dénouement

dénouement (countable and uncountable, plural dénouements)

dénouements (plural)
denouement (alternative)
dénoûment (alternative)

Unadapted borrowing from French dénouement (“resolution”, literally “unknotting”).

ubor

Emily was a great favourite with him; and he had always viewed the attachment, at whose dénouement between her and Lorraine, Lady Mandeville meant to preside, as a somewhat foolish romance.

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 271:

At last this affair is moving towards the explosive dénouement he has been craving — the revelation, the release of tension, that will shake the universe in one fierce convulsion, and then allow everything to fall back into its rightful place, restored to normality!

2002, Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White, Canongate Books (2010), page 830:

(authorship, often figuratively) The conclusion or resolution of a plot; unravelling.


monkey boy

monkey boys (plural)
monkeyboy (alternative)

(derogatory, science fiction) Term of offense directed at male humans in general.


fac

If a Fac or Flowered letter be deeper than the Composing-stick we measure the exact width of it by Quotations, or common Quadrats; which we put into our Stick, and the Fac into the Galley, and then compose, and empty each time so many lines as our measure in the Stick will allow, till we have composed so many as reach something beyond the Depth of the Fac, that by justifying it up to the lines, its touching the letters underneath may be prevented.

1771, Philip Luckombe, The History and Art of Printing, page 385:

This combination of art and accident may be continued to any given length, as punches for letter-press may be formed of steel broken as above, by cutting, drilling, punching, bending (and all their varieties upon the same principle) parts of the letters and leaving the grain of the steel, &c. to form the lines or strokes, with all its accidental irregularities, and in this way title letters and two-line letters, facs, and complex founts of types, might be cast, every letter of which would vary in its lines from every other, and in larger letters a little art might be combin'd with accident so as to make the distinctions from all others obvious to a common observer.

1859, Robert Barclay, “A.D. 1790, July 26 -- No. 1766”, in Great Britain. Patent Office, editor, Patents for Invention, page 101:

The Fac Initial, a cheap substitute for the Pierced Initial, is made by combinations of small borders about an interior letter. As these borders are troublesome to construct and too often plainly show their joints, the Fac Initial is seldom made now.

1907, De Vinne Press, Types of the De Vinne Press, page 45:

(typography, rare) A factotum letter, or a similar kind of ornamentally bordered letter formerly used at the start of a chapter or section of a book.


photo-offset

en-noun

photo-offset (countable and uncountable, plural photo-offsets)

(printing) A method of offset printing that uses photolithographic plates.


photo-offset

en-verb

photo-offset (third-person singular simple present photo-offsets, present participle photo-offsetting, simple past and past participle photo-offset)

photo-offsets (present singular third-person)
photo-offsetting (participle present)
photo-offset (participle past)
photo-offset (past)

(ambitransitive, printing) To print by this method.


haikai

en-noun

haikai (countable and uncountable, plural haikai)

Borrowed from Japanese 俳(はい)諧(かい) (haikai).

A form of Japanese comic verse, featuring satire and puns.


ronde

(typography, dated) A kind of script in which the heavy strokes are nearly upright, giving the characters when taken together a round look.


fembot

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Blend of female + -bot. Coined by screenwriters Arthur Rowe and Oliver Crawford in the television series The Bionic Woman (1976–1978), specifically in "Kill Oscar" (season 2, episode 5) first broadcast on October 27, 1976.

Yes, the girl is valuable. But, my fembots can do anything she can.

1976 October 27, Arthur Rowe, Oliver Crawford, Kill Oscar (The Bionic Woman), season 2, episode 5, spoken by Dr. Franklin (John Houseman):

Jawohl, Herr Doktor. I have created the ultimate weapon to defeat Austin Powers. Send in the fembots!

1997, Mike Myers, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, spoken by Frau Farbissina (Mindy Sterling):

The body of Eve 8, the fembot, represents both steely industrial strength and the mysteries of microelectronic circuitry.

2003, Jyanni Steffensen, “Doing It Digitally: Rosalind Brodsky and the Art of Virtual Female Subjectivity”, in Reload: Rethinking Women + Cyberculture, The MIT Press, →ISBN, page 218:

(science fiction) A robot in female or feminine form.

A robot in female or feminine form.
A female sexbot.


X-ray vision

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-X-ray vision.wav

(fiction, by extension) The ability or superpower to see through most or all solid objects as if they were transparent.


photokinesis

photokinesis (usually uncountable, plural photokineses)

(parapsychology, science fiction) The ability to mentally manipulate light.


photolithography

From photo- (“light, photography”) + lithography.

prefix

(printing) A lithographic procedure in which printing plates are made using a photographic process.


breakout character

en-noun

breakout character (plural breakout characters)

(film, television, literature) A character who becomes the most popular, talked about, and imitated, helping to establish the narrative's popularity.


BFG

(literature) Initialism of Big Friendly Giant.


antihero

antiheroes (plural)
anti-hero (alternative)

/ˈæn.tɪˌhɪə.ɹəʊ/

Alienation: A stage on the downside of the passage wherein the holdfast and the antihero take actions which bring about a disintegration of personality.

2006, James Bonnet, Stealing Fire from the Gods: The Complete Guide to Story for Writers and Filmmakers:

The Deadpool fly is a species of Robber fly, which are “assassins of the insect world” – fitting for the mercenary antihero.

2020 July 29, Jessie Yeung, “Australia names new species after Deadpool, Thor, and other Marvel favorites”, in CNN:

Fictional male antiheroes like television’s crime patriarchs Tony Soprano and Walter White have reigned for some time, but the antiheroine has only more recently had the opportunity to rise up – and become the cause of her own downfall. […] Grayson serves as an archetype for a female antihero not driven by much except for her own ambition, and she’s quite fine with that.

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

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

A Clockwork Orange (novel)
Alex (A Clockwork Orange)
Batman
Breaking Bad
DC Comics
Deadpool
Dollars Trilogy
Don Quixote
Don Quixote (character)
God of War (franchise)
Hamlet
Han Solo
Image Comics
Kratos (God of War)
Man with No Name
Marvel Comics
Prince Hamlet
Punisher
Spawn (character)
Star Wars
Walter White (Breaking Bad)


monometer

(poetry) A line of verse containing a single metrical foot.


concetto

/kənˈt͡ʃɛtəʊ/

Borrowed from Italian concetto, from Latin conceptus. See conceit and concept, which are doublets.

Tasso in particular, Mirollo notes, treated the concetto "as the equivalent in a lyric poem of plot in longer works." Pellegrino, similarly, and with reference to Tasso, says that concetti "are the soul and the form of a composition" […]

1997, James Biester, Lyric Wonder: Rhetoric and Wit in Renaissance English Poetry, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 32:

But to restrict the concetto to an idea or concept gives short shrift to the metaphorical and sometimes occult implications of the term. Conceit as discors concordia involves the comparison of unlike things, the finding of similarity in dissimilarity.

2006, Vernon Hyde Minor, The Death of the Baroque and the Rhetoric of Good Taste, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 9:

(literature) Affected wit; a witty turn of phrase; a conceit.


double-spaced

All I do know for certain is that I had something happy and exciting to tell you—and on just one side of the paper, doublespaced — and I knew when I got home that it was mostly gone, or all gone, and there was nothing left to do but go through the motions.

1957, J. D. Salinger, “Zooey”, in Franny and Zooey, published 1961:

(typography) Formatted so that there is a full blank line between each line of text; the style of formatting required by many entities inside business, academia, and publishing.


single-space

en-verb

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

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

(transitive, typography) To type (or format) text without leaving a blank line between each line of text.

(intransitive, typography) To type (or format) text with only one space between consecutive sentences.


hair space

(letterpress typography) A piece of metal type used to create the narrowest space.

(typography, US) The narrowest space appearing between letters and punctuation.


shooting stick

(printing, historical) A printer's tool to be struck with a mallet for driving quoins.


space out

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

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

(transitive, dated, typing, printing) To increase the white space between letters, words or lines.


space suppression

(computing, printing) The suppression of the normal advancement of paper in a printer after printing a line of text.


subspace

en-noun

subspace (countable and uncountable, plural subspaces)

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

“If he reconfigures the subspace relays and uploads his own code into them, he'll have access to the computers on every planet, ship, and station.” “Alarming. He could vent oxygen, crash vessels, or even detonate warp cores.” “Everyone in the quadrant's gonna die, and it's all my fault.” “Parents are not directly responsible for the actions of their children.”

2023 October 12, Edgar Momplaisir, “A Few Badgeys More” (16:39 from the start), in Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 4, episode 7, spoken by Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome):

(uncountable, science fiction) Any (often unspecified) method of communicating or travelling faster than light speed.

(uncountable, science fiction) An alternative dimension or universe, access to or use of which permits faster-than-light travel or communications; hyperspace.


hydrokinesis

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

(fantasy, science fiction) The psychic ability to manipulate or control water


white out

en-verb

white out (third-person singular simple present whites out, present participle whiting out, simple past and past participle whited out)

whites out (present singular third-person)
whiting out (participle present)
whited out (participle past)
whited out (past)

(obsolete, printing) To space out a composition for printing.


make-ready

make-readies (plural)
makeready (alternative)

(printing) A sheet of paper on which overlays are pasted for printing.

(printing) The process of preparing such sheets


omniverse

(science fiction) The entire set of co-existing universes, multiverses, etc.


vocalization

en-noun

vocalization (countable and uncountable, plural vocalizations)

vowelization

supplying vowels/diacritics to Arabic and Hebrew words/texts

(orthography) The vowel diacritics in certain scripts, like Hebrew and Arabic, which are not normally written, but which are used in dictionaries, children's books, religious texts and textbooks for learners.

تَشْكِيل

supplying the vowels (diacritics), e.g. Arabic and Hebrew

(orthography, phonology) The addition of these diacritics and the respective phonemes to a word; the spoken form the word thereby receives.


teratoid

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

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

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

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

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

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


coded

en-adj

coded (comparative more coded, superlative most coded)

more coded (comparative)
most coded (superlative)

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

The character comes across as being female-coded.

This character is coded as autistic.

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

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

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


text box

text boxes (plural)
textbox (alternative)

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

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

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


ABCs

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


book signing

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


little green man

en-noun

little green man (plural little green men)

/ˌlɪtəl ˌɡɹiːn ˈmæn/

կանաչ մարդուկ

humorous: space alien, Martian — see also alien

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


electrotype

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


monophonic

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

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

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


sandman

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

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

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

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

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


one-shot

one-shots (plural)
oneshot (alternative)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


ogonek

From Polish ogonek (literally “little tail”).

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

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

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


synchronizer

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

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


RM

RM (countable and uncountable, plural RMs)

(typography) Initialism of right margin.


cheville

Borrowed from French cheville. Doublet of clavicle.

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

1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Art of Writing:

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

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

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


tête-bêche

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

bor

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

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

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


woodblock

woodblocks (plural)
wood block (alternative)

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


drop cap

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


blaster

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

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

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

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

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


letter case

en-noun

letter case (countable and uncountable, plural letter cases)

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


humanist

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


stereotypy

stereotypy (countable and uncountable, plural stereotypies)

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


death ray

The evil aliens' death rays could not penetrate our mighty force fields!

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

The evil alien pointed a death ray at me and ordered me to start marching toward the distant fortress!

(science fiction) A weapon that emits such a ray: a ray gun.


ray gun

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

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

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


halftone

halftones (plural)
half-tone (alternative)

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


perfecting

perfecting (usually uncountable, plural perfectings)

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


superluminal

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

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

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

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

(unpreferred translation due to hyperphoton, hyperphotonic: υπερφωτονικός (yperfotonikós))


headpiece

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

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

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


earthbound

en-adj

earthbound (comparative more earthbound, superlative most earthbound)

more earthbound (comparative)
most earthbound (superlative)
Earthbound (alternative)
earth-bound (alternative)

(science fiction) Heading towards Earth.

a föld felé tartó/közeledő/haladó/irányuló


Spock

en-proper noun

Spock (countable and uncountable, plural Spocks)

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

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

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

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

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


rubai

rubaiyat (plural)
rubais (plural)
ruba'i (alternative)
rubāʿī (alternative)

Borrowed from Arabic رُبَاعِيّ (rubāʕiyy).

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


bagatelle

en-noun

bagatelle (countable and uncountable, plural bagatelles)

Borrowed from French bagatelle, from Italian bagattella.

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

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

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


warp factor

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

From the science-fiction series Star Trek.

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


Earthican

/ˈɜː.θɪ.kən/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Earthican

/ˈɜː.θɪ.kən/

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

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

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


dipinto

Borrowed from Italian dipinto (literally “painting”).

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


Newspeak

Newspeak
Newspeak (programming language)
Nineteen Eighty-Four

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

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


nahualism

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

uder

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


Dyson sphere

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

named-after

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


rubdown

(typography, attributive) Synonym of dry transfer.


runabout

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


runaround

runarounds (plural)
run-around (alternative)
run around (alternative)

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


beanstalk

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

1979, Charles Sheffield, The Web Between the Worlds:

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

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

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

2005 May 7, Bob Parkinson, “Partial Beanstalks for Mars Exploration”, in Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, volume 58, number 05/06, page 197:

(chiefly science fiction) A space elevator.


gynoid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


black letter

en-noun

black letter (countable and uncountable, plural black letters)

black letters (plural)
blackletter (alternative)
black-letter (alternative)

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

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

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

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

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

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


tabbing

tabbing (countable and uncountable, plural tabbings)

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

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


pantsing

pantsing (countable and uncountable, plural pantsings)

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

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

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


hedera

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

(typography) A fleuron depicting an ivy leaf.


sharecropper

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


cancrine

en-adj

cancrine (comparative more cancrine, superlative most cancrine)

more cancrine (comparative)
most cancrine (superlative)

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

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

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

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

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

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


spiritus asper

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

bor

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

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

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

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

examples from the Wade–Giles romanization system


spiritus lenis

Learned borrowing from Latin spīritus lēnis.

lbor

smooth breathing
smooth breathing#English

(orthography) Synonym of smooth breathing.


subscript

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

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

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


subscript

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


skimmer

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

2015, Aurora Springer, Grand Master's Pawn:

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

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

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


personalia

(publishing) Announcements or requests issued in an association's periodical by or about individual members of that association.


yuri

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

Borrowed from Japanese 百合(ゆり) (yuri, “lily”), by analogy to 薔薇(バラ) (bara, “rose”), indicating love. See Yuri (genre) § “Terminology and etymology” at Wikipedia.

(Japanese fiction) A narrative or visual work featuring a romance or sexual relationship between two or more women.

Yuri (genre)
Yuri (genre)#Terminology and etymology

ガールズラブ (gāruzu rabu, literally “girls' love”)

가르즈라부 (gareujeurabu, literally “girls' love”)


grawlix

National Cartoonists Society
The Slate Group

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

kirosanojen sensurointimerkki

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An image resembling an illegible scribble used for this purpose.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


esper

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

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

1942 June 7, Edward Elmer Smith, “Storm Cloud on Deka”, in Astonishing Stories, volume 3, number 4:

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

1950 August 7, Alfred Bester, “The Devil's Invention”, in Astounding Science Fiction, volume 45, number 6, page 139:

extrasensory perception
extrasensory perception

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


planeteer

Blend of planet + volunteer or planet + -eer.

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


copyholder

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

kézirattartó

a device that holds copy in place for typesetting

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


terraform

en-verb

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

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

/ˈtɛɹəfɔː(ɹ)m/

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

coin

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

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

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

maankaltaistaa

transform into one having the characteristics of Earth


camera ready

en-adj

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

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

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


princeps

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

bor+

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


run in

en-adj

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

participial adjective
participial adjective

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

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


run in

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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


rondeau

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

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

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

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

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

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


spin-off

spin-offs (plural)
spinoff (alternative)

→ Russian: спин-о́фф (spin-óff)

carveout

partial spin-off in a corporate reorganization

tie-in

work of fiction based on an original media property

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

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

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

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


deflector

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

1945 May 7, Murray Leinster, “First Contact”, in Astounding Stories, volume 35, number 3:

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

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

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

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

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


butterfly effect

en-noun

butterfly effect (plural butterfly effects)

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

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

coinage

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

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


pantser

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

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

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


encomium

/ɛŋˈkəʊ.mɪ.əm/

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

der

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


strikethrough

en-noun

strikethrough (countable and uncountable, plural strikethroughs)

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

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

(typography) An horizontal line overlaid on other characters.

(oblique)

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


imaginist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


foreshadowing

foreshadowing (usually uncountable, plural foreshadowings)

The roses blooming before Rose herself bloomed was excellent foreshadowing.

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

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

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


Pinkerton syndrome

John Pinkerton
Scottish National Portrait Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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


monotype

monotype (countable and uncountable, plural monotypes)

General American, Canada, biological sense

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

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

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

monotype

a print of some design created on metal or glass

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


sausage factory

sausage factory (plural sausage factories)

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

(literature) An unappealing process to generate something familiar.


sloka meter

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


spidery

en-adj

spidery (comparative more spidery, superlative most spidery)

more spidery (comparative)
most spidery (superlative)

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


OOP

(publishing) Initialism of out of print.


OP

(publishing) Abbreviation of out of print.


topic sentence

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


mindwipe

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


mindwipe

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

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

(science fiction) The act of mindwiping.


wordlist

wordlists (plural)
word list (alternative)
word-list (alternative)

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


reiteration

en-noun

reiteration (countable and uncountable, plural reiterations)

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

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


sestina

From Italian sestina. Doublet of sextain.

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

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

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

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


beam up

en-verb

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

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

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

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


procedural

/pɹəˈsiːd͡ʒ(ə)ɹəl/

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

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

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

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

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


force field

force fields (plural)
forcefield (alternative)
force-field (alternative)

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


forcefield

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

2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:

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


communicator

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

/kəˈmjʉːnɪkæɪtə/

From communicate + -or, after Latin commūnicātor (“partner, sharer, participant”); compare Middle French communicateur (“sharer, participant”).

cog

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

1934 August 7, Edward Elmer Smith, “Skylark of Valeron”, in Astounding Stories, volume 13, number 6:

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

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

(science fiction) A usually portable communications device.


transversion

en-noun

transversion (countable and uncountable, plural transversions)

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


obelus

obeluses (plural)
obeli (plural)
obolus (alternative)

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

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

der

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

օբելիուս

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


hivemind

hiveminds (plural)
hive mind (alternative)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


zoomorphism

zoomorphisms (plural)
zoömorphism (alternative)

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

zoomorfizm

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


time tunnel

(science fiction) A passageway enabling time travel.


cultism

en-noun

cultism (countable and uncountable, plural cultisms)

From cult + -ism. The linguistic sense is from Spanish cultismo.


miniaturize

en-verb

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

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

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


hyperdrive

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

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


BEM

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

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

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

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

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


dust jacket

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


ithyphallic

en-adj

ithyphallic (comparative more ithyphallic, superlative most ithyphallic)

more ithyphallic (comparative)
most ithyphallic (superlative)

/ˌɪθɪˈfælɪk/

/ˌɪθɪˈfælɪk/

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

refn

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

cog

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


chunking

en-noun

chunking (countable and uncountable, plural chunkings)

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


memorate

memorates (plural)
memorat (alternative)

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

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

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

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


Morlock

Coined by British science fiction author H. G. Wells in 1895; possibly influenced by Morlach or Moloch.

coinage

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


antigravity

(science fiction) Alternative spelling of anti-gravity.


soucouyant

soucouyants (plural)
soucriant (alternative)

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

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

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

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

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


finisher

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


katabasis

en-noun

katabasis (countable and uncountable, plural katabases)

katabases (plural)
catabasis (alternative)

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

From Ancient Greek κατάβασις (katábasis), from verb καταβαίνω (katabaínō, from κατά (katá, “downwards”) + βαίνω (baínō, “go”)).

af

The ancient Greeks and the peoples of remote antiquity already knew of journeys of the soul, but these were often journeys to the infernal regions, descents into hell, catabases, with obstacles, such as encounters with various monsters, menaces of all sorts, the crossing of the bridge of the dead or the passage of mysterious rivers on foot or on horseback.

1923, Georges Berguer, translated by E. S. Brooks and Van Wyck Brooks, Some aspects of the life of Jesus from the psychological and psycho-analytic point of view, page 58:

The logic of the underworld is most on show in the Phaedra and the Hercules [of Seneca], which feature the returns of Theseus and Hercules from their katabases.

2009, James Ker, The Deaths of Seneca, page 136:

Willy, the concentration camp survivor who has experienced more evil than any other character, places no value on catabasis. When asked (in connection with Aeneid VI) 'Do you think everyone ought to descend to the underworld?', he replies briskly, 'Certainly not! It's very dark and stuffy and one is more likely to feel frightened than to learn anything.[…]'

2010, P. Martin, Anne Rowe, Iris Murdoch: A Literary Life, page 84:

Therefore, Erling Holtsmark's point that literary-mythic katabasis captures “the imagined physical orientation of the other world relative to this one” (25), is superseded in a post-mythic, ostensibly secular worldview by a journey that takes place within an underworld that is an exteriorized 'projection' of a protagonist's putative interior world, the domain especially of the unconscious, memory and dream.

2013, Russell J.A. Kilbourn, “Introduction”, in Cinema, Memory, Modernity:The Representation of Memory from the Art Film to Transnational Cinema, page 31:

(mythology, literature) A mytheme or trope in which the hero embarks on a journey to the underworld.


justifier

When the operator starts typing the third line, the justifier goes to work on the second.

1955, Book Production, volumes 61-62, page 43:

(computing, typography) A machine, program or algorithm that justifies text by aligning it.


replicator

Why, this planet was still centuries away from developing such necessities as personal replicators or portable nano-intelligences...

2001, Greg Cox, The Eugenics Wars Vol I: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh (Star Trek), Star Trek, →ISBN, page 76:

either there is not such thing as a concept known as 'spacecraft' (inwhich case, any talk of spacecraft, warp drives, inertial dampers, replicators, and the like would be pointless), or indeed there is.

2001, Judith Barad, Ed Robertson, The Ethics of Star Trek, Harper Perennial, →ISBN, page 74:

The scanner here on Earth will destroy my brain and body, while recording the exact states of all of my cells. It will the transmit this information by radio. Travelling at the speed of light, the message will take three minutes to reach the Replicator on Mars. This will then create, out of new matter, a brain and body exactly like mine. It will be in this body that I shall wake up.

2007, Douglas Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop, Basic Books, →ISBN, pages 301–302:

(science fiction) A technological device that replicates physical objects.


vers de societe

(poetry) A type of light poetry suited to the amusement of polite upper-class society.


villanelle

From the French villanelle, from Italian villanella, from villano (“peasant”), from Latin vīllānus (“farmhand”), from vīlla (“estate”). The origin references the pastoral themes originally associated with this form.

By definition the villanelle is restrictive, because it demands nineteen lines on two rhymes in six stanzas, the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the concluding quatrain.

1966, Louise Baughan Murdy, Sound and sense in Dylan Thomas's poetry (Studies in English Literature), The Hague: Mouton & Co, →ISBN, page 96:

(poetry) A type of poem, consisting of five tercets and one quatrain, with only two rhymes.


triolet

The triolet, like the sestina and several other forms of French-derived poetry, is a form of rhyming poetry that has lines that repeat.

2005, Connie Homan Weaver, Poetry a la Carte, Prufrock Press Inc., →ISBN, page 110:

(poetry) An eight-line poem whose rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB and whose lines are in iambic tetrameter.


ergodic

en-adj

ergodic (comparative more ergodic, superlative most ergodic)

more ergodic (comparative)
most ergodic (superlative)

International Scientific Vocabulary ergo- + -ode (+ -ic). The etymological origin is disputed: ἔργον (érgon) + ὁδός (hodós, “way”) versus ἔργον (érgon) + εἶδος (eîdos, “image”).

Therefore this chapter moves into two directions, cybertextually expanding (and reorganizing) the field of architextuality, and specifying the ergodic variety within it.

2012, Markku Eskelinen, Cybertext Poetics:

(literature, information science) Of or relating to a literary work that requires nontrivial effort on the reader's part to traverse.


process color

process colors (plural)
process colour (alternative Commonwealth)

(printing) A printing process which uses four specific colored inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK), and halftone printing plates, to reproduce a range of colors.


novum

en-noun

novum (countable and uncountable, plural novums or nova)

In his book Metamorphoses of Science Fiction (1979), Suvin introduced a number of ideas that remain central in sf criticism: cognitive estrangement, the novum and sf's genetic link with utopia.[…]Even more influential in sf theory than cognitive estrangement is Suvin's concept of the novum.[…]Suvin adopts the concept of the novum from the work of Ernst Bloch, for whom the term refers to those concrete innovations of lived history that awaken human collective consciousness out of a static present to awareness that history can be changed. The novum thus inspires hope for positive historical transformations.

2003, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., “7: Marxist theory and science fiction”, in Edward James, Farah Mendlesohn, editors, The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, Cambridge University Press, page 118:

It seems that this ‘point of difference’, the thing or things that differentiate the world portrayed in science fiction from the world we recognise around us, is the crucial separator between SF and other forms of imaginative or fantastic literature. The critic Darko Suvin has usefully coined the term ‘novum’, the Latin for ‘new’ or ‘new thing’, to refer to this ‘point of difference’ (the plural is ‘nova’). An SF text may be based on one novum, such as [...]. More usually it will be predicated on a number of interrelated nova, such as [...]. This ‘novum’ must not be supernatural but need not necessarily be a piece of technology.

2006, Adam Roberts, Science Fiction, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), pages 6–7:

cognitive estrangement
cognitive estrangement

(narratology, science fiction) An innovation which is fictional, but, following the logic of cognitive estrangement (characteristic of science fiction), is afforded plausibility by the assumption that the fictional setting is scientifically consistent.


emanata

Borrowed from Latin ēmānāre, "to flow out,". ēmānāre is the present active infinitive of ēmānō "flow out, ēmānō is derived from the Latin ex- (prefix meaning "out, away") + mānō (verb meaning "to give out; to flow").

Now that we have our characters, there's a lot more we can do with them to show what's going on inside them. Those of you who believe in mental telepathy should not be at all surprised at the things cartoonists have emanating from their characters.

1980, Mort Walker, The lexicon of comicana, Emanata, page 28:

Emanata can come from things as well as people to show what's going on.

1980, Mort Walker, The lexicon of comicana, Emanata, page 29:

(comics) Unrealistic pictorial elements emanating from a character, symbolizing something about that character, such as a sweatdrop for anxiety or a question mark for confusion, or emanating from an object, such as heat rays from the sun.


Rowleian

en-adj

Rowleian (comparative more Rowleian, superlative most Rowleian)

more Rowleian (comparative)
most Rowleian (superlative)
Rowleyan (alternative)

The style of which is neither Rowleian nor Shakespearean but a particular blending of both.

1988, Ann Thompson, The Modern Language Review^(http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0026-7937(198810)83%3A4%3C945%3AWSA'BO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9), volume 83, number 4, page 945n:

Tim [Bloodhound] shows many signs of being a typical Rowleian clown; he is a fat clown, judging from his joke about breaking his girdle.

1991, Mark Dominik, “William Rowley”, in William Shakespeare and the Birth of Merlin, page 33:

(literature) Of or pertaining to the literary style and characters of plays by William Rowley (ca1585-1626), English playright.

Mr. Tyrwhitt's book on the Rowleian controversy, which is reckoned completely victorious, are all the novelties I have seen since I left town.

1782, Horace Walpole, The Letters of Horace Walpole: Earl of Orford, page 319:

Chatterton... also imparted to Barrett two Rowleian poems, "The Parliament of Sprites," and "The Battle of Hastings" (in two quite different versions).

1898, Henry A. Beers, A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century:

Tyrwhitt pointed out that the Rowleian dialect was not English of the fifteenth century, nor of any century, but a grotesque jumble of archaic words of very different periods and dialects.

(literature) Of or pertaining to the work of (fictional) poet Thomas Rowley, a pseudonym of Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770), English poet.


run on

en-verb

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

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

(printing, historical) To carry on or continue (e.g. the type for a new sentence) without making a break or commencing a new paragraph.


auton

Coined by Robert Holmes in 1969, from a contraction of automaton.

Not far away in the woods the Auton had been standing motionless under a tree. It was shaped like a man but it was not human.

1974, Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion, page 55:

Juan made seven attempts to pervert the auton. One involved twelve hundred years of careful observation, timing the failure of various subsystems, maneuvering the auton into a position where he might take control and get transportation to resources in near space.

1986, Vernor Vinge, Marooned in Realtime:

"The Metrologan Order built the auton that was Ninth. How can you be so sure that she was not so well crafted that she really did have her own will?"

2002, Sean McMullen, Voyage of the Shadowmoon, page 461:

(science fiction) A machine or robot, usually in the form of a living being, designed to follow a precise sequence of instructions.


Alucard

/ˈæləˌkɑː(ɹ)d/

(chiefly fiction) A male given name originating as a coinage, often used in Dracula- or vampire-related fiction.


living dead

(fiction, usually with the) The undead; zombies, vampires, etc.


sottisier

I had intended to provide the book derisively with an appendix, vermiform. Papa Flaubert compiled a sottisier, I also compiled a sottisier. I do not yield a jot in my belief that such compilations are useful, I concede that there may be no need of reprinting mine at this moment. At any rate the snippets are there on file.

1934, Ezra Pound, “Date Line”, in Make It New, London: Faber & Faber, page 16:

Frequently he brought his points home with topical allusions: timely newspaper clippings or public utterances, constituting a sort of sottisier or scrapbook of contemporary fatuities.

1961, Harry Levin, Irving Babbitt and the Teaching of Literature, Harvard University Press, page 10:

Suppose a serious literary critic were to write about Hollywood autobiographies: “Niven experiences life as an imprisoning reality of personal experience, plus mythopoeic elements, a vast sottisier in the tradition of Jessel's This way, Miss.[…]

1985 December 23, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, “Book of The Times”, in The New York Times:

The sottisier, which is a rich one, is drawn almost entirely from books and articles by French left-wing intellectuals about the Third World, mostly written during the sixties and seventies, but with some examples from the present decade.

1986, Conor Cruise O’Brien, “The Cant of Pity”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN:

In the Israeli press, a constant feature is a sottisier of what the official Arab publications, including school textbooks, say about the eternal iniquity of the Jewish race and the holy necessity to eradicate it from the face of the Earth.

2007, Clive James, Cultural Amnesia, page 631:

(literature, uncommon) A compilation of banal, hackneyed, or otherwise objectionable snippets of text from various authors.


ignis fatuus

From New Latin ignis fatuus (literally “foolish fire”).

bor

Fiery spirits or devils are such as commonly work by blazing stars, fire-drakes, or ignes fatui; which lead men often in flumina aut præcipitia, saith Bodine[…]

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

An Ignis Fatuus, that bewitches, / And leads Men into Pools and Ditches

1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 16:


print on demand

print-on-demand (alternative)
POD (alternative)

This list omits print-on-demand books run off from electronic copies of the 1903 edition available on the Internet.

2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 489:

(publishing) A system of printing very small runs of a document as required, especially by using computer technology.


precognitive

(science fiction) A precognitive person, a seer.


astronavigation

(science fiction) Navigation through space


non-spacing

(typography) Of a character: combined with another and so not consuming additional horizontal space.


handset

en-verb

handset (third-person singular simple present handsets, present participle handsetting, simple past and past participle handset)

handsets (present singular third-person)
handsetting (participle present)
handset (participle past)
handset (past)

handsetting type


jack in

jack in (third-person singular simple present jacks in, present participle jacking in, simple past and past participle jacked in)

jacks in (present singular third-person)
jacking in (participle present)
jacked in (participle past)
jacked in (past)

Watchman replaced him in the linkup seat. He jacked himself into the computer.

1970 June, Robert Silverberg, “The Tower of Glass”, in Galaxy Science Fiction, volume 30, number 3, page 141:

Seven days and he'd jack in. If he closed his eyes now, he'd see the matrix.

1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 37:

She couldn't move, not without that extra skeleton, and it was jacked straight into her brain, myoelectric interface.

1986, William Gibson, “Winter Market”, in Burning Chrome, page 129:

(science fiction, ambitransitive) To connect a brain directly to a computer.


minikin

en-noun

minikin (countable and uncountable, plural minikins)

From Middle Dutch minnekijn (“darling, beloved”), from minne (“love”) (cf. minnesinger) and the diminutive suffix -kijn.

der

(uncountable, UK printing, dated) The size of type smaller than brilliant, standardized as 3-point.


foxing

en-noun

foxing (countable and uncountable, plural foxings)

(printing) The discoloration of printed material with brown marks.


Earthian

en-adj

Earthian (comparative more Earthian, superlative most Earthian)

more Earthian (comparative)
most Earthian (superlative)
Earthean (alternative)

Septimus Spink, sole survivor of the Earthian space ship...

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

An Earthian metallurgist could tell very easily that 'aluminum' was molybdenum...

1975. Hilary Putnam. Mind, Language, and Reality. Cambridge University Press: 1975, page 226

Nowadays speakers on Twin Earth are well aware (thanks to chemistry) that their word 'water' does not refer to the Earthian stuff.

1997. Diego Marconi. Lexical Competence. MIT Press: 1997, page 174

(science fiction) Of or from the planet Earth.