prespace adj.

= pre-spaceflight adj.

  • 1949 ‘R. Lafayette’ Emperor of Universe in Startling Stories Nov. 134/1 page image L. Ron Hubbard bibliography

    No one seems to know, although there are many guesses of course, just how pre-space man arrived at the mysterious A.D. which he appends on his stone carvings everywhere he first trod. Astronomical research into this has only brought bewilderment since absolutely no stellar nor terrestial cataclysm can be located which would begin his A.D. And when he changed to a sensible binary day and a galactic year the records of that moment were subsequently destroyed.

  • 1964 ‘C. Smith’ The Boy Who Bought Old Earth Apr. 72/2

    That’s the oldest song you ever heard, my boy. It’s pre-space. It used to be called ‘general quarters’ where ships like big iron houses floated on the waters of earth and fought each other.

  • 1977 G. Zebrowski Ashes & Stars 7 George Zebrowski

    A hundred thousand worlds circle their suns here, many of them earth-like; others are too young for intelligent life to have developed; some cradle pre-space humanoid cultures; still others have in-system space travel; many are dead worlds.

  • 2009 ‘C. J. Cherryh’ Regenesis II. i. iii. 247 page image C. J. Cherryh bibliography

    [...] Luddism... the commenting agent had flagged that word and supplied a definition. It meant people who were against progress, based on a political movement of 1811 and some years after, against the introduction of weaving machines in pre-space England.


Research requirements

antedating 1949

Earliest cite

'Rene LaFayette', 'The Emperor of the Universe'

Research History
Ralf Brown located and Douglas Winston submitted a 1977 cite from George Zebrowski's "Ashes and Stars".
Jeff Prucher submitted a cite from a 1994 reprint of Cordwainer Smith's "Norstrilia".
Jeff Prucher submitted a 2000 cite from a reprint of David Weber and Steve White's 1997 "In Death Ground".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1949 cite from "Rene LaFayette"'s (L. Ron Hubbard's) "The Emperor of the Universe".
Bee Ostrowsky submitted a 2009 cite from C. J . Cherryh.

Last modified 2024-11-17 00:09:25
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.