Isaac Asimov
See first quotes from Isaac Asimov
147 Quotations from Isaac Asimov
| aircar n. | 1946 Evidence in Astounding Science Fiction Sept. 136/2 Byerley brought his ‘teacher’ back the week before election. The air car dropped quickly in an obscure part of the city. |
| aircar n. | 1982 Foundation’s Edge (1991) 221 There were other ground-cars moving in both directions and an occasional air-car above, but Pelorat was studying the trees. |
| alien adj. | 1944 in Astounding Science Fiction Aug. 40/1 You abandoned a subject of the Foundation to torture and death at the hands of an alien mob, Mallow, and you have only five seconds to prevent the punishment due you. |
| areographer n. | 1977 Mars, the Red Planet vii. 116 About 1800 a German astronomer, Johann Hieronymus Schroeter (SHROI-ter, 1745–1816), who made observations of the Martian surface, invented the term ‘areography’ (air-ee-OG-ruh-fee) from Greek words meaning ‘Mars-writing,’ to mean the description of the surface of Mars. The first real areographer was a German astronomer named Wilhelm Beer (BAYR, 1797–1850). |
| atmosphere suit n. | 1951 C-Chute in Galaxy Oct. 9/2 It was my fault. You should never trust yourself with the machines of another culture. By the time someone among the Kloros could put on an atmosphere suit and get to me, it was too late to save my hands. |
| blaster n. | 1993 Forward Foundation 191 A blaster, despite its name, does not ‘blast’ in the proper sense of the term. It vaporizes and blows out an interior and—if anything—causes an implosion. |
| Callistan adj. | 1940 Callistan Menace in Astonishing Stories Apr. 73/2 We inspected our pocket Lectronics and left. We didn’t know exactly what to expect and weren’t sure but that our first steps on Callistan soil might not be our last, but none of us hesitated an instant. In the ‘Dime Spacers,’ courage is a very cheap commodity, but it is rather more expensive in real life. |
| carbon-based adj. | 1961 Not As We Know It in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Sept. 91/2 But once you begin with a silicon-oxygen chain, what if the silicon atom’s capacity for hooking on to two additional atoms is filled not by more oxygen atoms but by carbon atoms, with, of course, hydrogen atoms attached. Such hybrid molecules, both silicon- and carbon-based, are the ‘silicones’. |
| Cerean n. | 1953 Lucky Starr & the Pirates of the Asteroids xiii. 146 Calls for help were sent out. Then, almost as suddenly as they came, the pirates retreated. When they left, the men of Ceres counted their casualties. Fifteen Cereans were dead and many more hurt in one way or another, as against the bodies of five pirates. |
| chronoscope n. | 1956 Dead Past in Astounding Science Fiction Apr. 8/1 You must realize, Dr. Potterley, that chronoscopy, or time-viewing, if you prefer, is a difficult process…And there is a long waiting line for the chronoscope and an even longer waiting line for the use of Multivac which guides us in our use of the controls. |
| chronoscopy n. | 1956 Dead Past in Astounding Science Fiction Apr. 7/1 Mr. Araman, I came to you because you’re top man in chronoscopy…I've come to you, sir, because for two years I have been trying to obtain permission to do some time viewing—chronoscopy, that is—in connection with my researches on ancient Carthage. |
| chronoscopy n. | 1956 Dead Past in Astounding Science Fiction Apr. 8/1 You must realize, Dr. Potterley, that chronoscopy, or time-viewing, if you prefer, is a difficult process…And there is a long waiting line for the chronoscope and an even longer waiting line for the use of Multivac which guides us in our use of the controls. |
| chronoscopy n. | 1956 Dead Past in Astounding Science Fiction Apr. 17/1 ‘I can’t be sure yet, Caroline, but when I've got enough evidence, I'll apply for permission to use chronoscopy, which will settle the matter once and for all.’ ‘Chronoscopy?’ ‘Time-viewing. We can focus on ancient Carthage at some time of crisis, the landing of Scipio Africanus in 202 B.C., for instance, and see with our own eyes exactly what happens.’ |
| countergravity adj. | 1952 Currents of Space in Astounding Science Fiction Oct. 11/2 In those days, Valona would borrow a diamagnetic scooter and take him out of the village every idle day. They would skim along, a foot above the road, gliding on the cushioned smoothness of the counter-gravity field, until they were miles and miles away from any human habitation. |
| credit n. | 1993 Forward Foundation 342 He had no credits to continue his work—no credits to locate others like Wanda, no credits to pay his workers on the Psychohistory Project at Streeling, no credits to set up his all-important Encyclopedia Project at the Galactic Library. |
| de Campian adj. | 1941 Lest Darkness Fall in Astonishing Stories Sept. 6/1 (review) With the Dark Ages about to fall, with Italy about to be ruined by the successive invastions of the Byzantines and the Lombards, it is up to Padway to save his own skin and to prevent Darkness from falling. Just how he does this is told in the best deCampian style, so well known to readers of fantasy. The book moves quickly, with no pauses for breath, but nowhere does Mr. de Camp lose his reader. In fluent, racy fashion, with liberal sprinklings of humor—quite often, delightfully ribald—he leaps from incident to incident. |
| earthborn adj. | 1949 Mother Earth in Astounding Science Fiction May 91/1 The Outer Worlders exist as they do, only because pieces of Earth have been transplanted. Soil has been brought out there; plants; animals; men. They keep themselves surrounded by an artificial Earth-born geology which has within it, for instance, those traces of cobalt, zinc, and copper which human chemistry must have. They surround themselves by Earth-born bacteria and algae which have the ability to make those inorganic traces available in just the right way and in just the right quantity. |
| Earthite n. | 1951 Hostess in Galaxy Science Fiction May 97/2 The incidence of the Death is highest on my world, which is closest to Earth, and lower on each more distant planet…while Earth itself is immune. Somewhere in the biochemistry of the Earthite, there is the secret of that immunity. |
| Earth-normal n. | 1944 Catch That Rabbit in Astounding Science-Fiction Feb. 164/2 Donovan made the jump with a grunt. Gravity was considerably below Earth-normal, but with a heavy suit, the advantage was not too great. |
| Earth-normal adj. | 1942 Victory Unintentional in Super Science Stories Aug. 90/1 They had six legs apiece, stumpy and thick, designed to lift tons against two and a half times normal Earth gravity. Their reflexes were that many times Earth-normal speed, to make up for the gravity. |
| Earth-normal adj. | 1974 Stranger in Paradise in Worlds of If June 23 It’s harder on Earth. This robot is designed for 1/3 Earth-normal gravity, and he’s working in Arizona at full gravity. |
| earthshine n. | 1951 Tyrann in Galaxy Science Fiction Jan. iii. 22/1 The lights were out and the gallery was full. The faces peering over the bars were clear in the Earthshine. For Earth was suspended there below, a gigantic and gleaming orange-and-blue-and-white-patched balloon. The hemisphere showing was almost entirely sunlit; the continents between the clouds, a desert orange, with thin scattered lines of green. The seas were blue, standing out sharply against the black of space where they met the horizon. And all around in the black, undusted sky were the stars. |
| force beam n. | 1974 Last Question in Nine Tomorrows 197 It was on a little world of its own, a spider webbing of force-beams holding the matter within which surges of sub-mesons took the place of the old clumsy molecular valves. |
| force field n. | 1941 Not Final! in Astounding Science Fiction Oct. 56/2 ‘The ordinary force field,’ explained Birnam, ‘is a feeble rarefied zone of energy extending over a hundred miles or more outside the ship.’ |
| Frankenstein complex n. | 1947 Little Lost Robot in Astounding Science Fiction Mar. 116/1 I’ll admit that this Frankenstein Complex you’re exhibiting has a certain justification—hence the First Law in the first place. |
| Frankenstein complex n. | 1990 Robots I Have Known in Robot Visions 409 Mankind may know of the existence of the Three Laws on an intellectual level and yet have an ineradicable fear and distrust for robots on an emotional level. If you wanted to invent a term, you might call it a ‘Frankenstein complex.’ |
| Frankenstein complex n. | 1969 Feminine Intuition in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Oct. 17/1 We’ve lost the best chance U.S. Robots ever had of gaining an unbeatable public image, of overcoming the damned Frankenstein complex. |
| galactographer n. | 1982 Foundation’s Edge 99 And concerning six hundred and forty thousand populated worlds there is almost no information other than their names and sometimes the location. Some galactographers have estimated that there may be up to ten thousand inhabited planets that aren’t listed at all. |
| galactographic adj. | 1950 …And Now You Don't in Astounding Science Fiction Jan. 115/1 Nor were the galactographic verities of the situation lost upon Stettin. |
| galactography n. | 1950 …And Now You Don’t in Astounding Science Fiction Jan. 113/2 ‘Galactography,’ said the mayor, ‘is our greatest enemy. Our admirals make no secret of our almost hopeless, strategic position.’ |
| galactography n. | 1982 Foundation's Edge 181 We'll decide where to go to first and there we may find the proper people to consult concerning ancient history, galactography, mythology, anthropology, or anything else you can think of. |
| galaxy-wide adj. | 1940 Homo Sol in Astounding Science-Fiction Sept. 124/1 We have a race of Humanoids of a superlatively technological turn; possessing at the same time an intrinsically unscientific belief in supernatural forces, an incredibly childish predilection toward individuality, singly and in groups, and, worst of all, lack of sufficient vision to embrace a galaxy-wide culture. |
| genetic engineering n. | 1970 Waterclap in Worlds of If Apr. 27 Genetic engineering…has reorganized your bones and muscles. |
| golden age n. | 1974 Before Golden Age (1975) p. xiii To many science fiction readers who are now in their middle years, there was a Golden Age of Science Fiction—in capital letters. That Golden Age began in 1938, when John Campbell became editor of Astounding Stories and remolded it, and the whole field, into something closer to his heart’s desire. |
| gram v. | 1957 I’m in Marsport Without Hilda in Venture Science Fiction Nov. 67/2 I got a spacegram from Hilda saying she would stay on Earth with her mother and wouldn’t meet me this one time. I ’grammed back my loving regrets and my feverish anxiety concerning her mother; and when I landed, there I was— I was in Marsport without Hilda! |
| gravitic adj. | 1951 Foundation 19 The elevator was of the new sort that ran by gravitic repulsion. |
| gravitic adj. | 1982 Foundation's Edge 3 Now it’s a colossal mausoleum, but is there a force-field ramp in the place? A slideway? A gravitic lift?—No, just these steps. |
| gravitically adv. | 1982 Foundation's Edge 235 This time, we’ll be moving gravitically—straight up—as soon as we can be assured the atmosphere above is clear of other ships. |
| gravitics n. 2 | 1982 Foundation’s Edge 54 I've been trained in space navigation, but not on these ships. If something goes wrong with the gravitics, I'm afraid there’s nothing I can do about it. |
| gravity screen n. | 1983 in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Aug. 125 But suppose the spaceship has a gravity screen plastered all over its hull and that, at a particular moment, the screen is activated. Now, with no gravitation to hold it down, it is cast off from the Earth like a clod of mud from a spinning fly-wheel. |
| groundcar n. | 1951 Foundation Trilogy–Foundation .i. 80 They've come…in a last-model ground car, the young pups. |
| groundcar n. | 1982 Foundation's Edge (1991) 221 There were other ground-cars moving in both directions and an occasional air-car above, but Pelorat was studying the trees. |
| group mind n. | 1982 Foundation's Edge 302 And, I take it, the group mind, so to speak, of the group consciousness is much stronger than an individual mind, just as a muscle is much stronger than an individual muscle cell. |
| gynoid n. | 1979 Editorial: The Vocabulary of SF in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine Sept. 8 Strictly speaking, an android should be an artificial device with the appearance of a male human being. One with the appearance of a female human being would be a ‘gynoid’, from the Greek word ‘gynos’ meaning ‘woman’. However, I have never seen the word ‘gynoid’ used for any artificial device of human appearance. ‘Android’ is used for artificial devices that mimic either sex—or, for that matter, that are neuter. |
| gyrocab n. | 1951 Hostess in Galaxy Science Fiction May 107/2 She came upon them getting out of a gyro-cab just as she emerged from the tubes on to street level. The gyro-cabbie, wide-eyed, gazed after his fares for a moment, then hovered upward and away. |
| heat ray n. | 1949 Victory Unintentional in Invasion From Mars: Interplanetary Stories 144 Definitely a heat ray of some sort. |
| holoscreen n. | 1989 Nemesis (1990) 282 The holoscreen sprang to life and she could see the two suited figures on it, standing on the barren soil of Erythro. |
| home planet n. | 1951 Foundation Trilogy–Foundation ii. 6 The air seemed a little thicker here, the gravity a bit greater, than on his home planet of Synnax. |
| humanoid n. | 1940 Homo Sol in Astounding Science-Fiction Sept. 118/1 I have here…the official report from Alpha Centauri, on whose fifth planet the Humanoids of Sol have landed. |
| humanoid adj. | 1940 Homo Sol in Astounding Science-Fiction Sept. 130/1 And I hope these learned gentlemen still react in a vaguely Humanoid way. |
| humanoid adj. | 1940 Homo Sol in Astounding Science-Fiction Sept. 118/1 Beings of every manlike type and shape were there. Some were tall and polelike, some broad and burly, some short and stumpy. There were those with long, wiry hair, those with scanty gray fuzz covering head and face, others with thick, blond curls piled high, and still others entirely bald. Some possessed long, hair-covered trumpets of ears, others had tympanum membranes flush with their temples. There were those present with large gazellelike eyes of a deep-purple luminosity, others with tiny optics of a beady black. There was a delegate with green skin, one with an eight-inch proboscis and one with a vestigial tail. Internally, variation was almost infinite. But all were alike in two things. They were all Humanoid. They all possessed intelligence. |
| hyperdrive n. | 1947 Little Lost Robot in Astounding Science-Fiction Mar. 112/1 Since the first imperfect Hyper Drive was constructed, the government has spared no effort here. |
| hyperspace n. | 1951 Foundation 12 He had steeled himself just a little for the Jump through hyper-space, a phenomenon one did not experience in simple interplanetary trips. The Jump remained, and would probably remain forever, the only practical method of travelling between the stars. |
| hyperspatial adj. | 1954 Foundation of S.F. Success in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Oct. 69 With a drive that’s hyperspatial, through the parsecs you will race. |
| hyperspatial adj. | 1991 Forward the Foundation in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine Nov. 53 I’ve even managed to make hyperspatial contact with some minor official. |
| hyperspeed n. | 1969 Feminine Intuition in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Oct. 8/1 We can’t use the hyper-speed drive except perhaps once as a demonstration…. The Space Jump is risky; it’s fearfully prodigal of energy and therefore it’s enormously expensive. |
| inhuman n. | 1940 Homo Sol in Astounding Science-Fiction Sept. 122/2 I’ve brought home copies of their newspapers of the time in which they objected to joining with ‘alien monstrosities’ and refused to be ‘ruled by inhumans of worlds parsecs away.’ I ask you, does that make sense? |
| jump n. | 1945 Dead Hand in Astounding Science-Fiction Apr. 57/2 In grasshopper jumps of increasing magnitude, the trade ship was spanning the Galaxy in its return to the Foundation. |
| jump n. | 1952 Currents of Space in Astounding Science Fiction Dec. 113/1 It took hours to reach a point far enough from star-mass distortion of the space fabric to make a Jump possible. |
| jump v. | 1952 Currents of Space in Astounding Science Fiction Oct. 67/2 It’s different in different places and we have to know exactly what it is in order to allow ships to calculate exactly how to jump through hyperspace. |
| Law of Robotics n. | [1942 Runaround in Astounding Science-Fiction Mar. 100/1 Let’s start with the three fundamental rules of Robotics—the three rules that are built most deeply into a robot’s positronic brain.] |
| Law of Robotics n. | 1954 Caves of Steel viii. 94 The First Law of Robotics states that a robot cannot harm a human being. |
| Law of Robotics n. | [1941 Liar! in Astounding Science-Fiction May 53/2 ‘You know the fundamental law impressed upon the positronic brain of all robots, of course.’…‘Certainly…. On no conditions is a human being to be injured in any way, even when such injury is directly ordered by another human.’] |
| Law of Robotics n. | 1944 Catch That Rabbit in Astounding Science Fiction Feb. 165/2 If your analysis were correct, Dave would have to break down the First Law of Robotics: That a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to be injured. |
| light barrier n. 2 | 1981 Science in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Dec. 137 We broke the sound-barriers, and we’ll break the light-barrier. You scientists are just stupid and dogmatic. |
| light-minute n. | 1945 Mule in Astounding Science Fiction Nov. 42/1 We traveled about a light-minute or so, in neutral, right past Horleggor. |
| light-second n. | 1942 Black Friar of the Flame in Planet Stories Spring 21/2 One fleet was not two parsecs from Vega itself; another had captured Luna and hovered one light-second above the Earth. |
| light-year n. | 1951 Foundation Trilogy–Foundation .i. 5 At one time there was the cold, blue-white smoke of a gaseous nebula within five light years of the ship. |
| Luna n. | 1939 in Astounding Science Fiction July 45/2 Curiously enough, there was little resentment of the fact. Men were impressed and awed; the crowd whispered and cast inquisitive glances at the dim crescent of Luna, scarcely seen in the bright sunlight. Over all, an uneasy pall of silence, the silence of indecision, lay. |
| Luna City n. | 1957 Pirates of Asteroids (1980) 17 Oh, boy, it was sure nice coming in to Luna City. |
| Lunarite n. | 1972 Gods Themselves (1973) III. ii. 176 After all, what can they do? They can’t infiltrate. You can’t disguise an Earthie as a Lunarite. |
| Mercurian adj. | 1942 Runaround in Astounding Science Fiction Mar. 97/2 You know he’s perfectly adapted to a Mercurian environment. Heat doesn’t mean anything to him, and he’s built for the light gravity and the broken ground. |
| moonquake n. | 1970 Waterclap in Worlds of If Apr. iii. 18/2 As a safety engineer…I can’t afford to believe in luck and breaks. We cannot stop Moonquakes or large meteorites out at Luna City but we are designed to minimize the effects even of those. |
| needle gun n. | 1953 in Fantastic May—June 49/2 And I knew the needle gun was about to fire. |
| neutronium n. | 1942 Black Friar of Flame in Planet Stories Spring 24/1 The treaty of Draconis has hung like neutronium around our neck these twenty years. |
| non-human n. | 1982 Foundation’s Edge 284 Right now, I think that if you thought you were going to encounter nonhumans, you wouldn’t worry about having been captured…if they but gave you a little time to sate your curiosity. |
| non-human adj. | 1982 Foundation's Edge 284 Janov, you want a nonhuman intelligence and you will have one. |
| normal space n. | 1942 Black Friar of Flame in Planet Stories Spring 10/2 ‘Now then, you feel better. But come, in a few moments we shall leave hyper-space and we will see Sol.’ Already, even as he spoke, the thick, choking cloak of hyper-stuff that clung so closely to the sides of the Flaming Nova was going through those curious changes that marked the beginning of the shift to normal space. |
| nova n. | 1956 Last Question in Science Fiction Quarterly Nov. 13/2 The Universal AC said, ‘Man’s original star has gone nova. It is a white dwarf.’ |
| off-planet adj. | 1982 Foundation’s Edge 194 Apparently accustomed to off-planet guests, he had smiled paternally as Trevize and Pelorat gingerly scooped at the steaming bits of meat. |
| outworld n. | 1988 Prelude to Foundation 74 It is important that the officials of the Empire have some common ground, some special feeling for the Empire. And they can’t all be native Trantorians or else the Outworlds would grow restless. |
| outworld adj. | 1982 Foundation’s Edge 162 By one of our outworld agents? Are such agents to be expected to stand against those with the powers we have seen demonstrated here? |
| outworlder n. | 1982 Foundation's Edge 224 I forget my hospitality. You are Outworlders and it would not be fitting that you entertain me. |
| planetography n. | 1982 Foundation's Edge (1983) vi. 85 Out beyond, eight parsecs away, was Anacreon, the nearest largest planet… You know its position relative to Terminus and the Galactic core; you've studied its planetography and history. |
| positronic adj. | 1941 Liar! in Astounding Science Fiction May 44/1 By exact count, there are seventy-five thousand, two hundred and thirty-four operations necessary for the manufacture of a single positronic brain. |
| positronic adj. | 1941 Liar! in Astounding Science Fiction May 44/1 We've produced a positronic brain of supposedly ordinary vintage that’s got the remarkable property of being able to tune in on thought waves. |
| positronic adj. | 1956 Naked Sun in Astounding Science Fiction Oct. 24/2 He knew a positronic brain…nestled in the hollow of the skull. He knew that Daneel’s ‘thoughts’ were only short-lived positronic currents. |
| problem story n. | 1974 in Before Golden Age 985 I loved the story [sc.Ross Rocklynne’s ‘The Men and the Mirror’]. It is a problem story, using authentic science (though the solution is inadequate, as a reader pointed out in the magazine’s letter column at considerable length a few months later). The time was to come when I was to try to write problem stories, but doing one as pure as ‘The Men and the Mirror’ isn’t easy. The closest approach in my case was perhaps ‘Paté de Foie Gras.’ |
| pseudo-grav n. | 1952 Martian Way in Galaxy Science Fiction Nov. 36/1 Then you would have to hike the pseudo-grav field of your suit and come down. |
| pseudo-grav n. | 1955 Talking Stone in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Oct. 109/1 Vernadsky carefully maneuvered the tank of helium on board the ship. With ship’s pseudo-grav generators shut off, it weighed virtually nothing, but it had its full mass and inertia. |
| psychohistorian n. | 1949 …And Now You Don’t in Astounding Science Fiction Nov. 18/2 It is not an easy thing to be a Psychohistorian in the first place; and not even the best Psychohistorian need necessarily qualify to be a Speaker. |
| psychohistorian n. | 1978 Lost Art in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Feb. 110 Back in 1950, I wrote a short story…. In it, the great psychohistorian, Hari Seldon, is about to demonstrate an important point. |
| psychohistorian n. | 1992 Cleon the Emperor in Asimov’s Science Fiction Apr. 247 Seldon crossed the grounds in his passage from his office (First Minister) to his laboratory (Psychohistorian). |
| psychohistory n. | 1951 Foundation Trilogy–Foundation i. 3 Undoubtedly his greatest contributions were in the field of psychohistory. |
| psychohistory n. | 1942 Foundation in Astounding Science-Fiction May 42/1 After the Fall will come inevitable barbarism, a period which, our psychohistory tells us, should…last from thirty to fifty thousand years. |
| psychohistory n. | 1945 The Mule in Astounding Science-Fiction Nov. 37/2 As I understand it, your investigations into the mathematics of psychohistory have been intended to duplicate Hari Seldon’s work and, eventually, trace the projected course of future history. |
| ray v. | 1942 Black Friar of the Flame in Planet Stories Spring 18/1 Order the guns placed in readiness and aimed along the avenues. Any Human attempting to pass the cordon is to be rayed mercilessly. |
| ray v. | 1987 Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain lxxxvii. 321 Well, for starters, I’ll say you got hold of the stunner and rayed them both, then held the stunner on me and made me take you to the airport because you didn’t know its location. |
| robotic adj. | 1941 Liar! in Astounding Science-Fiction May 50 You'd cut your own nose off before you'd let me get the credit for solving robotic telepathy. |
| robotical adj. | 1942 Robot AL76 Goes Astray in Amazing Stories Feb. 227/1 Austin Wilde, Robotical Engineer, turned to Sam Tobe and said, ‘Did you get anything out of the robot?’ |
| robotical adj. | 1942 Victory Unintentional in Super Science Stories Aug. 91/2 He [sc. a robot] added emphatically, with robotical loyalty and faith, ‘No human master could ever be like that.’ |
| robotical adj. | 1940 Strange Playfellow in Super Science Stories Sept. 75/1 The ‘talking Robot’ as a scientific achievement left much to be desired. It sprawled its unwieldy mass of wires and coils through twenty-five square yards, and every robotical function had been subordinated to vital attribute of speech. It worked,—and was in this respect quite a victory—but as yet, it could translate only the simpler and more concrete thoughts into words. |
| roboticist n. | 1946 Evidence in Astounding Science Fiction Sept. 124/1 Slowly, the roboticist’s finger touched a knob and the wall illuminators glowed to gentle life. |
| roboticist n. | 1949 Victory Unintentional in Invasion from Mars 147 To dispense with further description, they were indestructible, and so impressively powerful that they were the only robots ever built on whom the roboticists of the corporation had never quite had the nerve to pin a serial-number nickname. |
| roboticist n. | 1942 Robot AL-76 Goes Astray in Amazing Stories Feb. 223/1 There was even talk of a Congressional investigation, though every reputable Roboticist and Mathematical Physicist on Earth swore the robot was harmless. |
| roboticist n. | 1942 Robot AL-76 Goes Astray in Amazing Stories Feb. 224/2 Nor, for that matter, had he any inkling of the fact that half a dozen roboticists, under the leadership of Sam Tobe, were smoking down the highway from Petersboro at better than a hundred and twenty miles an hour—for the sole purpose of having the pleasure and honor of his acquaintance. |
| roboticized adj. | 1957 Naked Sun iii. 35 A thoroughly roboticized economy. |
| robotics n. | 1941 Liar! in Astounding Science-Fiction May 53/1 There’s irony in three of the greatest experts in robotics in the world falling into the same elementary trap, isn’t there? |
| science-fictionally adv. | 1974 Before Golden Age 986 ‘Who Goes There?’ was eventually made into the financially successful but science fictionally contemptible motion picture The Thing, for which John was paid a mere few hundred dollars in total. |
| science-fictionish adj. | 1940 Letter in Future Fiction Mar. 108 I don’t like the cover. First, it is not sufficiently science-fictionish. |
| science-fictionish adj. | 1975 in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction June 128 It occurred to me that there is nothing so dramatic for a science-fictionish person such as myself as the Martian canals. |
| science-fictionish adj. | 1986 Robot Dreams xiv My robots, too, had ‘brains’ that made them work, and I never spoke of them as computers, either. I had to make them science-fictionish, of course, so I called them ‘positronic brains.’ Positrons had been detected for the first time only four years before my first robot story had been written. |
| sf n. | 1954 in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Oct. 69 (title) The foundation of S.F. success. |
| skimmer n. | 1957 Profession in Astounding Science Fiction July 42/2 The skimmer landed at the roof-entry of a hotel. |
| slideway n. | 1982 Foundation's Edge 3 Now it’s a colossal mausoleum, but is there a force-field ramp in the place? A slideway? A gravitic lift?—No, just these steps. |
| space-based adj. | 1956 Naked Sun in Astounding Science Fiction Nov. 113/1 Try getting rid of me against my will and you'll be looking down the throats of space-based artillery. |
| space exploration n. | 1970 Waterclap in World of If Apr. 24/2 To people who don’t see the purpose and the importance of space exploration the death of Moonmen in accidents is proof enough that the Moon is dangers, that its colonization is a useless fantasy. |
| space fleet n. | 1942 Black Friar of the Flame in Planet Stories Spring Against this oldest of all naval tactics—old even in the dim dawn of history when rival triremes had maneuvered and rammed each other to destruction with pointed prows—the super-modern equipment of a space-fleet has no defense. |
| spacegram n. | 1957 I’m in Marsport Without Hilda in Venture Science Fiction Nov. 67/2 Well, this time, my mother-in-law, God bless her (for a change) got sick just two days before I reached Marsport; and the night before landing, I got a spacegram from Hilda saying she would stay on Earth with her mother and wouldn’t meet me this one time. |
| space lane n. | 1941 Not Final! in Astounding Science-Fiction Oct. 60/1 We're way off the regular space lanes. The first the System will know of us will be the landing of the Transparent on Ganymede. |
| spaceport n. | 1951 Foundation Trilogy–Foundation ii. 43 Anselm haut Rodric…was met by Salvor Hardin at the spaceport with all the imposing ritual of a state occasion. |
| spacer n. 1 | 1940 Callistan Menace in Astonishing Stories Apr. 71/2 I've read books about him. He was the greatest spacer there ever was. |
| spacer n. 1 | 1944 Big & the Little in Astounding Science Fiction Aug. 9/1 My grandfather was a blood-poor son-of-a-spacer who died heaving coal at starving wages before the Foundation. |
| spaceworthiness n. | 1952 Youth in Space Science Fiction May 78/2 The Pilot remained at his post to the actual landing, his only thought that of breaking the force of the crash, of maintaining the spaceworthiness of the vessel. |
| subetheric adj. | 1955 Talking Stone in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Oct. 114/1 They're saving power, hoping they'll get picked up. Right now, they're putting everything they've got into a sub-etheric call, I'll bet. |
| subetherics n. | 1952 Youth in Space Science Fiction May 76/2 In a case such as theirs, then, there was little or no chance that another ship would come within range of their subetherics except for the most improbable of coincidences. |
| suit n. | 1966 The Key in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Oct. 7/1 They took the small skim-boat back to the mother ship. They shucked their suits once on board, something Jennings at least was always glad to do. |
| superluminal adj. | 1969 in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Dec. 103 An imaginary mass has no physical significance in our own subluminal Universe, so it has long been customary to dismiss superluminal velocities at once, and say that faster-than-light particles are impossible because there can be no such thing as an imaginary mass. |
| telepathize v. | 1984 Norby’s Other Secret v. 43 Ever since the dragon bite, he and Norby been able to telepathize when they were in contact and thinking hard. He said, ‘I was just trying to think, Norby, and you’re reading my mind.’ |
| teleport v. 2 | 1944 Big & the Little in Astounding Science-Fiction Aug. 19/2 Teleported direct from the capital. |
| Tellurian n. | 1965 Water, Water, Everywhere– in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Dec. 87 Mr. Bridges is more interested in correct usage of planetary names, rather than in mere derivations (a more useful and less frivolous involvement than mine, you see) and, for instance, advocates what he maintains to be correctly derived words such as Venustian and Hesperian for hypothetical inhabitants of Venus in place of the incorrect Venusian or Cytherean; and Tellus and Tellurian in place of Terra and Terran. He lists astronomers and classical scholars who support his views. |
| Tellus n. | 1965 Water, Water, Everywhere– in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Dec. 87 Mr. Bridges is more interested in correct usage of planetary names, rather than in mere derivations (a more useful and less frivolous involvement than mine, you see) and, for instance, advocates what he maintains to be correctly derived words such as Venustian and Hesperian for hypothetical inhabitants of Venus in place of the incorrect Venusian or Cytherean; and Tellus and Tellurian in place of Terra and Terran. He lists astronomers and classical scholars who support his views. |
| terraformed adj. | 1993 Forward Foundation 393 Wanda invariably found herself out here, scratching at the terraformed ground, as if coaxing a few plants to life might somehow, in some tiny measure, ameliorate her pain. |
| thruster n. | 1951 C-Chute in Galaxy Oct. 31/2 The coarse adjustment was the powerful thrusters back and front which fixed final velocity by their accelerative and decelerative force. |
| time barrier n. | 1967 Impossible, That’s All! in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Feb. 114 I’ve lost track of the number of letters that have reached me demanding, ‘Why can’t you go faster than light?’… ‘What makes you think that someday we won’t break the time barrier?’ |
| time-path n. | 1978 Fair Exchange in Asimov’s SF Adventure Magazine Fall 64/1 Did even so small a thing as the publication of Thespis set up its ripples and create an alternate time-path, and was I in that alternate time-path? |
| time viewer n. | 1956 Dead Past in Astounding Science Fiction Apr. 34/2 ‘Do you have a time viewer here, Dr. Foster?’… ‘Yes, I do, Mrs. Potterley. A kind of time-viewer. Not a good one. I can’t get sound yet and the picture is darned blurry, but it works.’ |
| Titanian adj. | 1956 First Law in Fantastic Universe Oct. 30/2 I could run the distance in the low gravity all right, but could I run a straight line? That was the question. My air-supply was ample and my suit heat-coils were satisfactory, but ten miles in a Titanian storm is infinity. |
| ultrawave n. | 1951 Foundation Trilogy–Foundation . i. 40 The news that the Terminus City ultrawave set received two hours ago. |
| ultrawave n. | 1951 Foundation Trilogy–Foundation . vi. 122 Use the ultrawave sets there to contact other portions of the planet. |
| Vegan n. 2 | 1942 Black Friar of Flame in Planet Stories Spring 22/2 Sanat wriggled in the grasp of the two Lhasinuic soldiers. ‘Tell them to let go,’ he cried in the Vegan tongue. ‘I am unarmed.’ ‘Speak,’ ordered the admiral in English. ‘They do not understand your language.’ Then, in Lhasinuic to the soldiers, ‘Shoot when I give the word.’ |
| Vegan adj. | 1942 Black Friar of the Flame in Planet Stories Spring 13/1 But Earth has particular significance. It’s the center of Loarism, because the Humans originated here. It corresponds to our own Vegan system. |
| Vegan adj. | 1943 Death Sentence in Astounding Science Fiction Nov. 32/1 Dorlis was great when no human had ever entered the Vegan system. |
| Vegan adj. | 1951 Foundation Trilogy–Foundation i. 79 He had long since stopped wishing for the mild Vegan tobacco of his youth. |
| Venusian n. 2 | 1939 Weapon Too Dreadful to Use in Amazing Stories May i. 115/1 Antil shrieked with delight when he saw these objects and for the first time since Karl knew him, lapsed into sibilant Venusian gibberish. [...] ‘It is a complete document in our ancient ceremonial language. Up to now we have never had more than disjointed fragments. This is a great find.’ |
| Vestan adj. | 1959 Anniversary in Amazing Science Fiction Stories Mar. 27/1 I was on Vesta about ten-eleven years ago, and I asked if the piece of the wreck we brought down was still there and they said sure, who would cart it away? So I thought I’d take a look at it and shot over by reaction motor strapped to my back. With Vestan gravity, you know, a reaction motor is all you need. |
| videophone n. | 1966 Key in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Oct. 30/2 Ashley rose. ‘Where is your videophone?’ ‘In the next room.’ |