intimist

en-adj

intimist (comparative more intimist, superlative most intimist)

more intimist (comparative)
most intimist (superlative)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2016, Giorgio Caravale, Forbidden Prayer, →ISBN:

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


geokinesis

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


ferrokinesis

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


chronokinesis

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


tendency writing

en-noun

tendency writing (countable and uncountable, plural tendency writings)

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

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


playwriting

playwriting (usually uncountable, plural playwritings)


empath

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

1957, Hans Stefan Santesson, editor, Fantastic Universe:

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

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

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


antiheroism

(literature) The quality of being an antihero


yandere

/ˈjɑːndɛɹeɪ/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(chiefly Japanese fiction) A character, usually a girl, who has an obsessive and possessive side in regards to their crush, ready to use violent and murderous means to maintain an exclusive bond.

يَانْدِرِي

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


biopunk

biopunk (countable and uncountable, plural biopunks)

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

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

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

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

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

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


stargate

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

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

2000, David Hatcher Childress, Technology of the Gods:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2004, Stephanie Relfe, The Mars Force Book 2:

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


grotesquerie

grotesquerie (countable and uncountable, plural grotesqueries)

/ˌɡɹəʊˈtɛskəɹi/

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


maximalist

en-adj

maximalist (comparative more maximalist, superlative most maximalist)

more maximalist (comparative)
most maximalist (superlative)

From maximal + -ist, by analogy with minimalist.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


maximalist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


antiheroine

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

2009 January 18, Charles Isherwood, “Hedda Forever: An Antiheroine for the Ages”, in New York Times:

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


ambisyllabicity

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


octosyllable

(poetry) line of verse with eight syllables


dipodic

(poetry) Consisting of two metrical feet.


cutup

Jeff Lawton's Truck Stop (1969), which read like a William Burroughs cut-up novel and was printed in a skewed, rotated, and oddly spaced type.

2001, Susan Stryker, Queer Pulp, page 118:

(literature) A work produced by the aleatory literary technique of cutting up and rearranging a written text to create a new text.


envoi

From the pulsing throb of the very opening, this was a detailed, incisive playing, culminating in an envoi glowing enough to provide the catharsis this programme so uncompromisingly demanded.

2009 January 28, Erica Jeal, “LSO/Segerstam”, in The Guardian:

(poetry) A short stanza at the end of a poem, used either to address a person or to comment on the preceding body of the poem.


disintegrator

'Well, gentlemen,' said he, in a velvety voice with only the least trace of a foreign accent, 'you have come, as I understand from our short chat over the wires, in order to learn more of the Nemor Disintegrator.'

1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disintegration Machine:

(science fiction) A laser or similar weapon or device that can disintegrate matter.


dhampir

(mythology, fiction, fantasy) A half-human, half-vampire hybrid.


poetics

Both significantly build on the poetics of death and dissolution that Black and Tan broached so powerfully[…].

1988 October 21, Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Bird Watching”, in Chicago Reader:

(philosophy, literature) The theory of poetry, or of literature in general.


stewpot

It’s a nasty stewpot of intellectually untenable premises and irresponsible speculation that frequently reads like a “Saturday Night Live” parody of the crackpot right.

2007 February 6, Michiko Kakutani, “Dispatch From Gomorrah, Savaging the Cultural Left”, in New York Times:

(art, literature) A jumble, especially one that lacks intellectual coherence.


hammerspace

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From hammer + space, referring to the large mallets often produced from nowhere by cartoon characters.

Okay, now just picture what you want to pull out of hammerspace and just reach in and grab it.

1996, Vincent Tagle, “Love and a single Ukclone...”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

...it's a commonly known fact that dust is physically incapable of collecting in Hammerspace, so everything is always looking brand new! I for one would want to keep my collection of--I think it's sixty-four--manga spotless!

2000, Jason Howe, “Hammerspace Cleaning”, in alt.fan.sailor-moon (Usenet):

I just learned how to take my sword out of my hammerspace, and I'm not afraid to use it.

(humorous, fiction) A notional extradimensional storage space able to contain objects larger than itself.


loli

From Japanese ロリ or a clipping of lolicon.

(fandom slang, chiefly anime and manga) A childlike female character, particularly in the lolicon genre.


symbolist

From French symboliste, coined by poet Paul Verlaine in 1885.

The general picture that has emerged is one of Cubism bubbling up out of a thick Parisian stew of symbolist poetry, Cézanne, cafe society, African masks, absinthe and a fascination with all things mechanical and modern, mostly airplanes and automatons.

2007 April 15, Randy Kennedy, “When Picasso and Braque Went to the Movies”, in New York Times:

(art, literature) Of or pertaining to the Symbolist movement in late 19th-century and early 20th-century European arts and literature


megastructure

For lack of anything intelligent to do (it's a slow weekend), I've been compiling a list of stories about "megastructures" -- ringworlds, Dyson spheres, and so forth.

1993 January 17, Ross Smith, “Enormous Big Things”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet), message-ID <alien.02jk@acheron.amigans.gen.nz>:

Wright and his co-authors say the unusual star’s light pattern is consistent with a “swarm of megastructures,” perhaps stellar-light collectors, technology designed to catch energy from the star.

2015 October 13, Ross Andersen, “The Most Mysterious Star in Our Galaxy”, in The Atlantic:

(science fiction) A hypothetical structure not possible with current technology, e.g., a Dyson sphere.


webcartoonist

(comics, Internet) A person who creates webcomics.


Earthman

Such dreams! Always of Mars, and during my waking hours at night my eyes always sought out the Red Planet when he was above the horizon and clung there seeking a solution of the seemingly unfathomable riddle he has presented to the Earthman for ages.

1928, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Master Mind of Mars, page 2:

(usually science fiction) A male inhabitant of Earth.


hub world

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From hub, meaning the central point or are of an activity, region, or network.

Otherwise, our beautiful tree might become a definite nuisance on any Hub world to which it is introduced.

1965, John Wood Campbell, editor, Analog Science Fact/science Fiction, page 43:

A hub world in the Kasna Republik, Kasnearfar was a cosmopolitan port for beings across the Four Galaxies.

2007, Aaron Michael Fanthorpe, Genesis Project: Prelude to Destiny, volume 1, page 8:

But something was shaping up—something incomprehensible and vast, concerning the Hub Worlds, something that was apparently tangled in and directly related to tens of thousands of years of interacting histories.

(science fiction) A planet which serves as a hub.


hoverboard

Back to the Future Part II
Self-balancing two-wheeled board
hoverboard

From hover + board, patterned off of skateboard. First mentioned in the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II.

(chiefly science fiction) A levitating board that can be ridden in the manner of a surfboard or skateboard.


hoverboard

en-verb

hoverboard (third-person singular simple present hoverboards, present participle hoverboarding, simple past and past participle hoverboarded)

hoverboards (present singular third-person)
hoverboarding (participle present)
hoverboarded (participle past)
hoverboarded (past)

(chiefly science fiction) To travel by hoverboard.


Asimovian

en-adj

Asimovian (comparative more Asimovian, superlative most Asimovian)

more Asimovian (comparative)
most Asimovian (superlative)

(literature) Of or pertaining to Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) or his writings, especially science fiction.

asimovien

of or pertaining to Isaac Asimov or his writings


werebear

/ˈwɪəbɛə(ɹ)/

/ˈwɛəbɛə(ɹ)/

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


polymetric

(poetry, music) Involving more than one metre


monometric

(poetry) Of or pertaining to a monometer.


off-worlder

/ˌɒfˈwɜːldə/

/ˈɔfˈwɜɹldəɹ/

From off-world (adjective) + -er (suffix denoting a person characterized by [the adjective to which the suffix is attached]).

suffix

suffix denoting a person characterized by 􂀿the adjective to which the suffix is attached􂁀

So? On your world you do as custom rules. Customs are different here, off-worlder.

1955, Andre Norton [pseudonym; Alice Mary Norton], “Classic move to Disaster”, in Star Guard, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, page 58:

The distinguished scientist, winner of the Seo Oren Prize for service to all nations through science, has accepted a professorship at Ieu Eun University, an honor never before accorded to an off-worlder.

1974, Ursula K[roeber] Le Guin, chapter 3, in The Dispossessed, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, published July 1975, →ISBN, page 63:

TRAVEL ADVISORY: Korlus ranks second in murder per capita in the Terminus Systems and first in offworlder murder. Civilian traffic is encouraged to employ security professionals when visiting.

2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2, Redwood City, Calif.: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Korlus:

(fantasy, science fiction) One who is not from the local world (whether a dimension, plane, planet, or universe); an alien.

ulkoplaneettalainen

one who is not from the local world — see also alien


hack-and-slash

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"Oh yes, I meant it as a compliment." Olin tapped the books. "I expect to finish these... but for the writing. It's the writing I like. I was surprised to find myself laughing at your quite unsupernatural adventures in Gartsby Castle, and I was surprised to find you as good as you are. As subtle as you are. I expected more hack and slash."

(literature) Shallowly devoted to the gory details.


antigrav

en-noun

antigrav (countable and uncountable, plural antigravs)

(science fiction) Antigravity, or a device that counters gravity.


holodeck

From holo- + deck, coined in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

[…] the fact that science-fiction film, and indeed much — if not most — contemporary film, has become a technology on the way to somewhere else, whether that goal turns out to be immersive, interactive, or some holodeck-style fusion of the two.

1999, Annette Kuhn, Alien Zone II: The Spaces of Science-fiction Cinema:

Computer music might someday replace acoustic music made by human beings, but that time is far away, waiting either for Holodecks to be perfected or for a generation of listeners to arrive who are too busy and too uninvolved with their ambient surroundings to want to relate to them[.]

1999 June, Al Stevens, “Jukebox: Covering the Basses”, in Dr. Dobb's Journal, volume 24, number 6, San Francisco, Calif.: Miller Freeman, Inc., →ISSN, page 115:

Building a holodeck will require breakthroughs in sensors, robotics, and mechanical interfaces […]

2002, Kay M Stanney, Handbook of virtual environments:

In such a world, would one want to be hooked up to a pleasure machine or live on a holodeck?

2007, Fritz Allhoff, Patrick Lin, James Moor, Nanoethics:

(science fiction) A room that provides holographic simulations for recreation, training, etc.


tonos

From the Modern Greek τόνος (tónos, “stress, accent”). Doublet of tone.

(orthography and typography) The Modern Greek stress-marking diacritic: ⟨ ΄ ⟩, written atop a vowel in a given word’s stressed syllable.


slow burn

The second episode of tonight’s two part finale is the culmination of a storyline first introduced way back in the first season (episode ten, “Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind”). That aired over seven years ago. Even shows that pay very close attention to serialization rarely manage that kind of slow burn.

2021 September 6, Zack Handlen, “Rick And Morty ends its fifth season looking for an escape hatch”, in The A.V. Club:

You might politely describe this werewolf thriller set in the English countryside, in which the werewolf is kept off-camera, as a slow-burn. A devastating revelation awaits us at the end, but for the first two-ish-thirds of the movie we watch a man in a cottage […] looking alarmed and perturbed, possibly having a psychotic breakdown.

2023 May 2, Cath Clarke, “Wolf Garden review – English rural werewolf horror is a major slow burn”, in The Guardian:

Despite its dramatic opening, this is a slow burn of a novel. Salvioni might not display the flair of [Elena] Ferrante, but Francesca and Maddalena are vibrant characters for whom we quickly root.

2024 June 16, Lucy Popescu, “The Cursed Friend by Beatrice Salvioni review – rebels with a cause”, in The Observer:

(idiomatic) Something that emerges or unfolds slowly or gradually.

(fiction) A work of fiction with a slow-paced plot; also, such a storyline.

Another familiar trope, the slow burn, teases the reader as characters secretly pine for one another . . . for a long time.

2018, Francesca DiPiazza, Fandom: Fic Writers, Vidders, Gamers, Artists, and Cosplayers, page 30:

Slow burns are torture. Why wait? I want my characters getting down and dirty ASAP, and there's nothing wrong with that.

2019, Robinwritesallthethings, “porn with plot”, in Lemon, page 62:

On some nights, I want a good long, juicy 70k word slowburn, mutual pining, angst (with a happy ending, of course, I'm not a monster).

2021, Aditi Dubey, “Considering Fanfic”, in Rabbit Hole, number 1, Australian National University, page 33:

(fiction, fandom slang) A romantic story (especially a work of fan fiction) in which the central relationship develops slowly.


cyberbook

The reader, the cyberbook, costs, say, $200. The wafers cost pennies. The reader, the human, is thus ever after buying a handful of wafers instead of books […]

1972, John Wood Campbell, Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact:

Bookshelves ran up to the ceiling along two walls, and a third wall had shelves full of video disks and cyberbook chips […]

Probably the day is not far off when a three-dimensional cyberbook can begin to effectively chart this web of contacts […]

2005, Michael A Winkelman, Marriage relationships in Tudor political drama:

(science fiction) A digital or electronic equivalent of a book.


cyberdeck

From cyber- + deck, coined by American-Canadian speculative fiction writer William Gibson in 1984 in his novel Neuromancer.

coin

More than twelve hours had passed since the decker had touched the cyberdeck keyboard.

1991, Robert N Charrette, John Zeleznik, Joel Biske, Find Your Own Truth:

...then the interface that provides the experience — say, a cyberdeck — becomes a quantifiable metric of human experience as well as a commodity.

2002, Veronica Hollinger, Joan Gordon, Edging Into the Future:

...people fused either temporarily or permanently with machinery (by brain implants, by jacking in to the cyberdeck, etc.)...

2003, Karen Haber, Exploring the Matrix:

...a glove with silver metallic weaving and a black cord that was connected to his cyberdeck.

(science fiction) A piece of equipment that can be temporarily connected to the user's brain as an interface to cyberspace.


unity of time

(theater, literature) The classical unity stating that the action of a play should take place over no more than twenty-four hours.


ork

(specific to Warhammer 40,000, science fiction) A species of aggressive, fungal humanoid alien, corresponding to the orcs in other fantasy works.


paeon

(poetry) A foot containing any pattern of three short syllables and one long syllable.


verism

en-noun

verism (countable and uncountable, plural verisms)

In place of the high polish and artifice of, say, Friday the 13th, there is a rougher verism [in Jackass].

2007, Andrew Shanken, “The Sublime "Jackass"”, in Places, volume 19:

(art, literature) Presenting common, everyday subjects, specifically eschewing the heroic or legendary.


cybercowboy

...from the voyeur and beau, through the private dick and the hobo to the cybercowboy and the cyborg.

2000, Cutting Edge, Digital desires: language, identity and new technologies:

Unlike the cyborg and cybercowboy, technoman Lenny is a sad figure who cannot move on. Despite Faith's rejections he loiters about the club where she works...

2002, Amanda Fernbach, Fantasies of fetishism: from decadence to the post-human:

...ruthlessly competitive with each other, these corporations hire cybercowboys like Case to do this risky work for them.

2003, Frederick Buell, From apocalypse to way of life: environmental crisis in the American century:

(science fiction) A character who carries out contract work, especially of a legally dubious nature, in cyberspace.


timeslip

In any case, neither Morris nor Adeler used a timeslip like Twain.

1996, Rebecca A Umland, The use of Arthurian legend in Hollywood film:

And, although not in a timeslip tale, the horse protagonist of Richard Adams's Traveler (1988) is a creature inherently bound to General Lee...

1999, John Clute, John Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy:

For an instant, she felt as though she were caught in a timeslip — her crew suffering from scurvy, the transporter a significant advantage...

He Walked Around the Horses by H. Beam Piper (1948) uses a timeslip to explain a mysterious actual event summarized in the story's prologue...

2003, Edward James, Farah Mendlesohn, The Cambridge companion to science fiction:

In an apparently fantastic moment, Stephen experiences a timeslip that enables him to secure his own existence.

(science fiction) A phenomenon that causes unexpected time travel.


mechanoid

Originally he'd entered the Game to rescue the others. He was a sanitation Mechanoid, programmed to clean, and, in theory, should have been immune to the Game's lure. But he wasn't.

(science fiction) A robot that is designed to look and act like a human.


Sirian

(science fiction) An inhabitant of (an exoplanet orbiting) Sirius.


synizesis

synizesis (countable and uncountable, plural synizeses)

From Ancient Greek συνίζησις (sunízēsis, “a sitting together”), from σύν (sún, “with”) (English syn-) + ἱζάνω (hizánō, “to sit”).

der

(poetry) A poetic figure of speech in which two consecutive vowel sounds in the same word are pronounced as a single phoneme so that certain words adhere to a particular poetic meter.


antinovelist

From antinovel + -ist or anti- + novelist.

The difference between a modern novelist like Roth and an eighteenth-century moralist and antinovelist like Rousseau […]

1995, Dennis Porter, Rousseau's legacy: emergence and eclipse of the writer in France:

But for Augustine, as for the harsher Puritans who followed him, there is no real point in saying what some humanist antinovelists very much wished to say […]

1997, Margaret Anne Doody, The True Story of the Novel:

At no point in her writing does Mary Lee Settle become an antinovelist or a player of literary games.

2000, Roger Shattuck, Candor and perversion: literature, education, and the arts:


(poetry) Placed over a vowel letter to indicate that the syllable is short. Also used alone to mark a syllable without stress in a metrical foot or verse: see ⟨˘⟩.


kohai

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Borrowed from Japanese 後(こう)輩(はい) (kōhai, literally “later cohort”). Doublet of hoobae.

ja-r

(anime and manga, fandom slang) An underclassman or younger student.


layback

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From lay + back (presumably from confusion between lay and lie).

(audio editing) The process of recording the final sound onto the master track.


legendarium

Neuter form of Medieval Latin legendarius, from Latin legendus.

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” So began the legendarium that dominated a genre, changed Western literature and the field of linguistics, created a tapestry of characters and mythology that endured four generations, built an anti-war ethos that endured a World War and a Cold War, and spawned a multibillion-dollar media franchise.

2017 September 22, Vann R. Newkirk II, “Why 'The Hobbit' Isn't Outdated in the Age of 'Game of Thrones'”, in The Atlantic:

(literature, in particular) The collected high fantasy writings of J. R. R. Tolkien relating to the fictional realm of Middle-earth and the universe in which it is set.


planetless

And I am not going to gamble half our resources on as crazy an effort as this, masterminded by a mouthful of planetless lunatics.

1961, Galaxy Magazine - Volume 20, Issues 1-6, page 163:

He cleared his throat and began the tale of the planetless boy, and Kate listened, drowsy, drifting.

1998, Dana Stabenow, Killing Grounds, →ISBN, page 222:

Umlari, others called them. Or spacefolk. Or those planetless freaks. Living in their great stations, orbiting unwanted stars, the People cared nothing for names.

2006, Marvin Kaye, Forbidden planets, →ISBN, page 269:

(science fiction) Having no home planet.


stornello

en-noun

stornello (plural stornellos or stornelli)

(poetry) An Italian lyric poem or folk song.


parallel universe

parallel universe (plural parallel universes)

non-parallelizable universe

mathematically incompatible; without a common superordinate wave function

Subjectively we perceive this as a single, unpredictable or ‘random’ outcome, though from the multiverse point of view all the outcomes have actually happened. This parallel-universe multiplicity is the real reason for the unpredictability of the weather.

1998 [1997], David Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality, New York: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 202:

(sciences, science fiction, cosmology) A universe that exists separately alongside another universe, as part of a multiverse.


whydunit

Connery takes over the interrogation and in the process beats the man to death. This much we know almost from the beginning, so the film is less of a whodunit than a whydunit.

1985, Laurence Urdang, Walter W. Hunsinger, Nancy LaRoche, Picturesque expressions: a thematic dictionary, page 420:

(literature, film) A type of detective story in which the focus is not on the person who committed the crime, but on the motives for committing it.


howdunit

After half a century, the whodunit was joined by the howdunit, in which the emphasis swung from the identity of the murderer to the method by which the murder was committed.

1969, Ellery Queen, In the Queens' Parlor, and Other Leaves from the Editors' Notebook, page 72:

(literature, film) A type of detective story in which the focus is not on the person who committed the crime, but on the manner in which it was committed.


Aristophanean

en-adj

Aristophanean (comparative more Aristophanean, superlative most Aristophanean)

more Aristophanean (comparative)
most Aristophanean (superlative)

(dramaturgy, poetry) Of or pertaining to Aristophanes, his plays or his poetry.


jackalope

Most jackalopes are furry and a foot or two tall; many are only heads, mounted on wood plaques; there are some six-footers, covered with fur…

1993, Jane Stern, Michael Stern, Way out west:

(folklore, mythology) A folkloric animal, a supposed cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope, goat, or deer, usually portrayed as a rabbit with antlers.


sexbot

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

Jealous wives may destroy sexbot rivals and sue the manufacturer.

2000, Richard Rhodes, Visions of technology:

Another way that virtual entertainment might go is in the direction of the so-called sexbot. This would be a robotic device with artificial skin […]

2000, Joseph N Pelton, e-Sphere: the rise of the world-wide mind:

Having a sexbot had turned out to be more than Nosir had anticipated.

Given that people become addicted to all sorts of pleasures from slot machines to e-mail, sexbot addiction might be inevitable […]

2006, David N L Levy, Robots unlimited: life in a virtual age:

Then, we have sexbots, which are based on 1950 stereotypes about how a woman should behave: acquiescent, willing, always ready and patient in the home. How can that combo of 50s behaviour and porn-star looks be good for us as Homo sapiens?

2021 July 25, Claire Armitstead, quoting Jeanette Winterson, “Jeanette Winterson: ‘The male push is to discard the planet: all the boys are going off into space’”, in The Guardian:

(science fiction) A robot designed to have sexual intercourse with humans.


false scent

(writing) A misleading expectation created by ambiguous writing


Angry Young Man

en-noun

Angry Young Man (plural Angry Young Men)

Coined in reference to John Osborne's 1956 play Look Back in Anger.

(literature) Any of a group of mostly working-class and middle-class British playwrights and novelists who rose to prominence in the 1950s, their works being characterized by harshness, realism, and disillusionment with traditional norms.

Angry young men
John Osborne
Look Back in Anger

Angry Young Man

any of a group of British playwrights and novelists who rose to prominence in the 1950s


hypercatalexis

Coined in the late 1880s as a back-formation from hypercatalectic, from Latin hypercatalēcticus, from Ancient Greek ὑπερκαταληκτικός (huperkatalēktikós), from ὑπερ- (huper-, “over”) + καταληκτικός (katalēktikós, “incomplete”)

uder

ὑπερκαταληκτικός

(poetry) The addition of one or two syllables to the last foot of a verse


hypercatalectic

Recorded from circa 1700; from Latin hypercatalēcticus, from Ancient Greek ὑπερκατάληκτος (huperkatálēktos).

der

ὑπερκατάληκτος

(poetry) Which has an extra syllable added to the last dipody (foot of a verse).


biot

(science fiction) A robot composed of living components.


feelie

From feel + -ie. In the video game sense, introduced by the game publisher Infocom in the 1980s.

Seven and a half hours of mild, unexhausting labour, and then the soma ration and games and unrestricted copulation and the feelies. What more can they ask for?

1932, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, London: Chatto & Windus:

One of our brighter young Utopians, Aldous Huxley, predicts that the movies of the future will include “feelies” and “smellies.”

1941, Arthur Kissam Train, The Story of Everyday Things, Harper & Brothers, page 390:

TikTok’s endless talent show is so captivating that members of the intelligence community fear China could use the platform to spy on Americans or to disseminate propaganda—feelies as a weapon of war.

2023 January 30, Megan Garber, “We’ve Lost the Plot”, in The Atlantic:

(science fiction, often in the plural) A proposed future entertainment, akin to a film/movie, where the audience can physically feel what happens to the characters.


ramscoop

(science fiction) A proposed space travel technology using enormous electromagnetic fields as a scoop to collect and compress hydrogen and trigger thermonuclear fusion, thus powering the vessel.


spacefarer

From space + farer. Compare spacefaring, seafarer.

(chiefly science fiction) a person who travels in space

зарапла́вец

a person who travels in space — see also astronaut


kiloyear

(geology, science fiction) Synonym of millennium: A period of one thousand years.


astrogate

en-verb

astrogate (third-person singular simple present astrogates, present participle astrogating, simple past and past participle astrogated)

astrogates (present singular third-person)
astrogating (participle present)
astrogated (participle past)
astrogated (past)

Sure, Mike was used to having many loads in trajectory at once—but had never had to astrogate more than one at a time. Now he had hundreds and had promised to deliver twenty-nine of them simultaneously to the exact second at twenty-nine pinpointed targets.

1966, Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, New York: Ace, published 2018, Book 3, Chapter 25:

(science fiction, transitive, intransitive) To astronavigate; to control and guide a spacecraft.


xenology

From xeno- + -logy. Coined prior to 1974 and later popularized by Robert Freitas.

(science fiction) The study of alien life.


computronium

Toffoli says he thinks of CAM-8 as "computronium" — a flexible "element" capable of mimicking all other elements and particles, real or imagined.

1990 February 17, I. Amato, “Computronium: the 'element' that imitates”, in Science News, volume 137, number 7, page 103:

The process of making computers on ever smaller scales, using physical degrees of freedom and the laws of physics in an ever more efficient manner, can be thought of as a refining process. In this process we are trying to refine and concentrate the computing power inherent in the laws of physics. You might ask, "Can we achieve 100% pure 'Computronium'?"

1992, Norman Margolus, “Fundamental Physical Constraints on the Computational Process”, in BC Crandall, James Lewis, editors, Nanotechnology: Research and Perspectives, The MIT Press, →ISBN, page 202:

They should be working on uploading and solving the nanoassembly conformational problem instead. Then we could turn all the available dumb matter into computronium and use it for processing our thoughts. Long-term, it's the only way to go.

2005, Charles Stross, Accelerando, Ace Books, Chapter 1, "Lobsters"

To this end, the AI might produce computronium (matter organized in a configuration that is optimal for computation) and use it to implement digital minds in states of euphoria.

2014, Nick Bostrom, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, Oxford University Press, page 140:

(science fiction, philosophy) A hypothetical material engineered to maximize its use as a computing substrate.


chrononaut

From chrono- + -naut, modelled on astronaut and/or cosmonaut.

The honour of the final great mistake will go to David Powers, Scientist Chrononaut.

1972, Amazing Science Fiction Stories, volume 46, page 119:

The conventional view of time travel, however, has the ‘chrononauts’ travelling backwards and forwards in time. But in a more restricted sense we are all chrononauts, on a one-way fixed-speed journey into the future.

1999, John Guy Porter, Patrick Moore, Yearbook of Astronomy, page 146:

This tiny accident, because of the multiplicative effect of unforeseeable circumstances, results in an important alteration in the present time when the chrononauts return — the language is spoken differently and a different President of the United States has been elected.

2002, José Luis Sanz, Starring T. Rex!: Dinosaur Mythology and Popular Culture, page 62:

(science fiction, dated) A time-traveller.


precog

Clipping of precognitive. Coined by American author Philip K. Dick in 1954, and popularized in his 1956 short story "The Minority Report".

coin

(science fiction) A precognitive person.

(science fiction) Clipping of precognition.


precog

en-adj

precog (comparative more precog, superlative most precog)

more precog (comparative)
most precog (superlative)

(science fiction) Clipping of precognitive.


supersoldier

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

Kelly: Is it true we have a pod containing a baby krogan down in the cargo hold?
Shepard: Not a baby. He's a full-grown super soldier ready for combat.
Kelly: Please be careful if you decide to... err... birth him? His personality is completely unknown.

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

(science fiction) A soldier with remarkable strength, stamina, etc., especially if assisted by technology or genetics.


Sitwellian

Sitwellian (comparative more Sitwellian, superlative most Sitwellian)

more Sitwellian (comparative)
most Sitwellian (superlative)

(literature) Of or pertaining to the Sitwell literary family or any of its members.


interdimensional

By their own mysterious yardstick, extraterrestrials and interdimensionals choose the most unlikely individuals for close encounters of the third kind on up: for starters Gilliland, Whitley Strieber, Jim Moroney, Betty and Barney Hill.

2012, Richard Grossinger, Dark Pool of Light, Volume Three: The Crisis and Future of Consciousness:

(science fiction) A hypothetical being that can move between dimensions.


achronological

Another reason was the apparently inspired pairing of screenwriter Dennis Potter and director Nicolas Roeg, two dark poets of psychic subtexts and achronological memory flashes.

1988 October 14, Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Muddled Americans”, in Chicago Reader:

The Time Traveler's Wife tracks the achronological course of their lifelong love affair.

2003 September 26, Martha Bayne, “Things Are Going Very Well for Audrey Niffenegger”, in Chicago Reader:

(chiefly literature, film) Not chronological; proceeding through time in a nonlinear fashion


Gothicness

(architecture, literature) The state or condition of being Gothic.


neogothic

neogothic (comparative more neogothic, superlative most neogothic)

more neogothic (comparative)
most neogothic (superlative)

(architecture, literature) Alternative form of neo-Gothic


ballade

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Borrowed from French ballade. Doublet of ballad.

(poetry) A poem of one or more triplets of seven- or eight-line stanzas, each ending with the same line as refrain, and usually an envoi; more generally, any poem in stanzas of equal length.


gengineered

genetically engineered
genetically engineered

(science fiction) genetically engineered


slidewalk

(science fiction) A pavement/sidewalk that moves in the manner of a conveyor belt.


earthside

(science fiction) On or to the planet Earth.


spacehand

From space + hand, analogous to deckhand.

(science fiction) A low-ranking member of the crew of a spaceship.


spacelegs

Very cautiously — it was more than a year since he had last been weightless and it would be some time before he regained his spacelegs — he hauled himself hand over hand through the airlock and into the large, circular chamber at the axis of the Space Station.

1968, Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey:

(science fiction) The ability to work confidently in space, or a zero-gravity environment.


overmind

(science fiction) The leading or controlling mind in a groupmind.


kemonomimi

From Japanese 獣(けもの)耳(みみ) (kemonomimi), from 獣(けもの) (kemono, “animal”) + 耳(みみ) (mimi, “ear”).

(Japanese fiction) A humanoid fictional character who possesses animal ears and/or tails.


Horatian

Horatian (comparative more Horatian, superlative most Horatian)

more Horatian (comparative)
most Horatian (superlative)

There are three typical forms of ode: Horatian, Pindaric and irregular. Horatian odes follow the conventions of Horace, who deliberately imitated the Greek lyricists such as Alcaeus and Anacreon.

Satirical literature can commonly be categorised as Horatian, Juvenalian or Menippean. Horatian satire playfully criticizes some social vice through gentle, mild, and light-hearted humour.

Jonson was the most Horatian of the Elizabethans, both by nature and by study.

1894 May, E. H. Lewis, “The Influence of Horace in English Literature”, in The Quarterly Calendar, Vol. III, No. 1, University of Chicago Press, page 97:

Again nothing could be more Horatian than the high spirits of the introduction of the poem.

1963, C. O. Brink, Horace on Poetry, Volume 1: Prolegomena to the Literary Epistles, Cambridge University Press, page 135:

While these writers would have been familiar with both,^([the Horatian and Juvenalian styles of satire]) some were naturally "attracted to the abrasiveness of Juvenal rather than the suavity of Horace" while others found they were able to express whatever they wanted to express in more Horatian tones.

2022, Jennifer Ferriss-Hill, Roman Satire, BRILL, page 80:

(literature, poetry) Of or pertaining to the Roman poet Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus; 65–8 BCE) or to his works or style.

horatiusi

of or pertaining to the Roman poet Horace or to his works or style


Angries

The Angries are not in revolt against poverty or exploitation as such...

1966, Stanley Kauffmann, A world on film: criticism and comment:

The 'Angries' ridiculed this notion with cliched representations of effeminate artists and intellectuals...

2007, Christine Berberich, The image of the English gentleman in twentieth-century literature:


spinward

en-adv

spinward (comparative more spinward, superlative most spinward)

more spinward (comparative)
most spinward (superlative)

It was half-daylight; the shadow of the terminator was coming in from spinward like a black curtain.

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

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

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

spinward adv. in or toward the direction that something (a space station, galaxy, etc.) is rotating. Also as adj.

2007, Jeff Prucher, editor, Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 215:

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

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

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


cywydd

(poetry) A Welsh verse form consisting of rhyming couplets written in cynghanedd.


nondetective

The closest character to Dupin in Poe's nondetective fiction is Roderick Usher in "The Fall of the House of Usher," that gothic nightmare of decadence...

2000, David Lehman, The perfect murder: a study in detection:

(literature) Not involving a detective (as many mystery novels do).


Sol III

From Earth's position as the third planet from the Sun (Sol).

The alien lecturer describes the Terrans as a “newly emerged race from Sol III [Earth]” who are only just beginning to communicate with other species, but not very successfully, as the Aldebaran IV incident demonstrates.

2012 June, Dianne Newell, Victoria Lamont, Judith Merril: A Critical Study, McFarland & Company, page 86:

[…] enshrouded in bitterness and misery a man named Colin Marshack on an insignificant planet called Sol III, Earth, Terra, the world...

2014 April, Harlan Ellison, Paingod: And Other Delusions, Open Road Media, page 31:

At last the ship made its final approach to Sol III: Earth.

2016 October, Stephen Baxter, Destiny's Children: Coalescent, Exultant, Transcendent, Resplendent, Orion Publishing Group, page 50:

“VIRA, determine our current position and chart the fastest course to the next portal. We're going home to Earth!” “Current location: orbiting the moon of Sol III, also known as Earth.”

2017, Marc Baumgartner, Inheritance of Stars: New Worlds, tredition, page 388:

(chiefly science fiction) The planet Earth.


air pirate

(science fiction, fantasy) A pirate who travels by aircraft and targets other aircraft, analogously to the actions of a traditional seafaring pirate against ships.


palimbacchius

(poetry) A metrical foot composed of two long syllables and one short one.


autodestruction

(chiefly science fiction) A feature of a system whereby it destroys itself.


fabulation

en-noun

fabulation (countable and uncountable, plural fabulations)

(literature) A style of modern fiction, similar to magical realism and postmodernism.


moraic

moraic theory

(poetry, phonology) Of, pertaining to, or consisting of a mora or morae (a unit of syllable weight in poetry and linguistics).

moraico

of, pertaining to, or consisting of morae


timescape

From time + -scape, probably by analogy with landscape.

Back to the Future
DeLorean DMC-12
San Diego Comic-Con

timescape n. time conceived of, or perceived as, possessing multiple dimensions.

[2007, “timescape”, in Jeff Prucher, editor, Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 241:

My awareness extended beyond human memory and I drifted, lost in the crevices of the now visible Timescape. Then a point of light beckoned me and I strove for it. The light became the memory of my personality and I dove into it. I swirled in an ever-tightening spiral. I was all eight of my great-grand parents, I was both of my grandfathers and both of my grandmothers, I was my mother and my father and, finally, I was Jonathan Crowe again and I could now reflect upon what had been done to me.

2008 April 17, Jefferson R. Weekley, “The Pool of Blood”, in Red Earth, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 214:

[Mark] Zuckerberg is pursued throughout the timescape by the litigious Winklevoss twins, who operate a time machine bought for them by their daddy. Zuckerberg must constantly leap to and fro throughout the centuries in order to duck summonses.

2011, Travis Harmon, Jonathan Shockley, “Introduction”, in Let There Be Facebook: Status Updates from God, Gaga, and Everyone in between, New York, N.Y.: Touchstone Books, →ISBN, page vii, footnote 2:

(science fiction) A multi-dimensional view of time, especially one in which time travel occurs.


funny papers

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


punctus

From Medieval Latin punctus (“punctuation mark”).

bor

In the sacerdotal prayers in col. a the punctuation is by punctus flexus, punctus elevatus and punctus.

1993, Malcolm Beckwith Parkes, Pause and Effect, Plates and Commentaries, page 197:

The most common item of punctuation was the punctus or point.

2011 July 22, Tadao Kudouchi, edited by Akio Oizumi and Jacek Fisiak, English Historical Linguistics and Philology in Japan, De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 172:

Curiously, the punctus versus was largely replaced with a punctus by ca.1100.

2015 August 31, “Medieval Manuscripts”, in Albrecht Classen, editor, Handbook of Medieval Culture, volume 2, De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 1015:

(palaeography) The basic dot (‧) used to end a sentence in medieval punctuation (ancestral to the full stop/period).


plot hole

Invited to collaborate with Hitch, Shaffer watched several of the director's previous films and noticed in North by Northwest a glaring plot hole; Cary Grant hides aboard a train that he has selected randomly yet, somehow, his pursuers lie in wait aboard the same train.

2012, Allan Brown, Inside the Wicker Man, Birlinn, →ISBN:

(authorship) A gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot.


omake

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Borrowed from Japanese お負け (omake, “extra, bonus”).

(manga) Additional material to the main series of a manga added to the tankobon edition of a manga.


rhopalic

en-adj

rhopalic (comparative more rhopalic, superlative most rhopalic)

more rhopalic (comparative)
most rhopalic (superlative)

From Latin rhopalicus, from Ancient Greek ῥόπαλον (rhópalon, “club, bat”).

der

Soapy fired off a rhopalic sentence, that is, one in which each word is one letter longer than the word that precedes it: "I am the only dummy player, perhaps, planning maneuvers calculated brilliantly, nevertheless outstandingly pachydermatous, notwithstanding unconstitutional unprofessionalism."

1986 October 26, Alan Truscott, “Talking About Behavior”, in The New York Times:

(poetry, rhetoric) Having each successive word longer by a letter or syllable.


rogues' gallery

en-noun

rogues' gallery (plural rogues' galleries)

From rogue + gallery. Popularized by American detectives Allan Pinkerton and Thomas F. Byrnes.

(fiction) The set of supervillains associated with a particular superhero or comic book title.


astrogation

If astrogation were that simple any sophomore could pilot a rocket ship […]

1958, Robert A. Heinlein, chapter 7, in Have Space Suit, Will Travel, New York: Del Rey:

(science fiction) Astronavigation (navigation through space).


superdeformed

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

(anime, manga) Alternative form of super deformed (“drawn in an exaggerated way, typically small and chubby, with stubby limbs and oversized heads”).


exophobic

en-adj

exophobic (comparative more exophobic, superlative most exophobic)

more exophobic (comparative)
most exophobic (superlative)

(literature) Relating to the book "Exophobic: Mind Matters" (ref at exophobe.com)


Mimantean

From Ancient Greek Μῑμάντος (Mīmántos), genitive case of Μίμᾱς (Mímās), from earlier Μίμανς (Mímans).

I went back to the grind of reviewing that day's Cassini photographs. Imagine my shock when I noticed that Mimas, one of the inner moons of Saturn, had acquired a concave depression in it since the last fly-by! Of course, I immediately realized that the Mimanteans had constructed a fully armed and operational Death Star!

2010 February 19, Hulles, “Mimas!”, in sardonic postmodern humor:

(fiction) An inhabitant of the Saturnian moon Mimas


hoverchair

He touched the controller hanging from the belt around his waist. His hoverchair rose in the corner and glided over to him, positioning itself at his side.

2005, Gregory Bernard Banks, Phoenix Tales: Stories of Death and Life:

He built his first hoverchair all by himself out of scavenged parts when he was only eight! And ever since, he's continued to upgrade it.

(chiefly science fiction) A chair that levitates.


claviform

The adjective is derived from Latin clāvifōrmis (“club-shaped, claviform”), from Latin clāva (“a club”) (from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₂- (“to beat; to break”)) + -fōrmis (suffix meaning ‘having the form of’) (equivalent to -form, -iform). The English word is cognate with French claviforme.
The noun is probably derived from the adjective.

der

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

The claviform comprises a vertical line with a bulge at one side; but unlike the buttocks on the stylized females, the bulge is usually on the middle or the upper half of the 'sign'! It has been suggested that the 'upper bulge' on a claviform instead represents breasts, but this is based on supposedly stylized statuettes from Dolni Vestonice and elsewhere, comprising a rod with two little lumps near the top, and thus on analogies with sites even further away in space and time from the claviforms.

1997, Paul G. Bahn, Jean Vertut, “What was Depicted?”, in Journey through the Ice Age, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 164, column 2:

In the early days of research, the images were often read very literally, and this was certainly taken to extremes – the classic example, of course, is the ‘signs’ in Ice Age cave art which the first researchers assumed to represent actual objects, and gave them names accordingly – for example, ‘claviforms’ were thought to be clubs, ‘tectiforms’ were thought to be roofs or huts, and so forth [...].

2006, Paul G. Bahn, “Myths and Meanings”, in Prehistoric Rock Art: Polemics and Progress […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 2010, →ISBN, page 32:

There is also a faded red painting of a claviform (a thick curved line with a raised bump or point in the middle) that looks awfully similar to those found at a few other sites in northern Spain. A claviform from Altamira was dated using the uranium-series technique and is at least 35,000 years old.

2016, Genevieve von Petzinger, “Signs across the Ages: The Many Styles of the Oldest Art”, in The First Signs: Unlocking the Mysteries of the World’s Oldest Symbols, New York, N.Y.: Atria Paperback, published March 2017, →ISBN, page 140:

In Niaux, claviforms played a special role in that respect because we also find them very far inside the cave near the end of the galleries. [...] The same structure is visible at the Salon Noir itself. There, a claviform and a parallel bar were made on the first panel to the right, at the entrance.

2018, Jean Clottes, “European Palaeolithic Rock Art and Spatial Structures”, in Bruno David, Ian J. McNiven, editors, The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part II (Conceptual Approaches to Rock Art: Investigating Meaning), page 406:

(palaeography) An image or symbol which is club-shaped, that is, larger at the tip than at the base.


to be continued

(writing, television) Used at the end of an episode of a serial publication or program to indicate that the story continues in the next episode.


break the fourth wall

en-verb

break the fourth wall (third-person singular simple present breaks the fourth wall, present participle breaking the fourth wall, simple past broke the fourth wall, past participle broken the fourth wall)

breaks the fourth wall (present singular third-person)
breaking the fourth wall (participle present)
broke the fourth wall (past)
broken the fourth wall (participle past)

(idiomatic, fiction) To apparently communicate with reality directly, such as when characters of literature comment on the existence of a reader.

rompi la kvaran muron

direct communication with the viewer or reader


textuality

en-noun

textuality (countable and uncountable, plural textualities)

(literature, linguistics) The attributes that distinguish a text as an object of study.


Gogolian

en-adj

Gogolian (comparative more Gogolian, superlative most Gogolian)

more Gogolian (comparative)
most Gogolian (superlative)

From Gogol + -ian, from Russian Го́голь (Gógolʹ) and Ukrainian Го́голь (Hóholʹ) from Ukrainian го́голь (hóholʹ, “common goldeneye, Bucephala clangula”), from Old East Slavic гоголь (gogolĭ) < Proto-Slavic *gogolĭ.

der

Tchernuishevski presented and criticised John Stuart Mill's “Political Economy,” the æsthetic criticism of the Gogolian period, the party quarrels in France during the Restoration, Lessing and his age, etc., treated with the same superiority subjects of widely different kinds, but had his principal interests centred on the solution of certain great social problems,—the arrangement of the relations between the sexes, the abolition of serfdom, the abrogation of all individual property in land for the good of the community.

1889, Georg Morris Cohen Brandes, Samuel C. Eastman transl., Impressions of Russia, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, p 263

(literature) Of or relating to the Russian-Empire writer Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852) or his works.


decloak

en-verb

decloak (third-person singular simple present decloaks, present participle decloaking, simple past and past participle decloaked)

decloaks (present singular third-person)
decloaking (participle present)
decloaked (participle past)
decloaked (past)

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


cloner

(science fiction) A device capable of duplicating physical objects.


falling action

(literature, drama) The events of a drama after the climax (or crisis) but before the denouement (or resolution).


antiliterature

(literature) Written works that deliberately avoid the typical conventions of literature, such as antinovels, antiplays and antipoems.

antyliteratura

written works that deliberately avoid the typical conventions of literature


first contact

en-noun

first contact (usually uncountable, plural first contacts)

Humanity’s first contact with an alien race occurred in 2157. At that time, the Alliance allowed survey fleets to activate any dormant mass relays discovered, a practice considered dangerous and irresponsible by Council-aligned races. When a turian patrol discovered a human fleet attempting to activate a relay, they attacked. One human vessel survived, retreating to the colony of Shanxi.

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

(science fiction) The first meeting between humans and extraterrestrials.


von Neumann machine

von Neumann machine (plural von Neumann machines)

For John von Neumann, Hungarian mathematician

(science fiction) Any machine that is capable of self-replication.


Sturm und Drang

/ˈʃtəɹm ʊnt ˈdɹaŋ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Sturm und Drang.wav

Borrowed from German Sturm und Drang with the same figurative meaning, from Sturm (“storm”) + und (“and”) + Drang (“pressure, stress; urge, impulse, longing”). The phrase is the title of the play Sturm und Drang (1776) by German dramatist Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger (1752–1831).
The fact that the phrase is often italicized suggests it has not been fully assimilated into English.

The best of the Stürmer und Dränger grew out of their Sturm und Drang, and it was necessary to indicate in what ways [Johann Gottfried] Herder and [Johann Wolfgang von] Goethe changed as they grew older. It should be stressed, however, that the very principles which forced them to burst the husk of the Sturm und Drang are in themselves a vital element within the Sturm und Drang.

1953, Roy Pascal, “Introduction”, in The German Sturm und Drang, Manchester: Manchester University Press, →OCLC, page xvi:

[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich] Hegel's further observation shows the route taken by those who survived their Sturm und Drang and went on to produce more: "Because the sickness is in the essence itself, its isolated manifestations can be repressed [zurückdrängen] and the superficial symptoms suppressed [dämpfen]."

1985, Larry Vaughan, The Historical Constellation of the Sturm und Drang (American University Studies, Series I (Germanic Languages and Literatures); 38), New York, N.Y.: Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 61:

[page 1100, column 1] The Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) was a literary movement that flourished in Germany in the 1770s and 1780s and represented the protest of a group of young university-educated men against the norms of polite society. […] [page 1101, columns 1 and 2] [T]he Sturm und Drang reflected the growth of modern individualism and the challenge that middle-class ideas of selfhood presented to so-called enlightened absolutism, that is to say, to political and cultural structures that sought legitimacy by assimilating elements of bureaucratic rationalism. […] The Sturm und Drang was nevertheless an important forerunner of Romanticism in its formal experimentalism, its enthusiasm for popular culture and the primitive, its acceptance of the power of unconscious, irrational forces, and above all its concern with individual experience.

2004, David Hill, “Sturm und Drang”, in Christopher John Murray, editor, Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760–1850, volumes 2 (L–Z, Index), New York, N.Y., London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, →ISBN, pages 1100–1101:

It was precisely this reason, science and the eighteenth-century Enlightenment to account for genius in rational terms that allowed the non-rational thinkers who fueled the fires of the Sturm und Drang movement to vivify, and elaborate upon, the ancient Greek notion of genius as a numinous power associated with the Muses and the gods.

2006, Angus [James] Nicholls, Goethe's Concept of the Daemonic: After the Ancients, Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House Publishing, →ISBN, page 81:

The complex figure of Clavigo is therefore a variant on the Sturm and Drang theme of the enemy brothers, which forms the framework for a far older theme: that of Shakespeare's Hamlet who kills Ophelia's brother Valentin. Goethe's play is in fact modeled after Shakespeare's tragedy, and the last act is riddled with references to the cemetery scene from Hamlet. A theme dear to Sturm and Drang is also revisited: fratricide. The period during which Goethe wrote Clavigo was that in which the young Sturm and Drang poets all flocked around the figure of Goethe.

2014, Katalin Nun, Jon Stewart, editors, Kierkegaard's Literary Figures and Motifs: Tome I: Agamemnon to Guadalquivir (Kirkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources; 16), Farnham, Surrey, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, →ISBN, page 105:

(literature, music, theater) A proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music which occurred from the late 1760s to the early 1780s, emphasizing individual subjectivity and the free expression of emotions.

狂飆突進運動

a proto-Romantic movement from the late 1760s to the early 1780s in German literature and music


worldbuilding

The purpose of worldbuilding isn't just to do a cool exercise, but to give a sense of place — and all of your thought experiments absolutely have to result in something vivid and alive.

2013 February 8, Charlie Jane Anders, “7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding”, in io9, archived from the original on 2016-11-25:

High fantasy of the George RR Martin kind hinges on world-building. When there really is a whole world to build, and not just a historical period or a particular country, world-building does not take a few paragraphs in a short story; it takes chapters.

2015 May 20, Natasha Pulley, “Fantasy cannot build its imaginary worlds in short fiction”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(fiction) The conception and description of a fictional world, often as the setting of a work of fiction, particularly in speculative fiction.

աշխարհկառուցում

act or process of building of a fictional world


arsis

arsis (countable and uncountable, plural arses)

From Ancient Greek ἄρσις (ársis, “lifting”), from αἴρω (aírō, “I lift”).

it comes to pass that the arsis may effect some change in the order of which it is itself the commencement

1830, Johann Gottfried Jacob Hermann, Hermann's Elements of the Doctrine of Metres:

(poetry) The stronger part of a metrical foot: the part containing the long (heavy) syllable in quantitative meter, or the stressed syllable in a qualitative meter.


roboid

A roboid waiter, human-like but running on hidden casters, paused with a tray of drinks.

1974, Michael Moorcock, The shores of death:

The terrifying thing about all of this is that we now have a distinct possibility that a hive of aliens with their attendant purely biomechanical roboids the Greys, from another part of our universe, are intercepting and intervening in the affairs of our species.

It is their challenge, with the help of Tania, a roboid, to adapt the siblings to their new environment.

2009, Arnold J. Inzko, The Siblings' Legacy:


biomonitor

(science fiction) A device that displays a readout of a person's vital signs.


power suit

The crew chief was wearing a bulky exoskeleton power suit that enabled her to manipulate components weighing over a tonne […]

2007, Herbert S. Watson, DK-37, the Flight of Prometheus:

(science fiction) A powered exoskeleton.


autochef

Obediently, the autochef prepares each selection. But father knows that the House Brain, while presently silenced, never forgets and will be sure to prescribe an exhausting workout.

1984, Edward Cornish, Habitats tomorrow: homes and communities in an exciting new era:

Dinner was an elegant five-course meal whipped up on the spur of the moment by the autochef, and afterward Shelly's parents wanted her to watch vids with them.

1999, John Gregory Betancourt, Johnny Zed:

Cupboards, washers, cooking equipment; I stopped myself from adding consoles, autochefs and other basics to the list. This was Earth.

2002, Keith Brooke, Keepers of the Peace:

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


Rodina

From romanization of Russian ро́дина (ródina, literally “homeland”).


meat puppet

In a reversal of McLuhan, "man" becomes the extension of the nanotechnological, a meat puppet run by molecular machines.

I am just not that meat puppet that you have been dealing with on the 'outside. ' He was a second rate bureaucrat working out of some obscure Washington office. His body served me well, as others have for generations.

1995, David F. Gray, The Shepherd's Man, page 340:

Torture those hairless apes with heat-seeking anal probes, turn bystanders into meat-puppet disguises, or abduct humans and lay their office buildings to waste.

2009, The Official Xbox Magazine - Issues 92-95, page 73:

(science fiction) A body that is controlled by someone or something else.


autodestruct

en-verb

autodestruct (third-person singular simple present autodestructs, present participle autodestructing, simple past and past participle autodestructed)

autodestructs (present singular third-person)
autodestructing (participle present)
autodestructed (participle past)
autodestructed (past)

(intransitive, chiefly science fiction) To destroy itself by design (as of a mechanical system).


autodestruct

They won't take any prisoners! Activate the autodestruct!

(chiefly science fiction) A feature of a system whereby it destroys itself.


horror story

The film is based on a horror story by Edgar Allan Poe.

(fiction) A fictional narrative of distressing events.


Künstlerroman

en-noun

Künstlerroman (plural Künstlerromane or Künstlerromans)

Künstlerromane (plural)
Künstlerromans (plural)

/ˈkʊnstləɹəʊˌmɑːn/

(literature) A novel whose central character is an artist of any kind, and which shows his or her development from childhood to maturity.


Skynet

From the Terminator film series, the first of which, The Terminator, premiered in 1984.

In the first two films, Skynet is a colossal piece of hardware, a single unit which contains an artificial intelligence designed to run the US nuclear weapons system, a doomsday computer that becomes aware and destroys humanity. […] It was only through some very fancy footwork that Terminator 2: Judgment Day managed to make it remotely plausible that Skynet had sent a second machine to a later date. Since Skynet is presumably aware of its own origins, this makes the first film marginally less plausible.

2005, Roz Kaveney, “Creation as Product: The Paradox of Franchises”, in From Alien to the Matrix: Reading Science Fiction Film, London: I.B. Tauris, →ISBN, page 125:

Maybe I watched too many Mazinger shows or read too many Yoko Tsuno BDs as a kid and, surely, I think the best way to end […] humanity would be to migrate SkyNet to Windows Vista, but somehow I thought it would be fun.

2012, Cristina Urdiales, “Foreword”, in Collaborative Assistive Robot for Mobility Enhancement (CARMEN): The Bare Necessities: Assisted Wheelchair Navigation and beyond (Intelligent Systems Reference Library; 27), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN:

With the more convoluted Terminator Salvation, the seductive power of the skin job gives way to a constant maze of false seeming, centered on the relationship between John Connor and the part-cyborg Marcus Wright during the post-apocalyptic human fight against Skynet and its various killing machines.

2016, J. P. Telotte, “The Persistence of the Robot”, in Sean Redmond, Leon Marvell, editors, Endangered Science Fiction Film (AFI Film Series), New York, N.Y., Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 254:

Calpurnia, the Good Sister, the artificial intelligence created by Zephyr Bain, had achieved consciousness and self-awareness. She knew of her existence. She had crossed the line from the predictable and anticipated inevitable model of machine consciousness. However, it should have stopped there. The Skynet model from the Terminator movies didn't really work, because true consciousness was a by-product of chemistry and physical constitution.

2017 April, Jonathan Maberry, chapter 128, in Dogs of War: A Joe Ledger Novel, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 518:

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence

(science fiction) A distributed artificial intelligence system that is aware of the physical world and acts autonomously through cyborgs and computer control systems.


sublight

(science fiction) Alternative spelling of sub-light


Arielian

(literature) Of or relating to the Popean character Ariel.


Oberonian

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


Umbrielian

(literature) Of or relating to the Popean character Umbriel.


Enceladan

(science fiction, demonym) An inhabitant of Enceladus (a moon of Saturn).


Mirandan

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


Charonian

/kəˈɹoʊnɪən/

/ʃəˈɹoʊnɪən/

From Charon + -ian, or from the alternative Latin oblique stem Charōnis.

The Charonians were proud of their frozen hell. Styxville was like Plutopolis, only less so.

1990, Donald Moffitt, A Gathering of Stars:

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

Charonian staircase

a flight of steps from under the stage in ancient Greek theatre; used by arrivals from Hades.


Ganymedean

/ˌɡænəmɪˈdiː.ən/

(science fiction, demonym) An inhabitant of Ganymede (a moon of Jupiter).


farspeak

en-verb

farspeak (third-person singular simple present farspeaks, present participle farspeaking, simple past farspoke, past participle farspoken)

farspeaks (present singular third-person)
farspeaking (participle present)
farspoke (past)
farspoken (participle past)

Then the conversation turned to a vexatious old topic: Denis's continuing futile attempts to farspeak other telepaths.

1987, Julian May, Intervention, page 169:

Talia longed for Kyril's ability to Farspeak; even at this distance she would have been able to get some kind of warning back to the Heralds near the Border.

1988, Mercedes Lackey, Arrow's Fall, page 178:

"Go on back to the City, child," she said, very calmly, "and when you are close enough, farspeak the Council".

1991, Margaret Ball, Flameweaver, page 23:

Unless," he added, leaning forward, lowering his hand to the railing, "you would care to farspeak Chiara and have the King settle this himself?"

She tried to farspeak them but couldn't catch enough magic even for that.

2007, Gail Dayton, The Eternal Rose, page 391:

(science fiction, fantasy) To engage in long-distance communication by magic or telepathy.


farspeak

Alerted by the powerful farspeak of the watching prairiecat, Whitetip, as soon as the Ganiks began filing down the path from the shelf, Bili had all three hundred and twelve of his male and female warriors standing to arms...

1982, Robert Adams, The Witch Goddess, page 185:

(science fiction, fantasy) The use of magic or telepathy to communicate over long distances.


scoutcraft

en-noun

scoutcraft (plural scoutcrafts or scoutcraft)

scoutcrafts (plural)
scoutcraft (plural)

Enemy scoutcraft, extreme range.

1994, Debra Doyle, James D. Macdonald, By Honor Betray'd:

In August 1954 a Venusian scoutcraft allegedly flew Adamski around the moon, showing him extraterrestrial cities and hangars as well as forests, lakes, and rivers.

1999, Jerome Clark, Unexplained!: Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences & Puzzling Physical Phenomena, Visible Ink Press, page 7:

He flies around the Galaxy all alone in just a little tiny scoutcraft?

2001, Douglas Kendall, Battle of Infinity City, page 298:

In the ensuing years it had never come to that, yet every scoutcraft was equipped with a self-destruct mechanism, and every commander was prepared at all times to activate it.

2006, Margaret Wander Bonanno, Strangers From The Sky, Pocket Books, page 32:

The nearer they closed in; tiny scoutcrafts could be seen continuingly migrating to and from them.

2013, Chris J. Berry, The Celestial Window, page 137:

(rare, science fiction, ufology) A spacecraft used for scouting.


starport

(science fiction) A port for interstellar craft.


imouto

A character-for-character romanisation of the Hiragana form of Japanese いもうと (imōto).

::laughs:: it's ok. Josh only tolerates it becuase ^([sic]) I'm his imouto and am only joking.

1999 January 10, Animeg3282, “Recent flow of posters from AFSM to AGFF and vice versa...”, in alt.games.final-fantasy (Usenet):

The mirror was going to take you, just like it - like it almost took Mom, and Dad, and imouto. I couldn't let it take you... I love you, onee-san. Please, can you ever forgive me?

1999 July 13, Vctr113062, “[TK3 fanfic] "Phoenix" Ch. 19, 2/4”, in alt.games.video.sony-playstation (Usenet):

Second, why do all the girls correspond so well to accepted anime character archetypes? (We have at the least, Triela the tsundere, Claes the incho, Rico the bokke, Angelica as the sick girl, and Henrietta the imouto.)

2007 February 1, Abraham Evangelista, “10 Year Retrospective - My Least Favorites”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

I have to say I didn't have trouble with the cannon fodder, although the imouto is *extremely* annoying and needs a good spanking. She's too old to be acting like a brat.

2011 January 30, Captain Nerd, “Jan '11 New Anime series - my thoughts thru 3 eps”, in rec.arts.anim.misc (Usenet):

I mean, an utilitarian analysis, knowing in hindsight that little imoutos are the best thing that can happen to any anime lover, would clearly have revealed that her constantly kicking my balls when we were small enough to share a bath tub was not to be mistaken for ill intent, and that her nagging about my bicycle riding style when I carried her on the back seat was just natural

2015 September 20, pataphor, “Bantu versus Baby5: A critique of utilitarianism”, in alt.angst (Usenet):


imagism

imagism (usually uncountable, plural imagisms)

/ˈɪmɪd͡ʒɪzəm/

(poetry) A form of poetry utilising precise imagery and clear language.


outworld

Shepard, it's been two years since you had a job. Isn't it time you rectified that?
Exciting opportunities await Alliance citizens like you on the outworld colonies.

2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-10-31, PC, scene: Citadel Zakera Level 27 Advertisement:

(science fiction, often attributive) A planet that is remote from the homeworld of a civilization.


biobed

(science fiction, chiefly Star Trek) A bed equipped with biofeedback sensors for medical diagnosis.


fourteener

He writes in well filled fourteeners, with individual words used not only vitally to convey the sense but also as a kind of metrical polyfilla.

1984, Gerardus Antonius Maria Janssens, Flor Aarts, Studies in Seventeenth-century English Literature, History and Bibliography:

(poetry) A (usually iambic) line of fourteen syllables.


vidscreen

“The homeopape conjectures were correct,” Felix Blau, boss of the police agency, was saying on the vidscreen.

1965, Philip K. Dick, “The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch”, in Four Novels of the 1960s, Library of America, published 2007, page 246:

The vidscreen was on in the shop, but all it did was preach about the wonders of colonial life and tell how paradise could be found by emigrating to the smaller planets of the Althosian system.


planetfall

From planet + fall, by analogy with landfall.

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

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

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


carplane

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


telescreen

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

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

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

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

2002, Teresa Plowright, Dreams of an Unseen Planet:

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


bodynet

From body + net, in the sense of network.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


expositionary

en-adj

expositionary (comparative more expositionary, superlative most expositionary)

more expositionary (comparative)
most expositionary (superlative)


cavorite

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

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

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

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

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

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


vacat

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

ubor

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


white knight

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


chronoclasm

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

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


antepenultima

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

(poetry) The last syllable of a word except two


medscanner

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

1997, Diane Duane, Intellivore, page 102:

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

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


anti-story

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


hyperjump

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


scriptor

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

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

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

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


jump drive

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

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


starfaring

From star + faring, modelled on seafaring.

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

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

(science fiction) Travelling among the stars.


readback

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

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

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

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


Chekhov's gun

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

cal

Чеховское ружьё

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

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

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

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

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


Undine

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

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

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

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


anceps

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

bor

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


molecular assembler

en-noun

molecular assembler (plural molecular assemblers)

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


rebis

From Latin res (“matter”) + Latin bina (“double”).

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

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

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


superkick

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

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

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

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

Lori Couto's SUPERKICK?

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

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

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

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


reset button

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

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

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

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

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


genre fiction

genre fiction (usually uncountable, plural genre fictions)

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

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

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


Pikachu

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


vrykolakas

Borrowed from Greek βρυκόλακας (vrykólakas).

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


bioneer

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

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

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

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


bioneer

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(chiefly science fiction) To engineer biologically.


Callistan

(science fiction) An inhabitant of Callisto.


Gaian

(chiefly science fiction) An inhabitant of Earth.


tsundere

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

تْسُونْدِرِي

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