starfaring adj.

pertaining to interstellar travel

SF Encyclopedia


  • 1960 P. Anderson High Crusade (1982) xiii. 78 Poul Anderson bibliography

    Their skirmishes with rival starfaring nations were mostly aerial.

  • 1983 A. Budrys Books in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction July 34/2 page image Algis Budrys

    The frequently resorted-to setting of a war between humans and a totally alien starfaring race.

  • 1990 M. Bishop More Than a Masterpiece? in Quantum — Science Fiction & Fantasy Review Spring 5/2 Michael Bishop

    But Childhood’s End concludes with the elevation of terrestrial humanity to a kind of star-faring group spirit, and the grandiosity of this ending, given the somewhat simpler evolutionary mechanics posited in More Than Human, made me see Sturgeon’s as the more likely—or, anyway, the more immediate—scenario.

  • 1991 E. Arnason Woman of Iron People (1992) p. xiii

    We think it’s unlikely that you will meet a star-faring species that is aggressive.

  • 1993 A. Budrys Hard Landing 61 Algis Budrys

    None of us—not even poor, lonely Selmon, who actually knew something about what goes on inside a starfaring engine—is going to try to help with that.

  • 1997 2000 AD 28 Oct. 25/1 (caption)

    This whole ship is some kind of starfaring sex palace!

  • 1998 Interzone Feb. 43/1

    Since we have not heard from, and have no evidence of, these starfaring races, the best explanation is that there are no starfaring races.

  • 2006 R. Reed Asimov’s Science Fiction June 64 page image Robert Reed bibliography

    Human experience has discovered precisely one starfaring vessel, and it was a grain of metallic dust, and to reach us it had to be exceptionally lucky.

Research requirements

antedating 1960
Research History
Jeff Prucher submitted a 1993 cite from Pascal J. Thomas in Quantum. Jeff Prucher submitted a 1990 cite from Michael Bishop in Quantum.
The OED has cites in its database going back to 1960: we now only need cites that antedate 1960.

Last modified 2021-01-11 23:14:28
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.