planetless adj.

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

OED records the sense ‘of the sky: having no visible planets’ from 1817.

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 bibliography
Thousands upon thousands of planetless stars awaited encirclement by rings of Worlds.
1944 ‘L. del Rey’ 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 don’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
‘Here’ proved to be a spot in space approximately five and a half light-hours from an unremarkable looking, planetless M8 red dwarf.

antedating 1929

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.