autofactory

He had a moment's vision of the Inland Sea, blue through coastal haze. There were bobbles around the advanced estates, around the NM quarter of town. To the west were several large ones—around the autofactories? Everything was in stasis except the Korolev estate.

1986, Vernor Vinge, “Marooned in Realtime”, in Across Realtime, Garden City, N.Y.: Nelson Doubleday, Inc., page 312:

"If we used Phobos as the entrapping vehicle," Cocci mused, "we could establish a base on Mars, a dome city. We could even set up an autofactory there to support the work."

1986, Thomas Wren, The Doomsday Effect, New York, N.Y.: Baen Books, →ISBN, page 103:

Another tunnel took her through to a chamber from which many such tunnels debarked and thence to the small tubular autofactory that had made her.

2016, Neal Asher, War Factory (Transformation; 2), New York, N.Y.: Night Shade Books, →ISBN, page 406:

(science fiction) A factory capable of running autonomously.


autofac

Behind them, the dilapidated settlement lay spread out, a disorderly checkerboard of houses, buildings and streets. Since the autofac network had closed down its supply and maintenance, the human settlements had fallen into semi-barbarism.

1955 November, Philip K[indred] Dick, “Autofac”, in Galaxy Science Fiction, volume 11, number 2, page 87:

The autofacs were a different kind of machine altogether. They could make things. They could make anything from clothing to robots, from weapons to music machines.

1974, Edmund Cooper, The Slaves of Heaven, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Medallion, published 1975, →ISBN, page 57:

All around her the holo displays glowed faintly. Even some of the units that had gone blank over her long sleep were replaced, now that she and Jeffers had gotten the autofac working properly up on A Level.

1986, Gregory Benford, David Brin, Heart of the Comet, Toronto, O.N. […]: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 327:

(science fiction) Synonym of autofactory (“a factory capable of running autonomously”).


speculative erotica

Speculative fiction
speculative fiction#English

(fiction) Speculative fiction with erotic themes.


wulver

(folklore) A wolf-like humanoid creature in Shetland folklore.


pull list

Many places kept ‘pull lists’. A customer would leave a list of titles. The store would use the totals from the pull lists to order, and then the store would pull pristine, untouched issues out of the shipment for their regulars.

2010, Henry Melton, Pixie Dust, Wire Rim Books, →ISBN, page 49:

(comics, slang) A list of comic titles that are automatically ordered for a customer once they are available.


blind folio

(printing) A page number that is counted but not printed on the page.


backprime

backprimes (plural)
back prime (alternative)

From back + prime (“the ⟨′⟩ symbol”), compare backslash.

The echo and sed commands appear within backprimes (`) that indicate command substitution: The result of executing the commands within the backprimes replaces the backprimes and everything between them.

1997, Mark G. Sobell, “The TC Shell”, in A Practical Guide to Linux, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, →ISBN, page 440:

Since deformation manifests itself as a change in the metric characteristics of continuum, in the theory of finite deformations, it is then necessary to compare the referential ‵g_(ασ) and the convective g_(ασ) metrics. We systematically employ Latin indices in order to refer to spatial components of geometrical objects, whereas Greek indices to point on convective components (only a few instances can be found in the present study) or referential components (additionally, root symbol is sometimes supplied by backprime).

2023, Yuri N. Radayev, “Two-Point Rotations in Geometry of Finite Deformations”, in Holm Altenbach, Suren Manuk Mkhitaryan, Vahram Hakobyan, Avetik Varazdat Sahakyan, editors, Solid Mechanics, Theory of Elasticity and Creep (Advanced Structured Materials), Cham: Springer, →ISBN, page 276:

(typography, computing) The ⟨‵⟩ or ⟨`⟩ symbol; a reversed prime.


glaistig

glaistigs (plural)
glastig (alternative)

(folklore) A kind of ghost in Scottish folklore, usually depicted as a woman, a goat, or a hybrid of the two.


tympaning

(printing) The material used for tympans, or padding under the platen of a letterpress.


blackout poem

(literature, poetry) A poem created from another text by selectively covering up words.


'saur

—genetically uplifted the ancestors of the saurs, and culturally—at least—uplifted the kraken. We are used to thinking of these species as wise and ancient, which indeed they are, but the octopods are their 'Elder Race.'

2003, Ken MacLeod, Engine City, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, →ISBN, page 79:

The city-folk had learned not to run screaming at the sight of a 'saur with a human being on it, but they were still in sufficient awe that trouble was unlikely.

2006, S[tephen] M[ichael] Stirling, The Sky People, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, →ISBN, page 75:

Are there other good candidates for a collective term? Mesosaur might work. Dinosaurs, pterosaurs and other saurs all lived during the Mesozoic Era – the age of reptiles – 252 to 66 million years ago.

[2014 September 30, JV Chamary, “Paleosaurs: A Solution To The Dinosaur Dilemma?”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-05-26:

The bird comes cartwheeling out of the forest in a flurry of feathers and leathery wings. Only as it lands, crashing into the reeds at the edge of the river, does Willem realize that it is not a bird, but a winged saur.

2015, Brian Falkner, Battlesaurus: Rampage at Waterloo, New York, N.Y.: Farrar Straus Giroux, →ISBN, page 67:

Who better to prank with dinosaurs than the king of 'saurs himself?

2015 June 16, Allison Bagg, “These Pranksters Dressed As Dinosaurs Scared The Sh*t Out Of Chris Pratt”, in BuzzFeed, archived from the original on 2023-06-28:

And her most recent tune, "Dinosaurs in Love," is about a pair of smitten 'saurs who find themselves dining at a party just before the apocalyptic event that wiped-out their race.

2020 January 29, Hannah Sparks, “3-year-old sings heartbreaking song about 'Dinosaurs in Love'”, in New York Post, New York, N.Y.: News Corp, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-01-30:

(informal or science fiction, fantasy) A dinosaur.


linoblock

(printing, often attributive) A linoleum block used in block printing.


Aristopia

From Ancient Greek ἄριστος (áristos) + Ancient Greek τόπος (tópos).

af

(fiction) A name for a fictional utopia.


iota adscript

(Greek orthography) The iota subscript when written beside the affected letter rather than underneath it.


furface

Look, kid ... forget about what ol' fur face there said about alien abduction. I suspect you were sleepwalking. Have you ever done that before?

2005 August 19, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic):

(fiction, comics, fantasy) A term of address used for any animal with fur, ranging from playful mocking to utmost derision.


cream puff piece

en-noun

cream puff piece (plural cream puff pieces)

cream puff pieces (plural)
creampuff piece (alternative)

In some cases, that was true; they thought I was just another beauty or fashion editor who would do a cream-puff piece about their products .

1995, Paula Begoun, Miriam Bulmer, Don't Go Shopping for Hair Care Products Without Me, Beginning Press, →ISBN, page 17:

This week includes criticism of our story on Laura Bush as a "cream puff piece" and praise for the new invention we featured which turns off other peoples' televisions, called TV-B-Gone.

2004 October 21, “Letters: Laura Bush, and TV-B-Gone”, in NPR:

While he was a player with the Florida Marlins a writer did a “cream puff piece” on him where Renteria told him his family calls him Ricky instead of Rich.

2012 December 6, Jesse Rogers, “Cubs Notes: No Rule 5 pick”, in ESPN:

(journalism, publishing, informal) A positive article or review that is largely based on opinion.


morpher

(science fiction, fantasy) A shapeshifter.


battlecraft

battlecraft (countable and uncountable, plural battlecraft or battlecrafts)

battlecraft (plural)
battlecrafts (plural)

(countable, chiefly science fiction) A spacecraft or other vehicle used for combat.


metaproposition

On the one side, others may see some other metaproposition that circulates throughout a piece of writing, different from one that I might proposed. On the other, still others may perceive no metaproposition at all.

1992, Jacob Neusner, Decoding the Talmud’s Exegetical Program: From Detail to Principle in the Bavli’s Quest for Generalization, →ISBN, page 2:

The initial metaproposition of the thema having been amply and methodically, if at times laboriously, dismantled and demonstrated, the preacher then brings his discourse to an end, the conclusio being a clear, neat summary of the various parts of the sermon.

1995, Franco Mormando, “‘To Persuade Is a Victory’: Rhetoric and Moral Reasoning in the Sermons of Bernardino of Siena”, in James F. Keenan, Thomas A. Shannon, editors, The Context of Casuistry, →ISBN, page 61:

In his reformulated version of path-goal theory, House offered a metaproposition, which provides a capsule summary of a dizzying amount of studies and theorizing in relation to the theory. Understanding this metaproposition would be a good take-away from the theory: For leaders to be effective, they should engage in behaviors that complement subordinates’ environments and abilities.

2013, Andrew J. DuBrin, Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills, 7th edition, →ISBN, pages 147–8:

(literature) An underlying proposition that is embedded in many different statements throughout a given work or set of works.


bioborg

I am served brusquely, and wait until the bioborgs kill Lao Tzu. I swap a Carlton for a match, and devise a telephone strategy brilliant enough to reduce hardened Tokyo PAs to putty.

2001, David Mitchell, number9dream, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN:

(science fiction) A biologically-based cyborg


Kitezh

(Slavic mythology, folklore) A city in Russian folklore that was believed to have disappeared under a lake, to avoid being conquered by the Mongols.


thopter

Another ’thopter glided in over the cliff wall above Hawat. He drew in a sharp breath as he saw it—a big troop-carrier. It flew with the slow, spread-wing heaviness of a full load like a giant bird coming to its nest.

1965, Frank Herbert, Dune, New York: Ace Books, →OCLC, page 225:

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

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

Flowstone Thopter gets +1/-1 and gains flying until end of turn.

2000 February 14, “Flowstone Thopter”, in Magic: The Gathering, Nemesis, Wizards of the Coast:

(fiction) Synonym of ornithopter (“birdlike aircraft”).


boarding craft

boarding craft (plural boarding crafts or boarding craft)

boarding crafts (plural)
boarding craft (plural)

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

‘Squids,’ the FORCE:space people had called the Ouster boarding craft.

1989, Dan Simmons, Hyperion, London: Headline, published 1991, page 157:

Sir, additional contacts. Boarding crafts, and lots of 'em!

2004 November 9, Bungie, Halo 2, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox, level/area: Cairo Station:

A Colicoid creation (like the droideka), this Separatist boarding craft looks like a flying spike—until that spike divides into four sharp prongs that can stab through an enemy hull, revealing a central hatch used by a boarding party.

2008 July 26, Jason Fry, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Visual Guide, Dorling Kindersley, →LCCN, page 105:

(science fiction) A starship designed to allow soldiers to board an enemy vessel


antilithium

Heavy antinuclei, if observed, would also indicate that nucleosynthetic processes are taking place in these antimatter regions, since the usual matter-symmetric cosmologies have no other provision for manufacturing antimatter heavier than antilithium.

1987, Luis W. Alvarez, Discovering Alvarez: Selected Works of Luis W. Alvarez with Commentary by His Students and Colleagues, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 194:

The pinhead contained only a twentieth of a gramme of antilithium, but that's more than sufficient for our purposes.

2009, Alastair Reynolds, Revelation Space, Orion, →ISBN:

Even unshielded, it would take antilithium or highmatter to cut through the adamantine plate on the dorsal hull.

2020, Christopher Ruocchio, Demon In White: Book 3, Orion, →ISBN:

(particle physics, science fiction) The antiatom form of lithium.


airtram

(chiefly science fiction) An aerial tram (type of passenger vehicle).


glossy magazine

glossy magazine (plural glossy magazines)

(journalism, publishing) A magazine printed on high-quality glossy paper.


thunder word

thunder words (plural)
thunderword (alternative)

(literature) Any of the ten 100-letter words occurring in James Joyce's experimental 1939 novel Finnegans Wake, the first of which is constructed of words for thunder in various different languages.


Piggi-Billa

(folklore) An echidna that appears in Aboriginal fairy tales.


author's edition

author's edition (plural authors' editions)

(publishing) An edition of a publication whose publishing costs are borne by the author.


courtesy of the trade

(publishing, historical) An unofficial agreement between American publishers not to compete by reprinting the same (pirated) titles from Britain.


Russian novel effect

Foreign names were simplified by the author to mitigate the Russian novel effect.

Throughout this book, I have used first names for major figures rather than full names, in order to avoid the "Russian novel effect," where English readers suffer the confusion of multiple unfamiliar names. Thus, for instance, I have used Ali instead of Ali ibn Abu Talib, Aisha instead of Aisha bint Abu Bakr, Omar instead of Omar ibn al-Khattab, and so on.

2010, Lesley Hazleton, “Note on Usage and Spelling”, in After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam, Doubleday:

I have listed […] a glossary of key people and places. If only to avoid the Russian novel effect, I urge readers to glance at these at the start.

2013, Fiona Maddocks, “Preface”, in Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age, Faber & Faber:

I have also limited the use of their full names, such as Ali ibn Abi Talib and Fatima bint Muhammad, to avoid the "Russian novel effect," keeping in mind the English reader who may be more easily confused with multiple unfamiliar names.

2021, Jalal Moughania, “Arabic Spelling and Usage Note”, in Ali: The Elixir of Love, Mainstay Foundation:

(literature, rare) The difficulty experienced by English readers in distinguishing multiple people or characters with non-English names, leading to confusion.


brocon

brocon (countable and uncountable, plural brocons)

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

Borrowed from Japanese ブラコン (burakon), from ブラザーコンプレックス (burazā konpurekkusu), itself borrowed from English brother complex. By surface analysis, bro (“brother”) + -con (“abnormal sexual attraction”).

ja-r

ブラザー コンプレックス

surf

Heck, it's not too hard to find incest themes in non-H these days. Bro/Siscon relationships date back even before the seminal "Revolutionar [sic] Girl Utena", and still crop up in today's harem styled shows like "Sister Princess", and the still hilarious "Majikano".

2006 March 26, Abraham Evangelista, “Re:Protecting the Children at anime cons”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

(Japanese fiction, uncountable) Strong attachment or attraction to one's own brother.

(Japanese fiction, countable) A person with such an attachment or attraction.


infohazardous

en-adj

infohazardous (comparative more infohazardous, superlative most infohazardous)

more infohazardous (comparative)
most infohazardous (superlative)

(neurology, chiefly science fiction) Being, containing, or pertaining to an infohazard.


antimemetic

antimemetic (comparative more antimemetic, superlative most antimemetic)

more antimemetic (comparative)
most antimemetic (superlative)

From antimeme + -etic or anti- + memetic.

(neurology, sociology, chiefly science fiction) Of, being, containing, or pertaining to antimemes.


overdeity

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

Near-synonyms: supreme being, Supreme Being

Their liege —, the Undoing,—was the last to convene. He was a being of unknown descent, but Rune believed he was lt least a demigod. Perhaps a full deity, even an overdeity.

2015, Kresley Cole, Sweet Ruin, Simon & Schuster, pages 24-25:

Are there equivalent overdeities in other settings such as Eberron or Grayhawk? Like a top dog who gets to decide if someone can be a god or not as one of their jobs.

2020 May 29, CosmicWolf14, “Alabastor: Age of Heroes”, in reddit.com:

I generally assume that, whatever they are, you’re not going to face any problems with the local overdeities deciding you don’t belong and just noping you the moment you Jump in; whether that’s by power or negotiation is up to you.

2020 July 7, AmazonClimber, RandomOTP, “The Jumpchain Benefactor versus A Jump's Gods”, in reddit.com:

As I said overdeities don't require worship to survive, as such other Gods of Death can form without intruding, but they can't become a Overdeity of Death without somehow destroying the one currently there. As such they would more likely become another form of overdeity, assuming they get that far. And no Discord server as of yet, I might make one if the quest becomes more popular.

2021 April 29, nwish425, “Apotheosis - A Deity Quest”, in forums.sufficientvelocity.com:

(rare, science fiction, fantasy, video games) A superior or supreme deity.


eleutherarch

/ɛˈljuːθəˌɹɑːk/

Bruhle introduced him to me as the principal of the university, and the Eleutherarch.

1813, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, The Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff, London: T. Hookham, jun., and E.T. Hookham, page 173:

He slept with Horrid Mysteries under his pillow, and dreamed of venerable eleutherarchs and ghastly confederates holding midnight conventions in subterranean caves.

1818, Thomas Love Peacock, chapter 2, in Nightmare Abbey, Hookham, published 2003:

(literature, gothic) The leader of the eleutheri.


eleutheri

/ɛˈljuːθəˌɹaɪ/

He addressed himself in the same language to the whole company, and […] asked them, if they had any objection to my being initiated into the mysteries of the Eleutheri.

1813, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, The Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff, London: T. Hookham, jun., and E.T. Hookham, pages 178-79:

In his account of the Society of the Eleutheri, Hogg seems to be indulging in a bad dream after having read a book which was always perused with interest by Shelley — Barruel's "Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire du Jacobinisme" — let the reader look into the chapters on Spartacus Weishaupt, the founder of Illuminism, and he will see grounds for this conjecture[.]

1886 [1814], Professor E. Dowden, edited by Thomas J. Wise, Some Early Writings of Shelley, London: Reeves and Turner, pages 49-50:

(literature) A secret society, usually 19th century and sinister.


HTSI

(publishing) Initialism of How to Spend It.


superfluous man

en-noun

superfluous man (plural superfluous men)

(literature) A kind of character derived from the Byronic hero and associated with mid-1800s Russian literature: a man, usually privileged and capable, who flaunts or disregards social norms and exhibits cynicism, self-interest, and existential boredom.


cryopod

He glanced at the scan display. The contact resolved into a clearer image: definitely a UNSC cryopod.

2003, Eric Nylund, Halo: First Strike, New York: Del Rey, →ISBN, page 38:

(science fiction) A pod in which a person is maintained in cryosleep.


holophone

The holophone beeped in that strange way that all phones did on Churchill Drift, before it was answered. Relief flooded through him when the holophone clicked on. Then dread filled him when an accented voice answered.

2011, Tom Bielawski, The Centaurus Legacy: The Orion Trilogy Volume 0:

The men appeared at Kid Squad headquarters in a holophone transmission. The holophone was a cool communication device that Gadget had helped invent.

2014, John Perritano, Madness of Captain Cyclops, page 24:

There was another chime and then the screen on the holophone dimmed and began to project a holographic image that was a still frame of a person who looked a lot like Jason.

2019, Robert Ricks, Three Simple Rules, page 43:

(science fiction) A hologrammatic telecommunication device.


Cooverian

en-adj

Cooverian (comparative more Cooverian, superlative most Cooverian)

more Cooverian (comparative)
most Cooverian (superlative)

(literature) Of or relating to Robert Coover (born 1932), American fiction writer.


drott-kvaett

(poetry) A poetic meter characterized by strict patterns of stave-rhyme and internal rhyme.


even working

(publishing) An arrangement where the number of pages in a book is divisible by 16 or 32, to make efficient use of paper.


neurostunner

"She fries my synapses with a neurostunner whose insurance warranty ran out around the time of the Skytube, then she asks if I'm okay," he said, attempting to laugh but coughing instead.

1993, Iain M. Banks, Against a Dark Background:

I grabbed the neurostunner from the drawer — the kind allowed in the house, but not beyond its doors — and hurried toward the front door, querying the system.

2004, L. E. Modesitt Jr., Flash, page 178:

(science fiction) A weapon that stuns a person by affecting their nervous system.


Skeltonics

(poetry) The irregular poetic meter used by John Skelton (c.1460–1529), English poet.


sesame dot

(typography) A Japanese typographic mark resembling a comma or dot, placed above or beside words to indicate emphasis. It exists in filled and empty variants.


MSPA

MS Paint Adventures
w:MS Paint Adventures

(comics) Initialism of MS Paint Adventures.


screen print

(printing) A print produced by screen printing.


plate mail

Of mail there are two forts, viz. chain and plate mail. Chain mail is formed by a number of iron rings, each ring having four others inserted into it; the whole exhibiting a kind of net-work, with circular meshes, every ring[…]

1819, Abraham Rees, The Cyclopaedia; Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and Literature:

Crusaders all wear light plate mail or a chain mail and plate mail mix.

2010 November 21, Joseph Barresi, Gods of Arator Volume 1 the Gods of Life, midnightrise, →ISBN, page 71:

The first armor, flexible chain mail with gambesons (a quilted garment worn under the mail), was far more effective than the later plate mail. To be effective against arrows, plate mail had to be so heavy as to render its use[…]

2011, Vic Hurley, Arrows Against Steel: The History of the Bow and how it Forever Changed Warfare, Cerberus Books, →ISBN, page 25:

[…] however, his legs are completely covered by plate mail. This combination of chain and plate mail, similar to that which we noted already in the Wenceslas Bible, appears in a number of cases here[…]

2014 May 5, Eduard Wagner, Zoroslava Drobná, Jan Durdík, Medieval Costume, Armour and Weapons, Courier Corporation, →ISBN, page 30:

(academically obsolete, now fiction, fantasy) Brigandine.


Scholomance

(folklore) A fabled underground school of black magic in Romania.


show-through

en-noun

show-through (countable and uncountable, plural show-throughs)

(printing) The undesirable situation where matter printed on one side of a sheet is visible from the other side.

läpinäkyminen

situation where print is visible from the other side


sunwing

While we still had the giant sunwings we traveled the world, exploring other continents from the air.

2003, Sean Mcmullen, Eyes of the Calculor:

Slowly, on parallel tracks into the breeze, the sunwings rolled off.

(science fiction) A wing or extension designed to capture energy from sunlight.


spot color

spot colors (plural)
spot colour (alternative)

(printing) In offset printing, any color generated by an ink, pure or mixed, that is printed using a single run.


death game

Japanese: デスゲーム

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

(fiction) A subgenre of battle royal in which the winner is the only person, team or faction that survives, outlasting all others; a game of survival.


Grecs du roi

the Grecs du roi (canonical)
Grecs du Roi (alternative)
grecs du roi (alternative)

Unadapted borrowing from French Grecs du roi (literally “king’s Greeks”).

ubor

Garamond's caractères de l'Université, in four sizes of roman and italic, and the grecs du roi in three sizes, became the nucleus of the magnificent collection of types now belonging to the Imprimerie Nationale de France.

1922, Daniel Berkeley Updike, Printing Types, Their History, Forms, and Use; A Study in Survivals, page 236:

In Paris, the Grecs du Roi had been celebrated ever since they had been cut by Claude Garamond in the mid-sixteenth century; but they remained privileged types, restricted for the use of the Imprimerie Royale.

1992, David McKitterick, A History of Cambridge University Press: Volume 2, Scholarship and Commerce, 1698-1872, page 66:

Vergecio's hand became in turn the model for the grecs du roi, themselves the model by which Greek type was measured for almost three hundred years.

1992, Nicolas Barker, Aldus Manutius and the Development of Greek Script & Type in the Fifteenth Century, page 2:

(typography) An influential Greek typeface created by Claude Garamond.


psychoscope

(chiefly science fiction) A proposed device able to read a person's thoughts or to provide psychiatric diagnosis.


compound balloon

(comics) A type of speech bubble that splits dialogue into smaller pieces.


Hipponactean

We dismiss, at the outset, as unnecessary for our purpose, the long and learned-looking array of spondees, pyrrhics, trochees, dactyls, tribrachs and amphimacers with the endless but never nameless array of metres—dimeters, trimeters, Adonics, ithyphallics, Hipponacteans, and the rest; […]

1888, James Wood Davidson, The Poetry of the Future, New York, N.Y.: John B. Alden, page 30:

(poetry) A Hipponactean verse; (especially) a hypercatalectic form of Glyconian verse.


X-ray spectacles

(science fiction) Spectacles that allow the wearer to see through solid objects such as walls or clothing.


terrestrial time

(science fiction) Time based on the time system used on Earth, consisting of 24-hour days.


pixels per inch

(graphic design, typography) A measurement of the pixel density of an electronic image device, such as a computer monitor or television display.


vowel rhyme

en-noun

vowel rhyme (countable and uncountable, plural vowel rhymes)


consonant rhyme

consonant rhyme (countable and uncountable, plural consonant rhymes)

(prosody, poetry) Synonym of consonance.


Time Variance Authority

(comics) A fictional organization appearing in American comic books, depicted as a group of timeline monitors.


advance copy

(publishing) A copy of a new book or magazine by a publisher which is distributed to a bookseller, library, or others, before the publication is printed for mass distribution.


presentation copy

presentation copy (plural presentation copies)

(publishing) A copy of a book that has been presented, usually by the author or an entity associated with the book's production, to another individual.


promotional copy

promotional copy (plural promotional copies)

(publishing) Any type of writing designed to persuade a reader to take a specific action.


review copy

(publishing) A copy of a book or publication delivered to journals or newspapers in order for it to be reviewed.


bibliosmia

From biblio- (“book”) + -osmia (“smell”). Coined on 24 February 2014 by English lecturer and author Oliver Tearle in a now-deleted tweet, originally as “the act of smelling books”.

He [Evan Friss] approvingly considers the Instagram wall at Books Are Magic, the novelist Emma Straub’s shop in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, and less so the eponymous bibliosmia fragrance bottled by Powell’s, the Portland, Ore., landmark.

2024 August 4, Alexandra Jacobs, “Browsing Is a Pleasure in This History of the Bookstore”, in The New York Times:

(literature, neologism) The pleasant smell and aroma of a new (or any) book, caused by the gradual chemical breakdown of the compounds used within the paper.


Moonite

(science fiction) An inhabitant of the Moon.


time vampire

Do you mean that Jarmyn Thanatos is some kind of a— a time vampire?

1997, Brad Strickland, John Bellairs, The Bell, the Book and the Spellbinder:

“I'm a time vampire,” Loretta Vampireclanso-called-jiangshi said. “I can take time from people, or give it away.”

2017, Emily Martha Sorensen, Trials of a Teenage Werevulture:

But I was laying low, and vampires can't always be choosers, even time vampires.

(science fiction) A variety of vampire that feeds off time or potential years of life.


octarine

See octa-, -ine. Coined by author Terry Pratchett for his Discworld series.

[…] colors like octarine, the eighth color, an elusive spectral mix that's hard to describe and impossible to perceive. That's the thing about color. Try describing a rainbow or a sunset to a blind person or ask a synesthete[…]

2010 January 14, Peter Morville, Jeffery Callender, Search Patterns: Design for Discovery, "O'Reilly Media, Inc.", →ISBN, page 13:

Back in ScienceFictionaLand, octarine is the color of magic, an animating force in the Diseworld series by Terry Pratchett. A fluorescent, greenish-yellow purple, octarine can only be detected by wizards and cats.

2013 September 17, Jude Stewart, ROY G. BIV: An Exceedingly Surprising Book About Color, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 129:

Another way of looking at the magical character customization option [in which players choose their color] is that it allows players to find their own octarine, the color of their own magical self in Peter Carroll's vision of things. Octarine is a fictitious eighth color of magic invented by Terry Prachett in his novel The Colour of Magic and later used by occultist Peter Carroll in Liber Kaos to describe the color of a magician's rebellious, mischievous sorcerous self[…]

2014 April 22, Jeff Howard, Game Magic: A Designer's Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 177:

Octarine, the color of magic, glows from your finished pages.

2017 April 25, Terry Pratchett, Terry Pratchett's Discworld Coloring Book, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 3:

The eight types of magic can be attributed to the seven classical planets, plus Uranus for octarine. […] Following Prachett's hypothesis (and many a useful thing is said in jest), the eighth color of the spectrum, which is the magician's personal perception of the color of magic, may be called octarine. […]

2023 July 3, Peter J. Carroll, Liber Kaos: Chaos Magic for the Pandaemonaeon (Revised and Expanded Edition), Weiser Books, →ISBN, page 87:

(chiefly fiction) The color of magic, a notional extra color distinct from the colors of the rainbow / normal visible light spectrum, which is said (chiefly in certain fiction but also by some occultists) to be visible to users of magic.


spacelab

(especially science fiction) A laboratory in outer space.


extralight

en-adj

extralight (comparative more extralight, superlative most extralight)

more extralight (comparative)
most extralight (superlative)

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

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

(typography) Lighter than a typical light typeface.


semilight

(typography) Of a weight between light and medium.


dolce stil nuovo

From Italian dolce stil nuovo (literally “sweet new style”).

bor

(literature, historical) A literary movement in 13th- and 14th-century Italy, influenced by the Sicilian School and Tuscan poetry, and having divine love as its main theme, often incorporating vivid descriptions of female beauty and likening women to angels.


drop pod

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

(science fiction) A re-entry vehicle, often single-use, used to deploy infantry or ground vehicles from an orbiting starship to a planet's surface.


military science fiction

(science fiction) A subgenre of science fiction that focuses on military technology, characters, and conflicts.


close reading

en-noun

close reading (countable and uncountable, plural close readings)

Students almost universally hate close reading, and they rarely wind up understanding it anyway. Forced to pick out meaning in passages they don't fully grasp to begin with, they begin to get the idea that English class is about simply making things up (Ah yes—the tree mentioned once on page 89 and then never again stands for weakness and loss!)

2010 July 1, Heather Horn, “Stop Close Reading”, in The Atlantic:

(literature) The careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of a text.


Skeltonic

(poetry) Employing or relating to Skeltonics.


choseong

Borrowed from Korean 초성 (choseong, “initial sound”).

bor+

So, Choseong means the first/initial sound. Always located at the beginning of a syllable.

2024 January 29, Richard Lee, Mastering 399 syllables, Hangeul keeper, page 5:

(orthography) (in Korean or the hangul script) a consonant, consonant cluster, or silence in the syllable onset


jungseong

Borrowed from Korean 중성 (jungseong, “medial sound”).

[…] and one vowel called the medial (jungseong; syllable nucleus).

2018 March 7, Taebum Kim, Korean-English Dictionary 17000: 17,000 Words for Learning Korean, Core Voca, page 2:

(orthography) (in Korean or the hangul script) a vowel or diphthong in the syllable nucleus


jongseong

Borrowed from Korean 종성 (jongseong, “final sound”).

A Korean syllable is divided into three parts: choseong (initial consonant), jungseong (peak vowel), and jongseong (final consonant).

2014 June 20, Korean Culture and Information Service (South Korea), Guide to Korean Culture: Korea's cultural heritage, 길잡이미디어, →ISBN, page 72:

(orthography) (in Korean or the hangul script) a consonant or consonant cluster in the syllable coda


earbug

This cab couldn't transmit to his earbug.

With the earbug in, she could access data almost as quickly as with the implant.

2010, Elizabeth Moon, Trading In Danger: Vatta's War:

Mitsuharu pressed a finger to his earbug, jumping channels until the hissing growl of the enemy flooded in, making him wince.

2011, Thomas Harlan, Land of the Dead, page 349:

The earbug nanomites in Tan-Tan's ear became infected during the dimensional shift.

2014, Allan Weiss, The Canadian Fantastic in Focus:

(science fiction) Any of various fictional devices that a person can listen to when it is installed in their ear.


fwip

(chiefly manga) A generic sound for movement, or for something appearing.


reverse isekai

en-noun

reverse isekai (countable and uncountable, plural reverse isekai or reverse isekais)

reverse isekai (plural)
reverse isekais (plural)

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is a reverse-isekai show? That's actually a really cool concept

2017 January 22, @alltsun_nodere, Twitter, archived from the original on 2024-07-18:

Thinking intensely about the reverse isekai story that lives rent free in my head where a depressed writer gives up on her novel and the protagonist and the villain lose their powers so they find a way to travel to the author's world to make her finish her book

2020 December 29, @OccultasHQ, Twitter, archived from the original on 2024-04-10:

The anime is a “cute girls doing cute things” spin on the reverse isekai subgenre and follows a group of two angels and two demons sent to Earth, particularly Gabriel, who arrives on Earth in search of knowledge.

2023 October 18, Maham Arsalan, “10 Best Reverse Isekai Anime to Watch Right Now”, in Comic Book Resources:CBR, archived from the original on 2024-04-10:

Quite a number of reverse isekai anime start with a human summoning a being from another world, usually to ask for some assistance. So, in terms of premise, Dropkick On My Devil! is about as predictable as they come; however, the show is anything but typical.

2024 February 13, Mark Sammut, “Best Reverse Isekai Anime Of All Time, Ranked”, in Game Rant, archived from the original on 2024-04-10:

One of the biggest hits of the Winter 2024 anime season was Solo Leveling, a show that took the reverse-isekai formula and gave it a dark twist.

2024 April 5, Trent Cannon, “Solo Leveling season 2 release date: Crunchyroll set to Solo Leveling: Arise from the Shadows when it airs - but when?”, in Popverse, archived from the original on 2024-04-10:

(Japanese fiction, uncountable) A subgenre of isekai where people from a fantasy or fictional world are transported into modern-day Earth, rather than the other way around.


man versus time

(literature) The perpetual struggle of a protagonist to overcome persistent difficulties or obstacles.


lab lit

lab lit (usually uncountable, plural lab lits)

(literature) a genre of fiction, distinct from science fiction, that centers on realistic portrayals of scientists and science as a profession.


kyaa

(chiefly manga) An expression of surprise or dismay.


pressfeeder

(printing) A person employed to feed material into a printing press.


time belt

I've set it for the year dot, as it were. I wonder how long ago that is? A million years? A billion? They will put the time belt on the creature and press the little button.

1997, Robert Rankin, Nostradamus Ate My Hamster, page 309:

Lancaster explains to Kensington that Kensington must put on the Time Belt—it's set to take him back to the moment of the assassination and will automatically merge him back into the proper time stream.

1999, J. Neil Schulman, Profile in Silver: And Other Screenwritings:

The time belt was pretty much the same as all the others he'd worn, but it had no settings.

2013, Jack L. Chalker, Downtiming the Night Side:

(science fiction) A belt that is worn to enable the wearer to travel through time.


time compression

time compression (countable and uncountable, plural time compressions)

(science fiction) The concept of condensing all of time and space into a single moment, or a singularity.


time trace

time trace (countable and uncountable, plural time traces)

(science fiction) A temporal phenomenon in which a creature is trapped in the same place, but in a different second of time leaves behind a palpable trace.


time stop

(science fiction) A process by which an object is stopped in time.


time integration

(science fiction) The process of extracting versions of a person from a different time period or a timeline and integrating them into a single person.


harem ending

(manga, manhwa) The ending of a hentai or pornhwa in which the protagonist ends up partnered with all or several of the potential love interests encountered in the story.


trypograph

From Ancient Greek τρῦπα (trûpa, “hole”), compare Ancient Greek τρυπάω (trupáō, “bore”), + -graph.

(printing, historical, rare) An early machine for printing by the use of paper stencils.


uwaa

uwa (alternative)
uwah (alternative)
uwaaa (alternative)
uwaah (alternative)

(manga) Whoa! Wow! An exclamation of shock.


mind rape

mind rape (countable and uncountable, plural mind rapes)

mind rapes (plural)
mindrape (alternative)

"Memeticists exploit the anomalous to change how people see the world," Del Olmo continued. "We make them believe things which aren't true, when that's convenient for us. We make them believe things that are true, when bad actors have occluded their vision. We make them forget things. We make them see things which aren't there. We make them see things which are there, which they nevertheless can't see. We do it with imagery, with words, with sounds. It's the parascience of suggestion." He was really getting into the speech, gesturing with increasing excitement and constantly having to push his rectangular spectacles back up the bridge of his Roman nose.

2022 September 22, HarryBlank, “Mind Over Matter”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 2024-05-23:

(science fiction, fantasy) Nonconsensual intrusion into one's mind; the reading, modification, or control, by another, of one's thoughts or memories without one's consent, especially if forcible.


mind rape

en-verb

mind rape (third-person singular simple present mind rapes, present participle mind raping, simple past and past participle mind raped)

mind rapes (present singular third-person)
mind raping (participle present)
mind raped (participle past)
mind raped (past)
mindrape (alternative)

"You... you mindraped my boyfriend!" "I am sorry."

2011 December 5, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary, archived from the original on 2024-05-25:

(transitive, science fiction, fantasy) To read, modify, or control (especially forcibly) another person's thoughts or memories without their consent.


mindrape

en-noun

mindrape (countable and uncountable, plural mindrapes)

(science fiction, fantasy) Alternative form of mind rape.


mindrape

en-verb

mindrape (third-person singular simple present mindrapes, present participle mindraping, simple past and past participle mindraped)

mindrapes (present singular third-person)
mindraping (participle present)
mindraped (participle past)
mindraped (past)

(transitive, science fiction, fantasy) Alternative form of mind rape.


dooligah

(folklore) In Australian Aboriginal folklore, a giant hairy man said to abduct children.


grey alien

grey aliens (plural)
gray alien (alternative)

(science fiction or ufology) An archetypical humanoid alien, usually described as having grey skin, elongated, hairless, sexless features, and a large head with bulbous black eyes; chiefly associated with flying saucers, alien abductions and conspiracy theories relating to cover-ups by the United States government, such as Area 51.


nightfulness

He feels such delightfulness, stay out all-nightfulness, may I get tightfulness, / Which none can explain.

1894 April 7, chapter XIX, in A New England Woman, The Socrates Publishing Company, page 133:

They had thought themselves / in Hawaii when suddenly the pines, / trembling with nightfulness, / shook them out of their sibyllance.

1967 [1957], Frank O'Hara, “Romanze, or The Musical Students”, in Meditations in an Emergency, 2nd edition, Grove Press, page 20:

“And as this nightfulness appears to thin with distance, it should be entirely possible to pinpoint its epicenter? I find myself very much inclined to agree, Picnic. […]”

2016 September 7, Sarah Porter, Vassa in the Night, Tom Doherty Associates, page 163:

Tonight the crescent moon is on its back / facing the darkness and I know that feeling / of nightfulness and the half ring it leaves / like part of a cupmark on a walnut table […]

2017, Julia McCarthy, “A Stab in the Dark”, in All the Names Between, Brick Books, page 5:

(rare, chiefly poetry) The state of being nightful.


neurolizer

Serg's left hand reached for the neurolizer at the back of his battlesuit.

1996, Tracy Hickman, Requiem of Stars, page 38:

If Justin had known what a neurolizer was he probably would've joined the fray, which would have given the assailant an easy couple of seconds to take a few more shots.

2010, Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin, The Unincorporated Man - Volume 1, page 178:

One of the thugs grabs Vulpina's arms and lifts her up from her seat while the other henchman uses a neurolizer to stun Jorrim.

2011, J. Edward Parrott, Planet X: The Annunaki Wars, page 168:

"I learn in a few years. It's complicated." said Therese as she went and snuck out into the front room and took her mom's keys, grabbed the neurolizer from the back of the Cuckoo clock in the hallway , and came back and helped Kara sneak out on her injured leg and crutches .

2023, Clinton Armer, Space-Girl Michelle #3, Legends Never Die:

(science fiction) A hand-held weapon that disrupts the nervous system of a victim in some way.


ink up

ink up (third-person singular simple present inks up, present participle inking up, simple past and past participle inked up)

inks up (present singular third-person)
inking up (participle present)
inked up (participle past)
inked up (past)

(transitive, obsolete, printing) To apply ink to a roller in preparation for printing or to coat a roller with a preservative when not in use.


set up to oneself

set up to oneself (third-person singular simple present sets up to oneself, present participle setting up to oneself, simple past and past participle set up to oneself)

sets up to oneself (present singular third-person)
setting up to oneself (participle present)
set up to oneself (participle past)
set up to oneself (past)

(printing, reflexive, obsolete, intransitive) To set up (compose, typeset) one portion of text that precedes another portion set up by the same typesetter.


quad out

quad out (third-person singular simple present quads out, present participle quadding out, simple past and past participle quadded out)

quads out (present singular third-person)
quadding out (participle present)
quadded out (participle past)
quadded out (past)

(printing, obsolete) To space out a work using quads.


brush out

brush out (third-person singular simple present brushes out, present participle brushing out, simple past and past participle brushed out)

brushes out (present singular third-person)
brushing out (participle present)
brushed out (participle past)
brushed out (past)

(transitive, obsolete, printing) To clean a form using lye or turpentine.


quoin up

quoin up (third-person singular simple present quoins up, present participle quoining up, simple past and past participle quoined up)

quoins up (present singular third-person)
quoining up (participle present)
quoined up (participle past)
quoined up (past)

(printing, obsolete) To set quoins in place prior to fastening them (locking up).


slug out

slug out (third-person singular simple present slugs out, present participle slugging out, simple past and past participle slugged out)

slugs out (present singular third-person)
slugging out (participle present)
slugged out (participle past)
slugged out (past)

(transitive, obsolete, printing) To print (something) using slugs (A piece of type metal imprinted by a linotype machine).


verbivocovisual

Coined by James Joyce in the experimental novel Finnegans Wake. Perhaps verbi- (from "verbiage"?) + Latin vocō ("to name") + visual, possibly influenced by Ezra Pound's Three Kinds of Poetry. Now frequently associated with Concrete poetry following its use by Augusto de Campos and other concrete poets in the mid-to-late 1950s.

In the view of the formalists, Italian futurism epitomized all that poetics should work against. This assessment, directed specifically at Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, who visited Saint Petersburg and Moscow in February 1914, indicates the formalists' unwillingness to acknowledge the many poetic and artistic innovations shared by the Russian and Italian futurists. In the realm of Russian futurist book art and its Italian futurist analogue—the parole-in-libertà (words-in-freedom)—poetic language was transformed by the elimination of grammar and syntax, the experimentation with new arrangements of words and letters on the page, and the highlighting of language for its sonic expressivity. Both Russian futurist book art and the parole-in-libertà incorporated verbal, visual, and sonic elements into their art forms, although the Russians ventured much further into the verbivocovisual than did the Italians.

2016, Nancy Perloff, Explodity: Sound, Image, and Word in Russian Futurist Book Art, The Getty Research Institute, →ISBN, page 68:

Alicia Genovese details very well the definition of avant-garde Brazilian concretist poetry of the 1960s. She did this through a Joycean neologism by which poetry was verbivocovisual in a synthesis of materials with which the poem operates: the verb (the uses of language), the sound (including the rhythm), and the space (the visual). [...] The play with language(s), the mixing of registers and working with space (large blank spaces between words), the cutting off of words like dance steps, and the androgynous enunciation "rió [...]" from Poem 39, are there in order to tense (crispar) the expectations, those of the representation and reception, and to tell us that there are neither final nor definitive statements/utterances.

2016, Martins, Laura M, “Per-verse Latin American Women Poets”, in Rodríguez, Ileana, Szurmuk, Mónica, editors, The Cambridge History of Latin American Women's Literature, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 518:

We saw that the verbal, visual and hearing aspects together help to give a more genuine and relevant significance to the popular symbolism. In some frames, if we focus only on the verbal elements and constructions, we are not able to identify any carnivalization, for example. But by observing the three dimensions together as one, verbivocovisually, we see that the background sound gives dialogues a more grotesque or carnivalesque sense. Lastly, we conclude that popular symbolisms are embedded into the scene through the verbivocovisual language. These symbols have as their main goal to create a distance, a break from the real world within the narrative. At the same time, the plot reminds us a great deal of the real world, both anchored in the fight for power.

2023, Pais, Ana Carolina, “The Symbology of Popular Culture in Game of Thrones: Carnivalization and Tyrion's Wedding Party”, in Álvarez-Ossorio, Alfonso, Lozano, Fernando, Soldevila, Rosario Moreno, Rosillo-López, Cristina, editors, Game of Thrones - A View from the Humanities, Vol. 1: Time, Space and Culture, Springer International Publishing, →ISBN, page 239:

(poetry) Composed of semantic (or linguistic), visual, and sonic elements in synthesis.

Augusto de Campos
Concrete poetry
Ezra Pound's Three Kinds of Poetry
Finnegans Wake
James Joyce
experimental novel


multiversally

en-adv

multiversally (comparative more multiversally, superlative most multiversally)

more multiversally (comparative)
most multiversally (superlative)

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

The mission is critical but need not be rushed. The storm has been brewing for several weeks, and will not reach multiversally devastating proportions for a few months.

1980, TSR, Frank Mentzer, Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition: The Immortal Storm Complete, Rainbow Communications, →ISBN, page 25:

I have no knowledge of any Project 616,” I say. "I can only conjecture. Let me think.. .'616' is the multiversally agreed designature of this Universe.”

2014, Dan Abnett, Rocket Raccoon and Groot: Steal the Galaxy!: An Original Novel of the Marvel Universe, Marvel Worldwide, →ISBN, page 148:

Our answer: Well, duh! Multiversally, baby.

2016, Linda Varsell Smith, Star Stuff: A Soul-Splinter Experiences the Cosmos, Rainbow Communications, →ISBN, page 25:

(rare, physics, science fiction, fantasy, cosmology) In a multiversal manner.


self-sustenance

We are all for utility; and it would be ‘well that it should be so, if, like the boar of the forest, which delves up the flower to get at the root, we had no instincts beyond those of self-sustenance. But, as we have the immortal power of imagination, we are bound to provide nutriment for that celestial part of us, not less than for that which we hold in common with the brutes.

1830, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 1830-02: Volume 27, Issue 162, Blackwood Pillans and Wilson, page 262:

This and other institutions have considered these questions anxiously and ceaselessly. They have endeavored to shape their plans of education and training for the future good, and, as far as possible, to secure the self-sustenance of their pupils.

1832, Perkins School for the Blind, Annual Report, Charles B. Slack, page 15:

The propensities have all reference to self-sustenance, self-gratification, or self-aggrandizement, and do not give rise to a single feeling of disinterested love or regard for the happiness of other beings. Even the domestic affections, wThen acting independently of the moral sentiments, prompt us to seek only a selfish gratification, without regard to the welfare of the beings who afford it.

1842, George Combe, Moral Philosophy, W. H. Colyer, page 168:

The enormous expense of supporting fourteen hundred persons — about one-five-hundredth part of the whole population of this commonwealth — in a state of idiocy : and 2d, the motives of humanity, to give, if possible, to these wretched creatures some idea of responsible life, some means and power of self-sustenance, and some self-respect.

1849, The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Charles B. Slack, page 440:

When Sir Peregrine asked her whether he should seat her on the sofa, she slowly picked herself up, and, with her head still crouching toward the ground, placed herself where she before had been sitting. He had been afraid that she would have fainted, but she was not one of those women whose nature easily admits of such relief as that. Though she was always pale in color and frail-looking, there was within her a great power of self-sustenance. She was a woman who with a good cause might have dared any thing.

1850, Henry Mills Alden, Harper's new monthly magazine, Harper & Brothers, page 640:

(physics, rare, fantasy, science fiction, biology) The independent sustenance of oneself, such as not requiring much oxygen to breathe or food to eat and liquids to drink like average species.


meatbrain

Installed on meatbrains whose habituation to computer-mediated activities has made them perilously vulnerable to infection by aggressive memes, the 'Babel' virus corrupts and overwrites the deep structures of human language, thereby 'crashing' the mind, and civilization with it.

2013, Joshua Raulerson, Singularities: Technoculture, Transhumanism, and Science Fiction in the Twenty-First Century, Liverpool, Merseyside: Liverpool University Press, →ISBN, page 199:

The fact that programming languages often resemble English words like body or if is a convenient accommodation for our puny human meatbrains, which are much better at remembering commands that look like words we already know.

2019 April 8, Gretchen McCulloch, “Coding Is for Everyone—as Long as You Speak English”, in Wired, San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-05-15:

(chiefly science fiction) A biological brain (as opposed to an artificial or man-made one).


object head

(fiction) The head of a subject which is an object.

(fiction, metonymic) A fictional character, typically humanoid or anthropomorphic, with an object for a head.


lenticular bracket

en-noun

lenticular bracket (plural lenticular brackets)

From lenticular + bracket, due to their resemblance to a lens.

(typography) Either of a pair of symbols,【 】, generally used in Chinese and Japanese dictionaries to enclose headwords, and sometimes for other purposes.


tortoise shell bracket

tortoise shell bracket (plural tortoise shell brackets)

tortoise shell brackets (plural)
tortoiseshell bracket (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-tortoise shell bracket.wav

Calque from Japanese 亀(きっ)甲(こう)括(かっ)弧(こ) (kikkōkakko, literally “tortoise shell bracket”), due to their resemblance to the shell of a tortoise. By surface analysis, tortoise shell + bracket.

surf

(typography) Either of a pair of symbols,〔 〕, sometimes used in Japanese to enclose comments in quoted text.


-pody

From Ancient Greek -ποδία (-podía) from πούς (poús, “foot”).

(poetry) A unit or line consisting of a specified number of metrical feet


water sprite

(folklore) A general term for an elemental spirit associated with water, said to be able to breathe water or air and sometimes is able to fly.


gentry bush

(Ireland, folklore) A thorny bush, especially a hawthorn.


stim pack

stim packs (plural)
stim-pack (alternative)
stimpack (alternative)
stimpak (alternative)

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

His father said, “Look, son, you're shaky. Sit down, take a stim pack. I got to deal with this right now.”

1983, Gregory Benford, Against Infinity, Timescape Books, page 117:

Meds, he thought, need meds. Shut off the damn pain. Got to grab a few stim packs.

2009, Matthew Costello, Doom 3: Maelstrom, Pocket Books, page 49:

The alien chose a stim pack from the kit. “This one, I believe.” He pressed it against the dying soldier.

2013, Kevin J. Anderson, “Comrades in Arms”, in Five by Five, WordFire Press, page 63:

Given how much you’ll be using Slow Mode, you can basically think of this Perk as picking up a few extra Stim Pack charges. In other words, it’s incredibly powerful.

2023 May 1, Matthew Byrd, “Jedi Survivor: Where to Find the Most Powerful Perks”, in Den of Geek!:

(science fiction, video games) A medicine, device, or similar item used to restore health or to relieve fatigue or pain.


mind break

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

(fiction, chiefly pornography) Dramatic loss of rational thought after excessive sexual abuse.


airsuit

... and in a paroxysm of fury clawed at the convict's airsuit as though he could rip the fabric apart with his bare hands.

1951, Martin Greenberg (editor), Travelers of Space, Volume 7, page 122:

Opening the forward hatch, he winched down the little platform flyer, loaded aboard a spare airsuit and spare tanks of oxygen, and without further ceremony set out for Thumbnail Gulch

1964, Jack Vance, The Star King, page 130:

He stopped removing his airsuit and pulled it back on again, all but the helmet, which he left lying on the ground.

2013, Gordon R. Dickson, The Pritcher Mass:

Spacemen call it an “airsuit liner” because it is made to fit under an airsuit and is padded and reinforced at the friction points.


OpenType

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

(computing, typography) A file format, developed jointly by Microsoft Corporation and Adobe Inc., for storing computer fonts.


TrueType

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

(computing, typography) a file format for storing computer fonts developed by Apple Inc.


archdivinity

One myth asserts that it was first used in designating the archdivinity of Yorubaland.

2004, Philip M. Peek, Kwesi Yankah, African Folklore: An Encyclopedia, page 833:

(theology, rare, religion, fantasy, science fiction) A chief or reigning divinity, particularly in a polytheistic system.


starline

At the gate terminals that serviced the various commercial passenger starlines, thousands of beings—humanoid and non—went about their business laboring in numerous capacities to keep the port operating smmothly, cleanly, and safely.

2004, Cory Williams, The Taking of Cyndriel's Hope, page 124:

Passengers transshipping to other starlines should go to the nearest routing desk at once.

2011, Robert Silverberg, The Silent Invaders:

These starlines are integral to the megacorporate business model, used for both transportation of raw materials and finished goods for all of the businesses within the corporate group.

(science fiction) A company that flies commercial starships.


mojo hand

(African-American, spirituality, folklore) A small flannel bag containing one or more magical items.

African-American; spirituality; African-American; spirituality


slow-burn

en-adj

slow-burn (comparative more slow-burn, superlative most slow-burn)

more slow-burn (comparative)
most slow-burn (superlative)

Clarke and Lexa's slow-burn romance—and the fan fiction that Vi devoured about it —led to her joining Tumblr and starting to write her own fanfic.

2018, Jessica Spotswood, The Last Summer of the Garrett Girls, unnumbered page:

Since most respondents who prefer slow-burn fics are on the asexual spectrum, this is not surprising, as they are less likely to desire sexual experiences with others in general.

2018, Lindsay Mixer, "'And Then They Boned': An Analysis Of Fanfiction And Its Influence On Sexual Development", thesis submitted Humboldt State University, page 48

Slow burn fics, for instance, can go as far as having seventy thousand words before the character pairing even interacts.

2020, Shania O'Brien, "The horny POV: Evolution of modern fanfiction", Honi Soit (University of Sydney), Week 5, Semester 5 (2020), page 18

(idiomatic) Emerging or unfolding slowly or gradually.

(fiction, fandom slang, of a romantic relationship) Developing slowly over the course of the story.


cyberprep

From cyber- + prep, as a response to cyberpunk.

Cyberprep is one answer to the Cyberpunk movement, a peachy keen one.

1987 May 1, Mark L. Blackman, APA-Filk, number 34, published 1987 April 23:

The cyberprep movement (such as it is, ha ha) takes as its motto: "Whatever you do, remember, be polite".

1987 September 27, Laurence R. Brothers, “Early Cyberpunk?”, in alt.cyberpunk (Usenet):

Cyberprep is thematically more optimistic, a broad difference expressed in small changes in the text, such as the likelihood chat body modification in a cyberprep work is done for the sake of aesthetics, rather than function or need. Put simply, cyberprep offers “a slick, clean, rosy view of the future to contrast cyberpunk's dirty, grim dystopias” (Bell 4).

2014, Tanya R. Cochran, Sherry Ginn, Paul Zinder, editors, The Multiple Worlds of Fringe: Essays on the J.J. Abrams Science Fiction Series, McFarland & Company, Inc., pages 156-157:

(science fiction) A subgenre of science fiction which, like cyberpunk, focuses on technological advancements, but which presents life as utopian and leisure-driven rather than gritty and dangerous (as in cyberpunk).


super deformed

Borrowed from Japanese スーパーデフォルメ (sūpādeforume), from スーパー (sūpā, “super-”) + デフォルメ (deforume, “stylistic distortion”).

ja-r

superdeformed (alternative)
SD (alternative)

(anime, manga) In Japanese caricature, drawn in an exaggerated way, typically small and chubby, with stubby limbs and oversized heads.


Mincho

Borrowed from Japanese 明(みん)朝(ちょう) (Minchō, literally “Ming Dynasty”). Doublet of Myeongjo, borrowed from Korean.

There are two popular styles of Kanji character fonts: “Mincho” and “Gothic.”[…]"Mincho" has thin horizontal strokes and thick vertical ones.[…]The role of “Mincho” in Japanese is similar to Roman style, and that of “Gothic” is similar to Bold face style.

1991 November 29, Robert A. Morris, Jacques André, Raster Imaging and Digital Typography II: Proceedings of the Conference on Raster Imaging and Digital Typography, Boston 1991, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 149:

The two typefaces Mincho and Gothic are most widely used. Mincho is serif and is used for main body text. Gothic is sans serif and is used mainly for headings.

1997 May 2, Horst Bunke, Patrick S. P. Wang, Handbook Of Character Recognition And Document Image Analysis, World Scientific Publishing, →ISBN, page 298:

(typography) A style of typeface used to display kanji and kana in Japanese, roughly analogous in appearance to serif typefaces.


Mincho

(typography) Of a Japanese font or typeface, being in the Mincho style.


monocase

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

American and European programmers are often surprised to discover that not all locales use a two-case alphabet. Eastern languages (e.g., Japanese and Chinese) based on ideograms are monocase; while Middle Eastern languages can have four or more cases.

1996, David A. Schmitt, “Using Locale Information and Unicode” (chapter 8), in Extending the MFC Library: Add Useful Reusable Features to the Microsoft Foundation Class Library, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Developers Press, →ISBN, page 163:

Dine 1 is a ‘monocase’ font that consists of a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters. It was designed that way to provide each letter character with a distinct shape without compromising any meaning associated with that shape.

2012, Robert Hillier, “The Design and Development of the Sylexiad Typeface”, in Nicola Brunswick, editor, Supporting Dyslexic Adults in Higher Education and the Workplace, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, page 189:

(linguistics, typography) Of a script or typeface: having only one case, making no distinction between upper and lower case.

The program prompts for the old password (if any) and then for the new one (twice). The caller must supply these. New passwords should be at least four characters long if they use a sufficiently rich alphabet and at least six characters long if monocase. Only the first eight characters of the password are significant.

1985, Rebecca Thomas, Jean Yates, “Text Processing” (chapter 5), in A User Guide to the UNIX System, 2nd edition, Berkeley, Calif.: Osborne McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 281:

The Standard chose to stay with the old restrictions on these external names: they are not guaranteed to be different unless they differ from each other in the first six characters. Worse than that, upper and lower case letters may be treated the same! […] There is nothing to prevent any specific implementation from giving better limits than these, but for maximum portability the six monocase characters must be all that you expect.

1988, Mike Banahan, “Variables and Arithmetic” (chapter 2), in The C Book: Featuring the Draft ANSI C Standard, Wokingham: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 23:

(computing, typography) Supporting or consisting of only one case of letters; either all uppercase or all lowercase; (also), case insensitive, treating upper and lower case as being the same.


Oldspeak

From old + speak, coined by George Orwell in 1949 in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Standard English
Standard English#English


duocase

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

Before the introduction of the IBM 1050, printing terminals had been limited to single case capability. But the use of an electric typewriter on the 1050 would give the capability of duocase printing—capital letters and small letters. This duocase capability was held to be a very significant marketing factor.

1980, Charles E. McKenzie, “The Size and Structure of PTTC” (chapter 6), in Coded Character Sets: History and Development (The Systems Programming Series), Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 106:

(computing, typography, rare) Supporting or consisting of both uppercase and lowercase letters.


Selenian

(chiefly science fiction) An inhabitant of the Moon.


Mabian

(literature) Of or relating to the Shakespearean character Queen Mab.


Perditean

(literature) Of or relating to the Shakespearean character Perdita.


Rosalindian

(literature) Of or relating to the Shakespearean character Rosalind.


Julietian

(literature) Of or relating to the character Juliet in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.


Desdemonan

(literature) Of or relating to the Shakespearean character Desdemona.


Cressidian

(literature) Of or relating to the Chaucerian and Shakespearean character Cressida.


Biancan

(literature) Of or relating to the Shakespearean character Bianca.


Setebosian

(literature) Of or relating to the Shakespearean character Setebos.


Sycoraxian

(literature) Of or relating to the Shakespearean character Sycorax.


Calibanian

(literature) Of or relating to the Shakespearean character Caliban.


Stephanonian

(literature) Of or relating to the Shakespearean character Stephano.


Margaretian

/ˌmɑːrɡəˈrɛtiən/

(literature) Of or relating to the Shakespearean character Margaret.


Prosperonian

(literature) Of or relating to the Shakespearean character Prospero.


Ferdinandian

(literature) Of or relating to the Shakespearean character Ferdinand.


steamfunk

Blend of steampunk + funk. Popularized by the 2013 short story anthology Steamfunk! co-edited by Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade.

By reimagining the past, Nisi Shawl’s steamfunk novel “Everfair” soars towards a feminist, afrofuturist vision of liberational technology.

2016 November 19, Ida Yoshinaga, Lynette James, “Labors of Hope and Liberation: Nisi Shawl’s Steamfunk Novel “Everfair””, in Los Angeles Review of Books:

(science fiction) A subgenre of science fiction that combines elements of steampunk with a focus on Black culture and Afrofuturism.


hackware

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

(computing, chiefly science fiction) Software used for hacking (circumventing security measures).


clurichaun

clurichauns (plural)
cluracan (alternative)
cluracaun (alternative)
cluricaun (alternative)
cluricaune (alternative)
clúrachán (alternative)

The residents of a house would leave offerings for the clurichaun, who sing in Gaelic with enchantingly beautiful voices. Related to leprechauns, clurichauns are house faeries who specialize in caring for and protecting wine and beer cellars.

2012, Sirona Knight, Wiccan Spell A Night, Kensington Publishing, unnumbered page:

2016, Keith B. Darrell, Flashbacks: Fangs & Fur, Book 1, Amber Book Company, unnumbered page,
"Clurichauns are Dark Fae cousins of leprechauns," Aurae explained. "Unlike their Seelie Court cousins, the clurichauns drink to excess and are seldom sober. But despite always being drunk, the clurichauns are impeccably groomed and well-dressed... although they can be a bit surly."

(Irish folklore) A mischievous, potentially malicious fairy, akin to the leprechaun, that greatly loves drinking and tends to haunt breweries, pubs and wine cellars.


puppygirl

puppygirls (plural)
puppy girl (alternative)
puppy-girl (alternative)

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

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

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


iyashikei

Borrowed from Japanese 癒(いや)し系(けい) (iyashikei).

(Japanese fiction) A genre of slice of life fiction, portraying characters living out peaceful lives in calming environments, intended to have a healing effect on the audience.


STO

(science fiction) Acronym of Surface-to-Orbit.

Planetary defense systems that can target starships in orbit, to defend against orbital bombardment.


shuttlebay

From shuttle + bay, the word originally appeared in Star Trek, but has since appeared in a variety of other science-fiction and fantasy contexts.

SET THE SHUTTLECRAFT'S LOCATION TO THE SHUTTLEBAY;

1978, Roger Garrett, The Complete Star Ship: A Simulation Project, Dilithium Press, page 99:

[…] human shapes could be seen using floaters to shift containers from building to shuttlebay and vice versa.

1980, Alan Dean Foster, Cachalot, Ballantine Books, page 31:

The shuttlebay workers were gathered in front of the intranet screen, waiting for news.

2005, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowel The Opal Deception, page 200:

(science fiction) A part of a starship in which space shuttles are kept.


ad interim copyright

en-noun

ad interim copyright (usually uncountable, plural ad interim copyrights)

(publishing) A special short-term copyright valid for five years from the date of its first publication, applied to certain books and periodicals in the English language.


xenoarcheological

From xenoarcheology + -ical or xeno- + archeological.

I saw some pretty big ruins near the place we set down. Perhaps natives are still living in them or they might be empty, but the beacon could be for the use of a xenoarcheological research post.

1978, Alan Dean Foster, Splinter of the Mind's Eye (Science Fiction), Del Rey Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 21–22:

“Permission to jettison waste,” Bradley asks in a transparent effort to attract the Commander’s attention. If the Ensign has a weakness, it’s this wanting to be noticed by superiors. I look round to see who’ll explain what he’s talking about. He does the honors himself.
“After the water is salvaged, our wastes, including the carbon from the air, get compressed and jettisoned. No room for fancy recycling gear.”
“Hang on to it,” the Old Man says. He turns to me. “Can’t you picture it? The mother plowing along in norm surrounded by a cloud of shit canisters.” He smiles, munches his apple. Just when I give up on hearing the rest, he says, “A million years from now an alien civilization will find one. It’ll be the biggest puzzle in their xenoarcheological museum. I can see them putting in fifty thousand creature hours trying to figure out its religious significance.”

1985, Glen Cook, “First Climb”, in Passage At Arms (Science Fiction), San Francisco: Night Shade Books, published 2007, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 72:

Penetrating scans have revealed large numbers of hollow, unpowered objects with dimensions of 3.14 by 12.56 by 28.26 meters circulating in the equatorial cloud bands. These objects appear to have "sails" or "wings" attached, allowing them to be borne aloft by Anjea's winds. While they are too deep to be reached for study, popular conjecture in xenoarcheological circles holds that they are "coffins" of an ancient race who laid their dead to rest in the gas giant.

2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2: Normandy Crash Site (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Anjea:

Taking a step forward, Nozawa rested her hands on the red handrail that separated the rear consoles from the command center. “They look like the remains of an ancient city. So there must have been life on LC-13-II, a civilization even.” Excitedly she turned to face Haden. “Sir, with your permission I’d like to inspect those more thoroughly. This might be a xenoarcheological find of epic proportions.”

2017 November, Bernd Perplies, Christian Humberg, Star Trek Prometheus: Fire with Fire, 1st edition (Science Fiction), Titan Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 13:

(science fiction) Of or pertaining to xenoarchaeology.


ghost bullet

People believe that a beast shoots "ghost bullets" when they ford a stream in Sihch'uan at any time except the winter months .

1968, Wolfram Eberhard, The Local Cultures of South and East China, page 195:

The leaves were used in the removal of ghost bullets " (supernatural objects that were shot into people by ghosts).

Pushing Teddy off, ignoring the part of him that mourned the loss—not the time, dumbass, not the time, ghosts were kind of a big fucking deal—he scrambled to his knees and looked at where the ghost had tried to put a ghost bullet in his brain.

"Somebody shot the doctor," the big police sergeant said. "It wasn't a ghost bullet; it was lead.

It was a ward against ghosts, but he was pretty sure it wasn't going to stop a ghost bullet.

2017, Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, Hellboy: An Assortment of Horrors, page 105:

He ain't shootin' ghost bullets, neither. Here's his slug.

2020, Kenneth Robeson, The Squeaking Goblin, page 66:

(folklore or fantasy) A supernatural bullet that wounds or kills a person, especially one that is shot by a supernatural assailant.


foxboy

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

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

(fiction) A male fictional character who has a fox's ears, tail, or other fox-like characteristics on an otherwise humanoid body.


foxgirl

/ˈfɔksˌɡɜːl/

/ˈfɔksˌɡɜɹl/

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

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

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


xenogenetics

(science fiction) A fictional science, concerned with the study of genetic makeup of extraterrestrial species.


non-Newtonian drive

(science fiction) A device that can generate thrust without accelerating matter in the opposite direction.


imbunche

(folklore) In Chilote folklore, a deformed humanoid monster that protects the entrance to a warlock's cave.


toyol

(folklore) An undead infant in Indonesian and Malay folklore, typically invoked as a helper by black magic.


Celestial City

In reference to the spires of the churches.

[…]I once was, as I thought, fair for the Cœleſtial City, and had then even joy at the thoughts that I ſhould get thither.

1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 29:

(fiction) Heaven in the allegory The Pilgrim's Progress.


inumimi

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

From Japanese 犬(いぬ)耳(みみ) (inumimi), from 犬(いぬ) (inu, “dog”) + 耳(みみ) (mimi, “ear”).

(Japanese fiction) A humanoid fictional character who possesses dog ears and/or tail.


whiteletter

(typography, historical) A light roman and italic letterform favored by humanist scribes and typographers in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries.


magnet play

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

Ratchet did the mech a favor and didn’t look at him while he recovered. He turned the seed magnet around in his pliers instead, examining it. […] ¶ “You should get a spotter if you’re going to experiment with magnets,” he said, once he figured Jazz was halfway to calm again. […] “Look, I’ve done magnet play, I’m not judging, but this thing is too powerful for how small it is. You’re lucky it didn’t get into your energon system.”

2023 March 27, neveralarch, “A Miracle Opened Wide”, in Archive Of Our Own (fan fiction), archived from the original on 2024-08-08:

Are nipple piercings magnetic?? That would be so fun if they were... imagine magnet play 😵💫

2023 December 13, @mementoviviere, Twitter, archived from the original on 2024-11-05:

(BDSM, science fiction) Any sexual activity involving magnets.


spirit master

(historical, printing) A two-ply sheet used in a spirit duplicator, in which the top sheet could be typed, drawn, or written upon, and the second sheet was coated with a layer of colored wax.


archemperor

archemperors (plural)
arch-emperor (alternative)

To the most reverend, reverend, reverend and reverend, princes and lords, Mr. Albrecht, cardinal priest, archbishop in Mainz and Magdeburg, primate; Mr. Hermann, archbishop in Cologne; Mr. Johann Ludewig, elected archbishop in Trier 2c.; Ludwig, Count Palatine of the Rhine; Joachim, Margrave of Brandenburg, of the Holy Roman Empire through Germany, Italy, and France Archchancellors, Archtruchsesses, and Archemperors, and Princes; Mr. Ernest, Archbishop in Salzburg 2c., and Mr. Wilhelm, bishop in Strasbourg; Wilhelm and Ludwig, brothers, dukes in Upper and Lower Bavaria 2c., Wilhelm, dukes in Julich and Cleve 2c., deputized and appointed princes to the appointed conversation at Worms 2c., S. gracious princes and lords. 1)

1901, Martin Luther, Dr. Martin Luthers Sämmtliche Schriften, Volume 17, Superintendent of Documents, pages 398-399:

You can become Grand Emperor. Then Archemperor.

2017 May 7, loonyphoenix, “I was excited for a second”, in reddit.com:

Apart from going into titles that describe a being itself rather than assigning it a 'rank' (ex.: god, observer, master, etc.), I think you'll pretty much hit the ceiling at "Archemperor". After that, you may have to rely on your own creative etymology skills!

2021 November 1, LastFormorian, PETBOTOSRS, “Rulers with "arch" in their name”, in reddit.com:

(fantasy, science fiction, very rare) A supreme emperor.


hypercannon

hypercannons (plural)
hyper-cannon (alternative)

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

"You'll have to use the hypercannon", the professor answered.

1994, Dina Anastasio, Virtual Troopers: Virtual Reality Magician, Price Stern Sloan, →ISBN, page 136:

Notice that this law also states that we cannot hope to achieve superluminal (faster than light) speeds with a hypercannon mounted on a relativistic spaceship.

2005, John F. Hawley, Katherine A. Holcomb, Foundations of Modern Cosmology, OUP Oxford, →ISBN, page 193:

Once I realize what I am looking, I have some doubts that this hypercannon is going to be any use to us.

2014, Cynthia Green, Scott Green, GunKnight, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, →ISBN, page 237:

(science fiction, video games, rare, weaponry, fantasy) An extraordinarily powerful, superior cannon.


headline style

This name for the concept (one of several names for it) comes from the widespread (albeit not universal) practice of using this casing in newspaper headlines.


gaslight romance

gaslight romance (countable and uncountable, plural gaslight romances)

(literature) A subgenre of fantasy and historical fiction that combines Gothic elements with a Victorian or Edwardian setting.


Arceism

Beyond those holidays, Arceism should be celebrated by one's own interpretation.

Arceus is ironically worshipped within the Pokémon community, as in the Facebook Page “Arceism” naming a fictional religion centered around it [6].

2023, Suraj Sood, “The Augmented Cognition of Religion and Spirituality in Media”, in Augmented Cognition:

In mainstream Arceism, Arceus is regarded as the creator of all Pokemon, Ghost-types included.

2024 November 28, ElSquibbonator, Reddit:

new religious movement
new religious movement

(fandom slang, video games, anime, manga) A parody religion or new religious movement based on the Pokémon franchise, centered on the veneration of Arceus, a creator deity in the canon of the series.


locus amoenus

Learned borrowing from Latin locus amoenus (“pleasant place”).

lbor

(literature, poetry) A literary motif of an idealised place of safety or comfort, typically comprising a meadow, trees (for shade) and water; sometimes evoking connotations of Eden or Elysium.


underground people

The inhabitants of Rügen believe in three kinds of Dwarfs, or underground people, the White, the Brown, and the Black, so named from the colour of their several habiliments.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 281:

Gross superstition still prevails in most parts of Nordland, particularly regarding the underground people.

1872 November 7, Overland Monthly: Devoted to the Development of the Country, San Francisco, page 425, column 1:

(folklore) Any of the fairy folk, trolls, dwarfs, or other supernatural beings, that primarily live underground.


heroic epic

(literature) A long poem that recounts the story of a hero's adventures and deeds, and is usually written in an elevated style.


ectoblaster

ectoblasters (plural)
ecto-blaster (alternative)

From ecto- + blaster, likely originally coined to describe the "proton packs" and "neutrona wands" in the movie Ghostbusters (1984).

A scaly hand grabbed Gloom's ecto-blaster and pulled it from its holster. A second ugly Ghoul examined the weapon closely.

2010, Andrew Newbound, Ghoul Strike!, Scholastic Inc., →ISBN, page 174:

[…] whether he's a prize bare-knuckle fighter who'll beat me to paste then chew off my nose, whether he's an ex-Nazi sympathiser with a secret Thule Society ectoblaster instead of a cock[…]

2011 July 21, Simon Spurrier, Contract, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

We could use Holtzmann's ecto-blaster thingies right about now.

2017 July 11, Kevin Hearne, Besieged: Book Nine: Stories from The Iron Druid Chronicles, Del Rey, →ISBN:

(fantasy fiction) A fictional energy weapon designed to destroy or capture ghosts.


monster girl

Calque of Japanese モンスター娘 (monsutā musume).

calque

(anime and manga) A fictional female character who shares visual traits with a monster.

monstermeisje

fictional female character with monster traits


monster boy

Gender inversion of monster girl, which is a calque of Japanese モンスター娘 (monsutā musume).

(anime and manga) A fictional male character who shares visual traits with a monster.

hirviöpoika

fictional male character with monster traits


repulsor ray

Tony Stark makes you feel
He’s a cool exec with a heart of steel.
As Iron Man, all jets ablaze,
He’s fighting and smiting with repulsor rays!
Amazing armor! That’s Iron Man!
A blazing power! That’s Iron Man!

1966, “Iron Man (theme song)”, Jacques Urbont (lyrics) (The Marvel Super Heroes (television series)):

(science fiction) An energetic ray that pushes away or repels objects.


Homeric simile

en-noun

Homeric simile (countable and uncountable, plural Homeric similes)

(literature) A form of extended simile spanning several lines.


repub

(publishing, informal) Clipping of republished.

(publishing, informal) Clipping of republish.


letter-quality printing

(printing) A printing method that produces solid letters that are as clear or clearer than those produced by a typewriter.


small letter

(printing, historical) A character that was once stored in the bottom half of a compositor's typecase.


stunrod

Outside stood two tall men, anonymous in black shock armor, their stunrods loose in their hands.

2007, Kristin Landon, The Hidden Worlds, →ISBN, page 147:

They sentenced him to the Gate a little while after I moved over there, and, when he figured out I was there as well, he and his little band of delinquent Enforcers used their authority to make my life Hell. Any little thing, and at every petty little turn, if I did something he disapproved of, which was everything, he'd set his stunrod on low and hit me.

2016 July 8, Fey Truet, Altered World, →ISBN, unnumbered page:

She saw Ackerman's stunrod before she saw him.

2017 September 19, Ryan Graudin, Invictus, →ISBN, unnumbered page:

(science fiction, weaponry) A baton that delivers an electric shock upon striking someone or something.


Earth Surface Person

Earth Surface Person (plural Earth Surface People)

Earth Surface People (plural)
Earth surface person (alternative)
earth surface person (alternative)

Their tales qualify this as Earth People or Earth Surface People, for, in the long, poetic myth which is their bible, they climbed up to the earth's flat disk from her dark, underground womb.

1956, Ruth Murray Underhill, The Navajos, page 4:

Toad denounces angrily that an earth surface person should be going about here and shoots mudballs at various parts of her body (soles, hip joint, small of back, meeting of shoulder blades, hollow of head); she is lamed and felled by this witchery.

1957, Katherine Spencer, Mythology and Values, An Analysis of Navaho Chantway Myths, page 153:

Down where berries were reported to be, they went again, when suddenly she saw the woman's tracks. "Whose tracks are these? They are tracks of an earth surface person!" [Holy Young Woman said].

1975, Leland C. Wyman, The Mountainway of the Navajo, page 190:

Thus, the story of Changing Woman here is the story of her creation of the earth-surface people and of the things that they need in order to exist.

1984, John R. Farella, The Main Stalk, A Synthesis of Navajo Philosophy, page 89:

The great Navajo chant Beauty Way deals with a fruitful coming-together of an earth-surface person - a human being - and a spirit; the Beauty Way ceremony itself, which incorporates the story, is given to the Navajo people as a consequence of that event.

1993, Leslie Marmon Silko, Yellow Woman, page 121:

Sure, people have problems when they're married; no Earth Surface Person is perfect.

2001, Rose Mitchell, Tall Woman, The Life Story of Rose Mitchell, a Navajo Woman, c. 1874-1977, page 297:

The old man began the Restoration of the Earth Surface Person Upon His Return Home prayer, which describes the reuniting of a person with his home.

2003, R. A. F. McPhearson, Blackening Rite, page 22:

(folklore, Native American) A human being, specifically in cultures like the Navajo, residing on the physical Earth, as opposed to spiritual beings or deities, considered to reside in higher realms.


double code

en-verb

double code (third-person singular simple present double codes, present participle double coding, simple past and past participle double coded)

double codes (present singular third-person)
double coding (participle present)
double coded (participle past)
double coded (past)
double-code (alternative)

(intransitive, literature, linguistics, uncommon) To create an ambiguity in the interpretation of language depending on the frame of reference employed.


color separation

en-noun

color separation (plural color separations)

(printing, graphic design) The process of breaking down a colored image into its component colors in order for it to be printed.


Dothrakian

Daenerys Targaryen’s nickname evolves from the Dothrakian word for woman, which is “yasi.”

2015 November 12, Tiffany Chen, “'Game of Thrones' David J. Peterson discusses the Invention of Language”, in The Wellesley News:

Both are great fans of fictional constructed languages like Dothrakian from “Game of Thrones” or Klingon from “Star Trek.”

2019 May 6, Edwin J. Viera, “Cornell grad students create language for Captain Marvel”, in Ithaca News:

He hoped they knew one of the three languages he'd learned. Russian, his mother tongue, English immersion to ensure him fully fluent, and Dothrakian because he liked the guttural sound of it.

2021, Eve Langlais, Taming a Bear, unnumbered page:

(rare, fiction, nonstandard) Synonym of Dothraki (language).


Dothrakian

en-adj

Dothrakian (comparative more Dothrakian, superlative most Dothrakian)

more Dothrakian (comparative)
most Dothrakian (superlative)

Walking on foot from Drogon’s lair in the mountains, she [Daenerys] is surrounded by Dothrakian warriors, and her fate remains to be seen.

2016, Rikke Schubart, “Woman With Dragons: Daenerys, Pride, and Postfeminist Possibilities”, in Anne Gjelsvik, Rikke Schubart, editors, Women of Ice and Fire: Gender, Game of Thrones, and Multiple Media Engagements, New York, N.Y.; London: Bloomsbury Academic, →ISBN, “Dragons” section, page 122:

Claire sipped a latte made by a barista with a nose ring and Dothrakian eyeliner.

2023, Ward Larsen, “A Pin-Pulled Grenade”, in Deep Fake, New York, N.Y.: Forge, →ISBN:

Note here the use of weasel words (‘could be’ and ‘can be’) and the reference to some apparently known but unspecified generic subjects (‘some markets’, ‘many read’); the Dothrakian ‘it is known’, for aficionados of Game of Thrones.

2024, Gibson Burrell, Ronald Hartz, David Harvie, Geoff Lightfoot, Simon Lilley, and friends, “Leading to Mediocrity; or, Knowing Your Place in Academia”, in Shaping for Mediocrity: The Cancellation of Critical Thinking at Our Universities, London: Zero Books, →ISBN, “Managerial blah and the ‘regime of truth’” section:

(rare, fiction) Relating to or characteristic of the Dothraki, a nomadic people in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire.


ultradimensional

The art of the invisibilists is an ultradimensional temporal-spatial art, appealing not to separate sense organs but to the residue of differentiated sensitivity, that Is to say, their art Is synaesthetic.

1922, The Winchester Star, Winchester Star: October 6, 1922 - December 29, 1922, Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, page 3:

Unaccountably, Anne Howard was at his side. Her slender arm patted his drooping shoulder. “Please don’t despair,” she begged. “Perhaps you didn’t evacuate space completely. There may be a tiny flaw in your calculations that can be rectified. And next time” — she threw a defiant glance at the young man — “you can count on me to go along with you — even into that ultradimensional universe.”

1937, Astounding Stories: Lost in the Dimensions, page 58:

Within the larger, structure flared the focus of disturbance. Iskra started violently. Obscure phrases tumbled from his lips. Bewilderment spread over his saturnine features. Instinctively his finger stabbed toward the octahedral knob that governed the translation-trains, the ultradimensional waves of himself and his vehicle that would send them all hurtling back to the safety of Ooroopah.

1938, Nat Schachner, Astounding Science-Fiction, page 33:

In his make-up analysis and synthesis run parallel. One would think that his obsession is to find the cosmic harmony in every thing and to establish in every case the coincidence of the Fact with the Idea, and vice versa. And in so doing he reaches heights of attainment hard to discover anywhere else. No one can escape this impression from the reading of his prose. The reader finds himself of necessity in another world. Very few will miss the presence of Something ultradimensional...at least in terms of time, for Alfonso Reyes is a man of two or three Times. In his thought one discerns, telescoped, the thought of twenty centuries. . . . But he is not the scholar full of dusty facts. There is the fragrance of Springtime in his lines.

1945, Books Abroad 1945: Volume 19, Issue 2, University of Oklahoma, pages 118-119:

When Aristotle says that first philosophy is the science of being qua being, he gives metaphysics the task of being a science of the whole. Being qua being is being which is not determined simply to this or that dimension. It is, rather, something “ultradimensional,” a sort of opening up of the whole. And, precisely as such, it is like this and that and every other dimension which constitutes the whole.

1958, Eugen Biser, Philosophy Today Summer 1958: Volume 2, Issue 2, Philosophy Documentation Center, page 80:

"I do believe,” murmured Pucky in an excited voice, “this time we’re in luck and will meet the masters of the robots — even if robots are manning the ship. They’re letting air into the airlock. I don’t think robots need air. When I entered a Silver Arrow for the first time. I had changed into a quantum of light due to the ultradimensional changeover of the molkex. . ."

1969, Perry Rhodan, In the Center of the Galaxy, Ace Books, page 27:

We cannot hope to stop the reaction of the reaction because the galaxy is a far more entity than I. But we may guide it if we can achieve the correct medium of perception and enough control. 'I do not understand,' I complained. There was a note of panic in me. I could see terror in the face and feel it in the ultradimensional folds of the web.

1971, Brian M. Stableford, Day of Wrath, Quartet Books, pages 129-130:

This is the reason why, sticking to the facts and failing for the time being any exhaustive, satisfactory explanation other than their “biological nature”, we agree to your interpretation, according to which most of the UFOs that have mystified men for generations are not extraterrestrial spaceships at all, but are generally-invisible, ultradimensional, ultraterrestrial, biological, etheric organisms that are of our planet, that have been living with us, side by side, unnoticed, since the beginning of time.

1990, Trevor J. Constable, The Cosmic Pulse of Life: The Revolutionary Biological Power Behind UFOs, Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, →ISBN, pages 438-439:

(science fiction, fantasy, rare) Hyperdimensional.


super-supernatural

super-supernatural (comparative more super-supernatural, superlative most super-supernatural)

more super-supernatural (comparative)
most super-supernatural (superlative)
super-supernatural (alternative)

Burton’s voice going over all he’d told to me. As he spoke, de Granjerque didn’t interrupt, merely nodding impatiently to himself. Finally, my supersupernatural sleuth spoke.

1943, D. W. O'Brien, Fantastic Adventures, page 132:

Second, concerning Packer’s neologism, “supersupernatural-ism” and the dangers of its obtrusiveness, I agree that one must remember that God is indeed the God of the mundane as well as the supramundane.

1987, ICBI Summit, Applying the Scriptures, Academie Books, page 79:

As they watched this supersupernatural event, they all heard and ignored a sound from behind them which might or might not have been a groan.

2007, Toby Litt, Hospital: A Dream Vision, Academie Books, Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 265:

But it's the simplest explaination. If you want to add a supernatural layer then that supernatural layer just exists because it is. Whatever necessary precursor to all of causality exists, it logically has to exist for no reason. But it is simpler to assume that the quantum precursors to our universe exist for no reason, because if you assume that some other supernatural thing exists, then why does that exist? If you could then find the mechanics of the supernatural to answer that, they would themselves be able to be explained as their own quanta, which either exist for no reason, or for a supersupernatural reason, and you can go on and one down that road forever. But each new step is inherently more improbability being heaped onto your base assumptions about the nature of reality. But just believing that everything exists for no reason makes you the least likely to be wrong. You might be wrong, but whatever would be the answer almost certainly does not look like any sort of supernatural explanation yet proposed, but, if it can be thought of as a sort of supernature, I will wait for a scientist to observe it and explain why he thinks that that is the best way to describe it.

2020 May 15, Nya_doesnt_die, Speed_of_Night, “Do you believe in aliens, Why or why not?”, in reddit.com:

(very rare, theology, fantasy, science fiction, religion) Being above and beyond simply supernatural; being unbound by the supernatural limits, such as the individual soul.


dragonic

From the above it is evident that umbellic acid is identical both with the dragonic acid, according to the formula which Gerhardt assigned to it, and with the anisic acid discovered by Cahours.

1846, Rosewell Messinger, Chemical Gazette, P. F Collier and Son Company, page 422:

The second appears in the 11th verse, and is described as having two horns like a lamb, and speaking as a dragon. The first arose up out of the sea, denoting its political or civil character. The second came up out of the earth, denoting his ecclesiastical character. These powers were united in criminal intercourse. The first Roman imperial government was in the closest governmental relations — in fact, the two governments were practically one — with Roman Catholicism; and this connection converts the moral and spiritual attributes of the church into the dragonic — persecuting— spirit of a wild beast.

1886, Henry Lyman Kellogg, Jonathan Blanchard, The Christian Cynosure, National Christian Association, page 11:

The story affixed to “The Medusa’s Head” seems to refer to another lost picture, in which a dragonic beast was compounded of horrible shapes. Whether the Medusa be genuine or not, it is a remarkably horrid painting. The livid blue and red tints and the ghastly stare of the half closed eyes are certainly of powerful and weird effect, and the intense gloom over it all, unbroken except for the little light glittering on the almost metallic coils of the hair-snakes, adds to its horrible fascination.

1887, John Charles Dent, Arcturus: A Canadian Journal of Literature and Life, John Charles Dent, page 2:

The passage with its history is remarked to be a downward one under a Dragonic star towards a bottomless pit.

1889, Robert Shaw, Creator and Cosmos, Becktold & Company, page 76:

But if our beast, as to his trunk and tailm is of the earth, earthy, reptilian, aligatorian, he becomes, as to his head, a head of the mists and storm-clouds, dragonic, monstrous, allegorical.

1913, Royal Asiatic Society, The Journal of The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain And Ireland 1913, P. F Collier and Son Company, page 547:

(fantasy, science fiction, rare) Of or resembling a dragon in nature.


camerality

(typography) The number of cases in a writing system.