Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
Order by: alphabetical | chronological
| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| filksing n. (1968) | a session or event of filk singing |
| filk singer n. (1979) | one who sings filk songs |
| filksinging n. (1965) | the singing of filk songs |
| filk song n. (1953) | a song in the filk style |
| fillo n. (1959) | a small illustration used to fill space, esp. in a fanzine |
| first contact n. (1945) | the first meeting between two different intelligent species |
| fix-up n. (1975) | a novel constructed from shorter material written separately |
| flame gun n. (1934) | a gun (esp. a handgun) that shoots flames; cf. earlier flame pistol n. |
| flame pistol n. (1930) | a pistol that shoots flames; cf. flame gun n. |
| flash crowd n. (2005) | a sudden increase in the number of visitors viewing a (small or niche) website, esp. after the site has been mentioned in a more prominent venue |
| Flash Gordon adj. (1938) | = science fictional adj.; (specif.) characteristic of hackneyed or dated science fiction; Buck Rogers adj. |
| fleet n. (1898) | = space fleet n. |
| flitter n. (1941) | a small usu. short-range aircraft or spaceship |
| floater n. (1928) | a vehicle or device powered by antigravity; (specif.) an antigravity platform that flies relatively close to the ground |
| flux capacitor n. (1981) | in the film Back to the Future and its sequels: the core component of the time machine made of a DeLorean automobile |
| flying saucer n. (1947) | any of various unidentified disc- or saucer-shaped objects reported as appearing in the sky, presumed to be of extraterrestrial origin; (hence) a saucer-shaped alien spacecraft |
| food pill n. (1885) | an edible item providing a person’s complete nutritional needs in compact form |
| Force n. (1974) | (with the) in the fictional universe of the Star Wars franchise: a mystical universal energy field which certain individuals, such as the Jedi, can harness to gain special powers or abilities |
| force beam n. (1929) | = tractor beam n.; = pressor beam n. |
| force field n. (1931) | a field of energy that acts as an invisible barrier; cf. shield n. |
| force screen n. (1932) | = force field n. |
| frak v. (1978) | (a euphemism for) fuck, in various senses and parts of speech |
| Franken- prefix (1967) | (used to form nouns in the sense ‘created or modified by scientific techniques, esp. genetic engineering’) |
| Frankenstein complex n. (1947) | Isaac Asimov’s term for: the anxiety and distrust humans feel for robots |
| free fall n. (1931) | a condition of weightlessness |
| fresher n. (1940) | a bathroom or shower |
| ftl adj. (1950) | = faster-than-light adj. |
| ftl adv. (1950) | = faster than light adv. |
| fugghead n. (1949) | a stupid, obnoxious, or incompetent person |
| fuggheaded adj. (1949) | stupid; obnoxious; incompetent |
| fuggheadedness n. (1949) | the quality of being stupid, obnoxious, or incompetent |
| future history n. (1937) | a fictional, self-contained, consistent, chronological framework (esp. realized across a body of work); (also) the subgenre of science fiction that uses such a framework |
| future war n. (1931) | a subgenre of science fiction dealing with warfare and how it will be practiced in the future |