Homo superior n.

the hypothetical successor species to Homo sapiens, having greater intellect or physical abilities and often possessing paranormal powers

Paranormal

  • 1935 O. Stapledon Odd John vi. 55 Olaf Stapledon bibliography

    ‘Suppose the taste of power goes to my head, and I collar everything? I'm only Homo sapiens, not Homo superior.’ And for once I privately felt that John was perhaps not so superior after all.

  • 1935 O. Stapledon Odd John 271 Olaf Stapledon bibliography

    Homo Superior faced the little mob of Homo Sapiens, and it was immediately evident that Homo Superior was indeed the better man.

  • 1943 Astounding Science Fiction Aug. 158/1 (editorial comment in letter column) page image

    How do you decide whether a man is an abnormally brilliant homo sapiens or a low-grade homo superior, anyway?

  • 1944 ‘L. Padgett’ When the Bough Breaks in Astounding Science Fiction Nov. 81/1 page image Henry Kuttner C. L. Moore bibliography

    The old order changeth. It had to start sometime. Alexander is the first homo superior.

  • 1944 ‘L. O’Donnell’ Children’s Hour in Astounding Science Fiction Mar. 139/1 page image Henry Kuttner C. L. Moore bibliography

    Homo superior, sending his children among us—to play.

  • 1946 E. F. Russell Metamorphosite in Astounding Science Fiction Dec. 20/2 page image Eric Frank Russell bibliography

    The battle was to be one of homo superior versus homo sapiens plus the Dranes plus other things of unknown abilities—with the odds much in favor of the combine.

  • 1955 ‘F. Donovan’ Short Life in Astounding Science Fiction Oct. 48/2 page image Francis Donovan bibliography

    Now you see why I dared not go even farther and release—untrained and with no hope of adequate training—the true Homo superior, the transcendent man.

  • 1973 J. R. Gregory & R. Price Tomorrow People in the Visitor 23 Julian R. Gregory Roger Price bibliography

    When the three returned to Earth, they had wondered what to call themselves. Homo superior sounded…well, too superior.

  • 1991 G. Zebrowski Stranger Suns 279 George Zebrowski bibliography

    Into a being that will continue to change. Not instant homo superior, but with small steps over a long period of time.

  • 1998 N. Gaiman in S. R. Delany Einstein Intersection (new ed.) Foreword p. ix, Neil Gaiman

    One can see this book as a portrait of a generation that dreamed that new drugs and free sex would bring about a fresh dawn and the rise of homo superior, wandering the world of the generation before them like magical children walking through an abandoned city—through the ruins of Rome, or Athens, or New York: that the book is inhabiting and reinterpreting the myths of the people who came to be known as the hippies.

  • 2012 A. M. Steele Alive & Well, A Long Way From Anywhere in Asimov’s Science Fiction July 62 page image Allen Steele bibliography

    He would have seen the rise of homo superior…and how they came to dominate the outer solar system.


Research requirements

antedating 1935

Earliest cite

Olaf Stapledon, "Odd John"

Research History
Mike Christie submitted a 1943 cite from editorial comments (probably) by John Campbell in the letter column in Astounding.
Mike Christie submitted a 1944 cite from Lawrence O'Donnell's "The Children's Hour".
Mike Christie submitted a 1946 cite from Eric Frank Russell's "Metamorphosite".
Katrina Campbell submitted a 1973 cite from Roger Price and Julian Gregory's "The Visitor".
Malcolm Farmer submitted a cite from a reprint of Philip K. Dick's "The Golden Man"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1954 first magazine appearance.
Jeff Prucher submitted a 1998 cite from Neil Gaiman's foreword to Samuel Delany's "The Einstein Intersection".
Malcolm Farmer submitted a cite from a reprint of Francis Donovan's "The Short Life"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1955 first magazine appearance.
Ralf Brown located and Steven Silver submitted a 1991 cite from George Zebrowski's "Stranger Suns".
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a reprint of Lewis Padgett's "When the Bough Breaks"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1944 first magazine appearance.
Dan Clore located a cite in a 1972 reprint of Olaf Stapledon's "Odd John"; Fred Galvin verified the citation in the 1935 first edition.

Last modified 2022-01-31 22:52:13
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.