planetfall

From planet + fall, by analogy with landfall.

“Listen up, grunts. We'll be making planetfall in T-minus three minutes. You'll be joining the war against the Scourge, an alien race of soulless, ruthless automatons.”

2024 August 12, Joe Saunders, “The Battle of Zab 9” (1:00 from the start), in Solar Opposites, season 5, episode 9, spoken by Screaming Grunt (Nick Reczynski):

(science fiction) The arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of a planet.


carplane

Outside Bedrock headed for a carplane stop in a meditative mood.

1951, Alfred Elton Van Vogt, The weapon shops of Isher:

Unlike some other fictional portrayals of future family life — which simply place traditional family structures in a high-tech futuristic setting of carplanes, fully automated appliances, interplanetary civilizations, and robot servants […]

2002, David M. Newman, Elizabeth Grauerholz, Sociology of families:

The sides of the carplane will open by moving slowly down under the floor of the car. There won't be any maps and we'll never get lost because carplanes will always know where to go.

2009, Caroline Nixon, Michael Tomlinson, Kid's Box 6 Pupil's Book, Volume 6:

(science fiction) A vehicle that can drive on land like a car or fly like an aeroplane.


sidebox

(typography) A box placed alongside the main text in a book, etc. containing further related text.


telescreen

From tele- + screen, from television. Popularized by George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), in which they are used for government surveillance of citizens.

Too many millions of people, watching their telescreens, had seen his unpardonable arrogance.

1973, Robert Theobald, Stephanie Mills, The failure of success: ecological values vs. economic myths:

She pushed buttons at a new, small oval kind of telescreen, quickly gathering together the high-level authorizations it had taken hours of preparation to collect.

2002, Teresa Plowright, Dreams of an Unseen Planet:

(science fiction) A screen for broadcasting television or similar media.


bodynet

From body + net, in the sense of network.

Think of yourself on some evening in the not-so-distant future, when wearable, fitted, and implanted electronic organs connected by bodynets are as commonplace as cotton […]

1996, William J. Mitchell, City of bits: space, place, and the infobahn:

A cathedral of light, if you will, of prefabricated carbon-fiber and lightweight synthetic thermal resins; equipped with stereo-immersive walls and motion sensors that respond via a bodynet to my ever shifting loci of desires and needs […]

1998, John Beckmann, The virtual dimension: architecture, representation, and crash culture:

With this technology, in the near future, people can participate in parties without leaving the house, needing only to dress in a bodynet (clothe^([sic]) with sensors).

2008, Julio Francisco Dantas de Rezende, Transpersonal Management: lessons from the Matrix trilogy:

(science fiction) An array of technology attached to the body.


expositionary

en-adj

expositionary (comparative more expositionary, superlative most expositionary)

more expositionary (comparative)
most expositionary (superlative)


cavorite

From Cavor + -ite. Coined by British science fiction author H. G. Wells in 1901 in The First Men in the Moon. It was named after the fictional Dr. Cavor. The initial use was capitalized, but later authors borrowing the concept sometimes changed it to lowercase.
In the first use, the metal acted as a gravity shield; after the metal was cooled, objects contained within it were no longer subject to gravity. Some later uses, e.g., Alan Moore's, imagine the substance to simply have a negative gravitational mass.

coinage

“It seems to me it wouldn't cost much to cart any weight anywhere if you packed it in a Cavorite case.”

1901, H. G. Wells, The First Men in the Moon, Chapter 3:

“In the early years, they were the most primitive structures ever to fly in space, cheap and overbuilt and overcrewed, hoisted on cavorite wings.”

1999, Vernor Vinge, A Deepness in the Sky, reprinted by Macmillan, published 2000, →ISBN, page 760:

(science fiction) A hypothetical substance with anti-gravity effects.


vacat

Unadapted borrowing from Latin vacat (“it is empty”).

ubor

(palaeography) Indicates a willingly empty portion of an inscription.


brevier

Probably from Old French or Anglo-Norman *brevier, from Latin breviārium (“breviary”), presumably from its use in printing them, hence a doublet of breviary and brimborion. Most breviaries were not, however, printed with such small type, leading some to conjecture that it instead derived from cognates of brief and has a meaning similar to French petit and German Petit.

(typography, printing, dated) The size of type between minion and bourgeois, standardized as 8-point.


white knight

white knights (plural)
white-knight (alternative)
whiteknight (alternative)

(fiction) A hero, savior, or righteous individual.


chronoclasm

From Ancient Greek χρόνος (khrónos, “time”), and κλάστης (klástēs, “a person who breaks something”); from κλάω (kláō, “break”).

(science fiction) An interference with the course of history caused by time travel.


antepenultima

From Latin antepaenultima, antepenultima (“antepenultimate”); feminine gender, agreeing with syllaba (“syllable”)).

(poetry) The last syllable of a word except two


medscanner

He knelt beside Crusher and watched, briefly useless, as she passed her medscanner over the body. Except that it wasn't a body.

1997, Diane Duane, Intellivore, page 102:

Deep wounds in his chest were seeping blood, and the medscanner Tacitus had pressed against his neck showed his vital signs on the wane.

(science fiction, chiefly Star Trek) A portable device capable of scanning a patient to diagnose sickness or injury.


anti-story

anti-stories (plural)
antistory (alternative)

(literature) A work of fiction in which the author breaks in some way the conventional rules of storytelling, usually with some feature (for example, a lack of plot or characters, unusual punctuation, odd subject or presentation, etc.) that strongly challenges the reader's expectations.


scriptor

From Latin scrīptor, to avoid the etymological link between author and authority.

Although this literary exercise has been used to question the validity of Drew's book, the little biographies he offered acquire a worthy literary dimension if read using Foucault's critique to the Barthesian scriptor.

2021, Vicent Cucarella Ramon, Benjamin Drew: The Refugee. Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada, page 44:

(literature) A writer, regarded as producing a work but not as providing its explanation (which is instead determined by the reader), according to the theories of Roland Barthes.


jump drive

(USB flash drive): A trademark name of flash drives owned by Lexar.

(science fiction) A means of travelling faster than light by jumping from one point to another in space.


hyperjump

(science fiction) A jump that transports some physical object immediately from one place to another, as by a hyperdrive or jump drive.


starfaring

From star + faring, modelled on seafaring.

star-faring (alternative)
star faring (alternative)

The Migrant Fleet is the largest concentration of starfaring vessels in the galaxy, sprawling across millions of kilometers. It can take days for the entire fleet to pass through a mass relay.

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

(science fiction) Travelling among the stars.


readback

Deverbal from read back, as in read that back to me, please.

OK, now let's do a readback before you send this off.

The judge ordered a readback of a portion of the testimony.

(dictation, stenography) The reading aloud by a transcriptionist, court reporter, or stenographer of draft correspondence or of testimony previously taken down in dictation, usually at the request of the presiding judge or parties involved in a deposition (courtroom contexts) or of the manager dictating the correspondence (business contexts).


Chekhov's gun

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

cal

Чеховское ружьё

It seems like a violation of Chekhov’s gun rule to put Naomi Campbell in the first act and not have her throw a phone at someone in the third. (She tore up a check instead.)

2015 March 19, Alessandra Stanley, “'Empire' Finale Review: A Sizzling End to Season One”, in New York Times:

An on-screen pill bottle works like Chekhov’s gun: Eventually, its contents will be fired at an actor’s mouth, or smashed between his lips, or hurled into his gullet.

2023 May 1, Daniel Engber, “No One in Movies Knows How to Swallow a Pill”, in The Atlantic:

(literature) A dramatic principle that states that every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed.


(software, publishing, typography) Abbreviation of PostScript Level 1.


(software, publishing, typography) PostScript level 3


Undine

From German Undine (“undine”), first used as a given name in the novel Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué and in 19th-century operas based on the book.

The child, on the contrary, would by no means listen to this, declaring she had been called Undine by her parents, and Undine she would still be called. Now this seemed to me a Pagan name, which stood in no calendar, and therefore I took counsel of a priest in the city.

1818 Translation by George Soane of Undine (1811) by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, W.Simpkin and R. Marshall, pages 24-25

(rare outside fiction) A female given name from Latin.


maqaf

Transliteration of Hebrew מַקָּף (maqaf).

The maqaf is available only in some Hebrew keyboard layouts.

(Hebrew typography) The Hebrew script hyphen (־)


anceps

Borrowed from Latin anceps (literally “double-headed”).

bor

(poetry, Greek and Latin meter) A syllable that can be either short or long.


blort

en-noun

blort (countable and uncountable, plural blorts)

Onomatopoetic; in sense 1, also blend of blow + snort.

(ABDL, chiefly art and comics, uncommon) Indicates the sound of defecation, especially into a diaper.


counterproof

(printing) The inverted image of an original proof.


molecular assembler

molecular assembler (plural molecular assemblers)

(science fiction) A device that, given an object and sufficient atoms of the required elements, would reproduce exact copies.


rebis

From Latin rēs (“matter”) + Latin bīna (“double”).

af

While the rebis is the final form of alchemical variability, the larger process of alchemy looked to mercury as both the agent and patient of transformative possibilities.

2023, Micah James Goodrich, “Trans Animacies and Premodern Alchemies”, in Medieval Mobilities: Gendered Bodies, Spaces, and Movements, page 214:

(alchemy, fiction) The end product of the alchemical magnum opus, a reunion of opposing qualities such as spirit and matter or male and female, represented by an androgynous being.


superkick

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

Thirty minutes later this superkick landed me, when I came crashing back to earth, at the door of the Egyptian tomb.

1920, The Saturday Evening Post, Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society, page 129:

"Mere you-tickle-me-I-tickle you stuff. No Urge^([sic]) about that sort of thing; no Superkick;—well Starfire, if you know what I mean!"— she said it shyly, being young enough and Anglo-Saxon enough, to dread the language.

1933, Eleanor Mercein Kelly, Arabesque, Harper & Brothers, page 231:

Lori Couto's SUPERKICK?

1980, Berkley Middle School Yearbook, Berkley Public Library, page 29:

At the end of the season, in December, they have a competitive and hilarious “superkick,’ a contest measuring accuracy, distance, and style (“style meaning how mongrelly your kicks are”), but that’s generally the extent of formal ceremony, a fact Kelly savors.

2004, Brian Doyle, Spirited Men: Story, Soul & Substance, Cowley Publications, →ISBN, page 127:

(martial arts, video games, fantasy, science fiction, rare) An extremely strong kick, performed with proficiency, which differs from the common wrestling variation.


reset button

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

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

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

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

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


genre fiction

en-noun

genre fiction (usually uncountable, plural genre fictions)

Genre fiction encourages a focus on one aspect at the expense of others. This can produce an obsessive, powerful work. But a literary novel has, somewhere, to open out into the universal.

2014 April 22, Anita Mason, “Genre fiction radiates from a literary centre”, in The Guardian:

(authorship) Fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre (such as mystery, romance, or horror) with an existing audience.


Pikachu

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

(video games, anime, manga) A small yellow rodent-like Pokémon species that has red cheeks and a tail shaped like a lightning bolt, and has electricity-related powers.


unhatted

However, the translation of Razor programs is such that matching hatted and unhatted action particles can only be found on different sides of a parallel composition operator […]

2001, Eike Best, Raymond Devillers, Maciej Koutny, Petri net algebra, page 339:

(typography) Written without a circumflex ('^').


vrykolakas

Borrowed from Greek βρυκόλακας (vrykólakas).

(folklore) In Greek folklore, a harmful undead creature that eats flesh, somewhat like a vampire or zombie.


bioneer

Blend of biological + pioneer or biological + engineer, possibly coined by Kenny Ausubel.

Beneath the coat, a metal frame of gears and levers and wheels: living bone, tendon, sinew holding it together. A bioneer’s wet dream.

2002, Trent Jamieson, Garry Nurrish, Redsine, 7, →ISBN, page 13:

(chiefly science fiction) A biological engineer, an engineer of creatures, especially partially artificial/mechanical ones.


bioneer

en-verb

bioneer (third-person singular simple present bioneers, present participle bioneering, simple past and past participle bioneered)

bioneers (present singular third-person)
bioneering (participle present)
bioneered (participle past)
bioneered (past)

Lost beneath her abundant flesh was a vestigial skeleton which floated disconnected and unmoving in a gelatinous sea. Her bioneered organs were swollen to immense proportions and hundreds of liters of blood pumped through her extensive circulatory system.

1975, Thomas F. Monteleone, edited by Roger Elwood, Dystopian visions, page 3:

Devon scowled. "This is clever bioneering. A muttie that dies before it lives."

2002, Trent Jamieson, Garry Nurrish, Redsine, 7, →ISBN, page 11:

[…] an open space that would not have been possible a millennium earlier, before the development of sophisticated bioneering.

2002, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., The Octagonal Raven, →ISBN, page 90:

The cows were bioneered
so urbs could have fresh milk, laced
with graces — vitamins and serums conveyed in compact, pet-like packages. Even their shit is boutiqued. It falls in uniform pellets and smells like Zen.

2007, Peter Jay Shippy, How to build the ghost in your attic: a book-length poem, page 21:

(chiefly science fiction) To engineer biologically.


Callistan

(science fiction) An inhabitant of Callisto.


Gaian

(chiefly science fiction) An inhabitant of Earth.


tsundere

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

Borrowed from Japanese ツンデレ (tsundere), from つんつん (tsun-tsun, “in a cross, aloof, or standoffish manner”, adverb) + でれでれ (dere-dere, “in a lovey-dovey, infatuated, or lovestruck manner”, adverb).

I usually draw very peaceful, happy manga, so it has been a real challenge for me to illustrate the vice president's death glare and Ri-chan's subtle tsundere attitude.

2008, Kio Shimoku, Kujibiki Unbalance 1, Del Rey/Ballantine Books, →ISBN, unnumbered page:

Even Kaname's rude and overbearing tsundere personality is explained by her having gone to school in the United States where she was socialized to just bluntly say what she thought.

2010 August 14, David Johnston, “Full Metal Panic: One Night Stand”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

Despite his apparent power, the boy behaves with uncharacteristic meekness toward the formidable tsundere Misato Tachibana, whose grotesquely distorted romantic feelings for Koujirou almost invariably result in her shooting him all over the school with heavy weaponry (which seems to spring out of nowhere).

2012, Dani Cavallaro, Kyoto Animation: A Critical Study and Filmography, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 157:

(chiefly Japanese fiction) A fictional character who fits the archetype of being cold or even hostile towards another person before gradually showing a warm and caring side.

تْسُونْدِرِي

character who fits the archetype of being cold or hostile before gradually showing a warm and caring side


broken rhyme

The lofty passes of the mountain he has left to the more skilful climber, and hath contented himself with wandering round its base, picking up the blossoms that were scattered at his feet; or with endeavouring to portray some rustic pictures in broken rhyme.

1874, John King, Rustic Pictures and Broken Rhymes:

(poetry) The splitting of the final word in a line of poetry (onto the next line) such that a rhyme is formed from a syllable other than the last.


put to bed

put to bed (third-person singular simple present puts to bed, present participle putting to bed, simple past and past participle put to bed)

puts to bed (present singular third-person)
putting to bed (participle present)
put to bed (participle past)
put to bed (past)

(transitive, idiomatic, printing) To prepare (a newspaper) for printing.


rule of three

the rule of three (canonical)
the Rule of Three (alternative)

(writing, rhetoric, comedy) A rule which states that things which come in groups of three are inherently funnier or more effective than things which come in groups of other sizes.

(writing, rhetoric, comedy) Specifically, the technique of having a setup in advance, a reminder to keep it fresh in the audience's memory, and then a payoff.


antag

(informal, fiction, writing) Clipping of antagonist.


HAL

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence

(fiction, computing) A homicidal computer, an artificial intelligence that acts similarly to the HAL 9000 featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey.


necrocracy

en-noun

necrocracy (countable and uncountable, plural necrocracies)

From necro- (“dead”) + -cracy (“power, rule”).

confix

(fantasy, science fiction) A government ruled by the undead.


poioumenon

Ancient Greek ποιούμενον (poioúmenon), "product".

The poioumenon has a long prehistory (hardly a tradition), going back through Beckett's trilogy and Carlyle's Sartor Resartus to Sterne's Tristram Shandy; but it is preeminently a postmodernist genre.

1991, Alastair Fowler, A History of English Literature:

(literature) A specific type of metafiction in which the story is about the process of creation (sometimes the creation of the story itself).


Saci

Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese saci, from Old Tupi sa'si.

(folklore) A black, one-legged, prankster youngster in Brazilian folklore, who smokes a pipe and wears a magical red hat that enables him to disappear.


dropship

I'm sending down five more dropships, combat EMVs, and a thopter gunship.

1997 September 7, Dan Simmons, The Rise of Endymion, New York: Bantam, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 363:

IFF confirmed. Contact is Pelican Dropship Kilo 23. Over.

2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: Sierra 117:

(science fiction) A flying transport that drops troops or equipment onto a planet, etc.


pentina

(poetry) A fixed verse form consisting of five stanzas of five lines each, normally followed by a two-line envoi.


suicide booth

(fiction) A booth that contains equipment to kill a user who wants to commit suicide, often automatically.


scrape up

en-verb

scrape up (third-person singular simple present scrapes up, present participle scraping up, simple past and past participle scraped up)

scrapes up (present singular third-person)
scraping up (participle present)
scraped up (participle past)
scraped up (past)

(transitive, printing, obsolete) To clean a roller and slab by removing ink.


handwavium

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

af

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


spec script

(film, literature) A screenplay for a movie that is written on spec and then purchased or sold on the open market, as opposed to one commissioned by a studio or production company.


ur-poem

(literature, poetry) A poem that is believed to be a precursor or prototype to a more modern class of poetry; usually a hypothetical 'mother poem' of a genre.


meido

From Japanese メイド (meido, “maid, maidservant”), from English maid.

uder

I was really struck by how many of the bishoujo cliches it managed to bring up. We already have the older sister, younger sister, childhood friend, and exotic transfer student. We have a genki girl, a ditzy girl, a hime-sama, and a meido.

2006 October 13, Abraham Evangelista, “Re: Crescent Love - dull new anime”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

And then there’s Roberta, who seems like a typical meido (maid) character until she pulls out machine guns from her lacy uniform!

2008 October 12, Kitty Sensei, “Playing pirate”, in Malaysia Star:

Although this is a manga about maids, don’t expect to see the submissive and fawning maids of the meido category. The protagonist here is a faithful, skilled and courteous maid from the old English society.

2008, Memedi, "Loyal helper", Malaysia Star, 9 November 2008

(chiefly Japanese fiction) A female fictional character who is employed as a maid, typically wearing a stylized French maid outfit.


merism

en-noun

merism (countable and uncountable, plural merisms)

From Ancient Greek μερισμός (merismós). Compare μέρος (méros, “part”).

(literature, rhetoric) A reference to something by its polar extremes, as in "we searched high and low".

(literature, rhetoric) A reference to something by a list of its parts.


pompet

(historical, printing) A ball used for inking the type.


killbot

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

(especially science fiction) A robot designed to kill; a robotic assassin.


reordrant

/ɹiːˈɔɹdɹənt/

From reorder + -ant. By analogy with reentrant.

(computing, typography) Of a character (usually a vowel in Indic scripts): input after another character, but intended to display before it when text is rendered.


closed time loop

closed time loop (plural closed time loops)

(science fiction) A chain of events in which someone or something time travels to the past as a means to fulfill their role in the history exactly as it already happened, thus implying impossibility to change the past.


autoinfanticide

For consider the most lurid implication of Gödel's idea – autoinfanticide.

2015, Roger Highfield, Peter Coveney, The Arrow of Time:

The inventor of a time machine about to commit autoinfanticide in the past

2016, Paul J. Nahin, Time Machine Tales, page 212:

(science fiction) The act of traveling back in time to the past and killing oneself as a baby.


needle gun

en:weapon that fires needles or needlelike darts

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


impervium

(science fiction) An impervious substance.


cybersuit

The notion of a second skin may still be more seductive in the imagining than the reality, but on the utopian side of the Blade Runner there is the prospect of cybersuits, made possible by petrochemical fabrics.

1999, Herbert Blau, Nothing in itself: complexions of fashion, page 268:

Just as these suits make cybersex possible, they let the physician poke and feel, using cybergloves on one end and the patient's cybersuit responding on the other.

2002, Douglas Mulhall, Our molecular future:

He was looking at a small flexible screen wrapped halfway around his forearm, meshed into the fabric of his cybersuit.

2010, Sam Fisher, E-FORCE: State of Emergency, page 61:

(science fiction) A hypothetical suit of clothing that augments the wearer's capabilities by means of computer technology.


hypersleep

suspended animation
suspended animation#English

(science fiction) A form of suspended animation in which the body's functions are not merely slowed down but halted entirely.


antispinward

en-adv

antispinward (comparative more antispinward, superlative most antispinward)

more antispinward (comparative)
most antispinward (superlative)

To antispinward was the largest mountain men had ever seen.

1970 October, Larry Niven, Ringworld, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 152:

My fathers and mothers tell that we have been moving to antispinward since they were little. They remember that they had to go around a great sea, but they did not come too close, because the beasts would not eat the plants that grow around the shore.

1978, Galileo: Magazine of Science & Fiction, Boston, Mass.: Avenue Victor Hugo Publishers, page 77:

Laura imagined that he would expect them to flee along the beams, and she watched his narrow face searching the impenetrable shadows antispinward of where they hid.

1985, Nancy Kress, Trinity and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: Bluejay Books, →ISBN, page 214:

Edna's language was peppered with the unfamiliar. You found your way around a spinning space habitat by going spinward or antispinward or axisward ...

2007, Arthur C. Clarke with Stephen Baxter, Firstborn [A Time Odyssey; 3], New York, N.Y.: Del Rey Books; Ballantine Books, →ISBN:

antispinward adv. in or toward the opposite direction that something (a space station, galaxy, etc.) is rotating.

2007, Jeff Prucher, editor, Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 9:

"[…] You would fall against the anti-spinward wall and slide down along that wall until you hit the floor ..." / "Whoa, whoa, whoa ..." Lars interrupted. "Anti-spinward? What in the world?" / "Moving in the same direction as the Station's direction of spin is considered spinward. Moving in the direction opposite the spin is considered anti-spinward. You sound like a boy asking what one does with his hands when the rollercoaster car leaves the track."

2015, Steven Burgauer, Skullcap, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN:

(often science fiction) In a rotating reference frame, against the direction of spin.


choric

(poetry) Intended to be sung by a choir or chorus (e.g. a hymn)


mittel

(printing, German contexts, dated) Synonym of English.


CMY

(printing) Initialism of cyan, magenta, yellow.


semisyllable

(orthography) A glyph from a semisyllabary.


yokai

From Japanese 妖怪 (yōkai, “ghost, phantom”).

(folklore, Japanese mythology) Any of various supernatural monsters, sometimes shapeshifters, in Japanese folklore.


Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu

the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu (canonical)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


fabulism

en-noun

fabulism (usually uncountable, plural fabulisms)

(literature) A literary form in which fantastical elements are placed into an everyday setting.


farspeaker

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From farspeak + -er (agent noun). Compare German Fernsprecher (“telephone”).

"I wish I wasn't so messed up; I wish I was bigger and stronger. Or a Farspeaker like Kyril,” she replied in a very small voice. “You can't help what happened. As for being a Farspeaker, I don't think both of us together could reach someone with the Gift to hear us, and if we could, I don't know that it would do any good," he sighed.

(science fiction, fantasy) One who farspeaks.

Ecgbert picked up the farspeaker eagerly. "Frideswide darling! I have been wating to hear from you all the morning.[…]"

1948, New Statesman: the week-end review:

"Let's find out whether I do or not," said Yull imperturbably, and activated the farspeaker to maximum volume. At one a voice rang out, impersonal, repetitive: the sound of a recordimal.

1984, John Brunner, The Crucible of Time:

“Sir, we found him in the farspeaker room,” said one of the guards. “He was tampering with the equipment."

2009, Nick Gevers, Jay Lake, Other Earths:

She held it out toward him. It was the size of a chicken egg, only broken in half. The other half of the crystal—carried by another—would vibrate in tune with its twin, allowing communication, like a walkie-talkie. “A farspeaker! Pindor gasped out. "Why didn't you tell us you had one!" "I did. Back when I first ran into you all," she reminded them. "I had been calling Papa on my farspeaker when I was snatched here."

2011, James Rollins, Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx:

(science fiction) A device or apparatus used to farspeak or communicate over long distances.


hovercam

Like almost everyone else in her world, Aya records everything she does with the help of a semi-sentient hovercam (a sort of floating soccer ball that's a cross between R2D2 and Weegee), using the resulting footage to boost her face rank.

2007 November 11, James Hynes, “Looks Aren't Everything”, in New York Times:

(science fiction) A mobile hovering camera.


superhero insurance

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(fiction, humorous) A supposed form of insurance held by superheroes, who often cause excessive damage to property without having to deal with payments or lawsuits.


explodium

(chiefly fiction) Any material that explodes extremely easily.


kyrielle

"I said 'pantoum,' sir—besides which, gentlemen, we have the triolet, the kyrielle, the virelai, the vilanelle——"

1918, Jeffery Farnol, Our Admirable Betty:

(poetry) A form of French verse written in rhyming couplets or quatrains, sometimes with a religious theme.

kyrielle

A form of poetic verse written in rhyming couplets or quatrains


spirit duplicator

spirit duplicator (plural spirit duplicators)

The advantage of using old-fashioned spirit duplicators and mimeograph machines is in the cost per page, which is typically less than a penny, as against 2 or 3 cents per copy from a laser printer.

1992 August 2, Peter H. Lewis, “Low-Tech Renewal”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(historical, printing) An early document copier using alcohol-based solvents.


incut

incut notes

(printing) Inserted in a reserved space of the text instead of in the main margin.


incut

(printing) A note inserted in a reserved space of the text instead of in the main margin.


hoverjet

(science fiction) A kind of levitating aeroplane or spacecraft.


hoverbike

(science fiction) A motorbike capable of levitation.


watchphone

Elaborate Swiss watchphones peeked from their sleeves.

1989, Bruce Sterling, Islands in the net:

Products will run the gamut from digital assistants to Dick Tracy-style wireless watchphones.

1996, Michael Moynihan, The coming American renaissance:

The watchphone would have a detachable microphone and earpiece.

1997, Popular Science, volume 250, number 6, page 64:

Damien's watchphone beeps, and from it Heavitree's voice emerges:

2002, Don Sakers, Dance for the Ivory Madonna: a romance of psiberspace, page 16:

(chiefly science fiction) A watch with telephone capabilities.


hovercycle

(science fiction) A bicycle capable of levitation.


wyakin

(folklore) In Native American folklore, a personal guardian spirit in the form of an animal or bird.


Aristophanic

en-adj

Aristophanic (comparative more Aristophanic, superlative most Aristophanic)

more Aristophanic (comparative)
most Aristophanic (superlative)

In sculpture and in the drama, in Aristophanic farce and in hieratic rituals, in pictorial art and in the stream of literature, the phallus is transcendent.

1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page iii:


lobsterwoman

lobsterwomen (plural)
lobster-woman (alternative)
lobster woman (alternative)

From lobster + -woman, modelled after lobsterman.

Pat's looks like a washerwoman, and mine, which I like the best, is a lobsterwoman with a lobsterbaby on her lap.

1996, Joan MacCracken, The Sun, the Rain, and the Insulin: Growing Up with Diabetes, page 210:

'You can't be Pamela Macx,' says Pierre, his back to the wall, keeping the sword point before the lobsterwoman-thing.

They ranged from the display of tattooed women as exotic pictures—like Salome/ "the famous Oriental beauty tattooed in seven colors," seen at Luna Park in 1912 (ATP, Fonds Soury, vol. 19, 149 top and bottom), a deeply erotic, nonnormative performance—to the virile displays of the female animal tamer's courage, to the gender inappropriate but familiar woman wrestler, and to the “monsters” such as mule women or lobster women.

2010, W. Spurlin, J. Hayes, Margaret R. Higonnet, Comparatively Queer:

The low-budget 1964 horror movie Vengeance of the Lobsterwoman provided Meryl Streep with her first starring role, opposite Roger Moore who played the Lobsterwoman.

2013, Graeme Garden, Jon Naismith, The Unbelievable Truth, page 185:

(fiction) A female alien or monster that appears like a hybrid of a human and a lobster.


Columbian

en-noun

Columbian (countable and uncountable, plural Columbians)

(uncountable, US printing, dated) A size of type between English and great primer, standardized as 16-point.


orgasmatron

/ɔːˈɡæz.məˌtɹɒn/

/oɹˈɡæz.məˌtɹɑn/

From orgasm + -tron, introduced in the film Sleeper (1973).

We do not know of any real-life orgasmatrons, even vibrators.

2002, Steve Bodansky, Vera Bodansky, The Illustrated Guide to Extended Massive Orgasm, page 225:

Among the eras have been Louis Quatorze (1967), Space Odyssey Moderne (2001) and perpetual futuristic spins on picture-palace Deco, including last year’s show, hosted by Jon Stewart, in which towering Oscars were encased in see-through capsules, resembling the orgasmatron in Woody Allen’s 1973 film “Sleeper.”

2009 February 15, Patricia Leigh Brown, “The Little Gold Man in a New Blue World”, in New York Times:

(science fiction) A hypothetical device capable of inducing orgasm.


runover

(printing) A line of text that overruns the available space.


telepaper

But, as the anchorwoman assures us at the end, with a two-hour download time (at $5 an hour), “the new telepaper won’t be much competition for the 20-cent street edition.”

2009 May 10, Frank Rich, “The American Press on Suicide Watch”, in New York Times:

(rare, chiefly science fiction) A newspaper that can be downloaded in an electronic format.


antivampire

en-adj

antivampire (comparative more antivampire, superlative most antivampire)

more antivampire (comparative)
most antivampire (superlative)

This is a revealing passage, for van Helsing is the stern realist, the guiding hand directing the antivampire confederacy.

1996, Howard L. Malchow, Gothic images of race in nineteenth-century Britain, page 146:

The Oscar, Time, and Murrow formed a magical antivampire crucifix that would do more than protect Mr. S from the bloodsuckers of Hollywood; this figurative talisman would also convert the naysayers into idolators.

2003, George Jacobs, William Stadiem, Mr. S: my life with Frank Sinatra, page 137:

(folklore, fantasy) Opposing or countering vampires.


weredog

Weredogs dread the same things which vampires, viscera suckers, and witches fear. But weredogs and witches are especially afraid of the sting ray's tail.

1968, California Folklore Society, Western folklore: Volumes 27-28:

(fiction) A shapeshifter who can change between dog and human form.


werelion

She dies before Anita can explain that it's unnecessary; but in a scuffle, one of the werelions is mortally wounded, and Anita uses his death to call up her power.

2011, Candace R. Benefiel, Reading Laurell K. Hamilton, page 60:

(fiction) A shapeshifter who can change between lion and human form.

lion-garou

shapeshifter assuming the shape of a lion


inkball

inkballs (plural)
ink-ball (alternative)
ink ball (alternative)

[…]consider that this perfect work was done on a wooden press, that the form was inked by hand with inkballs or "daubers,"[…]

1977, Maurice Annenberg, A Typographic journey through the Inland printer, 1883-1900:

He turns to the inkstone and picks up by the handles the two inkballs, rolling the leather facings together to freshen the ink. […] As the pressman returns the inkballs to the inkstone, the journeyman closes the frisket and tympan.

2000, Richard L. Saunders, Printing in Deseret:

(historical, printing) A leather-covered dauber, stuffed with soft, resilient wadding, with a wooden handle, used to ink type forms for printing. A predecessor of brayers and self-inking presses.


planetside

For Kincaid, that planet represented the chance to finally take part in a planetside assault out of the Marine legends on which he'd been weaned—a chance this mass butchery misnamed a war had offered in all too short supply.

2002, David Weber, Steve White, The Shiva option:


planetside

EOS (HNS) - Dead Coming Home
The remains of colonists who died in the first attempts to settle Eos are coming home. Remains from Sites 1 and 2 have finally been recovered, giving closure to numerous families aboard the Nexus. There are now calls for an inquiry into why the bodies were left planetside after two failed attempts to establish outposts.

2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-11-12, PC, scene: Nexus:


keyplate

(printing) The plate that prints the detail in an image.


antipoetry

(poetry) A literary movement that attempts to break away from the normal conventions of poetry.

antirunous

poetry that breaks away from normal conventions


stardate

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

Captain's log, stardate 3087.6. While investigating an uncharted planet, the Enterprise and at least this entire quadrant of space, has been subjected to violent, unexplained stress and force.

1967, Star Trek, The Alternative Factor, season 1, episode 27, spoken by William Shatner:

And to avoid any quantum entanglement, make sure that if you visit the show before it closes on the stardate equivalent to Sept. 20, your transporter is in working order.

2009 May 30, Edward Rothstein, “The U.S.S. Enterprise, in Strange New World of Museum”, in New York Times:

(science fiction) A date according to the fictional system of time measurement developed for Star Trek.


cryosleep

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

“Constantly shifting positions and priorities. Outright deception. And behind it all, the possibility we'll be hit again by this Scourge. Despite all that, their solution is for us to return to cryo. Just take a little nap and all our problems will go away.”[…]
What had Calix and his team become? This was no simple protest. His speech had implied as much. To resist the order to return to cryo-sleep, by definition it made these people a resistance.

2017 March, Jason M. Hough, K. C. Alexander, Mass Effect Andromeda: Nexus Uprising, 1st edition (Science Fiction), Titan Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 369–370:

(science fiction) A deep sleep during which the body is stored at very cold temperature, to preserve it; cryogenic sleep.


heroicomical

heroicomical (comparative more heroicomical, superlative most heroicomical)

more heroicomical (comparative)
most heroicomical (superlative)
heroicomic (alternative)

a heroicomical poem

(literature) Blending heroic and comical elements.


closed form

en-noun

closed form (countable and uncountable, plural closed forms)

(poetry) A type of poetry with regular structure, such as meter or a rhyming pattern.


backward slash

backward slash (plural backward slashes)


Gogolesque

en-adj

Gogolesque (comparative more Gogolesque, superlative most Gogolesque)

more Gogolesque (comparative)
most Gogolesque (superlative)

(literature) Reminiscent of the works of Nikolai Gogol.


antibacchius

(poetry) A rare metrical foot consisting of two accented syllables followed by one unaccented syllable.


skycycle

“The blasters and lasers on the skycycles are fully charged and set on the highest level of power,” answered Tiffany in her high voice.

2005, Matthew T Bird, The Scumball Saga, page 126:

Ethics does not compel you to make it a family heirloom, passing it down from generation to generation, into the distant future, when the cool kids are riding those antigravity skycycles.

2009 July 12, Randy Cohen, “Co-Worker Concerns”, in New York Times:

(science fiction) A bicycle capable of levitation.


alienlike

alienlike (comparative more alienlike, superlative most alienlike)

more alienlike (comparative)
most alienlike (superlative)

On the screen there was this creepy image: a giant head, mouth agape, with clawing hands reaching out of it, alienlike, toward the figure of a girl.

2009 July 14, Melena Ryzik, “Curtain Down, Light the Lights!”, in New York Times:

(science fiction) Resembling or characteristic of an alien.


slush pile

(publishing) The set of unsolicited manuscripts sent to a publisher.


trade paperback

en-noun

trade paperback (plural trade paperbacks)

(publishing) A softcover edition of a previously hardcover book, usually produced with the exact same text as the hardcover.

(publishing) A paperback book that is in one of the standard sizes for small paperbacks, generally for genre fiction.


lay on

en-verb

lay on (third-person singular simple present lays on, present participle laying on, simple past and past participle laid on)

lays on (present singular third-person)
laying on (participle present)
laid on (participle past)
laid on (past)

(obsolete, printing) To feed sheets in for printing one by one.


red-letter edition

en-noun

red-letter edition (plural red-letter editions)

(Christianity, publishing) Any of various editions of the Bible in which the words of Christ are printed in red.


ahegao

ahegao (countable and uncountable, plural ahegao or ahegaos)

From Japanese アヘ顔(がお) (ahegao), from アヘアヘ (aheahe, “panting”) + 顔(かお) (kao, “face”).

"The ahegao you draw is the best ever, ■■-sensei!."

2017, Takashi Kajii, My Little Sister Can Read Kanji: Volume 3, unnumbered page:

During the set of intercourse at the end of the story, Sherlock is also drawn featuring ahegao expressions, frequently used in hentai or pornographic works.

2017, Carolina Lindström, The power of characterization […] , thesis submitted to Stockholm University, page 26:

Without anime I would never have been introduced to such thought provoking concepts as ahegao or 15 year old girls with boobs the size of basketballs.

2019 March 6, “Personals”, in The Medium, Rutgers University, page A6:

Princess Berpl, an adult performer and cosplay artist, says that many of Delphine’s self-branding tactics, such as using the ahegao face in videos or appealing to the gaming community, originated in the sex work community.

2019 July 11, Ej Dickson, “Is Belle Delphine, a.k.a. Bathwater Gamer Girl, the Greatest Troll On the Internet?”, in Rolling Stone:

In addition to standard cosplay and PG-13, NSFW pictures, she also became known for her ahegao — facial expressions meant to mimic the orgasms of hentai characters.

2019 October 8, Madeleine Aggeler, “Who Is Belle Delphine, the Gamer Girl Selling Her Bathwater?”, in New York:

I sauntered out of the bathroom and over to Joel, standing in front of him. I mentally counted to ten before he looked up to see the Ahegao^([sic]) expression I'd practiced. I stuck my tongue out, rolling it to the side while crossing my eyes and moaning.

2020, Kat Addams, Just Between Us, →ISBN:

I knew she she didn't look at anything of mine online except my Instagram, which used to be 100 percent clothed ahegao with me wearing the pink wigs and the fake face tats and the kitten ears, but was getting a little more risky.

2024, Rafael Frumkin, “Like and Subscribe”, in Bugsy & Other Stories, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 127:

(Japanese fiction) An exaggerated facial expression consisting of flushed cheeks, rolled-back eyes, and the tongue hanging out, intended to depict a person having an orgasm.


linespace

linespace (usually uncountable, plural linespaces)

(typography) The gap between successive lines of text.


unbold

en-verb

unbold (third-person singular simple present unbolds, present participle unbolding, simple past and past participle unbolded)

unbolds (present singular third-person)
unbolding (participle present)
unbolded (participle past)
unbolded (past)

From Middle English unbolde, unbald, from Old English unbeald (“unbold, unconfident, irresolute”), from Proto-Germanic *unbalþaz (“unbold”), equivalent to un- + bold. Cognate with Old High German unbald (“discouraged”).

inh

(typography, transitive) To change (text) from a bold typeface to a non-bolded typeface.


unbold

en-adj

unbold (comparative more unbold, superlative most unbold)

more unbold (comparative)
most unbold (superlative)


dochmiac

From Ancient Greek δοχμιακός (dokhmiakós, “dochmiac”), from δόχμιος (dókhmios) (see dochmius).

bor

(poetry) Pertaining to, or containing, the dochmius.


heptastich

(poetry) A seven-lined or seven-versed poem.


jetter

/ˈd͡ʒɛtə(ɹ)/

The jetter was upon us and it was a piston-powered engine.

1956, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services, Aircraft Production Costs and Profits, page 1823:

Five hundred and forty-two men moved by jetter to Colorado Springs;thence, by helicopter, to the canyon hideaway.

1958 October, Robert Bloch, “This Crowded Earth”, in Amazing Science Fiction Stories:

Kiron maneuvered the jetter around obstacles, and glided into the open ocean.

Miles' and MERC's attempts to remove a crate of fireworks from their star-jetter sends it hurtling into space, requiring the team to pursue it in the jetter with Grandmother Po Po piloting.

2019, William D. Crump, Happy Holidays--Animated!, page 177:

(often science fiction) A vehicle or engine that works by jet propulsion.


shipside

(science fiction) On a spaceship, rather than on a planet etc.


moonling

From moon + -ling. Compare moon-related origins of lunacy and lunatic.

A shy moonling hangs on the suit of an astronaut and is taken back to earth.

1981, Ruth Beall Heinig, Lyda Stillwell, Creative Drama for the Classroom Teacher, page 248:

For a given walking speed, will an earthling astronaut or a moonling do less, equal, or more work when taking a stroll on the Moon, and by what factor?

2010, Michael M. Domach, Introduction to Biomedical Engineering, page 204:

This, together with the 'balloon manufactured entirely of dirty newspaper' in which the dwarf/moonling descends at the tale's opening, points to some self-referential satire on behalf of Poe, a newspaperman himself.

2016, Adam Roberts, The History of Science Fiction, page 142:

(science fiction) Someone from the Moon.


backshadowing

en-noun

backshadowing (countable and uncountable, plural backshadowings)

(literature) A literary device in which an author shows how an event that already occurred affects the future.


monorhyme

Until 1629 no other rhyme scheme approaches the importance of monorhyme; in 1655–1729 alternating rhyme numbers over half of the total output, and for two of the next three generations it drops down to about a third.

2013, David Malkiel, Stones Speak - Hebrew Tombstones from Padua, 1529-1862, page 36:

(poetry) A poem or rhyme scheme whose lines all end with the same rhyme.


jetcar

(science fiction) A car capable of travelling at very high speeds.


halieutics

From Latin halieuticus ("halieutic, of or about fishing"), from Ancient Greek ἁλιευτικός (halieutikós) (alieutikós, "of or about fishermen"), from ἁλιεύς (halieús, “fisherman”).

(literature) A treatise upon fish or the art of fishing.


sea king

(mythology or fiction) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: A ruler of the seas, e.g. Poseidon.


perfecting press

perfecting press (plural perfecting presses)

(printing) A press in which the printing on both sides of the paper is completed in one passage through the machine.


novelism

novelism (countable and uncountable, plural novelisms)

(uncountable, literature) The dominance of the novel as a literary form.


epodic

en-adj

epodic (comparative more epodic, superlative most epodic)

more epodic (comparative)
most epodic (superlative)

epodic forms

epodic meter

epodic literature

(poetry) Pertaining to or resembling an epode.


dispondee

Latin dispondeus, from Ancient Greek [Term?].

(poetry) A double spondee; a metrical foot consisting of four long syllables.


aircar

(science fiction) A car capable of flight.


reptiloid

Somewhere in the cosmos, he said, along with all the planets inhabited by humanoids, reptiloids, fishoids, walking treeoids and superintelligent shades of the colour blue, there was also a planet entirely given over to ballpoint life forms.

1979 October 12, Douglas Adams, chapter 15, in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, London: Pan Books, →ISBN:

(science fiction) A reptilian humanoid creature.


ictic

(poetry) of a syllable in verse, carrying the beat.


meteorometer

By gravitometer and meteorometer readings, Curt located the few solid bodies in the cloud

2013, Edmond Hamilton, The Magician of Mars, page .:

(science fiction) A device for locating meteors.


pentastich

(poetry) Any composition consisting of five verses.


Gothamite

(fiction) An inhabitant of the fictional Gotham City, the home of the superhero Batman.


teleshow

(chiefly science fiction) a television show.


ZWNBSP

zero-width non-breaking space
w:zero-width non-breaking space

(computing, typography) Initialism of zero-width non-breaking space.


podder

Brrrtr had even sent Hrrryr, a podder. They had been born in the same pod.

2007, Samuel Blankson, The Kolumbas Affair, page 195:

'It's the essential meat gunk that is supplied to the still-living podders,' she explained.

2010, Robertski Brothers, The McAtrix Derided:

Paul says he started out as a Podder. He tried to do development deals with the Inner and Outer Systems, and he only became a renegade when he was betrayed by both.'

2013, Charles Sheffield, Proteus Unbound:

(science fiction) One who was born in or lives in a pod.


tripedal

From Latin tripedalis, from tri- + pes, pedis (“a foot”).


antistrophic

(poetry) Of or pertaining to an antistrophe.


wallcrawling

(science fiction) Having the ability to crawl upon vertical surfaces.


metallokinesis

(science fiction) The psychic ability to manipulate or control metals


technopathy

In a shocking turn of events, the President's aid, Valerie Cooper, discovers that Reverend Stryker is actually a mutant himself with the power of technopathy – the ability to mentally manipulate machinery.

2012, Nick Spencer, Ultimate Comics X-Men by Nick Spencer Vol. 1, Marvel Entertainment, →ISBN:

Now that he was able to think, he reached out with his technopathy, searching the fishing hut. To his relief, he sensed a battery-operated light inside. He turned it on.

2019, Pittacus Lore, Into the Fire: The Legacy Chronicles, Penguin Books, →ISBN:

(science fiction) A psychic ability to control electronic machinery and/or read electronic signals, especially hardware.


bodyswap

bodyswaps (plural)
body swap (alternative)
body-swap (alternative)

(fiction) The act or event of two people or other thinking creatures exchanging minds (by magic, technology, or other means), so that each one ends up in the physical body of the other.


starman

(science fiction) An alien; a person who comes from another star system.

(science fiction) An inhabitant of a star.


Gothic double

Robert Louis Stevenson's "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" involves a Gothic double.

(literature) An essential duality within a single character, centred on the polarity of good and evil.


astroscope

astroscopes and other high precision optical devices

1952, Moody's Industrials - Volume 24, page 2825:

[…] refractors, catadioptric reflectors, astroscopes as well as binoculars.

1987, Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa, page 24:

I, for one, want to go back to when there were only seven planets! Before the lies of the astroscopes, telling us there are two more in the sky named Neptune and Pluto!

2012, Justin Mazzotta, Corp.Se Commander: Tactics of Corporate Warfare, page 39:

Well, think about it; we can see Rrth from here using astroscopes and the like, but the light we're seeing left Rrth many orbits ago.

They tempted him into this thing, setting out an astroscope on the hills. . .hoping to be the first ones to spot aliens!

2017, Philip Byron Philips, Towers of Royal City, page 46:

In a spacious apartment on the third floor which contained two powerful telescopes, constructed on principles of entirely modern invention, being capable of revealing the distant suns to an extent never before dreamt of, was Mercia surrounded by curious astroscopes, stellar-spectroscopes, and wonderfully constructed cameras, which delineated in an instant the starry heights, the glory of which has been the ambition of astronomers in all ages to fathom.

2023, A. Garland Mears, Mercia, the astronomer royal:

(chiefly science fiction) A telescope powerful enough to see astronomical bodies.


brachycatalectic

(poetry) A verse that is two syllables short for a metre.


homiform

In the homiform frame embruted, to the classes of the grades

1883, George Thomas May, The Ever-living Life:

The droids belonging to the renegade faction were slaves, despite often having superior intellect and physical prowess, “athletic” capabilities (at least this was so with many of the homiform “androids”)

2013, Dean Vyas, Pastimes of the Unseen:

(obsolete, rare or science fiction) In human form.


Long Primer

Initially from primer (“prayer book”) from its use in those volumes in Protestant England. The qualifier was subsequently added to distinguish it from great primer and may derive from early editions published on long duodecimo paper.

(printing, dated) The size of type between bourgeois and small pica, standardized as 10-point.


ditrochee

(poetry) A double trochee; a metrical foot made up of two trochees.


tetracolon

en-noun

tetracolon (plural tetracolons or tetracola)

the two verses would form a beautiful tetracolon, the first line answering to the third, and the second to the fourth

1791, Henry Dimock, Notes Critical and Explanatory:

(poetry) A stanza or division in lyric poetry, consisting of four verses or lines.


agency pricing

(publishing) A pricing system in which a supplier sets the price charged for their product by a reseller, with the reseller contractually positioned as an agent of the supplier rather than as an independent broker between supplier and consumer.


newhalf

newhalfs (plural)
newhalves (plural)
new half (alternative)

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

Calque of Japanese ニューハーフ (nyūhāfu, “new half”). ニューハーフ is wasei eigo, from English.

calque

(anime, manga, slang) A character with a female body but only male genitals.


gravo-acute accent

en-noun

gravo-acute accent (plural not attested)

/ˌɡɹɑːvəʊəˈkjuːt ˈæksənt/

Mr. Walker does triumphantly claim the discovery of the inverted circumflex accent, or the downward and upward continued movement. Yet, if it is correctly inferred from the dates of publication, and from Mr. Walker’s rather derisive allusion to Mr. Steele’s essay, that the latter author preceded him, he might have found, in Mr. Steele’s gravo-acute accent, proof of the real existence of his newly found function of the voice.

1827, James Rush, The Philosophy of the Human Voice, pages ix–x:

( ˘ ) Gravo-acute accent, or gravo-acute circumflex.

1841, Andrew Comstock, “Explanation of the characters used in the exercises in reading and declamation”, in A System of Elocution, page 200:

(phonology and typography, obsolete, rare) A dipping tone, or the diacritic that denotes it, similar in form to the breve (˘) and the háček (ˇ).


inverted circumflex

inverted circumflex (plural inverted circumflexes)

From its earliest attested use as an idiomatic phrase in 1810, inverted circumflex was first used to denote a dipping tone — an inversion of the peaking tone denoted by ⟨῀⟩, the Ancient Greek περισπωμένη (perispōménē), commonly translated as “circumflex” — thence the name was applied to diacritics which marked such a dipping tone and, by extension, other tones to which it was suited; finally, due to such a diacritic’s resemblance to the háček, the name came to be applied to it as well.

This rising inflection will be indicated by an inverted circumflex ( ˇ ) being placed over the last syllable in the clause that bears the primary accent.

1844, An Introduction to the Art of Reading, page 107:

(typography) Any diacritic obtained by rotating a circumflex (ˆ) 180°.


isochronon

A bedside isochronon diffused a soft-light 9:30

1980, Felix C. Gotschalk, “The Wishes of Maidens”, in George R. R. Martin, editor, New Voices III: The Campbell Award Nominees, page 175:

(chiefly science fiction) A clock designed to keep very accurate time.


pentapody

From penta- + -pody, from Ancient Greek πέντε (pénte, “five”) and πούς, ποδός (poús, podós, “foot”).

(poetry) A measure, verse, or series consisting of five feet.


mismeter

en-verb

mismeter (third-person singular simple present mismeters, present participle mismetering, simple past and past participle mismetered)

mismeters (present singular third-person)
mismetering (participle present)
mismetered (participle past)
mismetered (past)
mismetre (alternative)

(transitive, poetry) To give the wrong meter to, as to a line of verse.


Mistralian

en-adj

Mistralian (comparative more Mistralian, superlative most Mistralian)

more Mistralian (comparative)
most Mistralian (superlative)

After Frédéric Mistral; likely calqued from French mistralien or from Mistral + -ian. First used by Joseph Roumanille in 1853.

(literature) Of or pertaining to Frédéric Mistral


word space

(typography, word processing) A regular space between words, as contrasted with other kinds of spaces.


hook above

(typography) A tone mark ( ̉) that indicates falling then rising tone in Vietnamese.


Blochian

Blochian (comparative more Blochian, superlative most Blochian)

more Blochian (comparative)
most Blochian (superlative)

(literature) Of or relating to Robert Bloch (1917-1994), American writer, primarily of crime, horror, and science fiction.


cynanthropy

Coined based on Ancient Greek κύων (kúōn, “dog”) and ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos, “man; human”).

(anthropology, folklore) A shape-shifting ability between human and canine forms.


epitrite

Compare French épitrite, Latin epitritus, Ancient Greek ἐπίτριτος (epítritos).

(poetry, Ancient Greek and Latin prosody) A metrical foot consisting of three long syllables and one short syllable.


commatic

commatic (comparative more commatic, superlative most commatic)

more commatic (comparative)
most commatic (superlative)

Borrowed from Late Latin commaticus, from Ancient Greek κομματικός (kommatikós). See comma.

(poetry) Having short clauses or sentences, often separated with commas


semiped

From Latin semipes, semipedis, from semi- (“half”) + pes, pedis (“a foot”).


smart quotes

(computing, typography) Curly quotes automatically inserted into text as a replacement for the straight quotes typed by the user.


scaleboard

During the time it is working down , the head and winter will require an additional scaleboard now and then , which will be ascertained by observing whether the pull produces an adequate impression

1808, Caleb Stower, The Compositor's and Pressman's Guide to the Art of Printing:

(obsolete, printing) A thin slip of wood used to justify a page.


tiercet

(poetry) A triplet; three lines, or three lines rhyming together.


teleportal

(science fiction) A teleporter; a device for instantaneous travel.


Ariostan

Ariostan (comparative more Ariostan, superlative most Ariostan)

more Ariostan (comparative)
most Ariostan (superlative)

(poetry) Characteristic of the Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533).


proceleusmatic

From Latin proceleusmaticus, from Ancient Greek προκελευσματικός (prokeleusmatikós), to rouse to action beforehand, to incite.

der

προκελευσματικός

(poetry) A metrical foot consisting of four short syllables.


proceleusmatic

en-adj

proceleusmatic (comparative more proceleusmatic, superlative most proceleusmatic)

more proceleusmatic (comparative)
most proceleusmatic (superlative)

der

προκελευσματικός

(poetry, not comparable) Consisting of four short syllables; composed of metrical feet of four short syllables each.


typographic ligature

en-noun

typographic ligature (plural typographic ligatures)

ae (a + e) > æ
AE (A + E) > Æ
db (d + b) > ȸ
dz (d + z) > ǳ
Dz (D + z) > ǲ
DZ (D + Z) > Ǳ
et (e + t) > &
ff (f + f) > ﬀ
ffi (ﬀ + ﬁ) > ﬃ
ffl (ﬀ + ﬂ) > ﬄ
fi (f + i) > ﬁ
fl (f + l) > ﬂ
fs (f + s) > ?
ft (f + t) > ?
ij (i + j) > ĳ
IJ (I + J) > Ĳ
lj (l + j) > ǉ
Lj (L + j) > ǈ
LJ (L + J) > Ǉ
ng (n + g) > ŋ
NG (N + G) > Ŋ
nj (n + j) > ǌ
Nj (N + j) > ǋ
NJ (N + J) > Ǌ
oe (o + e) > œ
OE (O + E) > Œ or ɶ
ou (o + u) > Ȣ (majiscule) or ȣ (minuscule)
qp (q + p) > ȹ
ſs (ſ + s) or ſz (ſ + z) > ß (ẞ when capitalized)
st (s + t) > ﬆ
ſt (ſ + t) > ﬅ
ue (u + e) > ᵫ

(countable, typography) A character that visually combines multiple letters, usually but not always by connecting them (making them contiguous), such as æ, œ, ß or ĳ; a logotype.


subfont

Two subfonts are available for EGA/VGA displays, and only one is available for LCD displays.

2001, Jim Cooper, Using MS-DOS 6.22, page 346:

(computing, typography) A subset of a font, holding only some of its glyphs.


rounce

Compare French ronce (“bramble, brier, thorn”), ranche (“a round, step, rack”), or English round.

(printing) The handle by which the bed of a hand press, holding the form of type, etc., is run in under the platen and out again.

(printing) The whole apparatus by which the form is moved under the platen.


diiambus

(poetry) A double iambus; a metrical foot consisting of two iambs.


stickful

stickful (plural stickfuls or sticksful)

That first morning it took me half an hour to set my first stickful, a dozen lines.

1970, Hal Borland, Country editor's boy, page 55:

Stickful after stickful is placed on this galley, until it also is full.

1980, John Southward, Practical Printing: A Handbook to the Art of Typography, page 82:

Football stories may be divided into three general classes: the brief summary story of a stickful or a trifle more; the usual football story of a half column or less; and the long story that may be run through a column or more, depending upon the importance of the game.

2009, Phillip J. Morledge, Getting the Scoop:

(printing, dated) As much type as fills a composing stick.


supralinear

(typography) above the lines of normal text


spaceway

At first Gallagher and his glacier were a roar of laughter that swept the spaceways[…]

1964, John Wood Campbell, Analog science fact/science fiction:

(science fiction) A route used for travel or shipping in outer space.


teleportage

At the same time there is no fantasy, as there is in the teleportage of science fiction, or in the Greek myth that requires the insemination of a woman by a swan.

2010, Jeffrey Boss, Human Consciousness of God in the Book of Job, page 158:


palatal hook

In the Zographensis one finds pьřěaxǫ (John 6:52). Here the liquid is marked with the palatal hook.

1962, Revue Canadienne des Slavistes, V, page 60:

Kalnyn′ states […] that in the best manuscripts […] the instances of marking of palatal l and n in general exceeds those of failing to do so; moreover, the marking of non-palatal consonants with a palatal hook is rare.

1968, Robert Magidoff et al., editors, Studies in Slavic Linguistics and Poetics, in Honor of Boris O. Unbegaun, page 42:

In Czech, [the háček] is actually a variant of the palatal hook, which can take the form of caron or apostrophe.

2004, Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, 3rd edition, page 304:

l-caron/l-palatal hook

2009, Theodore Rosendorf, The Typographic Desk Reference, page 130:

(typography, rare) = háček (when it takes the form of a prime)

(typography, pre-1989 IPA) A hamiform diacritic ⟨◌̡⟩ formerly used to mark consonantal palatalisation; superseded by the superscript jay ⟨◌ʲ⟩.


Archilochian

en-adj

Archilochian (comparative more Archilochian, superlative most Archilochian)

more Archilochian (comparative)
most Archilochian (superlative)

Archilochian meter

(poetry) Of or pertaining to the Ancient Greek satirical poet Archilochus and his style.

greater Archilochian

a verse consisting of four dactyls and three trochees

lesser Archilochian

a verse comprising two dactyls and a length


minionette

From minion + -ette (“forming diminutives”).

(uncountable, US printing, typography, dated) A size of type between nonpareil and minion, standardized as 6½-point.


dactylar

(poetry) Pertaining to dactyl; dactylic.


Asclepiad

(verse form): First used by the Ancient Greek poet Asclepius.

(poetry) A choriambic verse consisting of four metrical feet: a spondee, two choriambi, and an iambus.


heptachord

From Ancient Greek ἑπτάχορδος (heptákhordos, “seven-stringed”), from ἑπτά (heptá, “seven”) + χορδή (khordḗ, “chord”). Compare French heptacorde.

der

(poetry) A composition sung to the sound of seven chords or tones.


sextain

From Latin sextus (“sixth”), from sex (“six”). Compare Italian sestina. Doublet of sestina.

(poetry) A stanza of six lines; a sestine or sestina.


angle quote

(typography, informal) Any particular quotation mark consisting of a pair of straight lines radiating from a common point separated at an angle anywhere between 60°–150°, be it single or double.

A Korean quotation mark; e.g., 〈, 〉, 《, 》.


choriambus

en-noun

choriambus (plural choriambuses or choriambi)

choriambuses (plural)
choriambi (plural)

From Latin choriambus, from Ancient Greek. Equivalent to choreus + iambus.

(poetry) A metrical foot consisting of four syllables, of which the first and last are long, and the others short; a choreus, or trochee, united with an iambus.


black knight

(fiction) A villain or evil character who masks their identity and that of their liege by not displaying heraldry.


tambaran

tambarans (plural)
tambaram (alternative)
tamberan (alternative)

(folklore) A demon or spirit, among certain peoples of Papua New Guinea.


letterboard

(printing, historical) A board on which matter in type is placed for storage or manipulation.


ideographic space

ideographic space (plural ideographic spaces)

(typography, in fonts whose ideographs are of uniform width) A space of non-variable width, equal to the width of an ideograph, used in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other languages that use Siniform ideographs.


figure space

(typography) In fonts whose digits are of uniform width, a space of non-variable width: ⊣ ⊢ equal to the width of a digit.


tiebar

(typography) Synonym of tie (“the symbol ⁀”).


mammaloid

(science fiction) A mammalian humanoid creature.


twinner

The twinner of Jack's ailing mother, a faded movie actress named Lily Cavanaugh (who was billed in her time as the “Queen of the B Movies”), […]

2016, John C. Tibbetts, The Gothic Worlds of Peter Straub, McFarland, →ISBN, page 149:

Everyone, that is, except for Jack; his twinner, Jason, died as a baby and has become something of a mythical character in the alternate world, […]

2020, Debbie Olson, Children and Childhood in the Works of Stephen King, Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 185:

(fiction, uncommon) One who is identical, is similar, or is a counterpart, to another person.


correption

correption (countable and uncountable, plural correptions)

From Latin correptio (“seizure”), from corripere (“to seize”).


dochmius

From Latin dochmius, from Ancient Greek δόχμιος (dókhmios, “oblique; dochmius”).

bor

Yet there is good reason to doubt the existence of any such; —good reason to think, that dochmiuses belong to the triple rhythm

1843, William O'Brien, The Ancient Rhythmical Art Recovered, page 6:

This chorus, which consists almost entirely of dochmii, is so corrupt as to present various problems of an almost insoluble character, although portions of it have yielded to the brilliant emendatory efforts of Hermann.

1910, R. J. Walker, Anti Mias: An Essay in Isometry, page 228:

Every dochmius is catalectic, representing an original phrase of nine primary times.

1912, John Williams White, The Verse of Greek Comedy, page 296:

(poetry) A metrical foot of five syllables used in Greek tragedy for highly anguished scenes. The metrical pattern is typically: short-long-long-short-long.


homoioptoton

homoioptota (plural)
homoeoptoton (alternative)

From Ancient Greek ὁμοιóπτωτον (homoióptōton, “in a like case”).

der

(rhetoric, poetry) A rhetorical figure in which the several parts of a sentence end with the same case, or inflection generally.


counterprove

en-verb

counterprove (third-person singular simple present counterproves, present participle counterproving, simple past and past participle counterproved)

counterproves (present singular third-person)
counterproving (participle present)
counterproved (participle past)
counterproved (past)

(printing, transitive) To take a counterproof of.


asteroidian

But you remained conservative, A changeless asteroidian.

1932, California Poets: An Anthology of 244 Contemporaries, page 706:

Whatever else can be said about the world inhabited by Lesabéndio and his fellow asteroidians, this much is certain: their proper names derive from the first sounds they emit, not from a procedure of designation akin to the establishment of technical terms, and the laws governing the waxing and waning of their bodies are unlike those under which the bodies on the surface of the earth fall.

2011, Peter Fenves, The Messianic Reduction: Walter Benjamin and the Shape of Time, page 230:

What gags Flora is that Rod blew the Saturnienne to protect the asteroidians against North American culture , even though that cut him off from one wife, one concubine, and one son.

2014, E. Hoffmann Price, Operation Longlife, page 157:

(science fiction) One who is from or lives on an asteroid.


molossus

molossuses (plural)
molossi (plural)
molosse (alternative)

From Latin molossus, from Ancient Greek μολοσσός (molossós), properly "belonging to the Molossians", a people in the eastern part of Epirus.

(poetry) A metrical foot of three long syllables.


iguanoid

Because rumor has it, that they are three times as ugly, meaner, greedier and war mongering than the Earthlings, could ever be. Yes, if you can believe it, they are even worse than the Iguanoids.

2013, R. J. Denardo, The Captain's Propensity: The Andromeda Incident II, page 179:

Iguanoids stand three foot five to five five and use their long tail for balance.

2021, Craig Campobasso, The Extraterrestrial Species Almanac, page 231:

The Chameleons, another species connected to the Iguanoids, are characterized as a colorful race of reptilians that serve as watchers or guards for the Draco Reptilians, informing them of the political events taking place around the galaxy.

2023, Malik Bade, The Matrix & The Forbidden Knowledge - Extraterrestrial Edition, page 161:

(science fiction) A type of reptilian (reptilian alien)


tripody

From tri + -pody, from Ancient Greek τρι- (tri-, “three”) and πούς, ποδός (poús, podós, “foot”).

(poetry) Three metrical feet taken together, or included in one measure.


atompunk

In fact, there was a fair amount of stuff around in the 60s and 70s that can only be explained as cross-dimensional leakage from an Atompunk universe.

2001 October 31, Simon Bradshaw, “Re: Steampunk Recommendations?”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet), message-ID <memo.20011031191447.43761C@sjbradshaw.compulink.co.uk>:

Perfect "atompunk" feel – reactors with nervous engineers and analog controls.

2002 June 10, Mike Simone, “Re: Land Battleships”, in rec.arts.sf.science, rec.games.design (Usenet), message-ID <152bbdf6.0206101038.72e312be@posting.google.com>:

For the Legion, we're looking at 20th century futures rather than 19th. Analogies with steampunk might be "dieselpunk", "atompunk", or "rocketpunk" – but any Legion of Super-Heroes worthy of the name seems to be as far from the "punk" aspect as it's possible to get.

2004 March 6, Michael S. Schiffer, “Re: Earth-2 Legion Synopsis”, in rec.arts.comics.dc.lsh (Usenet), message-ID <Xns94A49BD7E514mss2mediaonenet@130.133.1.4>:

According to a mailing list from the Netherlands, Atompunk is devoted to the cultural period (mostly of the United States) of between 1945 to 1965. While the moniker hasn't become a part of our country's vernacular yet (though I'm sure some of you already started using it ages ago), it sounds just annoyingly catchy enough to warrant a New York Times trend piece in about eight years.

2012 April 8, Elaine Chow, “Space Age Fetishism Getting Silly New Moniker: Atompunk”, in Gizmodo, archived from the original on 2016-08-28:

Atompunk covers the pre-digital period of 1945–1965, including mid-century Modernism, the Atomic Age and Space Age. Throw Roger Thornhill's suits in this basket, and everything ever worn on Mad Men. This takes us right up to the mid '60s, when the fictional worlds of yesterday abut the real worlds you grew up in.

2012, William J. Thompson, “Time Travel”, in Dress Like a Grownup!: A Complete Tutorial for the Average Guy, 2nd edition, volume 1, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, part 2 (Advanced Theory), page 55:

You keep imagining someone 20 years from now reading The Peripheral the way that we read Neuromancer today, perplexed at the now-unfathomable ubiquity of cassettes and modems. We laugh at the past or mine it for influence – think of steampunk, atompunk, dieselpunk, and the million other microgenres based on the incongruity of old societies and future tech – but someday, the future is going to do the same to us.

2014 October 27, Adi Robertson, “William Gibson’s ‘The Peripheral’: Looking Back at the Future: A Smart, Nuanced Twist on Time Travel”, in The Verge, archived from the original on 2017-05-05:

Additionally, while [Sebastian] Faulks aspires to write as [Ian] Fleming, he takes care to increase the serving of action, in fact including some interesting bits of atompunk—a nuclear-powered ekranoplan, Vulcan bombers.

2015, Nader Elhefnawy, The Forgotten James Bond, [s.l.]: [s.n.]:

(science fiction) A subgenre of speculative fiction, based on the society and technology of the Atomic Age (c. 1945–1969).


supersaga

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

(literature) A literary work composed of a number of discrete narratives.


hypospray

(chiefly science fiction) A kind of jet injector.


pseudogothic

en-adj

pseudogothic (comparative more pseudogothic, superlative most pseudogothic)

more pseudogothic (comparative)
most pseudogothic (superlative)

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

Obviously, the style of romantic pseudogothic architecture was not invented by Isabel - the building at Puławy was preceded by several similar creations abroad and in Poland.

1980, Marek Rostworowski, The National Museum in Cracow, the Czartoryski Collection:

Even a regular reader of the most dreadful pseudogothic periodicals must have felt a frisson of horror.

1997, Jan Bondeson, A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities, page 97:

The pseudogothic trappings that disfigure the first two cantos of Childe Harold are absent in Childe Harold III and IV, which we may discuss here as a unit even though the last canto was completed two years later in Italy.

2004, Harold Bloom, English Romantic Poetry, page 295:


dossil

From Middle English, from Old French dosil (“spigot”), from Late Latin ducīculus, diminutive from Latin dux (“guide”). See duct, duke.

(printing) A roll of cloth for wiping off the face of a copperplate, leaving the ink in the engraved lines.


Neogothic

Neogothic (comparative more Neogothic, superlative most Neogothic)

more Neogothic (comparative)
most Neogothic (superlative)

The travelling engineer Frencesco Senweignoter designed the church at Falzes (1851) and also the front of the mausoleaum for Archduke Reiner in the principal church in Bolzano. The latter is a pleasing and correct example of the Neogothic style.

1979, Sandro Gattei, Sandro Pirovano, Robert Mainardi, Trentino Alto Adige, page 464:

The earlier periods, the original and ideas-phases of German Neogothic, have been well written up in English; now Lewis's work fills an important gap in English-language works on the later period; indeed, so far, there is no comparable work in German either.

1992, Newsletter - Issues 47-65, page 90:

The Neogothic Revival style of the early 1900s sought to tame the excesses of the flamboyant High Victorian Gothic by turning to English Gothic architecture for inspiration.

1993, East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, City of Berlin intensive architectural/historical survey: final report:

His interest in architecture was always strongly linked to his sense of responsibility for the care and preservation of the built environment. In 1973 he published an article on Early Neogothic in Finland.

1995, Icon to Cartoon: A Tribute to Sixten Ringbom, page 22:

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, he made a series of designs in the Neogothic idiom of Martorell.

2000, Juan Bassegoda Nonell, Antonio Gaudi: Master Architect:

(architecture, literature) Alternative form of neogothic.


hillman

A farmer on whose ground there was a little hill, resolved not to let it lie idle, and began at one end to plough it up. The hill-man, who lived in it, came to him and asked him how he dared to plough on the roof of his house.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 186:

(folklore) A supernatural being, such as a dwarf, that lives beneath a hill.


nekomimi

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

From Japanese 猫耳 (nekomimi), from 猫 (neko, “cat”) + 耳 (mimi, “ear”).

Thank you, Galen - I was pretty sure that she wasn't really a nekomimi, but this gives me some proof.

2005 February 17, Rob Kelk, “Re: DiGi Charat without her hat”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

(chiefly Japanese fiction, by extension) A fictional character who has cat ears on an otherwise human body, and possibly other feline characteristics such as a tail.


catperson

I haven't seen one of my earliest acquaintances in the game, a catperson berserker named Silverkat, since Ugeta was just a lowbie.

2012, Timothy Rowlands, Video Game Worlds: Working at Play in the Culture of, EverQuest, Left Coast Press, →ISBN, page 69:

(fiction) An anthropomorphic feline, or a person who has characteristics of a cat on an otherwise human body, such as cat ears and a cat tail.

katmens

anthropomorphic feline, or person with characteristics of a cat


epode

From Ancient Greek ἐπῳδός (epōidós); see epi-, ode.

(poetry) The after song; the part of a lyric or choral ode which follows the strophe and antistrophe.

(poetry) A kind of lyric poem, invented by Archilochus, in which a longer verse is followed by a shorter one.


pocketphone

(dated or science fiction) A telephone that fits in one's pocket; a mobile phone.


B-story

In the B-story, Bart goes from metaphorically crying wolf to literally crying wolf when a timber wolf escapes from Krusty’s studio after getting freaked by loud noises. The wild beast ultimately menaces Bart in his schoolroom before Groundskeeper Willie strips down and saves the day by defeating the wolf in combat.

2012 May 20, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Marge Gets A Job” (season 4, episode 7; originally aired 11/05/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club:

(authorship) A subplot that appears in a screenplay or script for a movie or television show; a subplot that concerns the side-characters or less important aspects of a television show.


raisonneur

(literature) A person in a play or book embodying an author's viewpoint.


Glyconian

Named after Glycon, an Ancient Greek poet, said to have written in this form.

(poetry) A kind of verse in Ancient Greek and Latin poetry, consisting of a spondee, a choriambus, and a pyrrhic.


ASCIIfy

en-verb

ASCIIfy (third-person singular simple present ASCIIfies, present participle ASCIIfying, simple past and past participle ASCIIfied)

ASCIIfies (present singular third-person)
ASCIIfying (participle present)
ASCIIfied (participle past)
ASCIIfied (past)
asciify (alternative)

(orthography) To reduce extended Latin text to characters of the ASCII character set.


sea monk

[…] three sea monks being found in 1530, 1546 and 1549. In fact the first sea monk was not a sea monk at all, having been found in the Rhine. The second one was found near Copenhagen with a black head and the clothes of a monk and the final one was found near Hafnia (Copenhagen), tonsured like a monk. […] Nonetheless walruses remain a possible explanation for the occurence of sea monks prior to 1546.

2005, Steenstrupia, volume 29, pages 40-45:

Sea monks had failed to assert themselves into the popular imagination the way mermaids had. They lacked a certain appeal. The few pictorial depictions stuck a tonsured human head on a fish body, scaly fins and tail forming the monk's ...

2019, Holly MacArthur, Tin House 80: 20th Anniversary Edition:

(folklore) A sea creature in European folklore (in the 16th century), a sort of fish that resembled (and was sometimes robed or tonsured like) a European monk.


Pleiadean

Pleiadeans (plural)
Pleiadian (alternative)

(science fiction, ufology) An alien being from the Pleiades.


chaotics

As I see it, chaotics represents more of a general outlook, a set of ideas describing the world, including literary texts, in ways used in a number of different disciplines.

1999, Hans C. Werner, Literary texts as nonlinear patterns:

The very process of discovering chaotics and overturning established views of science and systems chimes with the emphasis in literature of the day on uncertainty and indeterminacy, free play of the signifier, and rewritings of various sorts.

2000, Gordon Slethaug, Beautiful Chaos, page xii:

(literature) A branch of literary and cultural studies based on chaos theory and the inherent structure of apparently chaotic systems.


commlink

commlinks (plural)
comm link (alternative)
comlink (alternative)

A great aurora spread across the heavens, and the Thukker infantrymen lost all hope as their commlinks went dead and the TACNET dropped offline. In that moment, each man understood that they were doomed.

2008, Tony Gonzales, Eve: The Empyrean Age:

Sheppard removed his commlink unit and attempted to access the engineering duty officer to report the occurrence.

(science fiction) A communications device.


eyephone

One system in the works in this country would have us wearing "eyephones," a helmet-like apparatus with a small TV screen […] With the eyephones, each eye will receive only one field, but filters will adjust the picture.

1979, Science digest: Volume 86, Issue 2:

Further along on the "naturalness of use" continuum are today's working VR projects where users are tethered by devices such as eyephones and datagloves.

1993, Diane M. Gayeski, Multimedia for Learning: Development, Application, Evaluation, page 82:

State-of-the-art eyephones (head mounted visual displays) are not considered to be suitable for providing a realistic or natural visual environment.

1997, Dafydd Gibbon, Roger Moore, Richard Winski, Spoken Language Characterisation, page 185:

The key element in this group of technologies is 'automatic head position tracking', which allows the wearer of an eyephone to scan a computer-generated landscape in a quasi-natural way.

1998, Richard Gough, Ric Allsopp, Claire MacDonald, On Tourism, page 12:

He locked the door, put the CLOSED sign up, and went into the back room where he found the boy still seated, cross-legged, as he'd left him, his face hidden by the massive old eyephones cabled to the open notebook in his lap.

1999, William Gibson, All Tomorrow's Parties:

“That apparatus you see on his head is an eyephone. Inside it are tiny video screens that are transmitting to its wearer images of an opponent on the other end […]

2008, Thomas Quealy, Is That You?, page 87:

(sometimes science fiction) A device that allows the wearer to watch video material as if immersed in the world being shown.


vidphone

1989, Ron Goulart (ghostwriting for William Shatner), TekWar
The vidphone screen remained blank. “You're looking good, Jake, looking very good all things considered.” “Wish I could say the same for you, Wiz. Why the blackout?” “Reasons, I got my reasons,” came the whispering voice […]


Abgesang

/ˈɑp.ɡəˌzɑŋ/

Borrowed from German Abgesang; ab- (“down, from”) + Gesang (“song”).

(prosody, poetry, usually capitalized) Repetition of the same word or phrases for emphasis; epistrophe, especially the concluding section.


v. a.

(epigraphy, obsolete) Acting in place of; from Latin vices agens.


wanderstar

From wander + star, probably a calque of German Wandelstern (“planet”). Compare the historic term wandering star, like the German term ultimately a calque from Ancient Greek.

He had thumbed about in Chants of a Wander-Star last night in bed and wondered about the career of that marginal versifier — born out of his proper time and now remembered by Ackley in an era even less proper.

1994, Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror:

A thin scythe of moon was rising, near the white wanderstar of dawn or dusk.

He passed gulls, terns, cormorants as if they were standing still. Now and then a wander-star crossed the heavens: one of the metal eyes the ancients hung over Alifros to spy on their enemies.

2009, Robert V. S. Redick, The Red Wolf Conspiracy:

(science fiction, fantasy) A wandering star or other similar heavenly body; a comet; meteor; planet.


continuation line

en-noun

continuation line (plural continuation lines)

(publishing) A word or phrase that appears at the end of an initial portion of a text, and indicates the location of the next portion or rest of the content; for example, "continued on page 9".


Vril

Coined by British statesman and author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in the 1871 science fiction novel The Coming Race, later titled Vril, apparently as a clipping of virile.

coined

These subterranean philosophers assert that by one operation of vril, which Faraday would perhaps call ‘atmospheric magnetism,’ they can influence the variations of temperature—in plain words, the weather; […]

1871, Edward Bulwer-Lytton (published anonymously), The Coming Race, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, page 47:

It devoted its time to the study of vril, and taught that the secret of vril could be divined by contemplating the structure of an apple sliced in half.

2003, John Michael Greer, The New Encyclopedia of the Occult, Llewellyn Publications, page 506:

I have written a second book, Vrilology, which explores the historic background of the Life Force, which we refer to as Vril, and another simple book explaining just what Vril is and how it can help people improve their lives, filling them with happiness, joy and prosperity.

2010, Robert Blumetti, Vril: The Life Force of the Gods, iUniverse, page 7:

(science fiction, mysticism) A controllable form of energy.


body line

en-noun

body line (countable and uncountable, plural body lines)

(typography) The mean line; the level of the top of the main lower-case letters (without ascenders).


overskies

(science fiction) interplanetary, intergalactic.


overskies

(science fiction) Between planets (in the same or different system).


Caxton

(printing) A kind of printing-type in imitation of William Caxton's.


cursèd

en-adj

cursèd (comparative more cursèd, superlative most cursèd)

more cursèd (comparative)
most cursèd (superlative)

(poetry) Alternative form of cursed; used to specify a disyllabic pronunciation


skyship

(science fiction) A vehicle that flies through the sky.


hexameron

hexamerons (plural)
Hexameron (alternative)
hexæmeron (alternative)
hexaëmeron (alternative)
hexaemeron (alternative)
hexahemeron (alternative)

From Ancient Greek ἑξαήμερον (hexaḗmeron, “six-day”).

der

(literature) A treatise or sermon concerning the biblical creation story.


redskirt

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

From red + skirt. Patterned after redshirt, which derived from the tendency for male security officers, who wore red shirts, to die on episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series. Female crew members wore minidresses, but only one red-uniformed female character was killed during the series' run, in the episode "By Any Other Name."

Wasn't there that episode where the aliens turned everyone into little blocks of styrofoam, and one of the aliens turned a redskirt and a redshirt into cubes and crumbled one of them? And then Scotty got really drunk. I seem to recall that the redskirt bought it that time.

2007 February 10, Marc Goodman, “Re: Response to Steven Pinker's 'The Mystery of Consciousness'”, in alt.religion.kibology (Usenet):

(fiction, fandom slang, rare) An unimportant or expendable female character, especially one introduced only to be killed in order to underscore the peril faced by important characters.


monopody

(poetry) A measure of a single metrical foot.

(poetry, rare) A line comprising one such measure.


helijet

Tomiko waited less than an hour, then flew with Harfex to the area where Osden had reported himself the night before. But as the helijet hovered over the sea of purplish leaves, illimitable, impenetrable, she felt a panic despair.

1972, Ursula K. Le Guin, Vaster Than Empires and More Slow:

Suddenly there was a glare of fight and the sound of an explosion from one of the other helijets, the one carrying Blare Oblomot. Heshke gasped with shock, and saw the flaring skeleton of the jet plummeting earthward in the darkness.

2001, Barrington J. Bayley, Collision with Chronos, page 20:

The two men heard a sound from above, and looked up to see three police helijets hovering overhead.

2002, Moss Tosney, The Ten Percent Man, page 572:

(science fiction) A flying vehicle resembling a helicopter and/or a jet.


bulldog edition

en-noun

bulldog edition (plural bulldog editions)

Uncertain. One popular theory is that competition mainly drove the term; publishers "fought like bulldogs" to "get out editions that would catch the mails going out of town." Another theory suggests that it comes from the nautical term dogwatch (“evening shift”), as printers had to work late in the evening to put out an early edition for the morning paper. Numerous other theories have been proposed.

The Detroit Mirror, morning tabloid, which has been under the same ownership as The Chicago Tribune and The New York Daily News, suspended publication with its early bulldog edition today.

1932 August 5, “The Detroit Mirror, a Tabloid, Suspends”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-09-14:

In journalism, a "bulldog edition" is an edition of a daily newspaper printed early for transportation to distant points.

1970 June 10, “Today in History”, in Owosso Argus-Press, Michigan, USA, retrieved 2012-09-14, page 23:

Larry Holmes marched into view at 20 minutes before the hour of 11 a.m. . . . The guys with the cameras could snap away, and everybody would have a story for the 6 O'Clock News or the bulldog edition.

1980 October 2, Bruce Keidan, “Ali-Holmes strike out before bout”, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, retrieved 2012-09-14, page 9:

He took us on evening walks. […] On the way home, he'd stop at the corner next to the subway stop, get the bulldog edition of the Inquirer and chat with the guy selling the papers.

2008 April 10, Chris Matthews, “Philly Politicos Kick it Old-School”, in Time:

(chiefly US, newspapers, publishing) The earliest edition of a periodical publication, especially a daily newspaper.


jazz poetry

(poetry, jazz) A form of poetry of the 1920s employing jazz-like rhythm or a feeling of improvisation.


holovid

/ˈhɒləʊˌvɪd/

4 March, 1973, Harlan Ellison, "The Day I Died"
I was on a publicity tour for the book, fresh from a talk show over holovid.

He motioned at the holovid, still running in the corner.

2003, Liz Moore, Noble Savage, page 200:

He took her over to the holovid projector and she watched the holovids taken by pilots flying along the length of the ship.

2008, Helgard de Barros, The Second Skin, page 164:

(science fiction) A holographic projection of a series of images, like a video recording.


holoprojection

(science fiction) A holographic projection.


holoprojector

“I like to keep an eye on my investments. Including an eye that not everyone knows about, which doesn’t show up unless it’s absolutely necessary.” Garson’s holo crossed the room to stand next to a counter. “I mean, I am an eccentric genius, after all.”
“So you can project yourself throughout this ship? Anywhere?”
“Not everywhere, but I’ve got holo projectors in most places. Paid for them myself.”

2017 November, N. K. Jemisin, Mac Walters, chapter 15, in Mass Effect Andromeda: Initiation, 1st edition (Science Fiction), Titan Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 284–285:

(science fiction) A holographic projector.


dodecameter

/ˌdəʊdɛˈkæmɪtə(ɹ)/

(poetry) A complex line that consists of twelve metric feet.


64mo (usually uncountable, plural 64mos)

39. Reed, C. A., H. F. Harvey, & R. I. Brasher. WESTERN BIRD GUIDE: Birds of the Rockies & West to the Pacific. 286 pgs with index. Color prints throughout. Red fabricoid, with chipped cardboard slipcase. Oblong 64mo. NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1937. Very good condition, with fair case. $21.50 [115273]

2000 April 29, Acorn Books, “FS: 2nd Miscellany of 25 NEW ARRIVALS, Sat., April 29, 2000.”, in rec.arts.books.marketplace (Usenet):

(paper, printing) A size of paper or book: 1.87"-2.5" x 2.5"-3.125".


Thuluth

(art, chiefly calligraphy) An Arabic script style.


choliamb

From Latin choliambus, from Ancient Greek χωλίαμβος (khōlíambos).


choliambic

(poetry) Employing or relating to choliambs, or limping iambs.


neverfade

2 beautiful doubleweight gloss enlargements. 8 guaranteed neverfade prints each roll 25c.

1940 November, Popular Mechanics, volume 74, number 5, page 626:

(photography, printing, dated) Never fading; permanent.


doubleweight

To reproduce right-of-way, speed-restriction, yard-limit, and other signs, photograph the original signs, and make prints, scale size, on doubleweight paper.

1958 December, Boys' Life, volume 48, number 12, page 8:

(photography, printing) Being or relating to a paper of twice the ordinary weight.


ODP

orbital defense platform
orbital defense platform#English

(science fiction) Initialism of orbital defense platform.


penthemimeris

/ˌpɛnθɪˈmɪməɹɪs/

From Latin penthēmimeris, from Ancient Greek πενθημιμερής (penthēmimerḗs, “having five half-feet”): πέντε (pénte, “five”) + ἡμι- (hēmi-) + μέρος (méros, “part, metrical foot”).

der

πενθημιμερής

penthemim (alternative)
penthemimer (alternative)
penthemimeres (alternative)

(poetry) A prosal group of two and a half feet.