outworld n.

a planet that is remote from the homeworld; a planet far from a solar system’s star

  • 1902 J. Buchan Watcher by Threshold ii. v. 312

    In this savage out-world a man stood for a man.

  • 1951 M. Lesser ‘A’ as in Android in Future May 75/2 Milton Lesser

    Orders are beginning to pour in from all over the outworlds.

  • 1953 D. Knight Double Meaning in Startling Stories Jan. 56/2 Damon Knight

    You told me, under interrogation, that your only reason for working with the Empire, against its rivals, was that the Empire was necessary to the Outworlds—that if it broke up too soon, the Outworlds would either fall with it, or else become as ‘ossified’ as the Empire itself, which would be equally bad.

  • 1953 D. Knight Double Meaning in Startling Stories Jan. 43/1 Damon Knight

    On most of the outworlds of the writer’s experience, good hypnotic subjects are in a minority, but my impression is that this is not the case on Earth, at least among Empire personnel.

  • 1954 M. Lesser Revolt of Outworlds in Imagination Dec. 17/1 Milton Lesser

    Equal Union was a farce, he said. Equal Union—with Earth bleeding the Outworlds dry of their resources! Don’t you see, Tremaine? Earth needs our mineral wealth—heavy water from Venus, iron from Mars, lithium and cobalt from the Jovian moons and Titan.

  • 1962 C. Smith Ballad of Lost C'mell in T. Shippey Oxford Book of Science Fiction (1992) 308

    Commissioner Teadrinker, sir. He’s in charge of all outworld visitors.

  • 1966 J. Brunner Long Way to Earth in World of If Science Fiction Mar. 10/2 John Brunner

    Prior to this, some of the less scrupulous companies had forcibly colonized outworlds by methods even less polite than the Dictatrix’s: luring workers into their net with temptingly high salaries, then abandoning them light-years from any place where they could spend their earnings.

  • 1983 D. Duane So you want to be Wizard? 120 Diane Duane

    It would be folly to try matching wizardries with the Lone Power on its own ground, this outworld long given over to its rule.

  • 1988 I. Asimov Prelude to Foundation 74 Isaac Asimov

    It is important that the officials of the Empire have some common ground, some special feeling for the Empire. And they can’t all be native Trantorians or else the Outworlds would grow restless.

  • 1989 D. Egan Gate of Ivory ix. 126

    We’d love to see how it’s done in the outworlds, am I right?

  • 2011 S. Lee & S. Miller Korval’s Game 338 page image Steve Miller Sharon Lee bibliography

    They’d sought him out, the canny Liadens. Him, Jen of Neglit Center, though they surely had all the fabled master jewelers of Solcintra to choose from. Yet they traveled to an outworld, sought out an old and fading Terran master, commissioned him to make—to remake—their ring. And why was that?


Research requirements

antedating 1951

Earliest cite

Milton Lesser, 'A as in Android'

Research History
Katrina Campbell submitted a cite from a 1985 reprint of Edmond Hamilton's "The Closed Worlds"; there was an Ace book edition ca. 1968, but its bibliography is so unclear that we would like to see cites from any other pre-1985 edition. Malcolm Farmer suggested Milton Lesser's "Revolt of the Outworlds" and Mike Christie submitted a cite from the 1954 first publication. Malcolm Farmer submitted a 1966 cite from John Brunner's "The Long Way to Earth". Douglas Winston submitted a cite from a 2001 reprint of Doris Egan's 1989 "Gate of Ivory". Enoch Forrester submitted cites from Asimov's 1988 "Prelude to Foundation". Michael Dolbear submitted a cite from a 1996 reprint of Diane Duane's 1983 "So You Want to Be a Wizard". Fred Galvin submitted cites from a 1959 reprint of Damon Knight's "Double Meaning": we would like to verify them in the story's first publication (Startling Stories, January 1953). Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1963 reprint of Milton Lesser's ""A" as in Android", which Mike Chritie verified in its 1951 first publication. we would like to verify this in the first publication (Future Science Fiction, May, 1951.)

OED entry revised in December 2004

Last modified 2022-03-14 16:37:03
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.