non-terrestrial adj.

not found on or originating from the planet Earth

  • 1936 H. P. Lovecraft Shadow Out of Time in Astounding Stories June 147/2 page image H. P. Lovecraft bibliography

    It came to me that this was the language used by a captive mind I had known slightly, in my dreamsβ€”a mind from a large asteroid on which had survived much of the archaic life and lore of the primal planet whereof it formed a fragment. At the same time I recalled that this level of the archives was devoted to volumes dealing with the non-Terrestrial planets.

  • 1960 J. Brunner Atlantic Abomination x. 59 John Brunner

    You may have heard by now that the biologists assign a nonterrestrial origin to the creature you brought up from Atlantica.

  • 1963 C. A. Smith Testament of Athammaus in Swords & Sorcery 77 Clark Ashton Smith

    As for me, my scientific turn of mind, which repudiated the supernatural, led me to seek an explanation of the problem in the non-terrestrial side of Knygathin Zhaum’s ancestry. I felt sure that the forces of alien biology, the properties of a trans-stellar life-substance, were somehow involved.

  • 1970 J. Blish Spock must Die! xiii. 97 James Blish

    And your non-terrestrial friend Mr. Spock as well.

  • 2002 K. Laumer Wicker Wonderland in Retief! 493 Keith Laumer

    Patiently toiling in humble consulates on many a remote world, Junior Corps officers, ever-mindful of the welfare of emergent non-Terrestrial peoples, labored on in their unending quest to bring the fruits of modern technology to supplement native arts and crafts, enriching their halcyon days with the awareness of the profound effect their efforts might have on entire populations.

  • 2004 P. F. Hamilton Pandora's Star iv. 99 Peter F. Hamilton

    A lot of the plant species were certainly non-terrestrial.

Research requirements

antedating 1936
Earliest cite

H.P. Lovecraft, 'The Shadow Out of Time'
Research History
Mike Christie submitted cites from Astounding Science Fiction from 1943 and 1945.
Jeff Prucher submitted a cite from a 1962 reprint of Clark Ashton Smith's "The Testament of Athammaus"; we would like to verify this story's 1932 first printing.
Douglas Winston submitted a cite from John Brunner's 1960 "the Atlantic Abomination".
Jeff Prucher submitted a cite from a 2002 reprint of Keith Laumer's 1964 "Wicker Wonderland", but the cite does not appear in the 1965 first publication.
Fred Galvin submitted a 1950 cite from Jerome Bixby's '-And All For One"'
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1990 reprint of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Out of Time": Mike Christie verified this in its first publication (Astounding Stories, June 1936)

We would like cites of any date from other sources.

Last modified 2020-12-16 04:08:47
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.