Seelie

Seelie (comparative more Seelie, superlative most Seelie)

more Seelie (comparative)
most Seelie (superlative)

“Like Sleeping Beauty, you mean,” I said. Henry nodded. His handsome face was very worried, and I didn't know him long enough to read him that well. “They came and saw the garden, and it was very Seelie, my lord. More than that, none.”

“Altruism is very Seelie.” “The sidhe were all Seelie once,” Shock said. “Either we resign ourselves to that part of our history or we go mad. I do not fight my impulses toward love and beauty the way my father does. But enough of that.”

2018, Mishell Baker, Impostor Syndrome, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

(fantasy, folklore) Of or pertaining to the Seelie; benevolent (as a fairy, etc).


vidcall

Glad you called,” Ygara said, coming over to companionably grip Cora’s forearm as she stepped out of the airlock. “Just when I was starting to get bored with your little system. Welcome aboard! Come meet the team.”
Over the vidcall, Ygara had explained to Cora that she’d bought and refurbished a small surplus asari destroyer a few years back, with some of her earnings from three hundred years in the Daughters.

2017 November, N. K. Jemisin, Mac Walters, chapter 2, in Mass Effect Andromeda: Initiation, 1st edition (Science Fiction), Titan Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 39:


Proxer

(science fiction) Inhabitant of the Proxima Centauri system.


Prox

Proxima Centauri
Proxima Centauri#English

(science fiction) Abbreviation of Proxima Centauri.

(science fiction) Some inhabited planet of the Proxima Centauri system.


Lamartinian

en-adj

Lamartinian (comparative more Lamartinian, superlative most Lamartinian)

more Lamartinian (comparative)
most Lamartinian (superlative)

Calqued from French lamartinien or from Lamartine + -ian; after Alphonse de Lamartine.

(literature, politics) Of or pertaining to Alphonse de Lamartine.

lamartinien

of or pertaining to Alphonse de Lamartine


paranatural

From para- (“above, beyond; abnormal”) + natural (“of or relating to nature; as expected; reasonable”); compare paranormal, supernatural.

prefix

(science fiction, fantasy) A paranormal entity.


hard light

This included a good six orvs a day in the HLHG (Hard Light Hologram) Simulation Room. This room could create an unlimited number of battle scenarios by way of quality hard light holograms; it was a key staple in Brigade training.

2005, C. C. Ekeke, Star Brigade: First Renaissance, page 155:

The Falcon formerly wore a pair of jet-powered glider wings that allowed him to fly at speeds up to 250 miles per hour. He now wears a pair of "hard light" wings that have increased his speed […]

2008, Scholastic Avengers Encyclopedia, Marvel Comics Group, →ISBN:

Abstract: Yeng is a Zontoan from planet Zing who volunteers to go on an intergalactic mission to a distant planet called Earth. Using a hard light drive, Yeng is able to project a solid hologram of himself, so that he appears as a stunningly handsome human […]

2009, Victor Kelleher, Spaceman Bill, in Fiction Gateway: Enriching the curriculum

I leaned against the wall and slid down into the ninety-degree corner between two hard light walls. I wrapped my arms around my knees as Sid's voice echoed.

2018, John Oddfellow / Caleb Rhodes, The Engine of a Million Plots, →ISBN, page 179:

"I think we should steal the orb and replace it with a hard light hologram so they won't even notice."

2018, Kay Hawkins, The Stars Are Calling, page 222:

(comics, science fiction) A solid, tangible hologram (projection of light), which can be used to construct structures such as walls or armor.


American comic book

en-noun

American comic book (plural American comic books)

(comics) A thin serialized comic book format published in the United States, containing on average 32 pages.


Campbellian

en-adj

Campbellian (comparative more Campbellian, superlative most Campbellian)

more Campbellian (comparative)
most Campbellian (superlative)

In fact, among some readers the term "Campbellian science fiction" is virtually synonymous with "Golden Age", so manifestly more rigorous were the authors Campbell developed than the majority of pulp writers before them.

2003, Edward James, Farah Mendlesohn, The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, page 99:

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. This concept was pure Campbellian, yet Campbell was critical of the story - possibly out of petulance for not having published it.

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

(science fiction) In the fictive style promoted by American writer and editor John W. Campbell, wherein humanity triumphs over alien intelligences through innate superiority, often with superhuman abilities such as telekinesis, ESP, etc.


good-bad

en-adjective

good-bad (comparative more good-bad, superlative most good-bad)

more good-bad (comparative)
most good-bad (superlative)

1945, November 2. George Orwell, "Good Bad Books", Tribune, 2 November.
The existence of good bad literature--the fact that one can be amused or excited or even moved by a book that one's intellect simply refuses to take seriously--is a reminder that art is not the same thing as cerebration.

Touch of Evil is not a good movie, but it is a good bad movie, which is more fun than the mediocre or even the adequate.

2014, Sarah Nilsen, Projecting America, 1958, McFarland:

2015, July 6, David Fear et al, 25 Best Modern Exploitation Movies. Rolling Stone.
Is Showgirls good-bad or just bad-bad?

The Shoes of the Fisherman is a good-bad film that owes no duty to history or to what were then current affairs.

2019 November 29, Donald Clarke, “The Two Popes: one giant leap of faith”, in The Irish Times:

(film, literature) Enjoyably schlocky, poor in quality but nonetheless compelling.


warwagon

"You mean you won't come with us in the warwagon?" "You don't have a warwagon. You don't even have a pocket knife. You have light meters around your neck that would feed one of those guys and all his relatives for a year. I wouldn't go back in that barrio in a tank."

1980, Danny Lyon, The paper negative, Bleak Beauty Books, page 28:

When he went back inside the warwagon, the audio monitors were quivering with the ghostly echoes of automobile engines firing up and voices raised in excited exchanges. The video recorders clicked on a moment later.

2014, Don Pendleton, Savage Fire, Open Road Media, →ISBN:

Stiffly the old general climbed the steps to the upper deck of the warwagon, his knees having grown stiff in the chill air flowing over the deck. His suit of armour still felt too heavy on him, even though it was mostly decorative, splendidly so, […]

2015, Col Buchanan, The Black Dream, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN:

armored personnel carrier
armored personnel carrier

(fiction, uncommon) A combat vehicle similar to an armored personnel carrier.


terran

en-adj

terran (comparative more terran, superlative most terran)

more terran (comparative)
most terran (superlative)

[…] dinitrogen does not have properties that would be considered as suitable for life from a terran perspective (Table 7.2).

2008, Dirk Schulze-Makuch, Louis Neal Irwin, Life in the Universe: Expectations and Constraints, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 128:

As they approached the steps the Klee-shaes could hear a terran favorite over the great building's Public Address system—it was Neil Young warbling Keep On Rocking In The Free World, but a Fartian host, misunderstanding the moment, transferred the track to Mollify.

2008, Ron Sanders, Legerdemainia, →ISBN, page 71:

Like most “fish” native to Safehold, it has a very long, sinuous body but the head does resemble a terran hake or cod, with a hooked jaw.

2011, David Weber, How Firm a Foundation: A Novel in the Safehold Series (#5), Macmillan, →ISBN:

Annual Pack Includes:
Gift pack - SOL30000 a terran year (equivalent to SOL2500/month over the duration of the adoption).
Personalised certificate.
Stand-up photo-portrait (14.5 x 200m) of your soldier.

2013, Doug Strider, Space Danger - Space Marines' Graveyard, Douglas Strider, →ISBN:

Cal cut wide in his shoulder jets with a short burst and slid in to earth under a tree so like a terran cottonwood it was hard to tell the difference. The trees on windy hillsides on Lehaunan had been warped and strangely twisted […]

2013, Gordon R. Dickson, Naked to the Stars, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

Hobbs' Street smelled odd, damp and sweet, but that wasn't due to the residents here but to an odd mutation of a terran honey fungus that had spread throughout the moon colony, running its mycelia through air vents, electrical ducting or […]

2014, Gardner Dozois, The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection, St. Martin's Griffin, →ISBN:

The NASA engineer admiringly dubbed the complete project a “terran module,” comparing it favorably with the best thing yet developed in lunar modules. Bolan liked it, though he was a bit awed by the electronic capabilities of his new warwagon.

2014, Don Pendleton, New Orleans Knockout, Open Road Media, →ISBN:

(chiefly science fiction, uncommon) Alternative letter-case form of Terran (“of or from Earth; terrestrial”)


psych-fi

We are interested in young adult, new adult, and middle grade sci-fi, psych-fi, paranormal, or urban fantasy […]

2015, Chuck Sambuchino, Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market 2016:

Ballard is often mentioned in the context of Barney's work, especially his classic surrealist psych-fi novel Crash that was adapted by Cronenberg.

2018, Ashley Crawford, Religious Imaging in Millennialist America: Dark Gnosis, page 256:


telepad

(science fiction) A platform on which a person or object is placed in order to be teleported elsewhere.


moon-man

(science fiction) A native alien of the Moon.


hyaa

(chiefly manga) Ah! Argh! A shriek or scream.


teletransporter

(science fiction) A teleportation device.


wallscreen

(science fiction) A wall-mounted screen display.


Bokononism

Coined by American writer Kurt Vonnegut in his novel Cat's Cradle in 1963. Named after the religion's alleged founder, Bokonon + -ism.

[>We show singles exactly how to find their True Soulmate! And we show Couples how to determine if they have found their True Soulmate!]
How tough can it be to know once you've found the right one? As long as you're not somewhere that has made Bokononism illegal, couldn't you just put your feet together?

1997 March 13, the tree by the river, “Re: Still looking for your Soulmate? We can help!”, in soc.singles (Usenet):

Because there isn't any, and I can't think of any possible reason that there need be any. Thus I have assumed that there is no god. The difference is that since there *can be* no evidence of it, I must admit that I can not really know the answer. In my case, that is grounds for agnosticism (or Bokononism really). In the case of many others, faith takes over.

2000 May 8, m. brazeau, “Re: help me refute a theist”, in sci.skeptic (Usenet):

Whatever wackadoodle philosophy you might be embracing today – frutarianism or Bokononism – is cool as long as it doesn’t hurt those around you, right? ¶ Refusing to immunize puts the rest of us at risk. And unless there is sound science and the guidance of a good doctor, it’s a pretty bogus way to hedge a bet in that game of parenting roulette.

2015 January 26, Petula Dvorak, “Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children are putting others at risk”, in The Washington Post:

(fiction, religion) In Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle, a religion secretly practiced by the people of San Lorenzo, the supreme religious act of which consists of any two worshippers rubbing the bare soles of their feet together to inspire spiritual connection.


chosen one

Many of these fantasy novels feature a main character portrayed as a chosen one who will save everyone else.

Qui-Gon: He... is the Chosen One. He... will bring balance... Train him.

1999, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace:

(informal, authorship) A character in a narrative work who is predestined to save the world or accomplish some other grand and heroic deed; one who is predestined to become the one.


antimeme

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From anti- + meme. In the sense of "an image macro which intentionally subverts one's expectations", first recorded in 2009 and now chiefly associated with the r/antimeme subreddit, created February 8, 2012.

I know it's every citizen's civic duty to keep his antimeme vaccinations up to date. But some perverse streak inside me (possibly, now that I think about it, an anti-antimeme meme) made me keep postponing my appointment until it was just too late.

1998, Christine Beckert, David Bischoff, Carroll Brown, et al., The Best of Pirate Writings: Tales of Fantasy, Mystery & Science Fiction, Padwolf Pub Incorporated, →ISBN:

As an antimeme to both Christianity and these secular dominant ideologies, humanism in the West was, by the middle of the century able to gain dominance in what had become, effectively, a vacant niche.

2003, David Hurst, On Westernism: An Ideology's Bid for World Dominion:

Notable as well are periodic claims that memetics will make the world a better place, by creating an antimeme meme which will teach us to defend ourselves against the ravages of the selfish memes, ...

2004, William F. Harms, Information and Meaning in Evolutionary Processes, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 65:

We have to start spreading antimemes.” “Fight fire with fire?” she said.

2010, Michael Flynn, In the Country of the Blind, Macmillan, →ISBN:

(memetics, science fiction) A meme deployed to nullify or protect against another meme.

SCP-055 is a "self-keeping secret" or "anti-meme". Information about SCP-055's physical appearance as well as its nature, behavior, and origins is self-classifying.

2008, Sam "qntm" Hughes, “SCP-055 - [unknown]”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division:

An antimeme is an idea with self-censoring properties; an idea which, by its intrinsic nature, discourages or prevents people from spreading it.

2018, Sam "qntm" Hughes, There Is No Antimemetics Division:

(memetics, science fiction) A unit of information that prevents itself from being spread, often by erasing itself from any mind that it enters.


Lunan

Relations between Terra and Luna had been strained since the Lunans had eaten Neil Armstrong in 1960.

2012, A. Lee Martinez, Emperor Mollusk versus The Sinister Brain:

Despite the war games, the Jovans considered themselves invincible, and the Lunans were their only worthy opponent in the solar system. Having their own ships blown up in orbit by unknown forces, the Lunans were no longer transgressors.

2014, William Tedford, Battlefields of Silence:

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


kabedon

From Japanese 壁ドン (kabedon), from 壁 (kabe, “wall”) + ドン (don, onomatopoeia for a pounding noise).

Pulling a kabedon will freak her out, so don't get pushy...

2016, Kina Kobayashi, translated by Jenny McKeon, Nameless Asterism, volume 3:

Kabedon only works if you're both into each other.

2017, Kei Sasuga, translated by Adam Hirsch, Domestic Girlfriend, volume 13, unnumbered page:

We were presently in an empty classroom during lunch break, and she had me trapped in a truly magnificent kabedon.

2021, Teren Mikami, translated by TNFWIBYLU Translation Team, There's No Freaking Way I'll be Your Lover! Unless..., volume 5, unnumbered page:

Do girls really get excited over kabedons?

2021, Kana Nakatsuki, translated by Andria McKnight, Don't Tempt Me, VP!, volume 3, unnumbered page:

(chiefly Japanese fiction) The act of placing one hand on a wall or other vertical surface while leaning close to another (usually shorter) person whose back is against the wall/surface.


popcrete

Blend of pop art + concrete, coined by Augusto de Campos; see concrete poem.

(poetry) A genre of concrete poems assembled from images rather than words.


superhero landing

en-noun

superhero landing (plural superhero landings)

Superhero landing. She's gonna do a superhero landing. Wait for it. [...] Whoo! Superhero landing! You know, that's really hard on your knees.

2016, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Deadpool, spoken by Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds):

Then — boom! — Spidey sticks the classic superhero landing.

2016 March 11, David Betancourt, “‘Captain America: Civil War’: How Marvel Studios just saved Spider-Man”, in Washington Post, retrieved 2023-01-01:

After the revelatory seventh episode aired, showcasing Monica’s newfound powers, fans flocked to Twitter to praise her first official superhero landing — a single mighty fist planted firmly on the ground, eyes forward and fierce.

2021 March 3, Leigh-Ann Jackson, “Teyonah Parris Didn’t Get ‘WandaVision’ at First, Either”, in The New York Times, retrieved 2023-01-01:

(comics) An action pose where someone is supported by three limbs — specifically: kneeling with one leg, while only the other foot and one hand are also touching the ground — typically seen when a superhero lands after flying or falling.


tech noir

tech noir (countable and uncountable, plural tech noirs)

Blend of tech (“technology”) + film noir. From the close association of high tech with sci-fi. Folk etymology suggests this was coined by director James Cameron, when he named the dance club in the 1984 film The Terminator "Tech-Noir", and the fandom and critics labelled similar IP properties as "tech noir".

blend

(uncountable, fiction, by extension) A genre of fiction, thematically like that of the film genre.


exozoology

(science fiction) Synonym of xenozoology (“study of extraterrestrial animals”)


time loop

(chiefly science fiction) A hypothetical or fictional instance of characters living through a set period of time repeatedly until the loop can be broken.


heat-ray

In the other cases the shells had missed, and the batteries had been at once annihilated by the Heat-Rays. Heavy losses of soldiers were mentioned[.]

1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 125:

(science fiction) A weapon that fires a beam of extremely high temperature.


ghost character

en-noun

ghost character (plural ghost characters)

Beside this detailed information which Hall provides about Matthew Gough, Shakespeare's Gough is a ghost character. There is, indeed, no way in which an audience could pick up who he is when he appears only to be killed immediately.

2003, Catherine M. S. Alexander, The Cambridge Shakespeare Library, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 231:

A ‘ghost’ character is one who is marked as present on stage, but given no lines to speak: many editors consider the inclusion of these characters to be an oversight on the part of the writer or printer, and so remove them from modern stage directions; […]

2010, David Coleman, John Webster, Renaissance Dramatist, Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 68:

Joseph A. Porter's discussion of the ‘ghost character’ of Valentine in Romeo and Juliet is also illuminating: Porter describes Valentine as a ‘symptom or by-product of Mercutio's transformation’ from rival lover (in Shakespeare's source) to friend […]

2014, Lena Cowen Orlin, Othello, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 277:

(drama, literature) A character who is mentioned as appearing on stage, but who does not do anything, and who seems to have no purpose.


mimeticist

(art, literature) One who takes a mimetic approach; a proponent of mimesis.


anti-Tom

(literature, historical) Belonging to a class of 19th-century pro-slavery novels and writings in response to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.


weremonkey

For quotations using this term, see Citations:weremonkey.

(fiction) A shapeshifter who can assume the form of a monkey.


werelioness

A fact her mortal-purist father discouraged having disclosed was that the great monster-hunting Van Helsings had werelionesses for both a great- grandmother and a great-aunt. This ancestry Jane took great pride in.

2005, Minda Webber, The Reluctant Miss Van Helsing, →ISBN:

Rue was pretty certain Miss Sekhmet would rather keep her identity as a werelioness secret. It was all very well to reveal weremonkeys to the British government but werecats was taking things too far.

2015, Gail Carriger, Prudence, Orbit, →ISBN:

A lanky werelioness with black, spiky hair—and two semiautomatic pistols in holsters that formed an X on her chest— sprawled in a chair outside the door. Ari raised an eyebrow, but the sight wasn't entirely unexpected.

2015, Ally Shields, Eternal Fires, Etopia Press, →ISBN:

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


haikuish

en-adj

haikuish (comparative more haikuish, superlative most haikuish)

more haikuish (comparative)
most haikuish (superlative)

(poetry) Resembling or characteristic of haiku; haikulike.


haikuist

(poetry) A person who writes haiku; a haiku poet.


robodroid

The police authorities and the press portray them as modern-day robodroids, programmed to kill their own people—"black-on-black crime ...

Mona: They've sent to the robodroids to soften us up! Run!

1999, Mona the Vampire, "The X-Change Student" (season 1, episode 6a)

All the robodroids had followed his command and shut themselves down.

2018, Rhoda Belleza, Blood of a Thousand Stars, Penguin, →ISBN, page 141:

(science fiction, rare) A droid; a robot.


macroverse

Coordinate term: microverse

(science fiction) A macroscale universe.


microverse

Coordinate term: macroverse

(science fiction) A microscale universe.


memetic hazard

Warning. Unidentified object. Warning. Unknown hazard. Possible radiation hazard. Possible biohazard. Possible memetic hazard.

2008 July 18, Sam Hughes, “halfway homes, catacombs, twilight zones”, in Fine Structure, retrieved 2020-08-31:

(caution: TV Tropes is a recognized memetic hazard. Don't click the link unless you have a high resistance to interesting things and/or a day or two of spare time to kill)

2009 December 22, Bryan Derksen, “The old "Galactic Federation" meme”, in rec.arts.sf.science (Usenet), message-ID <8HhYm.116799$gg6.81292@newsfe25.iad>:


Langford's basilisk

en-noun

Langford's basilisk (plural Langford's basilisks)

After an object in David Langford's short story "BLIT".

Dead easy: the ones who watched it all died. (Invoke Langford's Basilisk if you need a real reason.)

2002 February 27, Charles Stross, “What to throw in?”, in rec.arts.sf.composition (Usenet), message-ID <slrna7qjct.sdj.charlie@raq981.uk2net.com.antipope.org>:

The technical term is "Langford basilisk". I expect the real deal would induce nothing more permanent than an inconveniently-timed reboot, if it can even exist.

2013 December 29, RecArtsSfPolicyWonk, “What Did You Watch? 2013-12-29 (Saturday)”, in rec.arts.tv (Usenet), message-ID <w3nrp8vuk7cz.m05n26piatio$.dlg@40tude.net>:

(science fiction) An image which causes insanity or death on viewing.


infohazard

Blend of information + hazard or info + hazard.

A basilisk, in this context, is information that can hurt you simply because you are aware of it. Yudkowsky uses the term 'infohazard'.

[2019 June 13, Tom Chivers, The AI Does Not Hate You, Orion Publishing Group, →ISBN:

If a meme is any idea that gets in your head, then an "infohazard" is a meme that's actively harmful to its host.

2019 August 28, Fletcher Wortmann, “Infohazard Warning: How Internal Memes Infect Your Brain”, in Triggered, Psychology Today, retrieved 2020-08-31:

(chiefly science fiction) A piece of information which is directly harmful to one who knows it.


dormantory

(science fiction) A cryogenic warehouse for storing people in suspended animation.


simworld

(science fiction) A simulated world, as in virtual reality or cyberspace.


helionaut

IIRC from the director's commentary the name was chosen to add a bit of humility to the mission, lest the helionauts get too cocky about their cutting edge technology.

2008 January 10, Jared, “Re: SUNSHINE (no spoilers)”, in rec.arts.movies.current-films (Usenet):

(science fiction, rare) Someone who travels to the Sun; an explorer of the Sun.


on stun

Captain James Kirk: "Set your phaser on one quarter. I'll leave mine on stun."

1966 September 8, George Clayton Johnson, The Man Trap (Star Trek), season 1, episode 1:

Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press

(science fiction) An intensity setting of the fictional phaser energy weapon, from the television series Star Trek (1966–69), which non-lethally stuns its target.


doha

(poetry) A form of self-contained rhyming couplet in Hindi poetry.


redemption arc

(literature) A story arc wherein an immoral character redeems themselves and makes right for their wrongdoings (or wherein readers perceive them as having done so).


abhuman

(science fiction) A partially human creature.


murder mystery

murder mystery (plural murder mysteries)

(fiction) A subgenre of crime fiction in which characters must investigate and solve a murder.


plastiglass

(science fiction) A clear material combining the characteristics of plastic and glass.


slaughterbot

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(science fiction) Synonym of killbot (“robot designed for killing”)


biosuit

(science fiction) A protective suit that enhances or monitors the wearer's biological functions.


vidiscreen

(science fiction) Alternative form of vidscreen


holodisplay

(science fiction) A holographic display.


hephthemimeral

(poetry) Of or relating to a hephthemimer.


new adult

Coordinate term: young adult

(literature, often attributive) A genre of fiction intended to be marketed to people ages 18 to 30, focusing on issues such as leaving home, developing sexuality, and negotiating education and career choices.


avant-texte

(literature) The study of a written work by analyzing the process of composition, including prior manuscripts, rough drafts, etc.


plastoid

(science fiction) A plastic-like material.


timegate

(science fiction) A portal enabling time travel.


techno-orientalism

The origins of the cyberpunk genre involve Western anxieties about the East. Techno-orientalism is the use of Asian aesthetics in cyberpunk, futuristic, and dystopian settings.

2020 December 8, George Yang, “Orientalism, ‘Cyberpunk 2077,’ and Yellow Peril in Science Fiction”, in Wired, →ISSN:

(science fiction) Use of Asian aesthetics and cultural elements in Western works of science fiction.


antitragic

en-adj

antitragic (comparative more antitragic, superlative most antitragic)

more antitragic (comparative)
most antitragic (superlative)

(literature) Challenging the conventions of tragedy.


socioengineer

There will be massive campsite development for X number of campers that some socioengineer has computed will be screaming for tent pads with hot water and electricity in 1980.

At this point, enter the socioengineer — the new breed of technologist with social concerns and a liberal education to match his technical competence, the specially equipped engineer who tackles the massive problems of society […]

1970, Professional Engineer, volume 40, page 37:

'You were a socioengineer, before you dropped dead,' he said bluntly. 'You'll confirm what I say. It seems to me that the Xeelee war or wars were no more than still another ghastly, epochal error of mankind. […]

(rare, sometimes science fiction) A social engineer, one who uses scientific data to influence social attitudes and behaviors.


ticking clock

(writing) A literary device in which the protagonist has a strict time limit, used to heighten tension.


Brat Pack

Introduced as the bad boy of American letters, the brattiest of the Brat Pack that included Jay McInerney, Tama Janowitz and other chroniclers of young Reagan-era angst, Mr. Ellis has achieved over the last 20 years a level of notoriety and acclaim that has eluded most of his peers.

2005 August 7, Edward Wyatt, “Bret Easton Ellis: The Man in the Mirror”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(informal, literature, historical) A group of young authors who emerged on the East Coast in the 1980s.


Common

Both princesses spoke Common well enough. Soon we realized that they knew each other.

2011, Elizabeth Moon, Kings of the North, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 395:

universal language
universal language#Noun

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


Puckian

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


manga mark

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Compound of manga + mark. Compare Japanese 漫符(まんぷ) (manpu, “manga icon”).

Cultural learning experiences are required to understanding manga''' marks. For example, adults of Botswana interpreted a sweat mark used in Western comics as blood, rain, and tears (Byram and Garforth, 1980).

2006, David Shwalb, Jun Nakazawa, Barbara J. Shwalb, Applied Developmental Psychology: Theory, Practice, and Research from Japan, page 29:

In a previous preliminary experiment, we determined facial expressions for the robot KOBIAN-R with manga marks. Those expressions included four manga marks as “Cross popping veins” for “Anger”, “Tear mark” for “Sadness”, “Vertical lines” for “Fear” and “Wrinkle” for “Disgust”.

2014, Tatsuhiro Kishi, Hajime Futaki, Gabriele Trovato, Nobutsuna Endo, A Robotic Head that Displays Japanese “Manga” Marks:

Nakazawa (2005b) asked the meaning of the twelve manga''' marks to a sample of kindergartners, first-, fourth-, sixth-, and eighth-graders. Understanding of manga''' marks progressed along with grade level (Figure 7.2)

2016, Jun Nakazawa, “Manga literacy and manga comprehension in Japanese children”, in Neil Cohn, editor, The Visual Narrative Reader, page 248:

The comprehensive techniques that composes manga is immature. But there is a very high expressiveness in some aspects, such as the creation of a face viewed from the front and the expression of expressions using manga marks.

2020, Kurobokuya, Kurobokuya manga lesson 4:

(cartooning, manga, anime) A cartoon icon; a symbol used to indicate emotion, movement, etc. in a drawing; especially one used in or associated with Japanese-style manga.


Chaucerianism

/tʃɔːˈsɪəɹɪ.ənɪzəm/

/t͡ʃɔˈsɪɹi.ənɪzəm/


uruisg

(European folklore, mythology) A brownie in Scottish folklore.


Struldbrug

From "Struldbrug", the name given to a fictional race of senile immortals inhabiting the island of Luggnagg who are legally declared dead at the age of 80 and continue to age, coined by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels.

It might be thought a precedent, and he would not like it; he who is to inherit the place when that old Struldbrug, Gotham, is withered and cast away, when that old log is so barnacle-bored as to be worthless.

1887 April 9, Sabine Baring-Gould, “Richard Cable, the Lightshipman”, in Chambers's Journal, volume 4, number 171, page 229:

Antique memorial, exiled to Egypt's shame, Forlorn Struldbrug! why should we covet thee?

1892, Donizetti Muller, Links from Broken Chains, page 64:

To me he is, like the greater number of classics in all ages and countries, a literary Struldbrug, rather than a true ambrosia-fed immortal.

1908, Samuel Butler, Essays on Life, Art, and Science, page 32:

(literature) Someone or something that is immortal or extremely ancient, but which may have persisted past the point where it should be dead.


Houyhnhnm

Coined by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels as a humorous, onomatopoeic play on the sound made by horses.

I retain in my Mind the Lectures and Example of my noble Maſter and the other illuſtrious Houyhnhnms of whom I had ſo long the Honour to be an humble Hearer.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Veracity. His Design in Publishing this Work. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), pages 340–341:

"The Squire says you know a good deal about horses, so I suppose you understand the Houyhnhnm language? I'm learning it, and it is very nice," laughed Miss Celia, as Chevalita gave a little whinny and snuffled her nose into Ben's pocket.

1878, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 7, in Under the Lilacs:

”The moment he called me his ‘gentle and reasonable Houyhnhnm,’” an archivist notes, “I should have known that the man was deranged.”

1995 February 19, Marilyn Stasio, “What to Read: Crime”, in New York Times, retrieved 2021-03-03:

Certainly the philosopher was not a pessimistic luncheon companion. He […] loped off in the direction of the London Library, leaving me with an impression of twinkling eyes, laughter lines (he whinnies like a donnish Houyhnhnm), and a sensibility genuinely focused on what will happen in the next five minutes - or five years - albeit one steeped in knowledge of the past.

2014 January 28, Will Self, “John Gray: Forget everything you know”, in Independent, retrieved 2021-03-03:

(fiction) One of a fictional race of exceptionally civilized creatures, who look exactly like horses, inhabiting the same land as the brutish Yahoos.


incubatorium

The place is an incubatorium where hybrid fetuses are nourished. In the climactic episode, an extractor is inserted in her vagina to withdraw an unusually well-developed fetus that has gestated three or four months.

2012, Allan Mazur, Implausible Beliefs: In the Bible, Astrology, and UFOs, page 136:

(science fiction) A place where fetuses are stored in a state of incubation.


diiambic

(poetry) In or relating to the diiambus meter.


wishing cap

(fiction) A hat or cap that magically lets the wearer's wishes come true


rhyming couplet

en-noun

rhyming couplet (plural rhyming couplets)

On one level, the joy of the film is its rhyming couplet commentary, written by the late Paul le Saux and read alternately by Howard Marion Crawford and Alan Wheatley, which adds rhythmic pace to the already fast-paced editing.

2021 March 10, Greg Morse, “Telling the railway's story on film”, in RAIL, number 926, page 43:

(literature) Two successive rhyming lines of verse, usually of the same length.


Vazimba

(folklore) The first inhabitants of Madagascar, generally described as small in stature.


fulldive

From a fictional technology in the Japanese light novel and anime Sword Art Online.

Experts say it will take at least another ten years before we create real fulldive technology.

(science fiction) Virtual reality technology that inputs sensory data directly into a user's brain (especially when the brain may also act upon the technology)


Trimalchio

(fiction) A wealthy freedman in the 1st century CE Roman work of fiction Satyricon.


Jupiterian

(chiefly science fiction, rare) An imaginary inhabitant of the planet Jupiter.


carisack

Pulling a little carrisack from his pack, he began to fill it with small but essential pieces of his Wyvern's survival kit.

2014, Scott Ashby, Assignment to Earth, page 82:

Beside her the men left a soft tube of nutrient gel and a carisack of water.

2016, Elizabeth Moon, Rules of Engagement:

She fished in her carisack for drops, then tilted her head back to administer them.

2017, Maggie Lynch, Eternity: Virus Wars:

(science fiction) A bag for carrying things.


troll cat

(folklore) In Scandinavian folklore, a witch's familiar made from hair, wood shavings, etc. that would suck milk from cows and steal cream from people's homes.


punctus elevatus

/ˌpʌŋktəs ɛləˈvɑːtəs/

From Medieval Latin pūnctus ēlevātus (literally “raised mark”).

bor

The punctus elevatus after consecuto ('followed') not only distinguishes more sharply between the present state of revelation and the historical process by which it was achieved but emphasizes the relationship between them as one of cause and-effect.

1993, Malcolm Beckwith Parkes, Pause and Effect, Influences on The Application of Punctuation, page 71:

[…]manuscript punctuation has a punctus elevatus after the interjections and a punctus interrogativus at the end of the sentence.

2000, Jane Roberts, Janet Laughland Nelson, editors, Essays on Anglo-Saxon and Related Themes in Memory of Lynne Grundy, King's College (University of London), →ISBN, page 537:

The point and punctus elevatus are used within the sentence.

2015 December 23, Mary P. Richards, editor, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: Basic Readings, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 387:

(palaeography) A medieval punctuation mark indicating a medium-length pause (approximately ⸵).


punctus flexus

From Medieval Latin pūnctus flexus (literally “bent mark”).

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

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

Very few cases show the use of the punctus flexus for minor medium pauses.

2007, Manuscripta: A Journal for Manuscript Research, volume 51, St. Louis University Library, page 230:

After all, it was the revision of the Cistercian liturgy that helped facilitate the widespread use of positurae, particularly the punctus flexus and punctus elevatus.

2015, Benjamin Pohl, Dudo of Saint-Quentin's Historia Normannorum: Tradition, Innovation and Memory, York Medieval Press, →ISBN, Introduction, page 19:

punctus circumflexus
punctus circumflexus#English

(palaeography) Synonym of punctus circumflexus


punctus interrogativus

/ˌpʌŋktəs ɪntəɹɒɡəˈtiːvəs/

/ˌpʌŋktəs ɪntəɹɒɡəˈtaɪvəs/

/ˌpʌŋktəs ɪntəˈɹɒɡətɪvəs/

/ˌpʌŋktəs ɪntəɹɑɡəˈtivəs/

/ˌpʌŋktəs ɪntəɹɑɡəˈtaɪvəs/

/ˌpʌŋktəs ɪntəˈɹɑɡətɪvəs/

From Medieval Latin pūnctus interrogātīvus (“question mark”).

punctus percontativus A reversed, but not inverted punctus interrogativus […] used in the 16th and 17th centuries to indicate the end of a percontatio.

1993, Malcolm Beckwith Parkes, Pause and Effect, Glossary, pages 306–307:

[…]although none of these happend to have occasion to use the punctus interrogativus.

(palaeography) A medieval question mark, ⟨⹔⟩, possibly the ancestor of the modern mark ⟨?⟩.


punctus versus

From Medieval Latin pūnctus versus (literally “facing mark”).

[…]moreover by turning the punctus after fiant into a punctus versus, he has repointed the two verses as a single sententia.

1993, Malcolm Beckwith Parkes, Pause and Effect, Influences on The Application of Punctuation, page 74:

Thus the basic punctuation marks used in English manuscripts of the eleventh-thirteenth centuries are: the simple point, the punctus elevatus, the punctus versus, and the punctus interrogativus.

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

[…]the punctus versus is used at the close of the sentence and after words introducing direct speech[…]

(palaeography) A medieval punctuation mark marking the end of a sentence (approximately ;)


punctus circumflexus

From Medieval Latin pūnctus circumflexus (literally “bent-around mark”).

[…]MS. Bodley 340, going back to an early form of the text, has confused indications that such was intended: after 'þa' it has a punctus circumflexus[…]

1953, Occasional Papers, volume 3, University of Cambridge, page 10:

There was an entirely separate set of marks to coach the raising and lowering of the voice in oral delivery -- including the punctus elevatus, the punctus interrogotivus^([sic]), and the punctus circumflexus.

2004, George D. Gopen, The Sense of Structure: Writing from the Reader's Perspective, Pearson Longman, →ISBN, page 170:

The punctus circumflexus does not seem to have been used commonly in manuscripts of other than liturgical texts.

(palaeography) A medieval punctuation mark indicating a short pause (approximately '̣).


gillygaloo

(US folklore) A fictional bird said to nest on hillsides and to lay square eggs that will not roll downhill.


metri causa

From Latin metrī causā (literally “for the sake of poetic metre”).


subetheric

The Central AI instantly noted unusual fluctuations in the Subetheric Domain.

True reality is subetheric and not perceptible through our etheric senses, though we get hints of synchronicities (apparent coincidences mediated by nonlocal communication). Subetheric reality is, of course, nonmaterial.

2016, Dennis J. Parizek, Everyverse RPG Paranormality:

Gerda looked down on the wrecked radio—wrecked by her own fair hands—awaiting its reassembly into a subetheric radio set.

2018, Kenneth Bulmer, The Earth Gods Are Coming:

(science fiction) Relating to or involving the subether ("a fictional medium through which faster-than-light signals are able to travel").


podcar

(science fiction) A small pod-like passenger vehicle.


plot armor

(colloquial, fiction, sometimes derogatory) A plot device wherein a fictional character or other entity repeatedly and inexplicably avoids harm or misfortune, due to their importance to the work's continued plot; the property of being prone to deus ex machina.


genship

There had been doubts that a genship crew would be able to handle a starship after five generations or so post departure, ...

2018, Wes Boyd, Destiny, Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN:

Second, genship endurance is still a het dependent plan. Maybe we can hack cryophase, just sleep for thousands of years on your ship, become space vampires. The breeders can keep breeding."

2016, Gardner Dozois, The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 29, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

(science fiction) Contraction of generation ship.


Nanabozho

(folklore) An Ojibwe trickster figure and culture hero.


binocular O

(orthography) The Cyrillic letter Ꙫ (capital) or ꙫ (lowercase).


double monocular O

en-noun

double monocular O (plural double monocular Os)

From being the doubled form of the monocular O (Ꙩ/ꙩ) letter.

(orthography) The Cyrillic letter Ꙭ (capital) or ꙭ (lowercase).


monocular O

(orthography) The Cyrillic letter Ꙩ (capital) or ꙩ (lowercase).


bind rune

We have also 2 uncommon Bind-runes here, the OL in SOL and the ER in HUILER.

1867, George Stephens, The Old-northern Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England, volume I, London: John Russell Smith, page 356:

(writing) A type of ligature formed by two or more runes; most commonly with two or three runes sharing one or more common vertical strokes, or with several runes arranged vertically with their vertical strokes joined end-to-end.


princess carry

princess carry (plural princess carries)

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

Elize was being held in a princess carry, and while she found that embarrassing, now wasn't really the time to complain.

2020, Yukiya Murasaki, Altina the Sword Princess: Volume 4, J-Novel Club, →ISBN:

“A princess carry?” “Yeah, well, how do I describe it? I put my arm under your knees and behind your back and carry you.

2021, Tsunehiko Watanabe, The Ideal Sponger Life: Volume 4, J-Novel Club, →ISBN:

“Oh! W-With a princess carry, then? Also known as a bridal carry?”

2019, Supana Onikage, Lazy Dungeon Master: Volume 7, J-Novel Club, →ISBN:

year unknown, Justin Miller, World Keeper: Advent, Justin Miller
So, I scooped her up in my arms in a... yes... in a princess carry, and jumped out the window ...

She noticed that Flora's complexion was off, but she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable at the novel sight of Rio holding Flora in a princess carry.

2020, Yuri Kitayama, Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles Volume 8, J-Novel Club, →ISBN:

(chiefly Japanese fiction) A bridal carry.


princess carry

en-verb

princess carry (third-person singular simple present princess carries, present participle princess carrying, simple past and past participle princess carried)

princess carries (present singular third-person)
princess carrying (participle present)
princess carried (participle past)
princess carried (past)

Naturally, he was going to princess carry her back.

2017, Ryo Shirakome, Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Volume 2, J-Novel Club, →ISBN:

(chiefly Japanese fiction) To carry another person in a bridal carry.


warsuit

(science fiction) A suit equipped with technology for use in combat.


mindfile

(sometimes science fiction) A digital database of a person's life, seen as a mechanism for preserving human knowledge or consciousness.


cyberconsciousness

en-noun

cyberconsciousness (usually uncountable, plural cyberconsciousnesses)

The emergence of mindfiles and cyberconsciousness suggests that technology is advancing the notion of mind beyond the human.

2015, Ilia Delio, Making All Things New: Catholicity, Cosmology, Consciousness:

Once a biological consciousness is copied into a cyberconsciousness, the possibilities for longevity skyrocket.

2019, Jacob Shatzer, Transhumanism and the Image of God, page 102:

(science fiction) The use of computer technology to replicate consciousness as in living individuals.


biorg

Blend of biological + organism(?), modelled on cyborg, which is from cybernetic + organism.

In this case, the story concerns three pets who have gone missing—a dog named Bandit, a cat named Tinker, and a rabbit named Pirate. These pets have been transformed by the US Air Force into computer-enhanced "biorgs," as part of an army of "efficient animal slaves" designed to take the place of humans […]

2018, David Herman, Narratology beyond the Human: Storytelling and Animal Life:

Biorgs are both cyborgs and companion animals, […] Vint's reading of the biorgs' speech underscores how the comic blurs the division between nature and culture as well as between human and non-human animals. The biorgs may not speak exactly like humans, but their speech communicates […] While canine biorgs' speech […]

2020, Sidney I. Dobrin, EcoComix: Essays on the Environment in Comics and Graphic Novels, McFarland, →ISBN, pages 71–72:

Metaphorically a biorg witch with flowers in her hair, I am presently a doctoral student […]

2021, Florence Ashley, "'X' why? Gender Marks and Non-binary Transgender People", in Isabel Cristina Jaramillo Vélez, Laura Carlson (editors), Trans Rights and Wrongs: A Comparative Study of Legal Reform Concerning Trans Persons, Springer Nature, pages 33-34

(neologism, science fiction, rare) A non-human animal cyborg.


Encyclopedia Galactica

Blend of Encyclopedia Britannica (“Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica”) + galactic

blend

(science fiction) A compendium of all knowledge, or most of the important knowledge, an encyclopedia for a galaxy-spanning civilization.


hanahaki

From Japanese 花吐き病 (hanahaki-byō), from 花 (hana, “flower”) + 吐く (haku, “to vomit”). An invention of Matsuda Naoko (松田奈緒子) for her manga Hanahaki Otome (『花吐き乙女』).

The cascading emotions are
giving me hanahaki tonight, they're
beautiful but it's suffocating.

2019, Unzila Iftikhar, Before Your Eyes - Despite It All, You Still Rise, page 9:

It is familiar. In that most everyone is familiar with a coffee shop and thus understands the AU’s basic premise on sight. Unlike, say, Hanahaki fics.

2020, Katharine Elizabeth McCain, "Today Your Barista Is: Genre Characteristics in The Coffee Shop Alternate Universe", dissertation submitted to Ohio State University, page 27

However, to a hanahaki patient, it's probably far more terrifying for them to have the surgery to cure their feelings than the disease.

2020, Ivy Wong, "The Cure for Hanahaki", English Literary Magazine (St. Paul's Co-Educational College, Hong Kong), page 22

(chiefly Japanese fiction) A fictional illness in which a person bearing an unrequited love coughs up flower petals until they die or their feelings are reciprocated. The disease can also be cured by a surgical procedure that removes the flowers, but this will result in them losing their feelings of affection and all memories of the person they loved.


preantepenultima

[…] receiving the principal accent on the penultima, the word necessarily takes the secondary accent on the preantepenultima.

1825, Samuel Oliver, A General Critical Grammar of the Inglish Language, page 337:

(poetry) The last syllable but three (of a word or other utterance); the fourth-to-last syllable.


ypogegrammeni

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ὑπογεγραμμένη (hupogegramménē).

bor+

ὑπογεγραμμένη

(orthography) The Greek iota subscript, ͺ or ͅ.


jincan

(folklore) A poisonous gold-coloured silkworm or caterpillar in Chinese legend.


hyperbeam

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

"I'm not saying that, Vil. I only say what you hear me say and you haven't heard me say that. But, Vil, to get out we're depending on you. I can't call for help because I can't aim a hyperbeam without knowing where we are: I can't find out where we are because I can't pinpoint any stars—"

1972, Robert Silverberg, New Dimensions II: Eleven Original Science Fiction Stories, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 122:

"Unless that fellow was lying, they do have some combat-worthy units. And hyperbeams must be flying from end to end of their fleet."

1990, Isaac Asimov, The Diplomacy Guild, Avon Books, →ISBN, page 194:

Wasting no time, Crossfire aims her hyperbeam cannon and fires her spatial blast which engulfs Charlemagne and punches a hole in the ground.

2018, Xavier J. Fulwood, Knighthood: The Dangerous Adventures, Page Publishing, Incorporated, →ISBN:

(science fiction, video games, rare) An extraordinarily intense beam of any size (of energy or matter); a superbeam.


hyperbomb

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

The hyperbomb of that day will have lost meaning as a weapon and gained meaning as a complex substitute for Francoise Sagan's "sports" car, as this death device is so playfully called.

1957, Clifton Fadiman, Any Number Can Play, World Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 33:

"He went back inside," Igor grunted. "After examining the artefacts we'd packed for dispatch. Probably wants to make sure the computer records don't describe them as ultra-guns or hyperbombs or whatever the hell."

1974, John Brunner, Total Eclipse, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 33:

We entered an area where a hyperbomb had been detonated during the war.

2014, J. Michael Reeves, Terry Austin, Byron Preiss, I—Alien, J. Boylston, →ISBN:

(rare, military, science fiction, video games) An exceedingly powerful, destructive bomb; superbomb.


info-dumping

The info-dump is always a problem. Just at a basic practical level it is important that everyone addresses everyone else by name until at least the first death — in fact detective stories have as much trouble as alien planets, and there’s a very good example of (deliberate) bad info-dumping right at the start of The Real Inspector Hound where Mrs. Drudge answers the phone: ‘Hello? The drawing room of Lady Muldoon’s country residence one morning in early spring?’ […]

1997, “Sad/Not Sad”, in Paul Cornell, editor, Licence Denied: Rumblings from the Doctor Who Underground, Virgin Books, page 30:

Forget the obvious villainy of metal-haired space lady Madeleine Issigri and the incessant info-dumping of the ridiculously plummy General Hermack.

2003 June 4, Philip MacDonald, “The Space Pirates: Space Oddity”, in Doctor Who Magazine, number Special edition #4, page 68:

They came to unwind, to debrief their minds of the endless info-dumping that bombarded them at work, at home, in the media, in the street.

2004, David Murphy, “Overload”, in Lost Notes, Dublin: Aeon Press, page 43:

(literature) The act of presenting an info-dump.


sowlth

All Mr. Yeats's grotesque machinery of sowlths and tevishes and sheogues leaves us without a shudder; his fantasies are stage-properties of the most unillusive kind.

(folklore) A kind of spirit in Irish folklore.


lost in time

Possibly a shortening of the phrase lost in the mists of time.

(science fiction) Lost during time travel.


null-grav

(science fiction, attributive) Relating to, producing, or designed for a condition of zero gravity.


null-grav

en-noun

null-grav (countable and uncountable, plural null-gravs)


i'jam

(orthography) Dots used in modern Arabic script to distinguish between consonants with identical backbone (rasm) shapes.


claiming mark

But all I could do, all I wanted to do, was hold her tight against my chest and breathe in the scent of our union and the blood trickling from her new claiming mark.

2019, Nora Ash, Ragnarök Rising, unnumbered page:

He knew that I enjoyed discipline as much as I enjoyed feeling the nip of his teeth over the claiming mark.

2020, L. V. Lane, Omega Awakening, unnumbered page:

Once I give her my claiming mark, Roderick can't do anything to me.

2021, Vivian Murdoch, Dark Revolution, unnumbered page:

(fiction) In speculative erotica, a scar or mark on a person's body signifying their permanent bond to another, typically the result of a bite.


claiming bite

“The neck, the chest, I've heard of men with claiming bites on their ass or thighs.”

2015, Ellis Leigh, Claiming Their Forever, unnumbered page:

In the full glow of the moon, I could just make out the dark bruise of my claiming bite on her neck.

2017, Steffanie Holmes, Wedding the Wolf, unnumbered page:

They wore matching wedding bands instead of claiming bites.

2021, Tanya Chris, Omega Revealed, unnumbered page:

(fiction) In speculative erotica, a bite given by one person to another to form a permanent bond, typically leaving a scar or mark.


mating bite

“When the mating bites are exchanged, the two souls link. Then the werewolf can live as long as his vampire mate.”

2017, Cynthia Eden, Forbidden Bite, unnumbered page:

Once mated with another character, characters have the option of performing the “mating bite,” which irreversibly bonds the lovers to one another.

2019, Tessa Barone, "Just Go Find Yourself a Nice Alpha: Gender and Consent in Supernatural Fandom's Alpha/Beta/Omega Universe", thesis submitted to Oregon State University, page 10

He sucked a hickey along the side of Ash's throat, right where his mating bite would soon go.

2021, Marcy Jacks, Mating for Convenience, page 36:


hardsuit

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

Armored hard-suits are sealable to protect the wearer from extremes of temperature and atmosphere. Standard equipment includes an onboard mini-frame and a communications, navigation, and sensing suite.

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

(science fiction) A powered exoskeleton.


mating mark

Especially not after seeing a mating mark on Wilder's shoulder.

2017, Rosa Swan, My Mate's Mark, unnumbered page:

As romance novels often end with a marriage, ABO fics will often end with the mating mark.

He wore no mating mark on his neck, but he often referred to us as his “pack.”

2019, Kallie Traylor, Divided We Fall, unnumbered page:


I before E, except after C

Formed because of the rhyme between the names of the letters E and C, /iː/ and /siː/. The "rule" was invented in the 19th century.

(orthography, mnemonic) In English words that contain the letters I and E together, the I tends to come before the E (ie), except in cases when the two are preceded by the letter C, in which case the E comes before the I (cei).


Brobot

-butter pats for Dad , and lug nuts for Brobot- Thanks Kumquat! Thanks. Mom! Oh look. Brobot, it's your brother! Hey, Jimmy. You're naked. In the tub!

2003, John A. Davis, Jimmy Neutron, Tokyopop, →ISBN:

The gravitational laws of space allow Brobot's potential to be fully realized!

Martha Brockenbrough, Samantha Berger. Brobot did not sputter , cough , wheeze , or SPLORK ! He beep - bloop - bweedle - eedle - eeped ! BROBOT WAS ALIVE ! " I have a brother ! A ROBOT BROTHER !

2020, Martha Brockenbrough, Samantha Berger, Bigfoot Wants a Little Brother, Scholastic Inc., →ISBN:

This will give you a good insight into personality too, as Brobot's code is written to hassle its users and act just like a 'bro'.

2020, Nicola O’Brien, Heather Catchpole, Ready, Set, Code!: Coding Activities for Kids, CSIRO PUBLISHING, →ISBN, page 23:

(science fiction) A name given to a robot that emulates a brother.


microdetonator

The microdetonators, manufactured commercially, utilize a material that includes lead styphnate. This detonator is readily ignited by laser energy but is relatively insensitive to other stimuli.

1981, NASA Tech Briefs, volume 6, page 24:

As soon as they were down, Landor hit the microdetonators he had installed in the few seconds he'd had. There was a tiny crack, and the wall of the water storage area crumbled into a side corridor.

2014, Allan Kaster, Stephen Baxter, Michael Blumlein, The Year's Top Short SF Novels 4:

(chiefly science fiction) A very small detonator.


Five Poisons

(folklore) Five animals regarded as poisonous or otherwise hazardous in Chinese folklore: typically snakes, scorpions, centipedes, toads, and spiders.


keystrip

He froze a moment there, keystrip already against the contact plate, hesitant to go on.

1975, Anthony Boucher, J. Francis McComas, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, page 117:

You'll need your keystrip to reenter.

2014, Pat Cadigan, Pat Cadigan SF Gateway Omnibus:

(science fiction) A long thin piece of material that serves to operate a lock.


hoverpack

(science fiction) A piece of equipment that is strapped to a person's back and allows them to hover in the air.


spokesbeing

By analogy from spokesman, spokesperson, etc., with being.

(science fiction) A spokesperson, whether human or extraterrestrial.


satfeed

(informal, chiefly science fiction) satellite feed


Santa Paws

No no not Santa Paws! Bean O'brien. Everyone deserves a second chance maybe he was just being a poophead cuz he need a hug Bessa Phaneuf. You a bad troll...!! Mattie Bissmeyer. He's a very norty Troll. But i don't like to see anyone cry ...

year unknown, Josephine Tuckfield, Saving Santa Paws, Lulu.com

It turned out that Snowy was upset because at Christmas all the animals are left out and he wants to be SANTA PAWS. Well, Ithought what a great idea this was and went back into the room and said to Snowy, “What a kind dog you are ...

2009, Buckham Derek, Santa's Christmas Story Book, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 24:

Duke happily trotted to the main stand Where Santa Paws sat, all dressed in red and looking very grand. The mall was filled with Christmas delight; Mistletoe, holly and Santa were a welcoming sight. Duke happily trotted to the main ...

2011, Blossom Albuquerque, Dashing Duke and His Dodgy Adventures, Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency, →ISBN, page 28:

"Santa Paws is always willing to hear Christmas wishes." He winkedat Eva as Savannah buried her head under Eva's arm. "Aww, don't be afraid, sweetie. He won't bite." "Unless you're a cookie." Adam struggled to get the Santa cookie he'd ...

2014, Meda White, Christmas Give: A Holiday Novella, Meda White, →ISBN:

Another True Story About Best Friends...and Siblings Too! Brittni Vega. plate of cookies and a glass of milk. I don't mean to ruin the . . . I am almost twelve in dog years. I stopped believing in Santa Paws a few months ago.

2015, Brittni Vega, Harlow & Indiana (and Reese): Another True Story About Best Friends...and Siblings Too!, Penguin, →ISBN:

Santa Paws knows Santa Claus, because he was his first and favourite pet. Santa Claus loved Santa Paws so much, that every Christmas, Santa Claus would take Santa Paws with him in his sleigh. Santa Paws would look at the beautiful night ...

2017, Hanna L. Farha, Santa Paws, Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN:

When Belle opened her eyes , she saw Santa Paws. " I got your letter , Belle , " chuckled Santa Paws. " I have to say, when I was a young pup, I also made some mistakes. Look at me now! I grew up just fine!

2020, Sara J J Gunkel, Dear Santa Paws, Page Publishing Inc, →ISBN, page 13:

(humorous, fiction) An equivalent to Santa Claus as an anthropomorphic dog or cat.


vim vitae

From Latin vim (“energy, force, power, strength”) + vita (“life”).

der

(fiction, fantasy, supernatural, paranormal) life force

supernatural; paranormal; supernatural; paranormal


comprachico

Coined from Spanish roots by the French writer Victor Hugo in his 1869 novel L'Homme qui rit (The Man Who Laughs). The word is not generally known in Spanish.

But here in England a comprachico is equal to a murderer, a candidate for the hangman's noose.

1969, Günther Weisenborn, The Man Without a Face, page 10:

He is angry and equips himself accordingly—with a penknife to give the offender a comprachico countenance, a mirror to show him the effect, and a pair of nailed boots to give him his dismissal.

2016, George Eliot, Impressions of Theophrastus Such: Top Novelist Focus:

(folklore) A person who deliberately mutilates a growing child in order to induce freakish physical traits.


Rip Van Winkle

From The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent by Washington Irving (1819).

That is, it makes a lot of sense to see Biden’s problems getting his plans across the finish line as being caused by the Rip Van Winkle caucus, Democrats who checked out intellectually a couple of decades ago and haven’t caught up with America as it now is.

2021 September 27, Paul Krugman, “Biden Versus the Rip Van Winkle Caucus”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The characters do seem Rip Van Winkle-like, as they stumble upon and blink in amazement at very unsurprising things. “Wow! Instagram? Podcasts?” marvels Miranda at some of Carrie’s latest endeavors, as if these were edgy new enterprises.

2022 January 5, Rhonda Garelick, “Middle Age Doesn’t Happen ‘Just Like That’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A Tory Rip Van Winkle waking from decades of sleep to look round that cabinet table now would be aghast.

2022 January 13, Polly Toynbee, “Finally the Tory papers have caught on that Johnson is a liar – what kept them?”, in The Guardian:

(fiction, US) A Dutch-American villager who falls asleep for 20 years and wakes up to a changed world, having missed the American Revolution; (by extension) someone or something stuck in the past.


spacepad

(science fiction) A launch pad for spacecraft.


siscon

en-noun

siscon (countable and uncountable, plural siscons)

Borrowed from Japanese シスコン (shisukon), from clipping of シスターコンプレックス (“sister complex”). By surface analysis, sis (“sister”) + -con (“abnormal sexual attraction”).

surf

(anime, manga, uncountable) Strong attachment or romantic/sexual attraction to one's own sister.

(anime, manga, countable) A person with such an attachment.


Buyan

From Russian Буя́н (Buján). See there for further information.

(Slavic mythology, folklore) In medieval Russian folklore, a mysterious island with the ability to appear and disappear with the tide; the home of the Zoryas (solar goddesses) and three brothers representing the Northern, Western, and Eastern Winds.

Bouïane

a mysterious island in the Russian folklore


Inner

Capitalization of inner, from Middle English inner, ynner, ynnere, from Old English innera, comparative of inne (“within”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁en.

(science fiction) An inhabitant of the inner planets of the Solar System


carbrain

en-noun

carbrain (countable and uncountable, plural carbrains)

The carbrain honked and started the engine when the clock reached 00:30.

1992, James Patrick Kelly, “Pogrom”, in Gardner Dozois, editor, The Year's Best Science Fiction: Ninth Annual Collection, page 429:

If the carbrain goes off track (or even off-line), the result is a freeway pile-up.

2006, Science-fiction Studies - Volume 33, Issues 1-3, page 281:

What would your carbrain say if it could talk? Would it say Jump In? Would it say Get out and walk?

2009, Sheldon G Brown, Scalable City, page 41:

(countable, science fiction) The thinking part of a sentient car.


ojousama

(Japanese, usually fiction) A rich girl.


beat panel

See beat (“short pause in a play, etc. for dramatic or comedic effect”).

(comics) A panel without dialog (speech bubbles or the like) and no significant visual changes to the previous panel, symbolizing passing of time.


autobiographicalize

en-verb

autobiographicalize (third-person singular simple present autobiographicalizes, present participle autobiographicalizing, simple past and past participle autobiographicalized)

autobiographicalizes (present singular third-person)
autobiographicalizing (participle present)
autobiographicalized (participle past)
autobiographicalized (past)

... on the other hand, they were encouraged to autobiographicalize traditional fictive forms, as Dickinson did when she turned hymns into monodramas. These crossings between autobiography and the fictive were regulated by the strong[…]

1991, Paul John Eakin, American Autobiography: Retrospect and Prospect, Univ of Wisconsin Press, →ISBN, page 50:

It is to speak of a little boy lost but searching, for a father, for direction, for justice, for peace. To tell his story in connection with brothers of the past is to autobiographicalize our current generation.

1997, Michael Datcher, Kwame Alexander, Tough Love: The Life and Death of Tupac Shakur, Cultural Criticism and Familial Observations, Kwame Alexander:

Instead, Savory's sharp eye for details, his method of choosing material, of considering what is cinematic and what is not; all hint at some self - indulgent autobiographicalizing on Greene's part. " It is all a question of choice[…]

2008, William Thomas Hill, Lonely Without God: Graham Greene's Quixotic Journey of Faith, Academica PressLlc:

(transitive, literature) To convert into an autobiography.


autoparody

This was exactly why, for him, the autoparody became her inescapable prison. Above all, this EuroBrazilian artist had, and continued to have, a defining impact within Brazil's mainstream sense of selfhood, so much so that by the late[…]

2015 August 26, Cristina F. Rosa, Brazilian Bodies and Their Choreographies of Identification: Swing Nation, Springer, →ISBN:

1–6 Another type of historical reference involves a type of reverse autoparody. Consciously or not, Bruckner reuses an imitative sequence from the Kyrie of Palestrina's Mass in his wellknown setting (ca. 1886) of the Gradual Christus[…]

2015 June 24, Chester L. Alwes, A History of Western Choral Music, Oxford University Press, →ISBN:

As Osolsobě observes, parody was both a sign of reputation and a tool with which to achieve it, with eighteenth- century French authors of operas often creating parodies of their own works (autoparodies): parodies not only promote the[…]

2022, Christopher R. Wilson, Mervyn Cooke, The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Music, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 776:

(literature, art, music) A parody of one's own work.


taproot text

(literature) Any relatively early text with fantastical elements, a precursor to fantasy as a genre.


hyperplasma

en-noun

hyperplasma (usually uncountable, plural hyperplasmas)

Somewhere in the midst of searing, blinding pain a tiny mode of coherence bobbed, buffeted on shrieking data currents. O’Neill felt cosmic fingers trying to rip her self apart, to abolish her mind orders and meld her with the formless hyperplasma of the universe’s beginning.

1986, Victor Milán, The Cybernetic Samurai, Berkley, →ISBN, page 139:

A concentrated hyperplasma of Energon, drawn via a transdimensional gateway from the endless supply of Energon that enlivened the planet Cybertron itself.

2010, Alexander Christian Irvine, Exodus: The Official History of the War for Cybertron, Titan, →ISBN, page 198:

The big thing about the hyperplasma torp is that all of it's ^([sic]) torps are destructible, so against any enemy with AOE, they're completely worthless.

2015 February 10, alexea56, Mastajdog, “Tricobalt torpedo's ^([sic])”, in reddit.com:

(science fiction, rare) Very advanced and powerful plasma; superplasma.


hypermissile

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The sight of another hypermissile impacting the Shield mollified him only a little; the backup fire-control comp had taken over without a hiccup, but precious little good did that do him, isolated on the bridge with no way of knowing what was going on. The only comfort, and bare comfort at that, was that there was only one lance. And it was damaged, too.

1993, Sherwood Smith, Dave Trowbridge, The Phoenix in Flight, TOR, →ISBN, page 181:

Pavanaz tripped into hyperspace, burned the cruiser with his exhaust, threw all power to his screens and deflected the carrier's hypermissiles.

2006, Brian Lumley, Screaming Science Fiction: Horrors from Out of Space, Subterranean Press, →ISBN, page 124:

He did not need what it represented: a ship-size heat signature, something out in space beyond the asteroid, just a few kelvins. In the tactical display, blue diamonds shot toward the spot, hypermissiles tracking the tiny difference in temeprature. The ship did not fight back.

2017, Craig DeLancey, Evolution Commandos, 496\Perfect Number Press:

(science fiction, rare, video games) An extremely advanced and powerful missile or projectile; a supermissile.


greatbow

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He hooked the tip of his own greatbow under the door’s hasp, muttered som thing under his breath and pulled, hard. Nothing happened. Again, and again nothing.

1981, Peter Morwood, The Warlord's Domain, DAW, →ISBN, page 84:

You can turtle with a crossbow but you're wide open after every shot. Greatbows have knockdown but you're superslow.

2021 April 12, the_3rdist, “What is your all time favourite themed runs?”, in reddit.com:

Maybe samurai would give you a head start for a greatbow build.

2022 February 14, ytinifniozob, Zamoku, “Greatbows”, in reddit.com:

(rare, science fiction, video games, weaponry, fantasy) A giant bow; a longbow.


archcommander

/ɑɹt͡ʃ.kəˈmændɚ/

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And they said,"We beseech thee, Michael , our Archcommander, transfer (μεταθες) us from them, for we cannot abide with evil and foolish men, because there is no good in them but all wickedness and greediness. We beg then that we may depart from them."

1903, Christian Faith and Life, Volume 7, page 5:

Jagiello acted chivalrously; he had the body washed, covered with a purple shroud and sent to Malbork on a carriage drawn by four horses, together with the bodies of other dignitaries, such as the archcommander and the grand marshal.

1978, Paweł Jasienica, Jagiellonian Poland, American Institute of Polish Culture, page 103:

The archcommander caught his arm and tried to draw him away, counseling caution, but the enraged Patrician shook him off, saying, "He gave you this place that should have been your prison and turned it into a palace, let you work your damned unnatural magics wherever you pleased, let you recruit more of your own kind...”

1995, Martha Wells, City of Bones, TOR, →ISBN, page 316:

There's some major design flaws as well. Scaling for one is a pitta. Never liked it myself on any MMORPG, it's cheap, tacky, destroys tension and for me inserts a huge wad of loss of realism, oh, yes, those wasps I destroyed at level one in two seconds can now fight my uber level 200 with the 'Archcommanders Sword of Cheese Shoes' for ten minutes now! Go figure.

2019 April 23, Goromhir, yucklawyers, “Discussion / MOD 16 The End of Neverwinter. Lead Desinger failed.. ^([sic])”, in forums.mmorpg.com:

(rare, science fiction, fantasy, video games) The supreme commander; a commander-in-chief.


omnielemental

Like for a turn or three he deals piercing damage or Omnielemental damage with attacks and unlock something like Apotheosis and all it's^([sic]) source skills for one turn. Something.

2018 August 17, divinedpk, terrovek3, “Is summoning getting any changes in the definitive edition?”, in reddit.com:

I don’t like the omnielemental builds for the Cra, that is why I didn’t go omnielemental/critics^([sic]), but this is my opinion, and I want to know yours. What do you think?

2019 October 8, “Do you believe a water/air lvl. 199 Cra is viable?”, in reddit.com:

I am skeptical of becoming of Harbinger, simply because the Traveler will be omnielemental at that point, removing the need for a delusion.

2022 February 13, azadeth24, Patient_Insect_4463, “pure speculation here - a lil theory about the upcoming plot that I came up with recently. feel free to add your thoughts or debunk this entire thing in the comments 🛐 btw i have no idea why wouldn’t celestia just stop the tsaritsa^([sic])”, in reddit.com:

(rare, fantasy, science fiction, video games) Encompassing all elemental attributes possible.


hysterical realism

Coined by English critic James Wood in 2000 to describe Zadie Smith's White Teeth.

coin

This is not magical realism. It is hysterical realism. […] The conventions of realism are not being abolished but, on the contrary, exhausted, and overworked.

2000 July 24, James Wood, “Human, All Too Inhuman”, in The New Republic, →ISSN:

(literature) A literary genre typified by a strong contrast between elaborately absurd prose, plotting, or characterization, on the one hand, and careful, detailed investigations of real, specific social phenomena on the other.


multiglobal

en-adj

multiglobal (comparative more multiglobal, superlative most multiglobal)

more multiglobal (comparative)
most multiglobal (superlative)

your CHERISHED MULTIGLOBAL EMPIRE

2011 November 11, Andrew Hussie, Homestuck:

“Be careful what you say, Ms. Modane. VectorCorp does not respond well to baseless accusations. We are a multiglobal company.

2014 December 18, Joseph R. Lallo, Artificial Evolution: Big Sigma #3, Joseph R. Lallo, →ISBN:

“[…] A multiglobal harmony of thought and reason.”

2017 December 5, Gareth L. Powell, Ack-Ack Macaque: The Complete Trilogy, Solaris, →ISBN:

[…] let us consider the story of “Bonk Business,” the imaginary corporation made up by Finnish artist Alvar Gullichsen: Bonk Business Inc. is a multiglobal industrial conglomerate employing 13,000 in 52 countries.

2020 August 12, Pekka Aula, Saku Mantere, Strategic Reputation Management: Towards A Company of Good, Routledge, →ISBN:

(science fiction) Spanning multiple globes.


antistrophize

en-verb

antistrophize (third-person singular simple present antistrophizes, present participle antistrophizing, simple past and past participle antistrophized)

antistrophizes (present singular third-person)
antistrophizing (participle present)
antistrophized (participle past)
antistrophized (past)

(transitive, poetry) To turn into antistrophe.


charactonymous

en-adj

charactonymous (comparative more charactonymous, superlative most charactonymous)

more charactonymous (comparative)
most charactonymous (superlative)

(literature) Of, or relating to, a charactonym (a fitting name of a character).


unity of place

(theater, literature) The classical unity that states that a play should exist in a single physical space and should not attempt to compress geography, nor should the stage represent more than one place.


unity of action

(theater, literature) The classical unity that states that a play should have one action that it follows, with minimal subplots.


cybermind

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence

(science fiction) A computer system capable of conscious thought; a computerized mind, or artificial intelligence.


electrogravity

(physics, science fiction) A hypothetical unification of electromagnetism and gravity.


Charontian

/kəˈɹɒntɪən/

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


Ormulum

From the author’s name, Orm, modeled after Latin speculum (“mirror”), so popular in the title of medieval Latin non-fiction works that the term speculum literature is used for the genre.

(historical, literature) A twelfth-century work of biblical exegesis, whose author is a monk named Orm.


coltpixie

(UK, Hampshire, archaic, folklore) A kind of hobgoblin.


vyaz

(calligraphy) A traditional lettering style for Cyrillic and Slavosphere Latin, slender, ornate and interweaving.


main character syndrome

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Furthermore,
Goku is still the main character of the series, and thus by the rules
of the main character syndrome, no one on the same side of the main
character shall surpass the main character, and the main character will
always (eventually) save the day.

1996 June 5, Dr. Briefs, “[DBGT] Pans potental.”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

(fiction) The phenomenon of the protagonist of a show or movie receiving unrealistic special treatment from the worldbuilders.


pouchling

Instead, she secretes a narcotic fluid which is designed to keep her pouchlings dormant. They will remain effectively comatose until the flow of her milk has stopped, and will only awaken and begin to grow and develop when she has died, […]

2011, Arinn Dembo, The Deacon's Tale, page 301:

The Elaki Mother-One stopped abruptly and David expected the pouchlings, following so closely, to run into her. They didn't.

(science fiction, fantasy) A young creature that is raised in a pouch.


fleshbag

I've died numerous times before (in this life time alone) and trembled at nothing. In fact, I was overjoyed to be able to leave this fleshbag I call home.

1999 October 4, Aazari Cantharess, “Across The Menai”, in alt.pagan (Usenet):

"We're interested in getting this robot out into this world," says Boston Dynamics founder Marc Raibert in the video, as part of MIT's FAB 11 conference. He seems calm and blithely unafraid, ignoring the fact that his creation is moving through the trees with an ease of motion that would make Gort weep. "We're working on a version that doesn't have that [power tether]," Raibert says of Atlas, which is code for "Run, you helpless fleshbag fools. RUN!"

2015 August 17, BTR1701, “The Terminators Are Almost Here...”, in rec.arts.tv (Usenet):

Human civilization is not immortal, you know. Even if we manage to avoid the death trap that is this Earth, and even *IF* we manage to free ourselves from these weak fleshbag bodies so that we may exist in enviroments^([sic]) that are uninhabitable to biological lifeforms, we would still be limited by the lifetime of our universe.

2017 July 2, rantingri...@gmail.com, “Re: The Collapse Of Complex Societies”, in soc.culture.usa (Usenet):

(usually science fiction) A human or human body, as opposed to a robot or incorporeal being.


xuanhuan

(literature) A genre of fiction that mixes Chinese folklore with modern elements.


cybernet

(science fiction) Short for cybernetwork.


[ˈfɔɹɾi kʰeɪ]

From 40 + k. From 40,000, part of "Warhammer 40,000", referring to the future year where the game was set in.

(informal, slang, science fiction) Warhammer 40,000, a British tabletop military game set in a dystopian future Galaxy torn by war.


space-happy

space-happy (comparative more space-happy, superlative most space-happy)

more space-happy (comparative)
most space-happy (superlative)

He worried Ground Control might think he'd gone space-happy, like Titov.

2007, David Michaels, Daniel Brenton, Red Moon, page 23:

(science fiction, slang) Crazy as a result of too much time spent in space.


space marine

Named after the marines, infantry soldiers who serve in coastal areas to assist naval forces.
The earliest usage of this term was from Bob Olsen's short story "Captain Brink of the Space Marines" in 1932, in which the titular soldiers rescue celebrity twins on Saturn's moon, Titan.

(science fiction) a soldier who fights in outer space or extraterrestrial worlds.


backshadow

en-verb

backshadow (third-person singular simple present backshadows, present participle backshadowing, simple past and past participle backshadowed)

backshadows (present singular third-person)
backshadowing (participle present)
backshadowed (participle past)
backshadowed (past)

(literature) To demonstrate how an event that has already occurred will affect the future.


sideshadow

sideshadow (third-person singular simple present sideshadows, present participle sideshadowing, simple past and past participle sideshadowed)

sideshadows (present singular third-person)
sideshadowing (participle present)
sideshadowed (participle past)
sideshadowed (past)

(literature) To employ references that are not used in the current text.


sharktopus

en-noun

sharktopus (plural sharktopuses or sharktopi)

sharktopuses (plural)
sharktopi (plural)

Blend of shark + octopus, from being a half-shark/half-cephalopod sea monster

(US, fiction) Synonym of lusca; a shark-headed creature with tentacles; a Bahamian folkloric sea monster recast in U.S. pop culture pulp fiction


fujobait

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From fujo (“a female fan of yaoi or slash fiction”) + bait.

compound

thoughts watching yuri on ice: this is the most incredible fujobait and i am biting down on this bait so fucking hard

2016 October 10, med 👽 AX J9 (@daikonhime), Twitter:

anime companies at their board meetings trying to decide which sport to base their fujobait anime series next [screenshot of the sport selection menu from Wii Sports Resort]

2021 March 26, Chara (@hunipyons), Twitter:

Friendly reminder that in 2019 the Chinese government commissioned a fujobait anime about Karl Marx

2022 January 27, Lindsey (@lindsey_batdorf), Twitter:

(Japanese fiction, fandom slang) An anime, manga, or other piece of media created to appeal to fujoshi.


BuWeaps

(fiction) Abbreviation of bureau of weapons. found in fictional military organizations


Orc

(slang, fiction, derogatory) Alternative form of orc (monstrous warrior in fantasy; Russian soldier)


farcetta

(literature, dated) A short or brief farce.


Africanfuturism

en-noun

Africanfuturism (usually uncountable, plural Africanfuturisms)

Coined by science fiction and fantasy author Nnedi Okorafor in 2019, from African + futurism.

coin

Africanfuturism is similar to “Afrofuturism” in the way that blacks on the continent and in the Black Diaspora are all connected by blood, spirit, history and future. The difference is that Africanfuturism is specifically and more directly rooted in African culture, history, mythology and point-of-view as it then branches into the Black Diaspora, and it does not privilege or center the West.

2019, Nnedi Okorafor, “Africanfuturism Defined”, in Nnedi's Wahala Zone Blog:

Thompson’s Africanfuturism is both queer and decolonial at the same time, necessitating an approach to embodiment that does not look like white, Western performative queerness

2021, Jenna N. Hanchey, “'The self is embodied': Reading queer and trans Africanfuturism in The Wormwood Trilogy”, in Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, volume 14, number 4, →DOI, page 321:

Later this year, the highly anticipated sequel to Black Panther (2018), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, releases. This will likely mark another big surge in wider public excitement and shared fan art depicting elements of Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism.

2022, Alyssa Shotwell, “The Key Differences Between Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism (With Examples!)”, in The Mary Sue:

(Africa, science fiction, neologism) An Afrocentric subgenre of science fiction that foregrounds familial, spiritual and historical connections among Black people, paying particular attention to African culture, history and mythology, and African perspectives, rather than those of the African diaspora in the western world.


planetship

If an interstellar flight belongs in the category of very slow flight, the corresponding starship is converted into a planetship for rapid flights within the solar system.

1959, NASA Technical Translation, page 156:

This was not a spaceship with its stern half broader than the bows and with high stabilizer ribs. Judging by the sharp bows and slim hull it must have been a planetship hut its contours differed in the thick ring at the stern and the long, distaff-shaped structure on top.

2005, Vera Velichko, The Best on the East, volume 3, page 107:

And to cap it all, there's a planetship full of important politicians in orbit around Mars unable to land while this crisis is with us.

2011, John Glasby, Mystery of the Crater, page 87:

The space vehicle came to be understood as an engineered techno-ecology that allowed for short-term excursions, but the actual goal was to build systems that would allow the expected “planetships” to travel into orbit, to the Moon, to Mars, and one day even further out, into the galaxy.

2021, Kärin Nickelsen, David P. D. Munns, Far Beyond the Moon:

(science fiction) A spacecraft for relatively short journeys in the vicinity of a planet.


enviro-suit

(science fiction) a garment covering the whole body which allows the wearer to maintain a separate atmosphere from the surroundings


transstellar

transstellar navigation

(chiefly science fiction) Across or between the stars.


reality warping

(science fiction): The psychic ability to manipulate, control, distort or alter reality


Sitwellism

(literature) The opinions and practices of the Sitwell literary family.


elseworld

From else + world. From being a world that is elsewhere from the regular world. Genericization of the trademark ElseWorlds, created by DC Comics.

parallel dimension
parallel dimension#English

alternate universe
alternate universe#English

(fiction) A fictional setting that is a modification of the common multi-author shared-world setting used in standard stories. A parallel dimension alternate universe setting.


constructed script

en-noun

constructed script (plural constructed scripts)

(writing, linguistics) A new writing system specifically created by an individual or group, rather than having evolved as part of a language or culture as a natural script.


spacequake

(science fiction) A tremor in space or spacetime.


bolt thrower

(science fiction) A mechanical crossbow used by Alliance Special Forces infiltration units in Star Wars.


distancing effect

distancing effect (plural distancing effects)

(theater, literature) According to Bertold Brecht, performance in such a way that the audience is hindered from simply identifying itself with the characters in the play, and must evaluate their actions on an overt, conscious level.


Nickneven

(folklore) A hag or evil spirit in Scottish folklore.


Twitterature

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(Internet slang, literature) Literary use of the microblogging service Twitter, especially in the form of aphorisms, poetry, and fiction.


twiction

Call it flash fiction, nanofiction, twitfic, twiction, or a dozen other names. Though the name might not yet be agreed upon, flash fiction tweets are here to stay. The premise is simple: create a whole story with only 140 characters.

2012 February 1, Ben Mitchell-Lewis, The Best Flash Fiction on Twitter, Hyperink Inc, →ISBN:

Popular contemporary cousins include six-word memoirs, twiction, and the blog-born listicle. Nonliterary ancestors can be traced primarily to mid-century visual artists whose works explore themes of appropriation (e.g., Duchamp,[…]

2018 04, Kim Adrian, The Shell Game: Writers Play with Borrowed Forms, U of Nebraska Press, →ISBN:

The latter has made people remark that “the novel by tweet is really a digital extension of flash fiction, an established literary genre 262 TG 2014 263 Other terms most commonly used include twitterature and twiction; an alternative[…]

2018, Christina Maria Huber, Will Spook You For Real: Strategies of inspiring Societal Anxieties, Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH, →ISBN, page 111:

(Internet slang, literature) Fiction hosted on the microblogging site Twitter; fictional works of Twitterature.


twitfic

twitfic (countable and uncountable, plural twitfics)

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

Steve indulges on occasion with a bit of 140character long fiction but he admits, “I start each of mine with the word 'TWITFIC!' to tell people what I'm doing, so I really get 131.” Some of his TwitFic went like this: “I'm from the[…]

2009 June 29, Tee Morris, All a Twitter: A Personal and Professional Guide to Social Networking with Twitter, Que Publishing, →ISBN:

He's had twitfic published in @tweetthemeat, @thaumatrope, and @outshine, among others. Join his twitfic community at twitfic.com. F.I. Goldhaber F.i. Goldhaber has had short stories, novels, poems, features, essays,[…]

2010 October 15, J. S. Graustein, Rose Auslander, On a Narrow Windowsill: Fiction and Poetry Folded Onto Twitter, Folded Word, →ISBN, page 145:

Meanwhile, The Guardian ran Twitfics from twenty-one heavyweights including Jeffrey Archer, Geoff Dyer, and Ian Rankin. “Blaise Pascal didn't tweet and neither did Mark Twain,” began the story by the UK MIllennium Poet and Iowa Workshop[…]

2013 November 14, David Comfort, An Insider's Guide to Publishing, Penguin, →ISBN:

The first is 'twitfic', mentioned by several TV 2.0 participants. As one might imagine, it is a very abbreviated work of fiction spread over a number of tweets. Anne's response pointed to the limitations of Twitter for such a practice:[…]

2017 March 30, Jean Burgess, Alice Marwick, Thomas Poell, The SAGE Handbook of Social Media, SAGE, →ISBN:

Legend has it that Hemingway won a barbet by composing the first Twitfic on an Algonquin bar napkin: “Classified: Baby Goods. For sale, baby shoes, never worn.” The king of brevity already knew what the Memory & Cognition Journal[…]

TwitFic. Because network access on Windows Phone must be performed asynchronously, it takes quite a bit of code to construct the RESTful Web service request properly. Most of the code, however, is repetitive and thus all of the major[…]

2012 June 10, Henry Lee, Eugene Chuvyrov, Beginning Windows Phone App Development, Apress, →ISBN, page 393:

(Internet slang, literature) Fiction hosted on the microblogging site Twitter; twiction.


flying rowan

(folklore) A rowan tree growing parasitically on another tree, or from a wall, roof, etc., once believed in Scandinavia to have magical powers.


audience surrogate

audience surrogate (plural audience surrogates)

(literature) A character who serves to express the questions and confusion of the audience, such as a detective's assistant who asks for clarification regarding how a case was solved.


bookwriting

Our bookwriting services embed the true essence of our words in the right manner.

(Can we date this quote?), “Book Writing Services - Professional Book Writers For hire”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(writing) The process of writing a book.


imaginism

From Russian имажини́зм (imažinízm), from Latin imāgō (“image, representation”).

(poetry) A Russian avant-garde poetic movement, founded in 1918, whose members created poetry based on sequences of arresting and uncommon images.


slave of the lamp

slave of the lamp (plural slaves of the lamp)

In the eyes of Gorgias "the word" was a despot who could do anything, but like a slave of the lamp it would be at the service of those who took his courses.

1971, W. K. C. Guthrie, The Sophists, page 25:

(fiction) A genie who is imprisoned in a lamp, as in the tale of Aladdin.


Borduria

Hergé
King Ottokar's Sceptre
Le Temps
Outlook (Indian magazine)

From French Bordurie, from bordure (“border”). Coined by Hergé in 1939 for King Ottokar's Sceptre.

Graustark, Ruritania, Borduria, Syldavia and a score of imaginary kingdoms, usurped by tyrants and sundered by fights for the throne, leap into mind: plots, treachery, imprisoned heirs and palace factions abound and, along with them, fiendish monocled swordsmen, queens in lonely towers, toppling ranges, deep forests, plains full of half-wild horses, wandering tribes of Gypsies who steal children out of castles and dye them...

1977, Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts, 1st edition, New York Review Books, →ISBN, archived from the original on 2022-11-13:

The play will be set in Borduria, the fictional state originally created in Hergé's Tintin that resembles a 1970s eastern European state.

2014 June 19, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, “Decaying east London tower block to house 12-hour Macbeth production”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 2022-05-19:

He made up two fictional countries, Borduria and Syldavia, and the struggles between the two were actually a satire on the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany.

2017 May 22, Utkarsh Srivastava, “A Tintin Mystery: Why Hergé's comics continue to fascinate, 88 years after their debut”, in Firstpost, archived from the original on 2022-01-29:

Hardly any of the cars in the Tintin comics are exotic, while a few of them — like the stretch black limousine driven in a convoy in Tapiocapolis in the final, complete adventure Tintin and the Picaros and the open-topped roadster used to rescue Professor Calculus from the prison fortress of Bakhine in Borduria — are an imaginary combination of real cars.

2022 September 3, Srinivas Krishnan, “The automotive adventures of Tintin”, in Mumbai Mirror, archived from the original on 2022-11-10:

Borduria and Syldavia, both fictional Balkan countries appearing in the Adventures of Tintin graphic novel, also merit a mention as places used to highlight the stereotypes about the southeastern parts of the continent.

2022 November 4, Aleksandar Brezar, “What is Listenbourg? Why is it going viral on Twitter? Why did the meme become so big in Europe?”, in Euronews, archived from the original on 2022-11-07:

The reporter’s future adventures took him far and wide - even to outer space - and to a handful of fictionalised countries including Balkan states Borduria and Syldavia and the South American countries of San Theodoros, São Rico and Nuevo Rico.

2017 7, The Newsroom, “When Tintin the intrepid fictional reporter came to Scotland”, in The Scotsman (Journal), archived from the original on 2022-11-10:

But the name of Grand Fenwick doesn't occur in any history book, or show up in any atlas, unless it also maps Ruritania, Syldavia, Borduria, Oz or even Shangri-La.

2016 September 18, Vikas Datta, “The small nation which beat the superpowers, global capitalism”, in The News Minute, archived from the original on 2022-11-13:

(fiction) An imaginary country located in the Balkans and enemy of Syldavia, in the comic book series The Adventures of Tintin.


Syldavia

From French Syldavie. Blend of Transylvanie + Moldavie. Coined by Hergé in 1939 for King Ottokar's Sceptre.

Tintin and his loyal hound Snowy find themselves trying to thwart a plot by spies to overthrow the king of Syldavia, a fictional Balkan land.

2020 June 25, Lifestyle Desk, “Tintin cover that mocked Hitler’s Germany to go under hammer”, in The Indian Express, archived from the original on 2020-06-26:

(fiction) An imaginary country located in the Balkans and enemy of Borduria, in the comic book series The Adventures of Tintin.


flying car

(aircraft, science fiction, vehicles) A vehicle which can function both as a road vehicle and as an aircraft.


sandgun

If someone deliberately set off the sandgun, I think I'm very possibly what they were aiming for.

Trance was raising his sandgun when the blastwave hit.

2020, Marc Miller, Agent of the Imperium:

The sandgun did burst out, sending the biting cold sand flying in all directions. However, it did not explode from the muzzle of the gun, but from the middle of the spear shaft!

2020, Da Ba, Beauty's Special Magical Doctor:

(science fiction) A weapon that shoots sand or a sandlike substance.


roider

From roid (“anabolic steroids”) + -er.
From roid (“asteroid”) + -er.

(science fiction) A person who mines asteroids for a living.


farmer's daughter

farmer's daughter (plural farmers' daughters)

The Midwest farmer's daughters really make you feel alright / And the Northern girls with the way they kiss / They keep their boyfriends warm at night

1965, “California Girls”, in Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), performed by the Beach Boys:

This does not mean that her radical reformulation of the whore persona is entirely absent in this text – it is, for instance, in The Genuine History that Salisbury monopolizes the Prince of Wales and his two aristocratic friends by frankly declaring herself a whore (quote above), while her two colleagues are dismissed because they resort to conventional representations of female ruin, such as milliners and farmer's daughters, which deny or obscure their status as prostitutes.

2015 October 6, Lena Olsson, “5 ‘A first-rate whore’: Prostitution and empowerment in the early eighteenth century”, in Ann Lewis, Markman Ellis, editors, Prostitution and Eighteenth-Century Culture, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN:

(fiction) A stock character or stereotype of a desirable but naïve young woman who is the daughter of a farmer.


archpaladin

/ɑɹt͡ʃˈpælədɪn/

From arch- + paladin. Originally from the Dungeons & Dragons franchise, in which the fictional deity, Heironeous, is known as The Archpaladin, and the AdventureQuest game.

Foremost in her mind has always been to serve the Archpaladin [Heironeous] and improve the lives of others with His teachings.

2004 August, Rick LaRue, “Greyhawk’s Knights of Holy Shielding: Valor Is Our Blood!”, in Dungeon, number 113, page 94:

Heironeous, The Invincible, The Archpaladin, is the champion of rightful combat and chivalrous deeds.

2007 April, Sean K Reynolds, “Heironeous”, in Dragon, volume XXXI, number 11, issue 354, page 19:

Mostly whiteshirts, from initiate Healers to patrolmen to Electors and ArchPaladins in full battle gear.

2010, Tim Akers, The Horns of Ruin, Amherst, N.Y.: Pyr, →ISBN, page 266:

It's best if you can find a friend or some players to help you out with each quests for Archpaladin.

2019 August 1, SyedXD123, the_beast69, “What Class?”, in reddit.com:

History was wrought romanticised tales of grand crusades lead by heroic Archpaladins of old, spreading God's word to the dark and corrupt corners of the kingdom through their might and zeal.

2021, C. R. Butterworth, The Exile, Liberation (Book 1), C. R. Butterworth:

Things like using Archpaladin to mitigate true damage, or recommending Health Vamp on farming classes that don't benefit from it.

2022 February 18, xiaomole, “Combatting Misinformation”, in reddit.com:

(very rare, science fiction, fantasy, video games) A supreme paladin.


starfall

starfall (countable and uncountable, plural starfalls)

Coordinate term: planetfall

That was just a guess. Man had leaped into space with a new drive, had made starfalls on Procyon, 61 Cygni, Sirius, Altair, all within the fifteen light-year range of the first generation of engines.

1970, John Rackham, Danger from Vega, D. Dodson, →ISBN, pages 35–36:

(science fiction) The act of landing on a star.


superuniverse

(science fiction) A universe containing other universes.