prose poem

prose poems (plural)
prose-poem (alternative)

"He is the author of a very wild Mystery, or dramatic prose-poem, in which the Ocean, Mont-Blanc, and the Cathedral of Strassburg have parts to play."

1839, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, chapter 3, in Hyperion: A Romance:

Slayton made "Love Is All" the effort of his life. . . . It was a pure love-story, fine, elevated, romantic, passionate—a prose poem that set the divine blessing of love (I am transposing from the manuscript) high above all earthly gifts and honours.

1910, O. Henry, “A Sacrifice Hit”, in Whirligigs:

In form and spirit the book is unique, a simple romantic narrative transmuted by sheer glow of beauty into a prose poem.

1915, John Galsworthy, in Preface to Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest (1904) by W. H. Hudson

So if you ask Lasseter about car love, you get an impromptu prose poem. "Car love," he says, "is the sound of a throaty V-8 rumbling and revving, the acceleration throwing you back in the seat—especially when you get on a beautiful, winding road and the light's dappling through the trees."

2006 May 14, Richard Corliss, “Get Your Motor Running”, in Time:

(literature) A literary text written in the manner of prose—without the fixed lines, rhyme, and meter often characteristic of poetry—but nonetheless clearly possessing some of the distinctive attributes of poetry, such as lyrical language, evocation of feeling, vivid imagery, metaphor, and linguistic devices like assonance or alliteration.


3D printer

3D printers (plural)
3-D printer (alternative)

→ Japanese: 3Dプリンター (surīdī purintā)

→ Korean: 3D 프린터 (sseuridi peurinteo)

/ˈθɹiː ˈdiː ˈpɹɪntə(ɹ)/

/ˈθɹi ˈdi ˈpɹɪntɚ/

[ˈθɹi ˈdi ˈpɹɪɾ̃ɚ]

(printing) A device for making three-dimensional solid objects from a digital model.


antiverbal

en-adj

antiverbal (comparative more antiverbal, superlative most antiverbal)

more antiverbal (comparative)
most antiverbal (superlative)

Though in very different ways, Wolfe, Capote, Mailer, and Didion each define their subjects as somehow beyond words — antiverbal or nonverbal, threatening or sublime, overpowering and intense or private and intuitive […]

1987, Wayne (Chris) Anderson, Style as Argument: Contemporary American Nonfiction (page 5)

Othello, Horatio, and Brutus strike me as notable exemplars of laconicism, but in Hotspur's case Shakespeare creates an antiverbal bias that is not so much philosophical as it is bound up in gender stereotype.

1989, Ronald L. Dotterer, Shakespeare: Text, Subtext, and Context, page 206:

(literature, semiotics) Opposing or avoiding the use of speech or words.

antiverbal

opposing or avoiding the use of speech or words


set-off

уравняване

extinction of debts of which two persons are reciprocally debtors


type face

(typography, printing) Alternative form of typeface.


skybike

The creature was actually doing a neat job of demolition, using scissorlike claws to chop the sky-bike into small pieces.

1972, Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous With Rama:

(science fiction) A bicycle capable of levitation.


euth

en-verb

euth (third-person singular simple present euths, present participle euthing, simple past and past participle euthed)

euths (present singular third-person)
euthing (participle present)
euthed (participle past)
euthed (past)

Thereafter the job of euthing was transferred to the chief medical officer, who it was felt would have less emotional involvement.

1973, Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama:


subuniverse

(science fiction) A universe contained within another universe.


kitchen sink

The noun is derived from kitchen + sink. Sense 2.1 (“miscellaneous item or miscellany”) is probably from everything but the kitchen sink.
The adjective is derived from the noun. Sense 1 (“of or pertaining to a realist style of painting characterized by scenes of dull or untidy domestic interiors of urban working-class people”) was coined by the British art critic David Sylvester (1924–2001) in a December 1954 article entitled “The Kitchen Sink”: see the quotation.
The verb is a back-formation from kitchen-sinking (noun), which is derived from the noun.

back-formation

(by extension, drama, fiction, film, television, originally derogatory) Of or pertaining to a mid-20th-century (especially 1950s–1960s) genre of drama, fiction, etc., in Britain depicting the harsh lives of working-class people; also, of or pertaining to a film, novel, play, etc., of this genre.

työväestön arkielämää käsittelevä

of or pertaining to a genre of drama, fiction, etc., depicting the harsh lives of working-class people; of or pertaining to a film, novel, play, etc., of this genre


Stark

* As a Scottish and English surname, from the adjective stark.
* As a Jewish, German, and Swedish surname, from stark (“strong”), related to the above. This surname also appears in Czech and Slovak as Štark.

(fiction) The language spoken in the Ender's Game series, which is nearly identical to American English.


brainwipe

en-verb

brainwipe (third-person singular simple present brainwipes, present participle brainwiping, simple past and past participle brainwiped)

brainwipes (present singular third-person)
brainwiping (participle present)
brainwiped (participle past)
brainwiped (past)

(transitive, science fiction) To mindwipe.


parallel world

(science fiction, sciences) A reality or world that exists simultaneously with ours, but independent of it.


villancico

From Spanish villancico, from villano (“peasant”), from Medieval Latin vīllānus (“villager”).

The villancicos are strophic, but they tend not to extend to the many strophes of narration that were typical of the romance. A standard form for a villancico strophe is ABBA, in which the first A is called the estribillo (refrain), the Bs represent the statement of the music for the copla (stanza) twice (as copla and mudanza), and the return of the estribillo as the vuelta.

2014, James Haar, editor, European Music, 1520–1640, Boydell & Brewer, →ISBN, page 447:

(music, poetry) A traditional Spanish (or Portuguese) folk song with short stanzas and a refrain; now especially common as a Christmas carol.

gabon-kanta

traditional Spanish or Portuguese folk song


sourstuff

From sour + stuff. Calque of German Sauerstoff (“oxygen”) and/or Dutch zuurstof (“oxygen”), both loose loan translations of French oxygène. See oxygen for more.

This is approximately the heat of exploding what the Germans call bang-gas (mixture of sourstuff and waterstuff), the result being liquid.

1887, The Electrical journal, volume 18, page 482:

For an outshow, the gang of water has two waterstuff unclefts bound to one sourstuff uncleft; the gang of rust has two iron and three sourstuff unclefts; [...]

Thus, everyday sourstuff has eight neitherbits with its eight firstbits, but there are also kinds with five, six, seven, nine, ten, and eleven neitherbits. A samestead is known by the tale of both kernel motes, so that we have sourstuff-13, sourstuff-14, and so on, with sourstuff-16 being by far the mostfound.

1997, Poul Anderson, All One Universe, →ISBN:

“Best you and your thane don your sourstuff masks now, Judge Scoglund,” Ankowaljuu said, returning to English so Park and Dunedin could not misunderstand him.

2013, Harry Turtledove & L. Sprague deCamp, Down in the Bottomlands: And Other Places, →ISBN:

(chemistry, nonstandard, science fiction, rare, puristic) Oxygen.


zombie strip

(comics) A newspaper or magazine strip cartoon that is continued by others following the retirement or death of its originator.


parathesis

en-noun

parathesis (countable and uncountable, plural paratheses)

From Ancient Greek παράθεσις (paráthesis, “putting beside”).

uder

(printing) The matter contained within brackets.


telebooth

One point three parsecs from Earth a heartbeat was being monitored by an Amneshahn telebooth.

2005, J. E. Hoyes, The Empath of Amneshah, Book One: Turba, page 3:

We have telebooths that take us considerable distances in an instant.

2007, Charles Edward Harris, Suns of God, page 196:

(science fiction) A booth from which one can teleport to another location.


en-noun

16mo (usually uncountable, plural 16mos)


24mo (usually uncountable, plural 24mos)


starliner

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

(science fiction) A large starship capable of transporting many passengers.


planography

(printing) A form of printing from a flat surface, as opposed to a raised or incised one.


Metropolis

My city need a hero, so I treat it like Metropolis / And it's a few bad Lois Lanes I can't name

2012, “Higher”, in Detroit, performed by Big Sean:

(fiction) A fictional city serving as the primary setting for the Superman franchise, published by DC Comics.


grimdark

/ˈɡɹɪmˌdɑɹk/

From grim (adjective) + dark (adjective), inspired by the tagline of the tabletop strategy game Warhammer 40,000 (its rulebook first published in September 1987): “In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.”

(literature) The literary genre of speculative fiction that is amoral, dystopian, or violent.


Stygian

Stygians – natives of Styx

1940, Edmond Hamilton, Calling Captain Future, page 55:

(science fiction) An inhabitant of Styx (a moon of Pluto).


cyberpath

Claire nodded, remembering that Micah was, in essence, a cyberpath. He could mentally convince electronics and machines to do pretty much whatever he wanted.

2015, Keith R. A. DeCandido, Heroes Reborn - Book 5: Save The Cheerleader, Destroy The World:

(parapsychology, science fiction) A person with techno-telepathic ability, capable of reading the electrical signals of electronic devices (such as computers) around them.


technopath

(parapsychology, science fiction) A person with techno-telepathic ability, capable of reading the electrical signals of devices, such as computers, around them.


Priapean

(poetry) A kind of hexameter verse so constructed as to be divisible into two portions of three metrical feet each, generally having a trochee in the first and fourth feet and an amphimacer in the third; applied also to a regular hexameter verse when so constructed as to be divisible into two portions of three feet each.


classical language

classical language (plural classical languages)

(literature, linguistics) An ancient language that has an independent tradition that arose mostly on its own, and has a large and rich body of ancient literature.

古典語言 /古典语言

ancient language with a rich literary tradition


amoebaeum

From the neuter of Latin amoebaeus, from Ancient Greek ἀμοιβαῖος (amoibaîos, “alternate”).

bor

The third eclogue of Virgil is an amoebaeum.

(poetry) A poem in which people are represented speaking alternately.

amebeu

poem in which persons are represented as speaking alternately


telecommunicator

(science fiction) A telecommunication device of various kinds.


en-noun

18mo (usually uncountable, plural 18mos)

(printing) A book size octodecimo-sized pages.


microkinesis

It features a fully coded Talent system including 'pathing, 'porting, merging, clairvoyance, clairaudience and microkinesis.

1998 October 10, Greg Kempe, “AD: [tinymush] TowerMUSH - AM's Tower and the Hive books”, in rec.games.mud.announce (Usenet):

In our telekinesis case, the psi. might pick up microkinesis or macrokinesis at a certain level.

2000 April 5, Kelly Ross Pederson, “Re: 3E psionics ideas?”, in rec.games.frp.dnd (Usenet):

[…], to arrange for him to be treated by a Guild medic who could repair the heart with microkinesis.

2014, Alexandra Hughes, Marked, Penguin Group, page 55:

(fiction) The ability to move objects and effect matter on a microscopic, molecular, atomic and subatomic level with the power of one's mind.


thermokinesis

thermokinesis (countable and uncountable, plural thermokineses)

(fiction) The ability to manipulate the motion of molecules, slowing them down or speeding them up, thus changing temperature in the immediate vicinity with the power of one's mind. This is a wide spectrum ability than simply pyrokinesis or cryokinesis.


little person

little person (plural little people or little persons)

little people (plural)
little persons (plural)

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

The little people then disappeared, and went each about their work or their pleasure.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 298:

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

1961, Muriel Saint Clare Byrne, Elizabethan Life in Town and Country, page 285:

(folklore, fantasy) A small magical humanoid creature, such as an elf, leprechaun, or fairy.


erom

(literature) A blend of erotica and romance.


godsdamn

"Thet!" he half-shouted, his voice deeper than one would expect coming from his frame. "Godsdamn it! You know the bloodmages are supposed to be notified [...]"

1994, Ed Stark, The fifth horseman, →ISBN, page 7:

“Godsdamn, Airell.” He pushed himself from the bench and began pacing.

2006, Cheyenne McCray, Seduced by Magic, →ISBN, page 55:

(vulgar, nonstandard, slang, fiction, fantasy) An expression of anger, surprise, or frustration.


godsdamn

Every godsdamn crevice and crack and water tank in the city would be a fucking encampment.

2004, China Mieville, The Scar, →ISBN, page 164:

(vulgar, nonstandard, slang, fiction, fantasy) Damned by gods; used as an intensifier.


Kaguya

Borrowed from Japanese 赫映, かぐや (Kaguya).

(Japanese folklore) The protagonist of 赫映姫の物語 (Kaguya-hime no Monogatari, “The Tale of Princess Kaguya”), a mysterious girl from the moon, discovered as a baby inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo plant.

かぐや姫

Japanese folklore: mysterious girl from the moon


robochef

These robochefs in the better apartment buildings really knew how to broil a sirloin.

1968, William R. Burkett, Sleeping Planet, page 163:

(science fiction) A machine that prepares and dispenses meals.


antiromance

Congreve articulates here for the English a distinction already implicit in such antiromances as Don Quixote (1605), Charles Sorel's Berger extravagant (1627-28), or Paul Scarron's novels[…]

1990, Julie Stone Peters, Congreve, the Drama, and the Printed Word, page 114:

(literature) A novel or other work that rejects the conventions of the romance form.


Crowley

(fantasy fiction) The name of a demon, found in several different works of fiction by several different authors. Named in reference to Aleister Crowley, a famous 19th-century occultist.


astroship

The astroships — as we have named the future space vehicles — will be much more comfortable than the Apollo cabins.

1969, Illustrated weekly of Pakistan, page 75:

But we'd need to coordinate our efforts with another astroship.

1999, Joseph Neil Schulman, Brad Linaweaver, Profile in Silver: And Other Screenwritings, page 472:

If these are astroships from someplace besides our specific, physical universe, maybe they come from a place where our laws of physics do not apply, where there is no such thing as velocity/momentum.

2007, Kelly D. Bell, Visitors: A New Look at UFOs:

(science fiction) A spaceship; a starship.


Sol I

From its position as the first planet out from the Sun (Sol).

(poetic, science fiction) The planet Mercury.


Sol II

From its position as the second planet out from the Sun (Sol).

(poetic, science fiction) An alternate name for the planet Venus.


Sol IV

From its position as the fourth planet out from the Sun (Sol).

(poetic, science fiction) The planet Mars.


Sol V

From its position as the fifth planet out from the Sun (Sol).

(poetic, science fiction) An alternate name for the planet Jupiter.


Chauceresque

en-adj

Chauceresque (comparative more Chauceresque, superlative most Chauceresque)

more Chauceresque (comparative)
most Chauceresque (superlative)

/ˌtʃɔːsəˈɹɛsk/

/ˌt͡ʃɔsəˈɹɛsk/

a shocking word of Chauceresque earthiness

2011, Melvin J. Lasky, Media Warfare: The Americanization of Language, volume 3, page 35:

Thrust together in a small vehicle for hours, or even days, they would have no choice but to get to know each other and the result might be a Chauceresque exchange of stories.

2011, Mike Paterson, Inside Dickens' London, page 125:

(literature) Reminiscent of the style of Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1343–1400), major English poet of the Middle Ages.


Parnassian

Parnassian (comparative more Parnassian, superlative most Parnassian)

more Parnassian (comparative)
most Parnassian (superlative)

From Parnassus, from Latin Parnassus, from Ancient Greek Παρνασσός (Parnassós).

[…] at last, — this is the point to be marked, - they can see things in this Parnassian way and describe them in this Parnassian tongue, without further effort of inspiration.

1864, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems and prose, Penguin Books, published 1954, page 157:

But in Parnassian pieces you feel that if you were the poet you could have gone on as he has done, you see yourself doing it, only with the difference that if you actually try you find you cannot write his Parnassian.

1864, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems and prose, Penguin Books, published 1954, page 158:

'Behold', 'dream a dream', 'mingle': these here have something of the plangent tremulousness which comes when Tennyson is writing 'Parnassian' verse.

1989, Christopher Bruce Ricks, Tennyson, →ISBN, page 212:

One might be tempted to read this conjoining of exoticism and sensuality as a Parnassian exercise, until one reads the rest of the poem: […]

c. 2002, Émile J. Talbot, Reading Nelligan, McGill-Queen's University Press, →ISBN, page 166:

(poetry, from Gerard Manley Hopkins' writings) Describing a style of poetry or language which can only be created by poets, but not in the language of inspiration.

The Parnassian theory of art is mere imbecility.

1895, Degeneration, New York: D. Appleton and Company, translation of Entartung by Max Simon Nordau, page 270:

(literature, historical) Of or relating to the Parnassianism movement of French poetry in the years 1850 to 1900, whose adherents rejected Romanticism and instead favored classicism with its formal structure and emotional detachment.


Parnassianism

The leading poets of Parnassianism, like Machado, were utterly respectable and middle classs, good family men; many were bureaucrats, and they were proud that they had freed poets from "the obligation to wear their hair long" (Bilac, in Broca, 1960:7). Symbolism was enormously influential in almost every other Western culture; it never had a chance in Brazil, in a literary world dominated by Parnassianism and its disciples.

1983, David T. Haberly, Three Sad Races: Racial Identity and National Consciousness in Brazilian Literature, Cambridge University Press, page 100:

The autonomy of art, the distaste for the bourgeois world, the heightening of artifice, the affinity for sculpture and architecture, the use of exotic imagery in an objective way— all these are general elements of Parnassianism that seem to have found their way into Salammbô.

1995, David Weir, Decadence and the Making of Modernism, University of Massachusetts Press, page 36:

Positioned between the rise of Parnassianism and Symbolism in the last two decades of the nineteenth century and the drastic innovations of Modernism in 1911, the period from 1900 to 1911 brought no dramatic changes of direction to Brazilian poetry.

1996, Marta Peixoto, “11: Brazilian Poetry from 1900 to 1912”, in Roberto Gonzalez Echevarría, Enrique Pupo-Walker, editors, The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature, Volume 3, Cambridge University Press, page 233:

(literature) A French literary style which began during the positivist period of the 19th century.


biopath

One biopath revealed masked tuberculosis with 14 of 46 patients, while another biopath only revealed this problem in 1 of 12.

1996, Sarah Cant, Ursula Sharma, Complementary and Alternative Medicines: Knowledge in Practice, page 123:

Biopaths like this one were low-rated telepaths whose powers lay in speaking to bodies rather than minds.

2017, K. Hippolite, The Rocket Girl's Tale, unnumbered page:

However, all telepathic biopaths were open to the committee members, who closed their eyes to listen to the sing-song voice of their first alien on planet Orthus.

2019, Darryl Gopaul, Encyclopedia Library, unnumbered page:

(parapsychology, science fiction) A person with the telepathic ability to manipulate the physiology (e.g. heart rate, breathing or brainwaves) and voluntary motor functions of other people or organisms.


Vegan

Tommy looked deflated. He stepped back slightly, shaking his head. "Never saw such a resemblance. Are you a Vegan?" "No," Bart lied flatly. "Aldebaran. David Briscoe."

1963, Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Colors of Space:

(science fiction) Someone from the vicinity of the star Vega.


astroengineering

(science fiction) The construction of megastructures in space by technologically advanced beings.


ringworld

From ring + world, introduced by Larry Niven in the novel Ringworld (1970).

(science fiction) An artificial megastructure in space, consisting of a rotating ring encircling a star and having an inhabitable inner surface with gravity produced through centripetal force.


Betelgeusian

(astronomy, science fiction) Relating to the star Betelgeuse or to inhabitants of the Betelgeuse system.


Betelgeusian

Betelgeusians (plural)
Betelgeusean (alternative)

(science fiction) An inhabitant of the Betelgeuse system.


Betelgeusian

(science fiction) The language spoken by Betelgeusians.


mimiamb

From mimiambus, possibly from French mimiambe, from Ancient Greek μιμιάμβους (mimiámbous, “mime-iamb”), from μῖμος (mîmos, “actor, imitator”) + ἴαμβος (íambos, “iamb”).

der

Its discovery, after a sleep of some five centuries and a half, will be as great a surprise to meteorologists as a new classical text, such as the ‘Mimiambs’ of Herondas, to Greek scholars.

1891 November 28, The Athenæum, number 3344, London: J. Lection, →OCLC, page 726:

For example, the school scene in the third mimiamb, the outburst of fierce jealousy on the part of Bitinna in Herondas and that of the Oxyrhynchus μοιχευτρία, the obscene conversation in the sixth mimiamb, and the tales of adultery committed by women which, according to Aristocles, formed the chief subject of the poems recited by the λυσιῳδοί.

1917, Ph[ilippe] E[rnest] Legrand, translated by James Loeb, The New Greek Comedy, London: W. Heinemann; New York, N.Y.: G.P. Putnam's Sons, →OCLC, page 524:

Matius's mimiambs have not survived complete, but the extant remains may not be unrepresentative of his general style of writing.

2014, Costas Panayotakis, “Hellenistic Mime and Its Reception in Rome”, in Michael Fontaine, Adele C. Scafuro, editors, The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Comedy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 387:

(literature, Ancient Greece, rare) A short humorous dramatic scene in verse.


antiliterary

en-adj

antiliterary (comparative more antiliterary, superlative most antiliterary)

more antiliterary (comparative)
most antiliterary (superlative)

(literature) Relating to antiliterature; defying the conventions of literature.


rhyme royal

en-noun

rhyme royal (countable and uncountable, plural rhymes royal)

rhymes royal (plural)
rime royal (alternative)

This term was reportedly first used in the mid-1800s.

Perhaps the most engaging of the Rowley poems are "An Excelente Balade of Charitie," written in the rhyme royal; and "The Bristowe Tragedie," in the common ballad stanza.

1898, Henry Augustin Beers, chapter 10, in 18th Century: A History of English Romanticism:

(uncountable, poetry) A form of English verse consisting of seven-line stanzas of iambic pentameter having a rhyme scheme of ababbcc, first represented in English in works by Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400).

Chaucer for years before the Prologue to LGW had been writing heroic couplets at the close of each of his rhymes royal.

1938 Jan, H. S. V. Jones, “Brief Mention”, in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, volume 37, number 1, page 126:

(countable, poetry) A single stanza of this form.


ballstock

(printing, historical) The handle of a printer's ball.


starbase

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

(science fiction) A base (for trading, military operations, etc.) located in space, among the stars.


slugthrower

He had been pulling the trigger of his slugthrower all this time, but now the firing pin clicked at last upon an empty firing chamber.

1965 December, Gordon R. Dickson, “Warrior”, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, volume 76, →ISSN, page 71:

Each had a holstered sidearm: slugthrower, not stunner.

1978, Poul Anderson, The Avatar, New York: Berkley, →ISBN, →OL, page 162:

From the confident manner with which she held her long-barreled slugthrower, Mirina guessed that some of the medals were for marksmanship.

1996, Jody Lynn Nye, The Ship Errant, Baen, →ISBN, →OL, page 65:

(science fiction) A firearm that fires bullets.


Eldar

Eldar (plural)
Eldars (plural)
eldar (alternative)

→ Russian: Эльда́р (Elʹdár)

Coined by J. R. R. Tolkien as Quenya Eldar, plural of Elda.

(science fiction) An elflike race of aliens from Warhammer 40,000, now known as Aeldari.

Эльда́р

magical humanoids from Tolkien's writings


bat'leth

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-bat'leth.wav

From Klingon betleH, short for batlh'etlh (“sword of honor”).

It is a bat'leth. It belonged to my father... It has been in our family for ten generations.

1990 November 5, “Reunion”, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 4, episode 7, spoken by Worf (Michael Dorn):

The U.K. is looking to clean up its streets with a knife amnesty program, so you can imagine their surprise when a Klingon, er, excuse me, a Klingon fan, turned in a replica Bat’leth over the weekend.

2008 August 25, Jack Loftus, “U.K. Knife Amnesty Program Turns Up Klingon Bat’leth, No Sign of Worf”, in Gizmodo Australia, archived from the original on 2016-03-04:

Officers searched the area but didn't find the robber or the weapon, which was described as a "bat'leth."

2009 February 4, Kieran Nicholson, “Klingon sword used in two Colorado Springs heists”, in Denver Post:

Howard: Why did you bring that?
Sheldon: No weapon strikes more fear into a man's heart than a Klingon bat'leth.
Leonard: OK, let's get clear on something. We just gonna tell this guy to transfer all your stuff back into your account and then be on our way. No one's bat'lething anybody.

2011 March 31, “The Zarnecki Incursion” (15:59), in The Big Bang Theory, season 4, episode 19, spoken by Howard Wolowitz, Sheldon Cooper, and Leonard Hofstadter (Simon Helberg, Jim Parsons, and Johnny Galecki):

(science fiction) A double-ended curved blade weapon with spiked protrusions, controlled by grips along its back, used by Klingons in Star Trek.


selfcest

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

And this is where selfcest comes in. For those unfamiliar with Adventure Time, it has two series: the main, phallogocentric one, Adventure Time, and another spin-off version, Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, in which gender-flipped versions of the original characters are presented. Marceline spawns Marshall Lee, Jake turns into Cake, Finn becomes Fionna, Princess Bubblegum is chewed up and spat out as Prince Gumball… you get the picture. Enter Fanfiction, which causes them to hook up. Creepy, yes.

2013, Boo Patrick, "Selfcest", Manifesto (University of New South Wales College of Fine Arts), April 2013, page 8

Several Loki fans shared their horror over the idea of Loki and Sylvie getting together, as it would be an example of selfcest.

2021 July 2, Sabrina Barr, “Loki fans defend Marvel series over ‘queerbaiting’ claims as director says God of Mischief’s bisexuality won’t be explored further”, in Metro, UK:

'"The Time Traveler's Wife” having selfcest was not on my 2022 bingo card,' another [Twitter] user commented.

2022 May 25, Erica Tempesta, “'Selfcest was not on my 2022 bingo card': The Time Traveler's Wife baffles viewers with 'wild' and 'disturbing' oral sex scene between the HBO show's protagonist and HIMSELF”, in The Daily Mail:

(fandom slang, fiction) Sexual activity with an alternate version of oneself, such as a clone, duplicate, alter ego, or a version of oneself from a different time or alternate universe.


Menippean

en-adj

Menippean (comparative more Menippean, superlative most Menippean)

more Menippean (comparative)
most Menippean (superlative)

Without a doubt, the most unusual, the most conspicuous, and the most Menippean feature of the curious verbal landscape of Finnegans Wake is the ten 'thunderclaps.'

1997, Eric McLuhan, The Role of Thunder in Finnegans Wake, University of Toronto Press, page x:

The most Menippean of these were written by John Harington of Kelston, who was first banished from court for his 1596 Metamorphosis of Ajax (a satire against the Earl of Leicester and a pun on 'a jakes,' the first flushing toilet in Britain, of Harington's own design), followed by An anatomie of the metamorphosed Ajax, and Ulysses upon Ajax.

2011, Mark Somos, Secularisation and the Leiden Circle, BRILL, page 249:

Salman Rushdie's new work of 2017, his novel The Golden House, is not just a Menippean satire; it is a novel about Menippean satire.

2019, Amy L. Friedman, Postcolonial Satire: Indian Fiction and the Reimagining of Menippean Satire, Rowman & Littlefield (Lexington Books), page 128:

However plausible such arguments, I should like respectfully to disagree. My position is closer to that of Dustin Griffin in his recent book—that the ludic is inherent in satire, especially the more menippean kind.

2021, J. Douglas Canfield, Tricksters and Estates, University Press of Kentucky, unnumbered page:

(literature) Of or relating to a form of satire, usually in prose, which has a length and structure similar to a novel and is characterized by attacking mental attitudes instead of specific individuals.


Varronian

Varronian (comparative more Varronian, superlative most Varronian)

more Varronian (comparative)
most Varronian (superlative)

From Latin Varrōniānus, from Varrō + -iānus.

(literature) Synonym of Menippean (“style of satire”).


spacedock

(science fiction) A place where spacecraft can dock.


sidebearing

(typography) The margin of empty space around a glyph in a font, measured from the glyph contour's leftmost, rightmost, topmost and bottommost points to the sides of its bounding box


Conehead

Coneheads (plural)
conehead (alternative)

(fiction) One of a fictional race of humanoid aliens with conical skulls.


dodoitsu

(poetry) A specific form of Japanese poem without rhyme, having lines of 7-7-7-5 morae.


punchcutter

Early punch-cutters appeared to have forged their own steel blanks, and the manner in which they finished their punches can often identify their work.

2009, James Mosley, edited by Michael F Suarez and Michael L Turner, The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, vol. V, Cambridge, published 2014, page 170:

(typography) Someone who carries out punchcutting; a person who makes punches for type founders.


punchcutting

(typography) The craft of cutting letter punches in steel from which matrices were made in copper for type founding in the letterpress era.


Amalthean

/æməlˈθiːən/

(science fiction) A native or inhabitant of Amalthea.


cybersurgeon

(science fiction) A robot that performs the duties of a surgeon.


robodoc

Other than the most exceptional transplants, all operations were performed by cybersurgeons. These were robodocs, ArtAn nets hooked up to precision machines. They were exact and fast and dexterous.

2005, Alan Robbins, A Small Box of Chaos, page 64:

Sheppard observed several crew begin installing some of the robodocs in the medbay who would act as triage and initial aid to any wounded crew members or space marines.

(science fiction) A robot that performs the duties of a doctor or surgeon.


typecutter

(printing, historical) A person who cuts the die used in traditional printing.


electrovore

/ɪˈlɛktɹəvɔː(ɹ)/

In Cosmos, Carl Sagan speculates on the existence of extraterrestrial civilisations, which he characterises pretentiously by means of hypothetical summaries such as: "cryogen supercooled electrovores with neutron crystal dense packing and modular starminers ..."

1984 November 8, Peter Forbes, “The silicon solution”, in New Scientist:

! WE DO NOT CONSUME EARTH FOOD. WE ARE ELECTROVORES. IF YOU
! HAVE A SURGE PROTECTOR WE WOULD BE MOST OBLIGED.

1998 October 30, Rollin Thomas, “New Borg Graduate Student.”, in talk.bizarre (Usenet):

There were, Gregory knew, AIs residing within implants in dolphin brains now designed to bridge the linguistic barriers between the species, but those translations had only proven that dolphin brains were as alien to humans as the group minds of the abyssal electrovores inhabiting the under-ice ocean of Enceladus.

2013, Ian Douglas, Deep Space: Star Carrier, HarperCollins, →ISBN:

(science fiction) An organism or entity which feeds on electricity.


warp drive

(physics, science fiction) A technological device that warps spacetime to enable movement through space in a non-Newtonian manner.

(science fiction) An engine that allows a vessel to travel faster-than-light by manipulating spacetime to bypass Einstein's restrictive light barrier.


hard science fiction

Coined by American critic P. Schuyler Miller in 1957.

coin

(science fiction) A subgenre of science fiction that focuses on technical detail and scientific accuracy.


soft science fiction

After hard science fiction, attributed to Peter Nicholls.

(science fiction) A subgenre of science fiction that focuses on the nature of its speculative societies or that employs pseudoscience.


kharja

Borrowed from Arabic خَرْجَة (ḵarja, literally “final”).

bor+

(poetry) The final refrain of a muwashshah.


hooktop

(typography) Having a hook-like element at the top, as in some phonetic symbols such as Ɓ ("hooktop B").


workscreen

(rare, sometimes science fiction) A computer display that one can work at.


Kinbotean

(literature) A proponent of an interpretation of Vladimir Nabokov's 1962 novel Pale Fire according to which the ostensible author John Shade is in fact an invention of the character Charles Kinbote.


thirteener

thirteeners (plural)
Thirteener (alternative)

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

affix

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


science fact

en-noun

science fact (countable and uncountable, plural science facts)

science facts (plural)
science-fact (alternative)

From science + fact, by analogy with science fiction.

Is it that science fact has gone beyond science fiction?

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

It is based on science fact.

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

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

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

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


paradelle

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

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


imposing stone

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


saas-bahu

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


Selenite

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

uder

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

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

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


Selenite

a Selenite colony

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

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

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


Middle-Earth

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


Earthship

Earthships (plural)
earthship (alternative)
Earth ship (alternative)
earth-ship (alternative)
Earth-ship (alternative)

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

coinage

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


throwout

en-noun

throwout (countable and uncountable, plural throwouts)

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

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


plasteel

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

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

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

(science fiction) A fictional durable substance.


box-drawing character

box-drawing character (plural box-drawing characters)

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


battlesuit

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


alternative press

alternative press (usually uncountable, plural alternative presses)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Titanean

Titaneans (plural)
Titanian (alternative)

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


oxia

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

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

οξεία

Ancient Greek diacritic marking high or rising pitch


outworlder

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

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

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

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

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

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

1998, Celia S. Friedman, This Alien Shore:

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


chapter book

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

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


magical Negro

magical Negros (plural)
magical negro (alternative)

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


run upon sorts

en-verb

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

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

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

American Printer and Lithographer (volume 25, page 327)

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


pantropy

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

coinage

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


galley slice

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


line-height

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

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

(typography) The height of a line of text.


hengeyokai

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

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

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

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

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

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


scoutship

(science fiction) A spaceship that carries out reconnaissance.


stardrive

stardrives (plural)
star drive (alternative)
star-drive (alternative)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


bioreading

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


holorecording

(science fiction) A holographic recording.


gentlebeing

From gentle + being, modelled on gentleman.

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

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

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


starfighter

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

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


starcruiser

(science fiction) A spaceship analogous to a cruiser.


antinovelistic

en-adj

antinovelistic (comparative more antinovelistic, superlative most antinovelistic)

more antinovelistic (comparative)
most antinovelistic (superlative)

(literature) Of or relating to an antinovel.


antiacceleration

antiacceleration (comparative more antiacceleration, superlative most antiacceleration)

more antiacceleration (comparative)
most antiacceleration (superlative)

(science fiction) Preventing or counteracting acceleration.


antiepic

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

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

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

antiépico

a literary work challenging the conventions of the epic


antiepic

antiepic (comparative more antiepic, superlative most antiepic)

more antiepic (comparative)
most antiepic (superlative)

(literature) Challenging the conventions of the epic.


antipastoral

antipastoral (comparative more antipastoral, superlative most antipastoral)

more antipastoral (comparative)
most antipastoral (superlative)

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


antipastoral

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


fleshling

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


werejackal

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


hypertravel

(science fiction) travel through hyperspace


secretary hand

en-noun

secretary hand (countable and uncountable, plural secretary hands)

secretary hands (plural)
Secretary hand (alternative)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


chancery hand

chancery hands (plural)
Chancery hand (alternative)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


printer's ream

(UK, printing, dated) Twenty-one and a half quires of paper, i.e. 516 sheets.


holovision

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

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

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

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

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

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

(science fiction) holographic television


dirtside

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

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


dirtsider

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


fragmentism

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


small pica

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


Galactic

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

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

universal language
universal language#Noun

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


Carolingian minuscule

Carolingian minuscule (usually uncountable, plural Carolingian minuscules)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


antigraviton

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


elf arrow

From the folk belief that they were used by elves.

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

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

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


Leonine verse

Leonine verse (countable and uncountable, plural Leonine verses)

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


composing frame

composing frame (plural composing frames)

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


composing rule

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


double letter

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


photobank

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

(science fiction) A bank of photoelectric cells.


bastard type

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


ornithoid

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

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


male rhyme

male rhyme (countable and uncountable, plural male rhymes)

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


Perdita

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

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


pressor beam

pressor beams (plural)
presser beam (alternative)

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

coin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


repulsor beam

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


presser beam

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

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

(science fiction) Alternative form of pressor beam.


andy

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

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

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

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

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Philip K. Dick


fafiate

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

af

After she got that job she became a fafiate.

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


misery lit

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


space rule

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


space line

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


neofan

neofans (plural)
neofen (plural)
neo (alternative clipping)

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

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

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

1988, Sharyn McCrumb, Bimbos of the Death Sun:

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

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

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

2006 May 7, Arnie Katz, “The Thin Veneer”, in confuSon, volume 1, number 4:

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


Belter

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

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

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

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

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


ageless sleep

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

1959, Erdman Penner, Sleeping Beauty (film)

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


eternal sleep

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

1959, Erdmann Penner, Sleeping Beauty (film)

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


dinkus

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

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

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

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


Earthie

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

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

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

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

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


Earthgirl

Earthgirls (plural)
earthgirl (alternative)

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

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

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


Earthperson

en-noun

Earthperson (plural Earthpersons or Earthpeople)

Earthpersons (plural)
Earthpeople (plural)

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

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

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

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

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

1974, Donald Newlove, The Drunks, page 140:

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

1983, James White, Sector General, page 24:

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

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

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


holodisk

holodisks (plural)
holodisc (alternative)

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


foot stick

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


protag

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

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

(informal, fiction, writing) Clipping of protagonist.


mock-heroic

en-adj

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

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

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

scig-ghaisciúil

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


mock-heroic

(literature) A work in the mockheroic style.


repulsor

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


proof sheet

proof sheets (plural)
proofsheet (alternative)

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

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

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


medkit

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


datapad

datapads (plural)
data-pad (alternative)
data pad (alternative)

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

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


logaoedic

/lɒɡəˈiːdɪk/

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

affix

logaedic (alternative)
logaœdic (alternative)

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

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

The Glyconeus, which has a logaœdic order.

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

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

1855, Linwood, Greek Tragic Metres, page 79:

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

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

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

logaœdique

of metres rhythmically between speech and song


logaoedic

logaoedics (plural)
logaedic (alternative)
logaœdic (alternative)

/lɒɡəˈiːdɪk/

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

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


r rotunda

en-noun

r rotunda (plural rs rotunda or rs rotundae)

rs rotunda (plural)
rs rotundae (plural)

/ˌɑː.ɹəʊˈtʌn.də/

/ˌɑɹ.ɹoʊˈtʌn.də/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


broodling

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


brevis in longo

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


48mo (usually uncountable, plural 48mos)


Gibsonesque

en-adj

Gibsonesque (comparative more Gibsonesque, superlative most Gibsonesque)

more Gibsonesque (comparative)
most Gibsonesque (superlative)

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

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

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

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

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


skinwalking

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


graser

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

acronym

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

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

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

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

electromagnetic radiation
electromagnetic radiation

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


Petrarchanism

/pɪˈtɹɑːkənɪzəm/

/pɛˈtɹɑɹkənɪzəm/

(literature) The influential style of Petrarch.


scripta continua

scriptio continua
scriptio continua#English

(typography, epigraphy) Synonym of scriptio continua.


scriptio continua

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

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


undecasyllabic

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

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

(linguistics, poetry) Having eleven syllables.


moon rune

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


moeblob

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


vidtape

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


smooth breathing

en-noun

smooth breathing (plural smooth breathings)

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


robot revolution

robot revolution (plural robot revolutions)

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

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


dandere

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


robocop

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

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

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

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

Robocops, touted by state media as a way of beefing up Shenzhen’s security apparatus, are nowhere to be seen.

2025 April 21, Amy Hawkins, “Humanoid workers and surveillance buggies: ‘embodied AI’ is reshaping daily life in China”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(science fiction) A cyborg police officer.


painstick

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


unlead

en-verb

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

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

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


typecase

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


little folk

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

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


blastor

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

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

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


ultrabold

en-adj

ultrabold (comparative more ultrabold, superlative most ultrabold)

more ultrabold (comparative)
most ultrabold (superlative)

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

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

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

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

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

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

(typography) Bolder than a typical bold typeface.


EPUB

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


nani

Nani the hell?


AIP

(printing technology) acoustic inkjet printing


IJP

(printing technology) Initialism of inkjet printing.


galactography

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

coin

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

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

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

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

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


galactographer

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

suffix

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

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

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

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

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

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

(science fiction) A specialist in galactography.


galactographic

en-adj

galactographic (comparative more galactographic, superlative most galactographic)

more galactographic (comparative)
most galactographic (superlative)

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

suffix

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


great primer

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

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


Vancian

en-adj

Vancian (comparative more Vancian, superlative most Vancian)

more Vancian (comparative)
most Vancian (superlative)
Vancean (alternative)

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

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

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


sideshadowing

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


partheniac

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

bor

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


partheniac

partheniacs (plural)
Partheniac (alternative)

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


Partheniac

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

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


Partheniac

Partheniacs (plural)
partheniac (alternative)


isosyllabism

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

(linguistics, poetry) the use of isosyllabic verse


isosyllabic

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

isosyllabique

of meters with syllables of equal length


anisosyllabic

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

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

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

anisosillabico

of meters with syllables of differing length


anisosyllabism

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

(linguistics, poetry) the use of anisosyllabic verse


isosyllabicity

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


alternative history

en-noun

alternative history (usually uncountable, plural alternative histories)

(fiction) A genre of fiction based around or involving ahistorical events (often occurring after a fixed point of divergence from real history).


Acme

Acme
Acme Corporation
Looney Tunes
Warner Bros.
trademark
yellow pages

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

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

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

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

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

(fiction) A generic or monopoly company.


proto-science fiction

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


electromancer

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


Niven ring

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

named-after

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


virch

en-noun

virch (countable and uncountable, plural virches)

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

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

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

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

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

2015, James Bradley, Clade, unnumbered page:

(informal, science fiction) virtual reality


xenozoology

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

Xenozoologie

xenology dealing with extraterrestrial cultures