn't get the chance.

1957, Hans Stefan Santesson, editor, Fantastic Universe:

How did a complete stranger know he was an empath? He rarely if ever talked about it, even to his closest friends. It made people uneasy.

The aura may, in fact, linger around objects or places and that "lingering energy" is what an empath senses and intuits.

(science fiction, parapsychology) A person with extrasensory empathic ability, capable of sensing the emotions of others around them in a way unexplained by conventional science and psychology.

empaatti

person with extra-sensory empathic ability


antiheroism

(literature) The quality of being an antihero


black-letter

a black-letter manuscript or book

In the summer of 1877, a gentleman with whom I was well acquainted, took lodgings in Preston-street, Brighton. The morning after his arrival, he found in the W.C. some leaves of an old black-letter book.

1880, William Blades, The Enemies of Books, page 54:

(printing) Written or printed in black letter.


yandere

/ˈjɑːndɛɹeɪ/

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

Borrowed from Japanese ヤンデレ (yandere), a portmanteau of 病んでる (yanderu), contraction of 病んでいる (yande iru), progressive tense of 病む (yamu, “to be sick”), and デレデレ (dere-dere, “in a lovey-dovey, infatuated, or lovestruck manner”, adverb).
Developed on the model of tsundere (“being cold and even hostile towards another person before gradually showing a warm and caring side over time”).

And it finally answered the question as to whether Senjougahara is tsundere or yandere.

2009 October 4, sanjian [username], “Re: Bakemonogatari - comments on the end of the TV broadcast”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

Looking at anime charts, there's always the harem series with the dense hero and a bunch of girls whose personalities are pulled out of a set cast of tropes (the Childhood Friend, Tsundere, Yandere, and Lolita, for instance).

2012, Jazmine Brusola, Rabble Rousers: A Fate/Zero Anime Review, Flyleaf (Ateneo Literary Association), page 14:

“Believe it, man. In fact, she's seriously creepy. Like creepier than that pink-haired girl from Future Diary.”
 “Wait, what?” Sam got that reference quickly, but was not happy with the comparison. She wasn't a psychopathic, murderous Yandere stalker, from what he could see.

2014, Olivia D. Knight, Please, Let Me Be a Seiyuu!, BookRix, →ISBN, unnumbered page:

(chiefly Japanese fiction) A character, usually a girl, who has an obsessive and possessive side in regards to their crush, ready to use violent (if not murderous) means to maintain an exclusive bond.

يَانْدِرِي

character who fits the archetype of being genuinely kind, loving, or gentle, but suddenly switching to being aggressive or deranged


biopunk

biopunk (countable and uncountable, plural biopunks)

From bio- + -punk, apparently on the model of cyberpunk. Compare biotech.

In the early nineties there grew up biopunk, a derivative sub-genre building not on IT but on biology, the other dominating scientific field of the end of the twentieth century. Individuals are enhanced not by mechanical means, but by genetic manipulation of their very chromosomes.

1997 September 13, Michael Quinion, “Biopunk”, in World Wide Words, archived from the original on 2015-12-08:

At its heart, The Wind Up Girl is a biopunk thriller following a^([sic]) undercover corporate agent and a genetically modified woman – but its detailed, bleak depiction of the effects of climate change sets it apart.

2017 January 19, “Five of the best climate-change novels”, in The Guardian:

(uncountable, science fiction) A science fiction genre that focuses on biotechnology and subversives.


stargate

/ˈstɑɹˌɡeɪt/

From star + gate. A science-fiction film of this title, Stargate, was released in 1994.

Find examples of stargates and wormholes in the ancient world […]

2000, David Hatcher Childress, Technology of the Gods:

Perhaps the first clear depiction of a stargate is to be found in Robert Heinlein's classic novel Tunnel in the Sky […]

2001, William R Alschuler, Howard Zimmerman, The Science of UFOs:

A stargate takes you to that star or constellation. […] The opening of a stargate requires the participation of the Archangel Michael […]

2002, Richard Leviton, The Galaxy on Earth: A Traveler's Guide to the Planet's Visionary Geography:

At some point it might be possible to devise a "stargate" such as depicted in the movies 2001: A Space Odyssey and Stargate […]

2003, Albert A Harrison, After Contact: The Human Response to Extraterrestrial Life:

With a stargate, travel is instantaneous. It is quite possible that the secret government either has a stargate or is trying to get one.

2004, Stephanie Relfe, The Mars Force Book 2:

(neologism, science fiction) A hypothetical device consisting of a traversable portal (typically a wormhole) that can send one to another location light years away nearly instantaneously.


grotesquerie

grotesquerie (countable and uncountable, plural grotesqueries)

grotesqueries (plural)
grotesquery (alternative)

/ˌɡɹəʊˈtɛskəɹi/

(literature) A genre of horror literature that was popular in the early 20th century, and practiced by writers such as Ambrose Bierce and Fritz Leiber.


maximalist

en-adj

maximalist (comparative more maximalist, superlative most maximalist)

more maximalist (comparative)
most maximalist (superlative)
Maximalist (alternative)

From maximal + -ist, by analogy with minimalist.

This, his [Frank Stella's] second Museum of Modern Art retrospective, shows him in his second incarnation, turning his back on Minimalist rationality and opting for a “maximalist,” seemingly free-wheeling Baroque complexity that helped set the stage for New-Expressionism.

1987 December 6, Roberta Smith, “Schnabel and Stella: Art, Myth and Ego”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Three elephantine examples of that trend have been in the news of late, and they call into question their underlying maximalist presumption that more is more.

1990 May 27, John Rockwell, “Complete Everything, or Is More Enough?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Mr. Shadbolt's maximalist, when-in-doubt-be-vivid style capaciously suits “Monday's Warriors,” his novel of the wars between the Maoris and the British in New Zealand in the mid-19th century; […]

1992 May 3, Ivan Doig, “Maps Made by Blind Men”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The biennial also includes a sprawling cityscape by Chris Burden incorporating thousands of model buildings, cranes and automobiles, a maximalist vision where Mr. Ashkin's is minimalist.

1997 April 6, Trip Gabriel, “Trafficking in Toxic Waste and Human Loneliness”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Bach's choral music was once often heard in maximalist renditions, undertaken by large ensembles who by sheer vocal and instrumental weight emphasize the majestic side of his compositions.

1998 May 17, Sarah Bryan Miller, “Classical Brief”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

[Christian] Lacroix's maximalist aesthetic has been at odds with fashion trends in recent years. But fashion is just now beginning to swing back his way, with an emphasis on volume and flounce above sleekness.

2005 January 26, Jess Cartner-Morley, “Ovation for Lacroix as maximalist look makes a comeback”, in The Guardian:

At the moment, for example, while a minimalist aesthetic, or the tail end of one, still manifests itself in a lot of painting and music, we are living in age of maximalist novels—books less concerned with le mot juste than with being full-service entertainment centers.

2005 April 17, Charles McGrath, “The Souped-Up, Knock-Out, Total Fiction Experience”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

You might call [Louis] Wain’s ‘mad’ style a version of the outsider mode in its paranoid or maximalist aspect.

2011 July 28, Terry Castle, “Do I like it?”, in London Review of Books, volume 33, number 15, →ISSN:

Such a bustling, maximalist extravaganza is in keeping with the excitable energy of the crowd, who are clearly thrilled to revisit the block-party beats of Cruel Summer and tribal doo-wop of Really Sayin’ Somethin’.

2017 November 14, Graeme Virtue, “Bananarama review – hi-NRG poignancy as pop trio return for first proper tour”, in The Guardian:

Returning to the sound of her maximalist electro-pop heyday, Gaga explores buried trauma, mental illness and the complexities of fame on this return to form

2020 May 29, Michael Cragg, “Lady Gaga: Chromatica review – Gaga rediscovers the riot on her most personal album”, in The Guardian:

[Chappell] Roan draws from the mega-pop of the 2010s, from Lady Gaga to Taylor Swift – then laces it with sexually frank asides and lavish doses of camp, and performs it with a maximalist, absurd aesthetic indebted to drag, John Waters and Freddie Mercury.

2024 August 9, Laura Snapes, “It’s a femininomenon! How Chappell Roan slow-burned her way to stardom”, in The Guardian:

(art, music, literature) Preferring redundancy; tending to do or provide more rather than less.


maximalist

maximalists (plural)
Maximalist (alternative)

Concerning his own purpose in making music, Mr. Babbitt says he would call himself a maximalist: “I try to make music as much as it has ever been or as much as it could be. I may try to put too much into a piece. […]”

1982 October 17, Joan Peyser, “Milton Babbitt's Serialism”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The music, of course, for all of its determined frivolity, is wonderfully eloquent, and composers as diverse as Webern, the great Minimalist, and Mahler, a great “Maximalist,” have come to worship at the shrine.

1986 August 24, Tim Page, “Opera: ‘Die Fledermaus’ Gets a Change of Cast”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Critics have aptly borrowed those terms to characterize the difference between Mr. Beckett, for example, and his erstwhile master James Joyce, himself a maximalist except in his early works.

1986 December 28, John Barth, “A Few Words About Minimalism”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

In the 1960's, he [Peter Gourfain] was a Minimalist, using wood beams to build allusive and ephemeral constructions. This show is primarily concerned with the artist since he became a maximalist.

1987 April 3, Michael Brenson, “Works by Gourfain at Brooklyn Museum”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A maximalist, Mr. [Craig] Baldwin is at once a collector and curator of 20th-century visual culture.

2009 January 14, Manohla Dargis, “Star Log: Trippy Sci-Fi Mash-Up Alert!”, in New York Times:

David Foster Wallace was a maximalist. His masterpiece, Infinite Jest, is a 1,000-page, polyphonic epic about addiction and obsession in millennial America.

2015 May 25, Chris Power, “A brief survey of the short story: David Foster Wallace”, in the Guardian:

Mohawke is known as a musical maximalist, which is a polite way of saying that he lumps prodigiously distorted beats on top of each other, as if playing techno Jenga.

2015 December 11, Ian Gittins, “Hudson Mohawke review – ferocious, apocalyptic electro”, in The Guardian:

(art, literature, music) A person with maximalist beliefs or tendencies; someone who prefers redundancy or excess, especially in the arts.


antiheroine

antiheroines (plural)
anti-heroine (alternative)

Since she sprang from the imagination of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in 1890, this coldhearted antiheroine has maintained a tight grip on the attention of audiences across the globe, outstripping all the many other complicated women in Ibsen’s oeuvre, even the door-slamming Nora of “A Doll’s House”.

2009 January 18, Charles Isherwood, “Hedda Forever: An Antiheroine for the Ages”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2012-06-09:

Fictional male antiheroes like television’s crime patriarchs Tony Soprano and Walter White have reigned for some time, but the antiheroine has only more recently had the opportunity to rise up – and become the cause of her own downfall.
And while a “bad woman” may once have meant a period-piece protagonist who prioritized herself over finding a husband, today’s antiheroines are more complex, as the Netflix dark comedy “I Care a Lot” illustrates.

2021 August 11, Jacqui Palumbo, “Rosamund Pike in ‘I Care a Lot’ and six more recommendations if you love an antiheroine”, in CNN:

(literature, roleplaying games) A female protagonist who proceeds in an unheroic manner, such as by criminal means, via cowardly actions, or for mercenary goals; a female antihero.


octosyllable

(poetry) line of verse with eight syllables


ambisyllabicity

(poetry, phonetics) The property of a consonant being analysed as acting simultaneously as the coda of one syllable and the onset of the following syllable, as in "upper" or "button".


dipodic

(poetry) Consisting of two metrical feet.