galactic n. 1

an inhabitant of the galaxy; a member of a galaxy-wide civilization

Demonyms

  • 1942 A. E. van Vogt Asylum in Astounding Science-Fiction May 9/1 page image A. E. van Vogt bibliography

    There are no Galactics out here. But there is an Observer. I've been catching the secret ultra signals for the last two hours…warning all ships to stay clear because the system isn’t ready for any kind of contact with Galactic planets.

  • 1952 M. Shaara All Way Back in Astounding Science Fiction July 55/2 page image Michael Shaara bibliography

    What kind of a race was this? A race which flew in primitive star ships, yet it had already conquered one of the greatest problems in Galactic history, a problem which had baffled the Galactics for millions of years.

  • 1954 P. Anderson Chapter Ends in Dynamic Science Fiction Jan. 19/1 page image Poul Anderson bibliography

    You couldn’t call them stagnant. Their life was too healthy, their civilization too rich in its own way—folk art, folk music, ceremony, religion, the intimacy of family life which the Galactics had lost—for that term. But to one who flew between the streaming suns, it was a small existence.

  • 1963 ‘S. McKettrig’ A World by the Tale in Analog Science Fact–Science Fiction Oct. 1 Randall Garrett

    As far as the Galactics were concerned, Earth was a little backwater planet that was of no importance. Nothing manufactured on the planet was of any use to Galactics.

  • 1967 R. Silverberg Those Who Watch 81 Robert Silverberg

    Certainly the galactics have landed on Earth many times, and have come among us in human form.

  • 1976 P. Anthony Steppe (1980) i. 14 page image Piers Anthony bibliography

    They did not consider themselves demons. In their own odd language they were ‘Galactics’—human beings from far away, representatives of a mighty empire that spanned a much greater region than did the Uigur realm at its height. That empire extended over planets and systems and constellations—though these were concepts of such sorcerous complexity and incongruity as to baffle his mind.

  • 1995 D. Brin Brightness Reef 332 page image David Brin bibliography

    It may be that all advanced races learn to do what the Rothen are doing now—impressing those beneath them on the ladder of status. Perhaps we’re all extra-susceptible on account of being primitives, having no other experience with Galactics.

  • 2002 L. M. Bujold Diplomatic Immunity iii. 36 page image Lois McMaster Bujold bibliography

    Only a handful of their many scattered habitats maintained areas supplied with artificial gravity for legged humans, either visitor or resident, or even dealt with outsiders. Graf Station was one that did accept galactics and their trade, as did the orbital arcologies dubbed Metropolitan, Sanctuary, Minchenko, and Union Station.

  • 2012 C. Doctorow & C. Stross Rapture of the Nerds 288 page image Cory Doctorow Charles Stross bibliography

    The cloud is an immature matryoshka. It’s going to grow up to be a Dyson sphere; masses of free-flying processor nodes trapping the entire solar output and using it to power their thinking, communicating via high-bandwidth laser. But it’s not there yet, and the Galactics are. There’s a thing you can do with a matryoshka cloud if you’re sufficiently annoyed with the neighbors: You just point all those communications lasers in the same direction and shout.


Research requirements

antedating 1942

Earliest cite

A. E. van Vogt, in Astounding

Research History
Irene Grumman submitted a 1967 cite from Robert Silverberg's "Those Who Watch".
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1957 reprint of A.E. van Vogt's "Asylum". Jesse Sheidlower verified this in its first publication (Astounding Science Fiction, May 1942).
Malcolm Farmer submitted a cite from a 1968 reprint of "A World by the Tale" by Seaton McKettrig (pen name of Randall Garrett) which Mike Christie verified in its 1963 first publication.
Fred Galvin submitted cites from a 1963 reprint of Poul Anderson's 1954 "The Chapter Ends".
Fred Galvin submitted a September 1954 cite from Roger Dee [pseudonym of Roger Dee Aycock], "The Interlopers".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1952 cite from Michael Shaara's "All The Way Back".
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a cite from a 1980 reprint of Piers Anthony's "Steppe".
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 1995 cite from David Brin's "Brightness Reef".
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2002 cite from Lois McMaster Bujold's "Diplomatic Immunity". Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2012 cite from Cory Doctorow and Charlie Stross's "Rapture of the Nerds".

Last modified 2021-08-16 21:49:22
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.