Mercurian n.

a native or inhabitant of Mercury

Demonyms

  • 1698 tr. C. Huygens Celestial Worlds Discover'd ii. 106

    There’s reason to doubt, whether the Mercurians [translating Latin Hermopolitae]…are much more airy and ingenious than we.

  • 1839 Southern Literary Messenger 5 267

    We see a dark body surrounded by an immensity of light; and the inhabitants of all the planets may see it just as we do; as well the Mercurian as the Herschelian.

  • 1928 R. P. Vogenitz Letter in Amazing Stories Dec. 856 page image

    English name of inhabitant—Mercurian, Venerian, Tellurian, Martian, Jovian.

  • 1935 R. Z. Gallun Derelict in Astounding Stories Oct. 28/2 page image Raymond Z. Gallun bibliography

    He remembered the Mercurian who had valeted one of the friends of his student days. Khambee was the Mercurian’s name.

  • 1941 Super Science Stories Nov.

    What had the Mercurian said? Vane tried to remember.

  • 1946 ‘W. F. Jenkins’ From Beyond Stars in Thrilling Wonder Stories June 88/1 Murray Leinster

    I said, ‘You old Mercurian! You old Plutonian! You want to blow up Earth!’

  • 1961 W. F. Temple The Unknown in Amazing Stories Mar. 62/2 page image William F. Temple bibliography

    The Mercurian moved forward, towards me.

  • 1996 K. S. Robinson Blue Mars 395 Kim Stanley Robinson

    Meetings between the Martian delegation and the Mercurians had been going on in Terminator for weeks, and Zo was tired of them, both the meetings and the Mercurial negotiators, a secretive self-important group of oligarchic mullahs haughty and fawning at the same time, who had not yet comprehended the new order of things in the solar system.

  • 2000 T. Purdom Romance in Extended Time in Asimov’s Science Fiction Mar. 117 page image Tom Purdom

    Overall, it was a good argument for the Mercurians’ experiment with a ‘democracy of limited choice’.

  • 2020 A. Kozma Mars, Dumping Ground of Solar System in Analog Science Fiction & Fact July–Aug. 102/1 Andrew Kozma bibliography

    The Mercurian reaches the other side of the street and stumbles, falling hard to the ground. There’s no sign of a leak in the suit, but still I wonder why the Mercurian is out of its district. There’s no overt discrimination on Mars—anyone can go anywhere, unless you’re a criminal—but a fall like that could’ve punctured the environment suit and then the Mercurian would’ve died. The notoriously late ambulances would be left delivering the body back to the district. What could be so important?


Research requirements

antedating 1698

Research History
Fred Galvin submitted a 1947 cite from Will F. Jenkins' (aka Murray Leinster) "From Beyond the Stars".
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2020 cite from Andrew Kozma.

Last modified 2022-03-01 14:55:37
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.