jumpship n.

a spaceship that makes interstellar jumps

FTL

Vehicles

  • 1957 ‘R. Sharon’ The ‘Lady’ was a Tramp in Venture Science Fiction Magazine Mar. 45/1 page image Judith Merril bibliography

    On a Navy transport, a full Lieutenant IBMan would be in charge of SolNav only, with two petty officers under him, both qualified to handle maintenance, and one at least with a Navy rating, capable of relieving him on duty at the control board during the five or twelve or twenty hours it might take to navigate a jump-ship in or out of the obstacle course of clutter and junk and planets and orbits of any given System.

  • 1957 ‘R. Sharon’ The ‘Lady’ was a Tramp in Venture Science Fiction Magazine Mar. 51/1 page image Judith Merril bibliography

    Like every jump-ship, the Lady was Navy built, equipped, and staffed.

  • 1981 ‘C. J. Cherryh’ Pride of Chanur (1991) ii. 24 C. J. Cherryh bibliography

    Those masses by which The Pride or any other jumpship steered; and on the other sides were kif regions.

  • 1982 ‘C. J. Cherryh’ Merchanter’s Luck 13 C. J. Cherryh bibliography

    His indignation won him at least a momentary lift of her hand and deprecation of the question she had asked, because a jumpship was far and away a different class of operation from the insystem haulers and miners.

  • 1988 L. E. Modesitt, Jr. In Endless Twilight 72 L. E. Modesitt, Jr. bibliography

    Diminishing returns? A jumpship is certainly an example of diminishing returns for a small system. But I wouldn’t advocate doing away with them.

  • 1991 G. Zebrowski Stranger Suns 130 George Zebrowski bibliography

    The first jump ships needed even more energy, but they gave the alien engineers the capacity to enter otherspace, and hence to invade the cores of suns and harness their power, transmitting along foreshortened lines to ships which could now go anywhere and never lack for fuel.

  • 1994 B. Hambly Crossroad (Star Trek: The Original Series) x. 132 Barbara Hambly bibliography

    A Fleet jumpship could have materialized inside the buoy ring.

  • 1998 L. M. Bujold Komarr 102 Lois McMaster Bujold bibliography

    We went on a jumpship, to come here. It was a Vorsmythe Dolphin-class 776 with quadruple-vortex out-board control nacelles and dual norm-space thrusters and a crew of twelve.

  • 2007 D. Marusek Counting Heads 242 David Marusek bibliography

    In three months, the brave jump pilots seated behind me will begin to ferry colonists down to the surface. Naturally, everyone wants to be on the first historic landing. Who those lucky people will be depends upon the launch order of the jumpships.

  • 2022 M. A. Mohanraj Hush in Tor.com page image Mary Anne Mohanraj bibliography

    Tomorrow, she’d be sad for her planet, her people, herself, that she couldn’t trust the police to do the right thing. Today, she had someone to escort safely home. That was what Jenny did—when she flew the Jumpships, between the stars. All those people, traveling and tired, relying on Jenny to help them home to their families. She couldn’t solve the larger problems. But right now, this much, she could do.

Research requirements

antedating 1957
Earliest cite

Judith Merril (as 'Rose Sharon'), "The Lady Was a Tramp", in Venture Science Fiction
Research History
Douglas Winston submitted a 1982 cite from C.J. Cherryh's "Merchanter's Luck".
Douglas Winston submitted a 1998 cite from Lois McMaster Bujold's "Komarr".
Douglas Winston submitted a 1988 cite from L.E. Modesitt, Jr.'s "In Endless Twilight".
Ralf Brown located and Richard Horton submitted a 1987 cite from Lois McMaster Bujold's "Falling Free".
Ralf Brown located and Steven Silver submitted a 1991 cite from George Zebrowski's "Stranger Suns".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1957 cite for the form "jump-ship" from "The Lady Was a Tramp" by Rose Sharon (pseudonym of Judith Merril).
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2022 cite from Mary Ann Mohanraj.

Last modified 2022-12-14 03:43:54
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.