Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
Order by: alphabetical | chronological ( asc | desc )
| First date | Word | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 1960 | cyborg n. (1960) | a living organism whose body has been modified to include both biological and mechanical components |
| 1960 | feghoot n. (1960) | a very short story that culminates in an (elaborate) pun |
| 1960 | kipple n. (1960) | useless or unwanted (household) objects; junk; rubbish |
| 1960 | loc n. (1960) | a letter written to a magazine, esp. a fanzine |
| 1960 | mundane n. 2 (1960) | a person who is not a science-fiction fan; an outsider |
| 1960 | neopro n. (1960) | a new professional writer |
| 1960 | post-apocalyptic adj. (1960) | pertaining to a time or setting after the collapse of civilization |
| 1960 | starfaring adj. (1960) | pertaining to interstellar travel |
| 1960 | Sturgeon’s Law n. (1960) | a humorous aphorism which maintains that most of any body of published material, knowledge, etc., or (more generally) of everything is worthless: based on a statement by Theodore Sturgeon, usually later cited as ‘90 per cent of everything is crap’ |
| 1960 | superheroine n. (1960) | a woman who uses superpowers or superscience for benevolent purposes; a female superhero n. |
| 1960 | telempath n. (1960) | a person who has the psionic ability to sense others’ emotions |
| 1961 | epic fantasy n. (1961) | = high fantasy n.; = sword and sorcery n. |
| 1961 | filksing n. (1961) | a session or event of filksinging n. |
| 1961 | filksinging n. (1961) | the singing of filk songs |
| 1961 | grok v. (1961) | to perceive or understand fully; to feel empathy with; to enjoy, appreciate |
| 1961 | heroic fantasy n. (1961) | = sword and sorcery n. |
| 1961 | in-system adv. (1961) | in or into a solar system; toward the center of a solar system; cf. out-system adv. |
| 1961 | jumpspace n. (1961) | hyperspace n.; the (notional) space in which ships travel during a jump |
| 1961 | light n. 2 (1961) | a light year |
| 1961 | loc v. (1961) | to write a loc (to) |
| 1961 | sensawunda n. (1961) | = sense of wonder n. |
| 1961 | starfarer n. (1961) | an interstellar traveller |
| 1962 | Clarke’s Law n. (1962) | any of three maxims formulated by Arthur C. Clarke (sometimes specified as Clarke’s First Law, Clarke’s Second Law, Clarke’s Third Law): (a) ‘When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong’ (b) ‘The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.’ (c) ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’ |
| 1962 | datapad n. (1962) | a thin handheld electronic device for viewing and manipulating information; a tablet computer |
| 1962 | dystopianism n. (1962) | dystopian quality or characteristics |
| 1962 | filk v. (1962) | to write or perform filk songs |
| 1962 | filker n. (1962) | one who sings filk songs; = filk singer n. |
| 1962 | laser cannon n. (1962) | a large weapon, similar in size to a cannon, that fires a laser |
| 1962 | postholocaust adj. (1962) | = post-apocalyptic adj. |
| 1962 | proto-science fiction n. (1962) | literary works, written before the establishment of science fiction as a recognized genre, that prefigure the themes of science fiction, especially ones involving fantastic voyages or technological innovations |
| 1962 | sapience n. (1962) | (of non-humans) intelligence |
| 1962 | tesser v. (1962) | in Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time: to travel through space by means of a tesseract n. |
| 1962 | tesseract n. (1962) | in Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time: a means of travelling through space by manipulating the dimensions of spacetime |
| 1962 | xeno- prefix (1962) | (used to form words indicating that the base element is or relates to an alien) |
| 1963 | companion n. (1963) | in the British television series Doctor Who: any of the usually human characters who (regularly) travel with the Doctor |
| 1963 | dalek n. (1963) | in the British television series Doctor Who: a member of a race of aggressive alien mutants in mobile armoured casings |