Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
Order by: alphabetical | chronological ( asc | desc )
| First date | Word | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 1977 | landspeeder n. (1977) | in the fictional universe of the Star Wars franchise: a small vehicle that uses antigravity technology to hover close to the ground |
| 1977 | medbot n. (1977) | a bot that specializes in medical care |
| 1977 | military science fiction n. (1977) | a subgenre of science fiction that focuses on the military and warfare, esp. set in outer space or on other worlds |
| 1977 | mundane n. 3 (1977) | a person without supernatural powers |
| 1977 | science-fictionality n. (1977) | the condition or quality of being science fictional adj.; (of a work of fiction) being science-fictional |
| 1977 | soft science fiction n. (1977) | science fiction based on the soft sciences (as sociology, anthropology, etc.); (also) science fiction in which the scientific elements are relatively unimportant to the story |
| 1978 | dirtball n. (1978) | a planet |
| 1978 | downtime adj. (1978) | esp. in time-travel contexts: in or from the past; cf. uptime adj. |
| 1978 | frak v. (1978) | (a euphemism for) fuck, in various senses and parts of speech |
| 1978 | infodump n. (1978) | a large (often unwieldy or indigestible) amount of information supplied all at once; spec. as background or descriptive information in a narrative |
| 1978 | K/S n. (1978) | a subgenre of science fiction, originally published in fanzines and now esp. online, in which the Star Trek characters Kirk and Spock are portrayed as having a homosexual relationship; (later) any similar fiction in which a pair of (established) male characters is so portrayed |
| 1978 | metahuman n. (1978) | a person or being with superpowers; (also) a nonhuman being that resembles a human; a humanoid |
| 1978 | military SF n. (1978) | = military science fiction n. |
| 1978 | planetary romance n. (1978) | a subgenre of science fiction that focuses on adventures taken on a planetβs surface, especially in which the description of the planet is integral to the story; a work in this subgenre |
| 1978 | regeneration n. (1978) | in the British television series Doctor Who: the process by which a Time Lord transforms themself into a new physical form, esp. after an experience that would otherwise be fatal; (also) a particular manifestation of a Time Lord |
| 1978 | technothriller n. (1978) | a thriller which employs science fictional technology or gadgetry |
| 1978 | transhuman n. (1978) | a person who has gained abilities (as through genetic engineering or cybernetic augmentation) sufficiently advanced that they are regarded as a different species |
| 1978 | urban fantasy n. (1978) | a genre of fantasy that uses a (modern) city as its primary setting; a work in this genre |
| 1979 | Afrofuturist adj. (1979) | of, relating to, or characterized by Afrofuturism n. |
| 1979 | beanstalk n. (1979) | = space elevator n. |
| 1979 | coreward adj. (1979) | toward the center of a galaxy; cf. core n. |
| 1979 | cyborgization n. (1979) | the conversion of a biological organism into a cyborg n. |
| 1979 | filk singer n. (1979) | one who sings filk songs |
| 1979 | gameplay n. (1979) | the (characteristic) way in which a player interacts with an (electronic) game; the tactical aspects of play, such as rules, plot, etc., as distinct from graphics or sound effects |
| 1979 | generation starship n. (1979) | = generation ship n. |
| 1979 | gravitied adj. 2 (1979) | having artificial gravity |
| 1979 | gynoid n. (1979) | a robot having female or feminine characteristics; = robotrix n. |
| 1979 | SF/F/H n. (1979) | science fiction, fantasy, and horror, regarded as a single broad genre |
| 1979 | xenocidal adj. (1979) | of, pertaining to, or involving xenocide n. |
| 1980 | carbonite n. (1980) | a carbon-based material in which a person can be cryogenically preserved |
| 1980 | Darth n. 2 (1980) | (used as a title before the name of someone regarded as evil or an enemy) |
| 1980 | replicant n. 1 (1980) | an artificial being in the form of a human or other creature; an android |
| 1980 | uplift v. (1980) | to transform a non-sentient species into a sentient species, esp. by genetic engineering |
| 1980 | uplift n. (1980) | the making of a sentient species from a non-sentient one, esp. by genetic engineering |