null-g n.
(as adjective) relating to, producing, or designed for a condition of zero gravity; (as noun) zero gravity: the state or condition in which there is no apparent force of gravity acting on a body, either because the force is locally weak, or because both the body and its surroundings are freely and equally accelerating under gravity; (also) a device or system that negates the force of gravity; cf. slightly earlier null-grav n.
Also null-gee.
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1953
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You're about my age—you must remember when they shot the parts of the first moon rocket up to the Space Station. Alphonse Craig was putting them together. Greatest single-handed construction job ever done! He had to start from scratch, learning all the null-g and vacuum techniques without another pair of hands nor another brain to help him.
in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Apr. 84
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1953
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The Station job requires a little bit of brawn—wrestling with masses takes muscles, even in null-g.
in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Apr. 87
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1956
Alfred Bester
bibliography
I cite the Null-G anti-gravity installations of 2022.
in Galaxy Oct. 48/1
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1958
Robert Silverberg
You slept through the whole thing, it seems. Blast-off and null-g and everything.
Invaders from Earth (1987) ix. 88
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1974
Larry Niven
Jerry Pournelle
bibliography
Null-gee races were a favorite if slightly nonregulation game with midshipmen.
Mote in God’s Eye (1975) iii. xxxi. 316 -
1977
Alan Dean Foster
The hold was little more than a vast open sphere within which all kinds of cargo could be stored at null g.
End of Matter 210
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1987 Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact Dec. 15/2
‘Speaking of rotation—how are you handling null-g deconditioning in your people? I don’t—’ his eyes inventoried the enormous structure, ‘I don’t even see an exercise wheel. No spinning gym?’ ‘There’s a null-g gym. The rotating personnel get a month downside after every three-month shift.’
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1987 Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact Dec. 16/1
Leo released his seat restraints, and stretched and relaxed in the pleasurable familiarity of weightlessness. Not for him the unfortunate nauseas of null-g that sapped the efficiency of so many employees.
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2019
Yoon Ha Lee
bibliography
Good thing I hadn’t eaten recently. I was pretty sure puking in null-gee was even more disgusting than doing it was in normal gravity.
Dragon Pearl xxvi. 215
Research requirements
antedating 1953
Earliest cite
Oliver Saari, "The Space Man"
Research History
Mike Christie submitted a 1956 cite from Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination".Douglas Winston submitted a 1989 cite from L.E. Modesitt's "The Ecolitan Operation".
Douglas Winston submitted a 1977 cite from Alan Dean Foster's "The End of the Matter".
Ralf Brown located and Richard Horton submitted a 1987 cite from Lois McMaster Bujold's "Falling Free".
Jeff Prucher submitted a 2003 cite from Joe Haldeman's "Giza".
Douglas Winston submitted a 1977 cite from Colin Kapp's "The Chaos Weapon".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1953 cite from Oliver Saari's "The Space Man".
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2019 cite from Yoon Ha Lee.
Added to the OED in March 2004 as part of the entry for "null", with earliest date of 1956.
Last modified 2021-12-21 12:41:53
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entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.