Newest Quotations
| Word | Quotation | Date Added |
| teleporting n. | 2023 Origin Story in Transmogrify! 5 I’m sixteen and broke and I live half in the boonies, half in the city, off a busy state road. I can’t drive, and I never learned to gracewalk—making portals from place to place. Only a tacky-ass kid like me would call it teleporting, but that’s what it is. And I can’t do it, so I have to figure out where the hell I can go and how the hell I can get there. | 2023-09-19 |
| planet-wide adv. | 1933 Eternal Mask in Amazing Stories Feb. 1017/2 At home he was known planet-wide as Secretary Lama. | 2023-09-01 |
| planet-wide adv. | 1943 Beyond the Boiling Zone in Startling Stories Dec. 86/2 Once every seven years, Vulcan has an earthquake, planet-wide. | 2023-09-01 |
| planet-wide adv. | 1959 Who Rides the Tiger in Science Fiction Adventures Dec. 29 A news sequence came on the screen…with close-ups of huge atomic-powered installations scattered planet-wide to change the atmosphere of the uninhabited world to make it breathable within a year. | 2023-09-01 |
| planet-wide adv. | 2002 Speaker for the Wooden Sea in Asimov’s Science Fiction Mar. 127 EMP will have propagated through circuits planet-wide, frying a lot of Lill-2 in the process. | 2023-09-01 |
| planet-wide adv. | 1996 The Procedure in Science Fiction Age July 39/2 The summoner on my bedtable had keys for food, research aid, and the referencing of millions of sites, activities, and services planetwide. | 2023-09-01 |
| planet-wide adv. | 1970 Fimbulsommer in Worlds of If Sept.–Oct. 20/2 Some local change could affect the area for a year or two but anything that drastic, over that long a period of time, would have to be planetwide as far as I can tell. | 2023-09-01 |
| planet-wide adv. | 1993 Red Mars 258 Is there anything to stop it from growing planetwide? | 2023-09-01 |
| planet-wide adj. | 1932 Martian Cabal in Astounding Stories May 204/2 A planet-wide sentimental spree over the revival of the monarchy and the marriage of the beautiful and popular princess. | 2023-08-31 |
| adamantium n. | [1956 Forbidden Planet (transcription of film) In the 2,000 centuries since that unexplained catastrophe, even their cloud-piercing towers of glass and porcelain and adamantine steel have crumbled back into the soil of Altair-4 and nothing, absolutely nothing, remains above ground.] | 2023-08-29 |
| adamantium n. | 1912 Mechanical Engineer 25 Oct. 520/2 The former syndicate exhibit two of their specialities in the shape of Adamantium bronze—a high-class non-corrosive, anti-friction metal for bearings, gears, propellers, [etc.]. | 2023-08-29 |
| adamantium n. | 1969 Mighty Avengers (#66) July 6 [‘]Yeeeoww! I almost broke my blasted hand![’]… [‘]Now what thinkest thou of the metal called adamantium![’] [‘I wish I’d had some arrows made of it, back when I was Hawkeye![’] | 2023-08-29 |
| adamantium n. | 1985 Encyclopedia of Superheroes 336/1 Most remarkably, he [sc. Wolverine] possesses a skeleton reinforced with adamantium as well as six-foot-long adamantium claws strong enough to cut down a very large tree in a single swipe. | 2023-08-29 |
| adamantium n. | 2012 Long Earth xlviii. 321 The ultimate ‘black box’, you might say, is in the belly of the ship, armoured in an alloy that I confidently believe makes adamantium look like putty and will, I am sure, remain totally unscathed even in the event of a meteor strike of mass-extinction proportions. | 2023-08-29 |
| adamantium n. | 1991 Marvel Super Heroes Guide Book 12 One of them is Adamantium, the same artificial metal that has been applied to Wolverine’s skeleton. | 2023-08-29 |
| adamantium n. | 2005 Mysterious Iowans in Mammoth Book of New Jules Verne Adventures 348 The capsule disgorged a wallet-sized, flexible sheet of adamantium inscribed using a diamond stylus with the particulars of Wheats tone's employment and the terms of his liberty in Lincolnopolis. | 2023-08-29 |
| adamantium n. | 1941 Devil’s Powder in Astounding Science-Fiction June 73/1 It was a bullet. It was a small slug of adamantium, the toughest and hardest of all metals, crammed to capacity with the terrific explosive feroxite and would burst instantly on any reasonably heavy impact. | 2023-08-29 |
| little green man n. | 2011 On Books in Asimov’s Science Fiction Aug. 110/1 Scientists in a dozen fields are finding evidence that we may well have company in the universe—if not little green men or tentacled monsters seeking to carry off Earth’s women, certainly something we might recognize as living and maybe even as intelligent. | 2023-08-25 |
| little green man n. | 1990 Wings (1991) 140 Humans find it a lot easier, really, to believe in little people from the sky than little people from the Earth. They would prefer to think of little green men than leprechauns. | 2023-08-25 |
| colony planet n. | 2017 Persepolis Rising 110 We’ve just taken control of the governor of a colony planet. | 2023-08-22 |
| colony planet n. | 2013 Human Division x. 275 The Phoenix City Hub…aggregated most of the civilian mass transportation for the oldest and most populous city of the oldest and most populous human interstellar colony planet. | 2023-08-22 |
| colony planet n. | 1981 Strata 8 According to the files, they were both from colony planets so new the bedrock had hardly dried, while she was manifestly from Earth. | 2023-08-22 |
| colony planet n. | 1942 Perfect Invasion in Stirring Science Stories Mar. 10/2 I don’t know what it was like before; the usual colony-planet, I suppose, with labor-barracks and factories and semi-detached homes. | 2023-08-22 |
| colony planet n. | 1943 Attitude in Astounding Science-Fiction Sept. 27/2 He had been born on Earth but showed plainly a background of several generations on the colony-planet Regulus Six—big bones, dark skin, quick reactions. | 2023-08-22 |
| colony planet n. | 1952 Girls from Earth in Galaxy Science Fiction Jan. vii. 97/2 What danger can a shoplifter do on a colony planet? There’s nothing to steal. | 2023-08-22 |
| colony planet n. | 1957 Night of Light in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction June 25/2 So what if my prints are filed? They won’t be cross-checked; they’ll just be those of some immigrant, who was born on a colony-planet and who is being recorded for the first time. | 2023-08-22 |
| colony planet n. | 1978 While the North Wind Blows in Amazing Stories Nov. 18/1 ‘In some ways, it’s just like home. Only there should be more snow, and a lot of salt water.’ ‘A colony planet?’ She said ironically, ‘Just a planet to get rich quick on.’ | 2023-08-22 |
| colony planet n. | 1997 Paladin in Absolute Magnitude Fall–Winter 48/2 He was no longer the simple soyfarm boy from a Third Wave colony planet who’d fallen in love with a high stakes baccarat dealer. | 2023-08-22 |
| waldo n. | 1981 Strata 160 It was a robot, a big one shaped the best shape for a robot. Square. One waldo arm was groping in a square hole in the alcove’s metal wall. | 2023-08-21 |
| terraform v. | 1981 Strata 11 We build worlds, we don’t just terraform planets. Robots could do that. We build places where the imagination of human beings can find an anchor. | 2023-08-21 |
| avian n. | 1981 Strata 37 We looked it up in the Guide to Sapient Species, but there is only one avian, and this is not it. | 2023-08-21 |
| collapsium n. | 1981 Strata 27 The temperature fell like collapsium. | 2023-08-21 |
| neutronium n. | 1981 Strata 19 You plate the underside with neutronium for gravity. | 2023-08-21 |
| stunner n. | 1981 Strata 13 When he had wiped the blood out of his eyes she was looking down at him and holding a stunner. | 2023-08-21 |
| planetary engineering n. | 1981 Strata 10 He…brought out a book…. ‘This is one of the authorities on planetary engineering.’ | 2023-08-21 |
| laser rifle n. | 1981 Strata 60 Marco loped in, tugging at his helmet with two hands. Another one held a laser rifle, salvage from the other half of the ship. | 2023-08-21 |
| BEM n. | 1997 Everywhen in Interzone (#118) Apr. 29/1 The only tangible evidence the Automats had left of their erstwhile presence, apart from memories in the minds of Men and Bems. | 2023-08-21 |
| BEM n. | 1981 Strata 46 I told that agency computer on Real Earth to pick three people that fitted my specifications, and it gave me three names. The damn thing never bothered to say that two of them were BEMs. | 2023-08-21 |
| unhuman n. | 1965 Shores of Infinity in Amazing Stories Apr. 9/2 ‘I’m sorry,’ said Gordon, and meant it. He hadn’t quite got used to unhumans yet but he and Korkhann had been through a nasty time together. | 2023-08-16 |
| RSN adv. | 1959 Fancyclopedia II 137 Real Soon Now…Term created by Martin Alger in 1950 to describe the excitement evident in the voice of George H Young when he spoke of the con to be held in Detroit RSN. | 2023-08-08 |
| RSN adv. | 1968 Spacewarp (#88) Apr. (unpaged) I don’t feel so guilty about all the…projects I haven’t time for at the moment (but I gotta dig out those limericks RSN!). | 2023-08-08 |
| RSN adv. | 1987 Twilight Zine (#38) Spring 38/1 P.S. Next ish of The Clockwork Grapefruit to be out RSN! | 2023-08-08 |
| RSN adv. | 1999 Trap Door (#19) May (unpaged) Watch out for the sign….It’s not erected yet, but RSN…. [second ellipsis in orig.] | 2023-08-08 |
| RSN adv. | 1998 Outworlds (#70) 2650/1 Toni Weisskopf is working on a biography of Tucker’s Life & Work (portions of which are to be published in these pages, RSN). | 2023-08-08 |
| RSN adv. | 2009 Relapse (Prolapse) (#13) Feb. 44 You must Do Something RSN. | 2023-08-08 |
| RSN adv. | 1981 Thyme (#9) 29 Dec. (unpaged) Joyce Scrivner and I are planning (RSN) to organize a Minneapolis Fans for Melbourne in 85 group to give moral and other support to the bid. | 2023-08-08 |
| RealSoonNow adv. | 1980 Southern Fandom Confederation Handbook 4 July 15/2 There was a longish for the latest issue, #43 (Mar. 1980) which emerged with some enthusiasm to return it to regular quarterly publication RealSoonNow. | 2023-08-08 |
| RealSoonNow adv. | 1993 Anvil (#55) 1 Apr. 2/2 We got a lot of advance stuff decided, and new, bigger, updated flyers will be out RealSoonNow, and may even be included with thish. | 2023-08-08 |
| RealSoonNow adv. | 1959 Fancyclopedia II 137 Real Soon Now When the MSFS/DSFL was going to have: a convention, a decent fanzine, an active membership, a properly run meeting and many other fine things that didn’t quite happen. Term created by Martin Alger in 1950 to describe the excitement evident in the voice of George H Young when he spoke of the con to be held in Detroit RSN. | 2023-08-08 |
| RealSoonNow adv. | 2003 AUUGN June 8/2 To supplement these invited speakers, a Call for Papers (CFP) will be made RealSoonNow, to invite submissions from others in the Open Source / Free Software community to be involved in this event. | 2023-08-08 |
| RealSoonNow adv. | 2022 SF Commentary (#110) July 11/2 What I plan on doing, RealSoonNow, is a separate letterzine (of a title yet to be determined, suggestions welcome) reprinting a selection of correspondence for the first 25 issues of the run. | 2023-08-08 |
| RealSoonNow adv. | 1962 Menace of the LASFS (vol. 8, no. 1) 5 Apr. 1 SHAGGY #61 is supposed to be coming out Real Soon Now. | 2023-08-08 |
| RealSoonNow adv. | 1962 Key to the Terminology of Science-Fiction Fandom 15 Real Soon Now — Fannish promise of imminent activity, now has meaning of ‘far in the future’. Capitals denote sarcasm. | 2023-08-08 |
| RealSoonNow adv. | 1966 Yandro (#161) July 4 I’ll write to her publisher RealSoonNow, but while I'm thinking about it, I’ll just note the question here, too. | 2023-08-08 |
| RealSoonNow adv. | 1970 Embelyon (#1) May 6 None of this ‘I’m going to write something realsoonnow when I have the time’. | 2023-08-08 |
| Luna n. | 1876 tr. J. Verne All Around the Moon v. 90 If the Moon is inhabited at all, her inhabitants must have appeared several thousand years before the advent of Man on our Earth, for there seems to be very little doubt that Luna is considerably older than Terra in her present state. | 2023-07-31 |
| Jovian n. 1 | 1876 tr. J. Verne All Around the Moon xv. 264 If the Jovians and the rest have been able to quit their planets, they have probably succeeded in discovering the invisible sides of their satellites. | 2023-07-31 |
| communicator n. | 1905 With the Night Mail in McClure’s Magazine Nov. 28/2 He leans forward in his belt, eyes glued to the colloid, and one ear cocked toward the General Communicator. [Ibid. 30/1] The only warning is the electric skin-tension…and an irritability which the gibbering of the General Communicator increases almost to hysteria. | 2023-07-21 |
| communicator n. | 1912 Easy as A.B.C. in Washington Post 25 Feb. (Family Magazine section) 4/1 Our calls—urgent, pleading, coaxing or commanding—through the General Communicator, brought no answer. [Ibid. 5/2] In the utter hush that followed the growling spark, after Arnott had linked up his Service Communicator with the invisible fleet, we heard MacDonough’s Song from the city beneath us grow fainter. | 2023-07-21 |
| sonic screwdriver n. | 1989 Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers xviii. 155 He took a sonic screwdriver from his top pocket, flipped a series of release catches on his neck, removed his head and plonked it down unceremoniously on to the table. | 2023-07-19 |
| sonic screwdriver n. | 1974 Doctor Who & the Auton Invasion vi. 63 He went through the pockets of his old clothes. ‘Sonic screwdriver, TARDIS detector…Yes, it all seems to be there.’ Quickly the Doctor transferred his possessions into his new pockets. | 2023-07-19 |
| coreward adj. | 2011 Recollection xxix. 222 They were planning to ship out from the Quay together, as crewmembers on a Blue Star Trading vessel taking a run up the coreward stars to Nolton Relay, on the very edge of explored space. | 2023-07-18 |
| coreward adj. | 1991 On Books in Asimov’s Science Fiction Mar. 186/1 The story begins with the murder of an alien diplomat from the Coreward Alliance. | 2023-07-18 |
| high fantasy n. | [1965 Saturday Review 2 Oct. 40/3 Tolkien’s fantasy was preceded by an overture called The Hobbit, and both works were imported by Houghton Mifflin in what is known as ‘sheets’; and here is where H-M ran afoul of the copyright law…. The case is interesting because it shows that the law, like Tolkien’s books, has its moments of high fantasy.] | 2023-07-13 |
| high fantasy n. | [1929 Silver Key in Weird Tales Jan. 44/1 Ironic humor dragged down all the twilight minarets he reared, and the earthy fear of improbability blasted all the delicate and amazing flowers in his faery gardens. The convention of assumed pity split mawkishness on his characters, while the myth of an important reality and significant human events and emotions debased all his high fantasy into thin-veiled allegory and cheap social satire.] | 2023-07-13 |
| high fantasy n. | [1954 Saturday Review 16 Jan. 10/2 There are some writers of distinction who make an impression upon their area of culture which cannot be measured by the usual criteria of literary excellence. Leonard Bacon was such a man. As a poet he had to his credit a shelf-ful of books which ranged from social satire to narratives of high fantasy and lyrics of great emotional intensity.] | 2023-07-13 |
| high fantasy n. | 1971 High Fantasy: ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’ in Horn Book (vol. 42, no. 2) Apr. 130 It is not in the least surprising that Ursula Le Guin should have written, in A Wizard of Earthsea, a work which is a noble example of the term ‘high fantasy’. Of this term she has said, ‘I think “High Fantasy” a beautiful phrase. It summarizes, for me, what I value most in an imaginative work: the fact that the author takes absolutely seriously the world and the people which he has created…that he plays his game with all his skill, and all his art, and all his heart. When he does that, the fantasy game becomes one of the High Games men play.’ | 2023-07-13 |
| high fantasy n. | 1971 in Horn Book (vol. 42, no. 6) Dec. 577 (title) High Fantasy and Heroic Romance. | 2023-07-13 |
| vidcall n. | 1971 Epic in Worlds of Tomorrow Spring 103 That vidcall when I docked at Station One was pure politics. I felt like a damned fool talking to him, knowing a couple of billion people were watching us. | 2023-06-23 |
| vidcall n. | 1996 Bicycle Repairman in Asimov’s Science Fiction Oct.–Nov. 162 Please hold for an incoming vidcall from Andrea Schweik of Carnac Instruments. | 2023-06-23 |
| legendarium n. | ?1951 Letter in H. Carpenter Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981) 149 This legendarium [sc. the Silmarillion] ends with a vision of the end of the world, its breaking and remaking, and the recovery of the Silmarilli. | 2023-06-22 |
| legendarium n. | 1954 Letter Sept. in H. Carpenter Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981) 189 My legendarium…, which lies immediately behind The Lord of the Rings, is based on my view: that Men are essentially mortal and must not try to become ‘immortal’ in the flesh. | 2023-06-22 |
| legendarium n. | 1984 Amon Hen (Tolkien Society) (#83) 12 The….subsequent stages…through which Tolkien’s legendarium evolved throughout his life permits us to watch him labouring at the sub-creation of his Middle-earth. | 2023-06-22 |
| legendarium n. | 2022 ‘House of the Dragon’ and ‘The Rings of Power’ Both Use Diverse Casting in N.Y. Times 28 Oct. (electronic ed.) It’s true that Tolkien’s legendarium is a self-conscious attempt to invent a mythology for his beloved England. | 2023-06-22 |
| legendarium n. | 2021 Practical Geography of Always Coming Home in Mythlore (vol. 39, no. 138) (Spring/Summer) 125 His legendarium is full of annals and chronologies, marked by dates and the passage of precisely-marked Ages. | 2023-06-22 |
| legendarium n. | 1995 J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator 69 Tolkien’s imagination seems to have been without bounds…. It was also a well-spring of tales to entertain his children…. The stories he told them were simpler than his legendarium (though by no means simple). | 2023-06-22 |
| legendarium n. | 2011 ‘An Age-Old Memory’: Arthur Machen’s Celtic Redaction of the Welsh Revival in A. L. Becker & K. Noone Welsh Mythology & Folklore in Popular Culture 78 Iltyd can be associated with the image of the altar; and in Machen’s own legendarium, Ilar can be associated with any of the three symbols—altar, bell, or cup. | 2023-06-22 |
| legendarium n. | 1986 Best of Spider-Man i. 10 He’s [sc. Dr. Doom] appeared countless times in our Marvel comicbooks, menacing virtually every hero we’ve ever featured, including the Incredible Hulk, Dr. Strange, Daredevil, The Avengers, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, and so on ad legendarium. | 2023-06-22 |
| verse n. | 2002 Serenity (Firefly episode) (transcription) Kaylee It’s shiny! I like to meet new people. They’ve all got stories— Jayne Captain, can you stop her from being cheerful, please? Mal I don’t believe there is a power in the ’verse that can stop Kaylee from being cheerful. | 2023-06-20 |
| verse n. | 2004 on LiveJournal 24 June (blog entry) OK so last night I had another one of those early night dreams [...] we were out in this field and the other guy and i had this power where we could see this alternate universe that was like a layer of our own, much darker and we could occasionally switch between both but when we were in the alternate verse, we couldnt see the real world[...] | 2023-06-20 |
| verse n. | 2007 Selling Out viii. 86 The realm of the dead. They say it’s parted from us in temporal dimensions only, that it is panspatial and pantemporal, a dimensional ’verse transecting all points in which beings like us cannot move, though there are beings that can. | 2023-06-20 |
| verse n. | 2009 Singers of Rhodes in Panverse One 230 Davey’s laugh dragged itself across a bed of gravel. ‘The word’s been heard, varritch. There ain’t no roads but roads to Rhodes. Don't leave this ’verse without you’ve seen it for yourself.’ Rhodes was an ugly thing, but it was the wonder of the universe. The first evidence of non-human intelligence was hard to resist. | 2023-06-20 |
| verse n. | 2015 Illuminae 84 You flex your tiniest gun turret, look like you’re even reaching to scratch an itch, I’m going to raise so much noise the Lincoln and every ally she has in the ’verse will know where to find you. | 2023-06-20 |
| verse n. | 2017 Everything Everywhere All at Once (script) (12/18/2017 draft) 86 You’re close, but no pineapple. (catching herself) I’m sorry. It’s hard to keep track of which idioms come from which verses. | 2023-06-20 |
| verse n. | [1991 Quantum Leaps of Imagination in Newsday (New York) 27 Aug. 62/1 According to theory, a baby universe—or ‘babyverse’—can be spun off from the parent ‘multiverse’ as a bulge in the fabric of spacetime.] | 2023-06-20 |
| multiverse n. 1 | 2017 Everything Everywhere All at Once (script) (12/18/2017 draft) 91 Jackie But I saw you die. Alpha Winona I did die in your universe, but I survived in another because the multiverse— Jackie STOP! Stop it! I don’t want to know anymore. | 2023-06-20 |
| earth folk n. | 1897 To Venus in Five Seconds iv. 66 It has been mooted once or twice that we should select husbands from the Earth-folk, but no one cares to be the first to do so, and thus we drift on. [Ibid. x. 99] A few of them, like Ef, hold that it is morally indefensible to torture one creature for another’s benefit; these may save some Earth-folk in the future years, but I fear they will do little for us. | 2023-06-08 |
| Centaurian n. 2 | 1985 So Long, & Thanks For All the Fish i. 3 It had large characters printed on the side which read (to anyone who could decipher the Centaurian alphabet) DUTY-FREE MEGA-MARKET, PORT BRASTA, ALPHA CENTAURI. | 2023-06-06 |
| Centaurian n. 2 | 2006 Shadows of the Indignant in Star Trek: Mere Anarchy (2009) 223 ‘You speak English?’ ‘This is a customs office…. I speak a variety of Terran, Vulcan, Andorian, Centaurian, and Orion languages.’ | 2023-06-06 |
| Centaurian n. 2 | 1957 Second Census in Infinity Science Fiction Oct. 118/2 A split second later we heard a riveting machine burst of what was obviously Centaurian profanity coming down the shaft as the alien found the exit closed. | 2023-06-06 |
| Centaurian n. 2 | 1956 Plus X in Astounding Science Fiction June 13/2 ‘Any of you speak Terran?’ They looked at the sky, the wall, the ground, or at each other, and remained silent. ‘Anyone know Centaurian?’ No answer. | 2023-06-06 |
| Centaurian n. 2 | 1943 Death Sentence in Astounding Science-Fiction Nov. 35/1 But he doesn’t claim to be able to decipher more than portions. He says it is related to ancient Centaurian and I’ve put linguists to work on it. It can be cracked and if his translation isn’t accurate, we’ll know about it. | 2023-06-06 |
| Centaurian n. 1 | 1988 Message From Our Alien Publisher in Aboriginal Science Fiction Jan.–Feb. 30/3 This seemed to help the Centaurian recover its bearings. ‘Of course,’ it said. | 2023-06-05 |
| Centaurian n. 1 | 1965 Pariah Planet in Worlds of Tomorrow Mar. 137/2 He had been attacked without warning, without provocation, by a drunken Centaurian named Zaque. | 2023-06-05 |
| Centaurian n. 1 | 1979 Hero in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Sept. 33/1 There were battle trophies and war wagons and even a dead Centaurian in a tank—one of the better-looking varieties. | 2023-06-05 |
| Centaurian adj. | 1940 Warrior Race in Astounding Science-Fiction Oct. 137/2 Some day you will tire of Centaurian rule, and join some other movement with equally impractical ideals. | 2023-06-05 |
| Centaurian adj. | 1955 Es Percipi in Imagination Science Fiction Oct. 38/1 Three big men lumbered into the room, each one large enough to give a Centaurian marsupial a good tumble. | 2023-06-05 |
| Centaurian adj. | 1967 Road to the Rim in Worlds of If Apr. 9/1 There were the ships, the starships, that span their web of commerce from Earth to the Centaurian planets. | 2023-06-05 |
| starbase n. | 1956 Question of Time in Fantastic Universe 114/2 At last, the work of demolition was completed. With the wrecking of the dormitory and living-unit, Star Base Three was completely razed to the ground. | 2023-05-31 |
| telempath n. | 1964 Jam for Christmas in Amazing Stories Mar. 109/1 He could experience the emotions of others and even influence same: he was a telempath. | 2023-05-31 |