planetless adj.

of a star: having no orbiting planets; (occasionally, of people) having no home planet; homeless in space

OED records the sense โ€˜of the sky: having no visible planetsโ€™ from 1817.

Science

  • 1929 E. Hamilton Outside the Universe in Weird Tales July 66/1 page image Edmond Hamilton bibliography

    Directly ahead of us, though, there flamed a small crimson sun, a dying, planetless star not far inward from the Cancer cluster.

  • 1937 O. Stapledon Star Maker ix. 208 Olaf Stapledon

    Thousands upon thousands of planetless stars awaited encirclement by rings of Worlds.

  • 1944 โ€˜L. del Reyโ€™ Though Dreamers Die in Astounding Science-Fiction Feb. 36/2 page image Lester del Rey bibliography

    Five planetless suns and ninety years of searching are gone.

  • 1950 Science Fictioneer in Super Science Stories July 70/1 page image

    A tremendous four-way space war involving Mars, Earth, Ertene and a legion of planetless warriors.

  • 1962 P. Anderson Day After Doomsday in Galaxy Feb. 134/2 page image Poul Anderson bibliography

    We sha-Terra donโ€™t threaten anybody. We're alone, planetless.

  • 1965 E. E. Smith Skylark Duquesne in Worlds of If June 11/2 page image Edward E. Smith bibliography

    It'd've been smarter, maybe, to've put 'em in orbit around a planetless sun.

  • 2002 D. Weber War of Honor 489 David Weber bibliography

    โ€˜Hereโ€™ proved to be a spot in space approximately five and a half light-hours from an unremarkable looking, planetless M8 red dwarf.


Research requirements

antedating 1929

Earliest cite

Edmond Hamilton

Last modified 2020-12-19 13:15:52
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.