grawlix

National Cartoonists Society
The Slate Group

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

kirosanojen sensurointimerkki

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An image resembling an illegible scribble used for this purpose.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


terraform

en-verb

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

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

/ˈtɛɹəfɔː(ɹ)m/

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

coin

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

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

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

maankaltaistaa

transform into one having the characteristics of Earth


run in

en-adj

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

participial adjective
participial adjective

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

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


rondeau

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

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

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

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

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

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


deflector

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

1945 May 20, Murray Leinster, “First Contact”, in Astounding Stories, volume 35, number 3:

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

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

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

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

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


butterfly effect

en-noun

butterfly effect (plural butterfly effects)

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

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

coinage

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

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


pantser

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

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

Coordinate term: plotter

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


spin-off

carveout

partial spin-off in a corporate reorganization

tie-in

work of fiction based on an original media property

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

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

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

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


encomium

/ɛŋˈkəʊ.mɪ.əm/

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

der

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


imaginist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


foreshadowing

en-noun

foreshadowing (usually uncountable, plural foreshadowings)

The roses blooming before Rose herself bloomed was excellent foreshadowing.

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

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

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


sausage factory

sausage factory (plural sausage factories)

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

(literature) An unappealing process to generate something familiar.


sloka meter

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


Pinkerton syndrome

John Pinkerton
Scottish National Portrait Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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


spidery

en-adj

spidery (comparative more spidery, superlative most spidery)

more spidery (comparative)
most spidery (superlative)

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


topic sentence

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


mindwipe

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


mindwipe

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

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

(science fiction) The act of mindwiping.


beam up

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

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

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

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


sestina

From Italian sestina. Doublet of sextain.

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

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

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

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


procedural

/pɹəˈsiːd͡ʒ(ə)ɹəl/

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

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

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

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

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


force-field

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


forcefield

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

2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:


force field

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


communicator

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

1934 August 20, Edward Elmer Smith, “Skylark of Valeron”, in Astounding Stories, volume 13, number 6:

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

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

(science fiction) A usually portable communications device.


transversion

en-noun

transversion (countable and uncountable, plural transversions)

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


zoomorphism

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

zoomorfizm

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


hivemind

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


time tunnel

(science fiction) A passageway enabling time travel.


cultism

cultism (countable and uncountable, plural cultisms)


miniaturize

en-verb

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

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

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


hyperdrive

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

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


BEM

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

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

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

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

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


chunking

en-noun

chunking (countable and uncountable, plural chunkings)

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


ithyphallic

en-adj

ithyphallic (comparative more ithyphallic, superlative most ithyphallic)

more ithyphallic (comparative)
most ithyphallic (superlative)

/ˌɪθɪˈfælɪk/

/ˌɪθɪˈfælɪk/

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

refn

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

cog

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


memorate

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

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

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

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


Morlock

Author's coinage; possibly influenced by Morlach or Moloch.

Coordinate term: Eloi

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


soucouyant

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

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

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

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

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


katabasis

en-noun

katabasis (countable and uncountable, plural katabases)

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

af

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


finisher

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


replicator

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


vers de societe

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


villanelle

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

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

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

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


triolet

Coordinate term: sestina

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

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

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


ergodic

en-adj

ergodic (comparative more ergodic, superlative most ergodic)

more ergodic (comparative)
most ergodic (superlative)

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

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

2012, Markku Eskelinen, Cybertext Poetics:

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


novum

en-noun

novum (countable and uncountable, plural novums or nova)

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

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

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

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

cognitive estrangement
cognitive estrangement

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


emanata

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

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

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

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

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


Rowleian

en-adj

Rowleian (comparative more Rowleian, superlative most Rowleian)

more Rowleian (comparative)
most Rowleian (superlative)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


auton

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

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

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

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

1986, Vernor Vinge, Marooned in Realtime:

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

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

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


Alucard

/ˈæləˌkɑː(ɹ)d/

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


living dead

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


sottisier

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2007, Clive James, Cultural Amnesia, page 631:

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


ignis fatuus

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

bor

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

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

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

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


precognitive

(science fiction) A precognitive person, a seer.


astronavigation

(science fiction) Navigation through space


jack in

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Earthite

(science fiction, nonstandard) A person from planet Earth.


Earther

(science fiction) A person from planet Earth.


Earthian

en-adj

Earthian (comparative more Earthian, superlative most Earthian)

more Earthian (comparative)
most Earthian (superlative)

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

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

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

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

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

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

(science fiction) Of or from the planet Earth.


Earthian

I inquired of one prominent Earthian: "What's of constructing ships and buildings...?"

1940. America: A Catholic Review of the Week, America Press: 1940, page 420

I most likely will be the second Earthian to reach that planet. ...

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


Earthian

According to Fodor's definition, it follows that 'water' in Twin Earthian means XYZ and not H2O.

1997. Diego Marconi. Lexical Competence. MIT Press: 1997, page 102

I thought the females spoke Earthian to you. Improving their Earthian was why they asked for a couple.

2004. Sheri S. Tepper. The Companions. HarperCollins: 2004, page 79

(science fiction, rare) A universal language spoken on Earth.


Earthan

(rare, science fiction, nonstandard) A person or thing from planet Earth; an Earthling.


Earthan

Earthan (comparative more Earthan, superlative most Earthan)

more Earthan (comparative)
most Earthan (superlative)

When, for unknown reasons, gene-splicing with Earthan reptiles had failed to take, scientists had turned to the sea dragons found on the water world of Aquatilis, home planet of the merpeople.

2008, Crystal Jordan, Carnal Desires, page 59:

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


disrupter

(science fiction) An energy weapon in the form of a pistol.


sophont

From Ancient Greek σοφός (sophós, “wise”) + ὤν (ṓn, “on”), present participle of εἰμί (eimí, “being, existing, essence”). First used in the 1966 works by Poul Anderson, coined by his wife Karen Anderson.

Likewise with the psychology of intelligent species. Most sophonts indeed possess basic instincts which diverge more or less from man's. With those of radically alien motivations we have little contact.

I'm honored to meet a sophont of the Soro line in person!

Evil, they argued, could only have meaning on smaller scales, in the hurt that one sophont does to another.

1992, Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep, Tor Books, page 406:

Only one sophont appeared to be involved—and not a sophisticated one.

1997, Spider Robinson, Lifehouse, Baen Books, page 2:

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence

(chiefly science fiction) An intelligent being; a being with a base reasoning capacity roughly equivalent to or greater than that of a human being. The word does not apply to machines unless they have true artificial intelligence, rather than mere processing capacity.


WIA

(military fiction) Initialism of wounded in action.


metricize

en-verb

metricize (third-person singular simple present metricizes, present participle metricizing, simple past and past participle metricized)

metricizes (present singular third-person)
metricizing (participle present)
metricized (participle past)
metricized (past)


tricorder

The name of such a device in Star Trek, from tri- (referring to its three input keys, which by default cover geological, meteorological, and biological functions) + (re)corder

PLEASE TURN OFF ALL CELL PHONES AND TRICORDERS

1999-2003, Matt Groening, opening title screen from the start, in Futurama, FOX Television Network:

(fiction) A fictional futuristic handheld device used for scanning, which may be specialized for medical, technical, or other purposes.


Antarctican

...customs which the Antarcticans might have. How he wished he had made the trip alone, and need not share with Adam the scientific triumphs to come!
Of course she was—the daughter of Morrison, Hull’s companion who had befriended and protected him against the Antarcticans.

1935, Edison Marshall, Dian of the Lost Land, H. C. Kinsey & Company, Inc., pages 53 and 62

Had the US Navy icebreakers been unable to rescue them from the ice in early 1948 her child might have been the first native-born Antarctican.

1956, Walter Sullivan, Quest for a Continent, McGraw-Hill, page 273:

Gonneville departed this enchanted land...taking with him...an “Indian” prince called Essomeric. The land was not, of course, the southern continent, and Essomeric was not an Antarctican. De Gonneville had probably been to southern Brazil.

2001, Kieran Mulvaney, At the Ends of the Earth: History of the Polar Regions, Island Press, →ISBN, page 67:

Recall the exercise at the end of the previous chapter, and imagine that you discover just one Antarctican, and you measure his or her body temperature. If you know the population mean for Antarcticans (perhaps it is 98.6°F), then you have one piece of information about variability.

2004, R. Brooke Lea, Barry H. Cohen, Essentials of Statistics for the Social and Behavioral Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., →ISBN, page 45:

Part of the reason is that there is an indigenous tradition of consuming seals in the north for subsistence, whereas sealing in the south was done almost exclusively for commercial reasons, there being no native Antarcticans.

2006, William L. Fox, Driving to Mars, Shoemaker & Hoard, →ISBN, page 227:

(fiction or hypothetical) A native of Antarctica.


parablepsis

en-noun

parablepsis (countable and uncountable, plural parablepses)

From Ancient Greek παρά (pará, “beside”) and βλέπω (blépō, “to look at”).

So too parablepses due to homoioteleuton in the Greek text are irrelevant for the Hebrew text.

1978, International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, Congress Volume, →ISBN, page 400:

Vertical parablebsis does not fit either, since it should be in the range of several lines (two or three lines).

2009, Raymond De Hoop, Marjo Christina Annette Korpel, Stanley E. Porter, The Impact of Unit Delimitation on Exegesis, →ISBN, page 35:

(palaeography) A circumstance in which a scribe miscopies text due to inadvertently looking to the side while copying, or accidentally skips over some of it.


daimonic

From daimon + -ic; from Latin demon (“spirit”), originally from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “a god, goddess, divine power, genius, guardian spirit”). Doublet of demonic.

der

(psychology, spirituality, mythology, literature) The journey and transition from innocence to experience; part of the process of individuation.

(mythology, literature) The place where light and dark meet.


torcher

/ˈtɔːt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

-ɔː(ɹ)tʃə(ɹ)

(science fiction) The pilot of a spacecraft propelled by a torch drive (a spacecraft engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion).


waitron

(dated, science fiction) A robotic or mechanical waiter.


warp bubble

Coined in 1994 by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre.

(astrophysics, science fiction) A detached region of spacetime which is theoretically capable of moving faster than the speed of light.


supercee

Presumed super- + cee, a respelling of the physics symbol c (denoting the speed of light in a vacuum; an abbreviation of both English constant and Latin celeritas (“swiftness”)).

But Man had always been a restless, persistent creature, and the stars called, and in an incredibly short space of time a highly-ingenious refinement of the theta drive gave him supercee.
“What I can’t understand, Psy, is why in the name of Mira the Terrans couldn’t have been admitted to the Federation as soon as they developed supercee. […]”
Offhand I’d say that the Terrans, when they hit on the secret of star-driving a planet, which isn’t much of a trick once the supercee principle is clearly understood, decided to go off on a hunt round the galaxy for a see-tee system.

1930, Information Access Company, Analog Science Fiction/science Fact, pp63, 73, & 77

1960, AUTHOR UNKNOWN, Astounding Science-fiction, pp70, 72, & 73; presumed to be an earlier work (1930 or earlier), as quotations 2 and 3 also appear in:

^({1})“[…] A couple of … after the last rescue ship had lif … into space and shifted into the … of supercee, the star exploded.”
^({2})“Surely you know the answer to that one,” he said after a moment or two, “or have you forgotten all about a little thing called the decrement effect?” The Psychologist nodded. “Precisely. The decrement effect. The factor that makes supercee — supercee as we know it, that is — inoperable in intergalactic space.” He looked thoughtful. “I don’t think anyone’s yet evolved a satisfactory theory to account for the existence of the effect. The only thing that’s certain is that it’s tied up in some way with gravity fields — or, rather, with the absence of g-fields.” He shrugged.
^({3})“What I can’t understand, Psy, is why in the name of Mira the Terrans couldn’t have been admitted to the Federation as soon as they developed supercee. […]”

1930, Information Access Company, Analog Science Fiction/science Fact, page 72:

The core was virtually unreachable at supercee velocities. So the Lost Star’s bleep has been sounding for eighty years, and no ship has reached her.

1979, Frank Northen Magill, Survey of Science Fiction Literature, Salem Press, →ISBN, page 937:

(rare, science fiction) Faster-than-light travelling speed.


animalist

(literature) A writer of animal stories.


uncloak

en-verb

uncloak (third-person singular simple present uncloaks, present participle uncloaking, simple past and past participle uncloaked)

uncloaks (present singular third-person)
uncloaking (participle present)
uncloaked (participle past)
uncloaked (past)

Don't try to target the Klingons as they uncloak, you won't have time. Just use the phasers to make a nofly zone between us and the Takagi.

2011, David Mack, Rise Like Lions (Star Trek: Mirror Universe):

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


funny pages

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


replicant

From Latin replicāns, present participle of replicō. The science fiction sense was coined by David Peoples in the 1982 film Blade Runner.

(science fiction) A robot or artificial being that is an exact copy of a genuine lifeform, especially a human.


ustav

Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic оуставъ (ustavŭ). Cognate of устав in modern Bulgarian and modern Russian.

The handsomely fashioned writing is of the type described as polu-ustav (semi-uncial), which is midway between the stately ustav and the cursive, . . . —A. Aronson, Rabindranath Through Western Eyes

(palaeography) The earliest style of Cyrillic writing developed from Greek uncial in the late 9th century, predominant in the 11th–14th centuries.


kigo

(poetry) A seasonal word; a word required in haiku to indicate the season.


tommyknocker

Then he's down one of these adits, talking to the tommyknockers, more'n likely.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 335:

(folklore) A mythical creature, like a brownie or leprechaun, believed to live in underground tunnels; later associated with dead miners.


(poetry, rare) Used to show an unexpectedly stressed syllable, or where the choice of stress is metrically important, e.g. idiosyncratic caléndar; noun rébel as opposed to verb rebél; áll trádes as a spondee rather than iamb.


pentimento

[Alt: A blue-tinted painting of a man's bent neck, with a faint image of a woman's face in its background]
Learned borrowing from Italian pentimento (“repentance, penance, penitence; remorse; change of opinion; correction; traces of a previous image or work in an artwork”), from pentìrsi (“to repent; to regret”) + -mento (suffix forming nouns representing the actions of verbs to which it is attached). Pentìrsi is derived from Latin paenitēre, the present active infinitive of paeniteō (“to cause to repent; to repent; to be sorry, regret”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hate; to hurt”).
The plural form is also borrowed from Italian pentimenti.

der

She thought of the painting in the shop, the pentimento. Her life, the one she had so carefully planned for herself had crumbled like the paint on the surface.

2012, Lorraine T. Gilman, chapter 20, in Princeton Pentimento, Bloomington, Ind.: WestBow Press, Thomas Nelson, →ISBN, page 205:

[T]he presence of a pentimento is an extremely valuable entity which supports the conclusion that a painting is an original composition – so, by inference, therefore, refuting any later suggestion that the painting could be the work of a copyist, who would have been engaged upon copying an existing painting as seen! The identification of a pentimento in an artwork can occur in one of two ways: by analytical interrogation of the subsurface using penetrative radiation such as IRR or XRD, or by direct visual observation, where the overlaying paint has worn away […]

2019, Timothy J. Benoy, William A. Edwards, Howell G. M. Edwards, “Evidence of Pentimenti for the Authentication of Paintings: A Challenge for Analytical Science at the Interface with Art History”, in Peter Vandenabeele, Howell Edwards, editors, Raman Spectroscopy in Archaeology and Art History, volume 2, London: Royal Society of Chemistry, →ISBN, page 33:

(art, literature) The presence of traces of a previous work in an artistic or literary work; especially (painting) an image which has been painted over but is still detectable.


555-2368, 1-555-321-2368, and (555)234-2368 are all 555 numbers; they aren’t real.

(Canada, US, fiction) Pertaining to a fake telephone number. The local exchange and area code number 555 was reserved in North American dialing plan for fictional numbers, prior to the 21st century.


positronic

From positron + -ic. The science fiction sense was coined by American science fiction author Isaac Asimov in 1941 in his short story "Liar!".

coin

By exact count, there are seventy-five thousand, two hundred and thirty-four operations necessary for the manufacture of a single positronic brain.

1941 May, Isaac Asimov, “Liar!”, in Astounding Science-Fiction, volume 27, number 3:

(science fiction) Of or pertaining to a supposed analogue of electronics using positrons


sky marshal

(fiction) A military rank in fiction for air force, space force, or armed forces, usually the topmost rank


shifter

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

(mythology, science fiction, fantasy) A shape-shifter; a person or other being capable of changing their physical form, especially a lycanthrope.


holocube

One wall was a huge holo cube displaying Geneva's table of organization, a spidery orange pyramid with tens of thousands of names connected by lines, from the mayor at the top to the “corridor security” people at the base.

1976, Joe Haldeman, The Forever War, New York: Ballantine Books, page 113:

He snapped a holo-cube into the projector and switched on. I gasped and shrank back in my seat as a great crustacean sprang into being in front of me, blind, chitinous, rust-red, and malevolent.

1978, Charles Sheffield, “The Deimos Plague”, in Stellar Science Fiction Stories, n 4, New York: Del Rey, p 146

And on a little table beside the bed, he found a holocube with a tiny picture of a woman wearing a yellow dress in it. When he moved the ’cube, the woman waved at him and laughed.

1990, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, volume 79, page 113:

Not a cassette, not an infodisk, not a holocube, but an actual book, with a cover and binding and pages.
Used in Flashback: The Quest for Identity (video game), Star Wars, Tyrian, and Spider-Man (1994 TV series).

1992, Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, The Positronic Man, New York: Doubleday, p 25

(science fiction) A cube-shaped device that shows or stores holographic pictures.


happy ending

And how was this happy ending to be brought about? Why, by this very eaſy and trite expedient; to wit, by reforming Lovelace, and marrying him to Clariſſa.

1784, The Novelist's Magazine, volume XV, London: Harrison and Co., page 1263, column 1:

The heroine was killed, and since then the happy ending has only been preserved in an appendix in the play.

1827 June 8, The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, page 4, column 3:

Life is not to be conceived on the analogy of a melodrama in which the hero and heroine go through incredible misfortunes for which they are compensated by a happy ending.

1930, Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness:

Death ends all things and so is the comprehensive conclusion of a story, but marriage finishes it very properly too and the sophisticated are ill-advised to sneer at what is by convention termed a happy ending.

1944, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 1, in The Razor’s Edge […], 1st American edition, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co., →OCLC, section i, page 1:

Well, what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?

1957 July 6, What’s Opera, Doc?, spoken by Bugs Bunny (Mel Blanc):

Modern romance, like Greek tragedy, celebrates the mystery of dismemberment, which is life in time. The happy ending is justly scorned as a misrepresentation; for the world, as we know it, as we have seen it, yields but one ending: death, disintegration, dismemberment, and the crucifixion of our heart with the passing of the forms that we have loved.

1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 25:

And she said: / "Don't you know that storybook loves, / Always have a happy ending."

1987, “Storybook Love”, Willy DeVille (music):

(literature) A clichéd conclusion in which all loose ends are tied up and all main characters are content.


SG

Although Supergirl fans will relish page 4, I believe the first panel of 5 says it all: after a full force ramming by SG, PG just casually tosses her into a wall. Now *that's* Power Girl.

1997 October 25, Lightning, “REVIEW Power Girl #1, uhm, I mean Supergirl #16”, in rec.arts.comics.dc.universe (Usenet), message-ID <62tta5$a7g$1@206.230.70.77>:

Actually, a point could be made that the animated Supergirl is much more like Power Girl than the pre Crisis Supergirl.
For one thing she adopted the name Karen (Karen Starr was the name Kara Zor-L created), also she wears PG's costume colors and has a strong resentment toward's Clark's overprotectiveness. The only difference is that the animated SG has the Kara Zor-El personality more than she does Power Girl's.

1998 May 6, CaptT...@webtv.net, “Re: Why is TV kind of pre-Crisis and comics Post-Crisis”, in rec.arts.comics.dc.universe (Usenet), message-ID <6iouoe$1jf$1@newsd-134.iap.bryant.webtv.net>:

I kinda hate how they made Power Girl (Kara/SG pre-Crisis on World 2 or 3?) evil and a clone of SG. One of my fav comics growing up was Supes, and PG and I think Green Arrow going after Vandal Savage.

2005 September 21, tan...@bellsouth.net, “Re: JLU - WOW”, in alt.tv.cartoon-network (Usenet), message-ID <SL7Ye.4284$xg3.1881@bignews4.bellsouth.net>:

(comics) Initialism of Super Girl (“DC Comics superheroine”).


alternate universe

en-noun

alternate universe (plural alternate universes)

There are moments when he seems to be writing something on the order of Jorge Luis Borges's "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"—an amazing fragment about the alternate universe where every book contains its counterbook, where things become duplicated and "also tend to become effaced and lose their details when they are forgotten."

1980, Maxine Greene, “Response to Philip Jackson,”, in Curriculum Inquiry, volume 10, number 2, page 173:

This American President exists in an alternate universe from the one the real Bill Clinton must inhabit.

1995 November 20, Richard Corliss, “Where Nice Guys Finish First”, in Time:

(literature, narratology) An imaginary realm, often a variant form of the real world, depicting a different way events could have unfolded or the universe could have functioned.


slug line

(authorship) A line of abbreviated text at the beginning of each scene in a screenplay that describes the location and time of day


rime riche

(poetry) A form of rhyme with identical sounds, as in "pear" and "pair".


lobsterman

So they are unprepared when the lobsterman, in a symbolic evolutionary leap, cracks his shell and steps out as the rock superman; and, unappreciated, he is left to attempt suicide at the end.

2014, Gerald M. Berkowitz, American Drama of the Twentieth Century:

The movie nods to Robot Monster by giving the lobsterman a sidekick who is a gorilla with a space helmet.

2016, Thomas Kent Miller, Mars in the Movies: A History:

As the show progressed during its second season, the Cold War villains disappeared and Voyage settled into an entertaining, kid-friendly “monster of the week” formula, with the Seaview crew encountering aquatic beasts, ghosts, aliens, dinosaurs, an evil brain, a lobsterman, an ancient alchemist, and even a werewolf.

2018, Michael Eury, “Irwin Allen: Voyage to the Bottom of...the Barrel??”, in RetroFan, volume 3, page 33:

Poor Lobsterman. Out there living among regular men with regular hands. Misunderstood. Impaired, Shunned.

2020, Mary Laura Philpott, I Miss You When I Blink: Essays, page 42:

(fiction) A fictional alien or monster that looks like a lobster/human hybrid.


Middle Earth

From Middle English middelerthe, myddyl erthe; an alteration of earlier middel-erde, middelerd; in turn an alteration of earlier middenerd; from Old English middaneard (“Middle Earth”), variant of middanġeard (“Earth, the world”, literally “the middle yard, enclosure, or realm”) mis- or reinterpreting its meaning, from Proto-Germanic *midjagardaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“middle”) and *gʰórdʰos (“enclosure”). Cognate with Norwegian & English Midgard (q.v.) and Danish, Norwegian, & Swedish Midgård.

Not only are there maps of fantasy, such as those of Oz or Middle Earth, there are also hypotheses that have been made on the basis of mapped information

1994, Academic American Encyclopedia, Grolier, →ISBN, page 141:

The place might as well be called Noplace; it is a sort of magic island, like Thomas More’s Utopia or Homer’s Ogygia or Aristophane’s Cloudcuckooland—or Oz, or Narnia, or Middle Earth, or Disney’s Magic Kingdom.

1999, Frederick Turner, Shakespeare's Twenty-First Century Economics: The Morality of Love, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 180:

Some game ideas (such as the fanciful recreation of Middle Earth where the whole world is modeled with strong AI, 3D graphics capable of great indoor and terrain rendering, where an unlimited number of players can join in on both sides of epic conflict between good and evil) cannot be reconciled with the business parameters[…]

2003, Erik Bethke, Game Development and Production, Wordware Publishing,, →ISBN, page 76:

This is not an account of the Middle Ages, nor is it a tale from Middle Earth. This is our world.

2004, Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 27:

(fiction) Alternative form of Middle-earth: the setting of the Lord of the Rings series.


Eridian

(science fiction) a theoretical inhabitant of the dwarf planet Eris


epical

(literature) Any book containing two or more epics.

(poetry) A lengthy, revered narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation.


transrealism

(science fiction) A literary mode that mixes the techniques of incorporating fantastic elements used in science fiction with the techniques of describing immediate perceptions from naturalistic realism.


versal

(typography, calligraphy) Ornamental letter that begins a section


bear walker

Calque of Ojibwe me'coubmoosa (“bear walker”).

clq

The hair ornament was worn by the Bear-Walker before and during the casting of spells.

1901, Charles Edward Brown, The Wisconsin Archeologist, page 116:

He told Jim he saw a Bear-walker approaching the house then and there.

1953, Inland Seas, Great Lakes Historical Society, page 13

These bear-walkers owed their powers to their personal manito, the bear, and traveled in disguise at night, causing disease among their victims.

1983, Christopher Vecsey, Traditional Ojibwa Religion and its Historical Changes, →ISBN, page 148:

(Native American, folklore) An evil sorcerer, specifically one who walks by night in the form of a bear.

bearwalk used in the comedy Escanaba in da Moonlight


senarius

(poetry) A verse having six metric feet.


Thor's hammer

kinetic energy weapon
kinetic energy weapon

(weaponry, slang, science fiction) An orbital drop hypervelocity kinetic energy weapon (KEW). A theoretical weapon, originating from a U.S. government study, Project Thor, from the 1950s.


white lady

en-noun

white lady (countable and uncountable, plural white ladies)

For quotations using this term, see Citations:white lady.

(folklore) A female ghost dressed in white, who is associated with local legends of tragedy.


catgirl

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

But publishers cannot survive on cute catgirls alone.

2009, Jason S. Yadao, The Rough Guide to Manga, page 222:

Back in 1997, the Japanese magazines made a big deal out of the fact that the catgirl detective anime Hyper Police was on at one in the morning[…]

2010, Jonathan Clements, Schoolgirl Milky Crisis: Adventures in the Anime and Manga Trade:

"Why do we need to leave the mall first?" "Even if I can undo this myself, I don't know how to do it or how it works! I might become more cat-like first, or turn you into a cat, or unleash a shockwave of catness that turns everyone in the mall into cat girls!"

2016 October 7, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive - EGS:NP (webcomic), Comic for Friday, Oct 7, 2016:

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

貓人

female character with feline characteristics


hokku

(poetry) Synonym of haiku (“type of Japanese poem”)


fictography

(literature) A fictionalized biography; a biography written about a fictional character. For example, Gulliver's Travels written by Jonathan Swift but presented as being written by Lemuel Gulliver, the novel's main character.


scale mail

scale mail (countable and uncountable, plural scale mails)

(academically obsolete, now fiction, fantasy) Scale armor.


Callistoan

(science fiction) An inhabitant of Callisto


Titanian

the yin and the yang, or the Oberonic and the Titanian

2002, Lewis, Anthony Burgess: A Biography, page 387:

(literature) Of or relating to the Shakespearean faerie queen Titania


Titanian

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


Europan

(science fiction, demonym) An inhabitant of the astronomical body Europa (either the moon of Jupiter or the minor planet of the Main Asteroid Belt).


shonen

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

From the Japanese 少年 (shōnen, “few years”).

(anime, manga) A style of Japanese animation and comics aimed at a younger male audience.


shonen

en-adj

shonen (comparative more shonen, superlative most shonen)

more shonen (comparative)
most shonen (superlative)

(anime, manga) Being in the style of shonen comics or animation.


Manzonian

Manzonian (comparative more Manzonian, superlative most Manzonian)

more Manzonian (comparative)
most Manzonian (superlative)

(literature) Of, pertaining to, or in the style of Alessandro Manzoni (1785–1873), Italian poet and novelist.

manzonien

of or in the style of Alessandro Manzoni


Manzonian

(literature) A follower of Alessandro Manzoni, or one who writes in his style.

manzonien

follower or imitator of Alessandro Manzoni


contraterrene

/ˌkɒntɹətəˈɹiːn/

This means just one thing: the instant contraterrene matter struck ordinary matter, a terrific explosion would occur!

1952, Science Digest, volume 31, page 67:

Then I started jacking up the voltage, and modified the thing with a double-polarity field somewhat similar to the molecular motion field except that it works on a sub-nucleonic level. As a result, about half of the lead fed into the chamber became contraterrene lead! The atoms just turned themselves inside out, so to speak, giving us an atom with positrons circling a negatively charged nucleus.

1957, John W. Campbell, Islands of Space:

(obsolete in physics, science fiction) Made of or pertaining to antimatter.


magic carpet

Have you ever been, have you ever been, to Electric Ladyland? / The magic carpet waits for you, so don't you be late

1968, Jimi Hendrix (lyrics and music), “Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)”, in Electric Ladyland, performed by The Jimi Hendrix Experience:

(fiction) A carpet capable either of magical flight, or instantaneous transport from one place to another, used as a means of travel.


Liebestod

From German Liebestod, from Liebe (“love”) + Tod (“death”).

She saw how his jaw began to slaver and the room was full of the clamour of the forest's Liebestod but the wise child never flinched […]

1979, Angela Carter, “The Company of Wolves”, in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, published 2006, page 138:

(music, literature) An aria or duet performed in opera marking the suicide of lovers; a suicide.


mecha

From Japanese メカ (meka), from an abbreviation of the English mechanical.

Having deprived her of both her mecha and her lover, Masato looks set for a nasty end, but Miku arrives to save him.

1997, Helen McCarthy, The anime movie guide:

A transformation occurs when a mecha character, vehicle, or weapon unfolds and reassembles itself in a totally new form.

2002, Christopher Hart, Anime mania: how to draw characters for Japanese animation:

Porco Rosso evinces a deep fascination with mechanical objects of all sorts but it is by no means a mecha movie...

2006, Dani Cavallaro, The animé art of Hayao Miyazaki:

Each week the good guys fight the bad guys and vanquish them in a mecha battle, only to have the bad guys reappear intact the following week.

2007, Frenchy Lunning, Mechademia 2: Networks of Desire:

[…] to be a “lifter”—to pilot a mecha that can also transform into an air board […]

2007, Robin E. Brenner, Understanding manga and anime, page 170:

In this section, I show you mechas that are large enough to be piloted by humans from the inside. Although most of them are designed for combat, some function as transportation or construction mechas.

2011, Kensuke Okabayashi, Manga For Dummies, page 275:

(anime, manga) A large armoured robot on legs, typically controlled by a pilot seated inside.


just-so story

/ˌd͡ʒʌstˈsəʊ ˌstɔːɹi/

PIE word
 *swé
From just so (“(almost) exactly or precisely like something”, adjective) + story, referring to the series of short stories called Just So Stories (collected in book form in 1902) by the English writer Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) which described how various animals acquired their distinctive characteristics, such as how the leopard got its spots. According to Kipling, the stories were so titled because they were intended to put his daughter Josephine (“Effie”) to sleep, “and you were not allowed to alter those by one single little word. They had to be told just so; or Effie would wake up and put back the missing sentence.”

(literature) A story, especially one for children, featuring animals as characters.


xenolinguistics

(linguistics, science fiction) Study of a language originating from alien species.


South Park

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

(fiction) A small fictional snow-capped mountainous Colorado town, the setting of the adult animated sitcom South Park.


love interest

Many people are involved in relationships in which they do not know how their love interest feels about them. […] They may also fear knowing the truth, which may be that their love interest isn't truly interested enough in them to make a commitment to the relationship.

2012, Barbara R. Cohl, “What Unhappy Couples Can Teach Us”, in Success for Modern Day Relationships: Working with Dating, Engaged, and Married Couples, Lanham, Md., Plymouth, Devon: Jason Aronson, →ISBN, page 82:

Items from the "Love Styles" scale (Grote & Frieze, 1994) and the Hatfield and Rapson "Passionate Love" scale (Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986) were used to assess the type of love felt for the other person. One love style measured was eros, or passionate love (Lee, 1976). […] Items were: "I was physically attracted to my love interest"; "I felt we had the right physical chemistry between us"; "Just seeing my love interest excited me"; "I felt that I knew and really understood my love interest"; […]

2015, H. Colleen Sinclair, Irene Hanson Frieze, “Initial Courtship Behavior and Stalking: How Should We Draw the Line?”, in Roland D. Maiuro, editor, Perspectives on Stalking: Victims, Perpetrators, and Cyberstalking, New York, N.Y.: Springer Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 61:

Naturally, Fallout also plays to [Tom] Cruise’s waning appeal as a romantic leading man, supplying him with no less than three potential love interests.

2018 July 25, A. A. Dowd, “Fallout may be the Most Breathlessly Intense Mission: Impossible Adventure Yet”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-07-31:

(film, literature) One who is of interest as a (potential) partner in love.

vlam

one of interest as a (potential) partner in love

Some of the greatest and most widely-appreciated literary achievements have been wholly or mainly independent of love-interest or love-inspiration. Religious fervour, zeal for liberty, admiration of abstract virtue, philanthropy, desire to search the heart of man, and contemplation of the beauties and splendours of the outward world,—all these prove to be motives as capable of firing and exalting the imagination as the more directly personal stimulus of love.

1875 July, “the London Hermit” [pseudonym], “Essays and Sketches. On Love in Fiction.”, in Dublin University Magazine. A Literary and Political Journal, volume LXXXVI, number DXI, Dublin: George Herbert, […], London: Hurst & Blackett, Melbourne, Vic.: George Robertson, →OCLC, page 113, column 1:

"The Hand of Peril" is subtitled by its author, Mr. Arthur Stringer, "a novel of adventure," whereas I should label it a six-cylinder detective story. […] Incidentally, the ligament that holds these six morsels together is, of course, a "love-interest" between the detective and the chief criminal's putative daughter and assistant.

1915 September, Henry Brinsley, “Latest News from the Literary Trenches”, in Frank Crowninshield, editor, Vanity Fair, volume 5, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Vanity Fair Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 94, column 1:

The love interest is supplied by the Colonel's grandson and the daughter of the inventor of a horseless wagon.

1926 December, [Arthur Hornblow, Sr.], “Mr. Hornblow Goes to the Play”, in F. E. Allardt, editor, Theatre Magazine: For the Lovers of the Stage and the Screen, volume XLIV, number 309, New York, N.Y.: Theatre Magazine Company, →OCLC, page 72, column 2:

(film, literature) A romantic plot or subplot in a film or book.


raygun

(science fiction, weaponry) Alternative spelling of ray gun


needler

From Middle English nedlere, equivalent to needle + -er.

(chiefly science fiction) A gun that fires needles or darts.


transmat

Attested since the 1950s, from transmit or transfer and matter; perhaps popularized by the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

One of these days.., they'll invent a Transmat that'll set you down anywhere.

1959 June 20, Laurence Janifer, “Obey that Impulse!”, in Future Science Fiction, number 43, page 40:

Three lines of workers began to vanish into the transmats, heading for their homes in the android compounds of five continents, […]

1970 June 20, Robert Silverberg, “The Tower of Glass”, in Galaxy Science Fiction, volume 30, number 3, page 83:

TIME LORD: Ah. Welcome, Doctor.
DOCTOR: What's going on? Don't you realize how dangerous it is to intercept a transmat beam?
TIME LORD: Oh, come, Doctor, not with our techniques. We Time Lords transcended such simple mechanical devices when the universe was less than half its present size.

1975, Terry Nation, Genesis of the Daleks (Doctor Who, season 12, serial 4), opening dialogue

You are in a TRANS-MAT unit. You see a faulty control panel with a button on it.

1983, The Long Way Home (video game published with 16/48 Magazine)

LYNDA: Oh, that's the transmat. Scrambles your head — I was sick for days.

2005, Russell T Davies, Bad Wolf (Doctor Who series 1, episode 12)

(British, science fiction) A teleporter; a fictional device that transfers/transmits matter from one location to another without the object traversing the intervening distance as itself.


transmat

en-verb

transmat (third-person singular simple present transmats, present participle transmatting, simple past and past participle transmatted)

transmats (present singular third-person)
transmatting (participle present)
transmatted (participle past)
transmatted (past)

It wasn't far enough away to think about transmatting and besides, that was no longer a viable option, what with vandals having wrecked some of the booths in the area.

1991, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Carmen Carter, Robert Greenberger, Doomsday World (Star Trek: The Next Generation; 12), Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 171:

'No, you're not,' Blandish put in smoothly 'You're transmatting down with me. I'll head the away team and I'll consent to let you advise.'

1999, Paul Magrs, Jeremy Hoad, The Blue Angel (Doctor Who: Eighth Doctor Adventures; 27), BBC Worldwide, →ISBN, page 36:

Donna twisted her neck around to try to find the Doctor, but she realised that she'd been transmatted alone.

2010, Mark Michalowski, Shining Darkness (Doctor Who: New Series Adventures; 27), BBC Worldwide, →ISBN, page 17:

(British, science fiction, transitive, intransitive) To teleport; to (cause to) travel via transmat device.


literary language

(literature) A register of a language that is used in literary writing.

ədəbi dil

register of a language used in literary writing


auctorial descriptive

en-noun

auctorial descriptive (plural auctorial descriptives)

(literature) An adjective based on an authors' name.


apostrophically

(orthography, humorous) With apostrophes.


bimeter

[…] two poems combine tetrameters with trimeters, and two others tetrameters with bimeters.

1982, Willem Pieter Gerritsen, “Coornhert and Boethius: A Side-Light on the Genesis of Dutch Renaissance Verse”, in D.H. Green, editors, From Wolfram and Petrarch to Goethe and Grass, page 310:

(poetry) A meter wherein each line has two metrical feet.


songwriting

songwriting (usually uncountable, plural songwritings)


psychohistory

psychohistory (countable and uncountable, plural psychohistories)

/sʌɪkəʊˈhɪstəɹi/

From psycho- + history.
* The science-fictional usage was created by Isaac Asimov in the mid-20th century.

(science fiction) A fictional mathematical statistical science of large population dynamics, where mathematical models can predict general futures, based on activities of quadrillions of individuals. The fictional science first occurs in Asimov's 1950s Foundation series, and has since been picked up by other authors for other works.


alexandrine

From Middle French alexandrin. So called from its use in old French poems on Alexander the Great (Roman d'Alexandre, c. 1177).

The dominant metre in Les Fleurs du Mal is the twelve-syllable alexandrine, the defining metre of French versification, with the eight-syllable line a distant runner-up and the ten-syllable line barely visible.

2005, Rachel Killick, “Baudelaire's versification: conservative or radical?”, in Rosemary Lloyd, editor, The Cambridge Companion to Baudelaire, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 52:

(poetry) A line of poetic meter having twelve syllables, usually divided into two or three equal parts.


Adonic

(poetry) A verse consisting of a dactyl and spondee.


senryū

(poetry) A haiku-like poem of up to 17 syllables that is usually humorous or satirical.


fantastique

Unadapted borrowing from French fantastique. Doublet of fantastic.

ubor

And certainly the film's free-floating fantasy and the blatant transparency of its narrative--its capacity to be seen for the artifice that it is--are a lot closer to fantastique than they are to the more logically circumscribed forms of fancy celebrated in this country.

1988 January 29, Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Invitation to the Trance”, in Chicago Reader:

(film, literature) A genre of literature and film that is characterized by the intrusion of the supernatural into the realistic framework of a story.


virelai

From Old French virelai, alteration (after lai) of vireli.

Now making layes of loue and louers paine, / Bransles, Ballads, virelayes, and verses vaine [...].

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

(historical, poetry) A medieval poetic form consisting of two or more three line units in each stanza, in the form aabaab... and continuing on in that pattern.


literary technique

en-noun

literary technique (plural literary techniques)


literary theory

(literature) The theory or the philosophy of the interpretation of literature and literary criticism


literary device

literary device (plural literary devices)

(literature) An identifiable rule of thumb, convention, or structure that is employed in literature and storytelling.


literary criticism

In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.

1946, George Orwell, Politics and the English Language:

(literature) The study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature.


edisonade

From Edison + -ade, coined by Canadian author John Clute in 1993, after inventor Thomas Edison.

coin

(science fiction) A genre of science fiction and adventure fiction featuring a brilliant robust inventor, engineer or scientist hero who has an adventure in the wilds of the world, created from the mid-19th century to early 20th century, mostly American.

scientific romance

European science-fiction genre of the same period


alternate history

en-noun

alternate history (usually uncountable, plural alternate histories)

Alternate history is[…]a mournful exercise; in it, the world we know has been erased, and usually not for the better. Sometimes the main character realizes this, but most often the reader alone is left to fathom the loss.

2004 September 5, Laura Miller, “Imagine”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

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


Chaucerian

en-adj

Chaucerian (comparative more Chaucerian, superlative most Chaucerian)

more Chaucerian (comparative)
most Chaucerian (superlative)

/tʃɔːˈsɪəɹɪ.ən/

/t͡ʃɔˈsɪɹi.ən/

Literary Bengali of prose, during the greater part of the 19th century, was thus a doubly artificial language ; and, with its forms belonging to Middle Bengali, and its vocabulary highly Sanskritised, it could only be compared to a 'Modern English' with a Chaucerian grammar and a super-Johnsonian vocabulary, if such a thing could be conceived.

1926, Suniti Kumar Chatterji, The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language, page 134:

(literature) Of or pertaining to Geoffrey Chaucer or his writings.

chaucérien

of or pertaining to Geoffrey Chaucer or his writings


Chaucerian

/tʃɔːˈsɪəɹɪ.ən/

/t͡ʃɔˈsɪɹi.ən/

(literature) A poet influenced by Chaucer.


iota subscript

en-noun

iota subscript (plural iotas subscript or iota subscripts)

iotas subscript (plural)
iota subscripts (plural)

(Greek orthography) A small iota written below an alpha, eta or omega – e.g. in ᾠδή (ōidḗ) – representing a vocalic offglide that was pronounced in early Ancient Greek, but later became silent; invented in the Middle Ages in order to mark those vowels which would originally have had such an offglide.


plasma rifle

(science fiction, weaponry) An assault rifle-styled gun that shoots plasma.


belter

(science fiction) A person who mines asteroids for minerals or lives in the vicinity of an asteroid belt.


anacreontic

From Late Latin Anacreonticus, from Ancient Greek Ἀνακρέων (Anakréōn), Anacreon a Greek poet.

(poetry) A short lyrical piece about love and wine.


warp speed

The ship was accelerating to warp speed, when one of the engines failed.

(science fiction) A hypothetical, extremely rapid, speed, resulting from entering a separate dimension, termed hyperspace; much faster than the speed of light.


polyschematic

(poetry) Having unusual or multiple metre.


(poetry) Placed over a vowel letter to indicate that the syllable is long. Also used alone to mark stress in a metrical foot or verse: see ⟨ˉ⟩.


staple character

staple character (plural staple characters)

The mad scientist was a staple character in many horror films.

(writing, theater, film) A stock character, especially one that is overused.


senpai

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

Borrowed from Japanese 先(せん)輩(ぱい) (senpai). Doublet of sunbae.

(anime and manga, fandom slang) An upperclassman or elder student, in the context of Japan.


terzanelle

(poetry) A poetry form which is a combination of the villanelle and the terza rima.


antinovel

Digressions are usually considered a characteristic feature of the antinovel tradition.

(literature) A novel that deliberately avoids the typical conventions of the novel, such as a coherent plot and protagonist.

antiromaani

a novel that deliberately avoids the typical conventions of the novel

(literature, by extension) Any style of writing that deviates from the norm of technical conventions used in writing literature.


kabouter

(Dutch folklore) A tiny folkloric man who traditionally wears a pointy red hat, lives in harmony with nature and resides in mushrooms, similar to a gnome, leprechaun or a smurf.


punctum delens

Unadapted borrowing from Latin pūnctum dēlēns.

ubor

(orthography) A dot placed above a letter to indicate that it is a copying error and should be ignored.

(orthography) A dot placed above a consonant in Irish, when it is written in Gaelic script, to indicate that the consonant is lenited.


realspace

(science fiction) Normal, three-dimensional space; as opposed to hyperspace


sub-light

"We are about to test sub-light engine disengage."

2017, A.K. Brown, Humans on the Menu (Champagne Universe Series: Book 2), page 36:

(science fiction) At less than the speed of light.


monoline

[…] monolines appear everywhere in the art of the Western letter, and have shaped the alphabet's development as much as the edged line of the broad pen.

1984, Margaret Shepherd, Calligraphy Now, page 31:

(calligraphy) A font line of consistent width, as occurs when imitating pencil script.


wererat

The only other animal he'd seen hadn't been an animal at all, but a wererat who had given him a curious look before darting away into an alley.

2006, Christine Warren, Wolf at the Door: A Novel of The Others, page 205:

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


weretiger

(fiction, mythological) A creature of Southeast Asian myth; a shapeshifter who can assume the shape of a tiger.


interactive fiction

en-noun

interactive fiction (countable and uncountable, plural interactive fictions)

(literature, uncountable) Text adventures and their descendants.


cyberize

en-verb

cyberize (third-person singular simple present cyberizes, present participle cyberizing, simple past and past participle cyberized)

cyberizes (present singular third-person)
cyberizing (participle present)
cyberized (participle past)
cyberized (past)

At this Nightshade mutters under his breath and begins to metamorphose. Slowly more metal appears on him, and his looks change drastically from a pure human to a fully cyberized hunk of man and machine.

1993 August 25, Robert Johan Enters, “Re: [ADMIN] Re: Newcomer to the Theatre...”, in alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo (Usenet):

I don't see ItX [=Iteration X] forcefully cyberizing anyone against their will. Not only is it wildly unethical, Devices are far too valuble ^([sic]) to waste on people who will try to resist the Union.

2000 March 21, Julian Mensch, “Re: Iteration X Conventionpage for a noble Union [*LONG*]”, in alt.games.whitewolf (Usenet):

But he did report to Starfleet HQ his encounter with a race of cyberized humanoids who are out to assimilate everyone, and T'Pol's estimate that said race would likely return during the 24th century.

2009 May 8, "Tim Bruening" (username), "Re: Archer Vs Borg", on alt.tv.star-trek.enterprise and alt.humor.puns, Usenet

(science fiction, rare) To make into a cyborg; to fit with a cybernetic implant or prosthesis.


fachan

A fachan is a large, fierce monstrosity that is as dangerous as it is strange. A fachan has one eye in the middle of its forehead, a single arm in the middle of its chest and one leg supporting it from underneath. The fachan's[…]

(Can we date this quote?), RuneQuest Monsters, Mongoose Publishing, →ISBN, page 63:

"I can handle a fachan on my own,” Sir Celes said. “Don't worry, my regiment is...” “My father...” It felt so cold all of a sudden. Like a cloud had covered the sun. A fachan. A horrible, one-eyed giant. A terrifying monster that had taken something[…]

2020 April 27, Nao Wakasa, The Extraordinary, the Ordinary, and SOAP! Volume 1, J-Novel Club, →ISBN:

(folklore and now also fantasy) A giant in Irish and Scottish folklore, which has one central leg, one hand protruding from its chest, and one eye.


derezz

derezz (third-person singular simple present derezzes, present participle derezzing, simple past and past participle derezzed)

derezzes (present singular third-person)
derezzing (participle present)
derezzed (participle past)
derezzed (past)

From the film Tron, perhaps from de- and resolve or resolution.

(science fiction, intransitive, of an image) To disappear, or dissolve into pixels.


manhua

en-noun

manhua (countable and uncountable, plural manhuas)

Borrowed from Mandarin 漫畫／漫画 (mànhuà), from Japanese 漫(まん)画(が) (manga). Doublet of manga and manhwa.

(comics) A comic originating in China or Taiwan.


manhwa

Borrowed from Korean 만화(漫畫) (manhwa), from Japanese 漫(まん)画(が) (manga). Doublet of manga and manhua.

In fact, many manga fans don't realize that their favorite comics — such as Priest, Ragnarock, and Island — are actually Korean manhwa!

2004, Christopher Hart, Manhwa Mania: How to Draw Korean Comics, Watson-Guptill Publications, →ISBN, page 7:

Since the Korean language reads left to right (unlike Chinese and Japanese), manhwa are printed left to right in the same format as English books.

2007, Jason Thompson, Manga: The Complete Guide, Del Rey, published 2007, →ISBN:

As the best Japanese titles were mined, the American companies began to look for alternatives, and Tokyopop's founder Stuart Levy already had a budding interest in Korean manhwa.

2008, Mark James Russell, Pop Goes Korea: Behind the Revolution in Movies, Music, and Internet Culture, Stone Bridge Press, published 2008, →ISBN:


autofire

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

(science fiction) A feature that allows a weapon to fire automatically.


info-dump

(literature) A long section in a work of fiction that reveals often tedious expository information through the voice of the narrator.


graveyard poetry

(literature, poetry) A type of morbid poetry which lingers on human mortality, tombs, and burial grounds, popular in the preromantic period of 18th-century Britain.


hench

en-verb

hench (third-person singular simple present henches, present participle henching, simple past and past participle henched)

henches (present singular third-person)
henching (participle present)
henched (participle past)
henched (past)

(comics) To be a henchman or henchwoman, usually for a supervillain.


exord

One peculiarity of Bello is his having first broken through the custom of religious invocations at the heads of his cantos, in place of which he substituted poetical exords, or reflections on the events of his narrative, or on circumstances connected with them.

1830, “Ferrario -- On Chivalry and Romance and Italian Romantic Poetry”, in Foreign Quarterly Review, volume VI, number XIII, page 387:

(literature) A preface or prefatory passage


electrokinesis

But Grey's electrokinesis and Greenman's telekinesis put me in a tight spot.

2008, A. Lee Martinez, The Automatic Detective, →ISBN, page 138:

(fantasy, science fiction) The generation of electrical force using the mind alone.


psionics

In any case, psionics appears quite legitimately in science fiction.

1976, Reginald Bretnor, The Craft of Science Fiction:

In the 1960s, Campbell abandoned his public obsessions with psionics and pseudo-science.

1998, Gary Westfahl, The Mechanics of Wonder: The Creation of the Idea of Science Fiction:

(science fiction) Mental powers, especially those under conscious control, that affect physical matter, such as telekinesis.


terraformer

(science fiction) A machine that has the capability to terraform.

(chiefly science fiction) A person who terraforms.


lineation

en-noun

lineation (countable and uncountable, plural lineations)

Lineation is very much a matter of syntax, organizing the poem's grammar across its lines in ways significant and central to the poem's meaning.

2001, Shira Wolosky, The Art of Poetry, →ISBN, pages 26–27:

(literature) The way in which line breaks are inserted in a poem


telepath

(parapsychology, science fiction) A person with telepathic ability, capable of reading the thoughts of others around them.


telepath

en-verb

telepath (third-person singular simple present telepaths, present participle telepathing, simple past and past participle telepathed)

telepaths (present singular third-person)
telepathing (participle present)
telepathed (participle past)
telepathed (past)

Jan. 3rd, 1984.—I was in the front sitting-room and dare not go out of the room for the cold; my plants were awfully dry, and hearing E. [her niece] in the kitchen, I telepathed to her to bring me in some water. She at once came with a jug full and asked if I would water the plants.

1896 October, “A Diary of Telepathic Impressions”, in Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, volume 7, number 132, page 300:

He does not attribute one single experience to what we might term a "ghost" for lack of a better term. Witches, poltergeists, goblins, gremlins, fairies, dwarfs—all of them are real, physical, alive, being either the real thing or the teleported or telepathed image of the real thing.

1947 June, Raymond A. Palmer, “Observatory”, in Amazing Stories, volume 21, number 6, page 9:

Thanos: "Did you not suspect I could tell you had been telepathing?"

1973 February, Stan Lee, Iron Man, number 55

In your mind you have capacities you know / To telepath messages through the vast unknown

1976, “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft”, in 3:47 EST, performed by Klaatu:

(parapsychology, science fiction) To communicate by thought; to use telepathy.


Flying Dutchman

(nautical folklore) A mythical Dutch-flagged ghost clipper that is very fast sailing, and never makes it to port, seen on the high seas, where upon being hailed, occupants request information on persons long dead, or leave messages for said people. In European naval folklore, it was considered to portend bad luck.


homodiegetic

The second part of the novella, including chapters 13-15, is more personal and reflective. Here, our apparently heterodiegetic narrator reveals himself to be homodiegetic: to be Tanner's sidekick BB Trane, previously referred to in the third person.

2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 185:

(literature, film) Of or relating to the narrator of a dramatic work who is also the protagonist or other character in the work.


grav

Since there is no such thing as top or bottom in space, the ship's artificial gravs hold you to the floor no matter which end of the vessel points which way.

1950, Nelson Bond, Lancelot Biggs: Spaceman, →ISBN, page 76:

... We will be going to low-gravity just before jump. Passengers should be firmly strapped in at this time." "Good," murmured Muerotte. "Cutting gravs...brace yourself.

2007, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., The Ecolitan Enigma, →ISBN:

Trystin shut down the ventilation system and shifted the last of the power for gravs into the thrusters.

2010, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., The Parafaith War, →ISBN:

(science fiction) An artificial gravity generator.

A starship thundered invisibly close overhead, its gravs at full lift-off power.

The orbot was a speck, a clot, a ball, a toy. It was gliding silently in on gravs, directly overhead.

1992, Gardner Dozois, Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction Of Gardner Dozois, →ISBN, page 83:

Air cars include any vehicle which are grav powered and are capable of flying, but unlike aeroplanes they handle similar to normal ground cars.

2008, Martin Rait, FSpace Roleplaying Conspiracy Convention Skills Guide v1.1, →ISBN, page 7:

I set things up for the grav sled support and the Averonian operation.

2011, R Richard, Second Chance King of Avuls, →ISBN, page 7:

With the gravs, I can land in ten seconds and be cutting a door for you at the same time.

2011, J. E. Murphy, Sanctuary, →ISBN, page 317:

(science fiction) An anti-gravity device.