earthgirl n.

a girl or woman from Earth

  • [1858 Herald of Light June 57

    The Heaven-girls are fond and true; the earth-girls are too often inconstant and cold at heart.]

  • [1903 Reader Mar. 468/2

    The next [tale relates] how a small sea-maiden and a little earth-girl changed places.]

  • 1911 H. K. Vielé Girl from Mercury in Wit & Humor of America IV. 793

    The fancy took me to suspend intuition just to see how Earth girls feel.

  • 1924 C. K. Michener The Earth Girl in Weird Tales Dec. 18/1 page image Carroll F. Michener bibliography

    Hattie La Salle…was often heard to declaim a strange, somewhat psychic story, and to end it, melodramatically, in these sententious words: ‘I, a woman of the Earth, have destroyed a religion, and a city—who knows if I have not destroyed a whole people: the inhabitants of a globe?’…. Maderna, the Earth Girl, she who had been known in Chicago as Hattie La Salle, arose from the couch on which she awoke.

  • 1930 R. Cummings Brigands of the Moon in Astounding Stories of Super-Science June 367/2 page image Ray Cummings bibliography

    The girls of all the Universe have no charm for me. There is only one, for me—an Earth[-]girl.

  • 1936 A. Macfadyen Time Decelerator in Astounding Stories July 39/2 page image A. Macfadyen, Jr. bibliography

    He held out to the startled gaze of Kirschner, an object which he had brought from the seat of the machine—a cloak cut strangely from a cloth of peculiar texture and shade of color, such a thing as no earth girl wore, in 1937 A.D.

  • 1939 H.K. Wells Moon of Mad Atavism in Thrilling Wonder Stories Feb. 35/1 page image Hal K. Wells bibliography

    You have given me an idea, Earthgirl, and it is one that I am afraid you will live to regret.

  • 1945 J. Vance World-Thinker in Thrilling Wonder Stories Summer 40/2 page image Jack Vance bibliography

    Where is the Earth-girl?

  • 1947 ‘J. MacCreigh’ Donovan Had a Dream in Thrilling Wonder Stories Oct. 27/1 page image Frederik Pohl bibliography

    ‘Earthgirl?’ the guard repeated. ‘She didn’t look like an Earthie.’

  • 1947 H. Hasse Trail of Astrogar in Amazing Stories Oct. 57/1 page image Henry Hasse bibliography

    Kraaz picked up the gun then bulked in the center of the room, ignoring the Earth girl in the guise of a Ganymedian.

  • 1951 S. Jacobs The Pilot and the Bushman in Galaxy Science Fiction Aug. 93/1 page image Sylvia Jacobs bibliography

    The cosmetic business was one of the few that had not profited from the tourist trade, except insofar as lady tourists bought costly perfumes, and Earthgirls strove to mimic the natural—or unnatural—coloring of the fair visitors.

  • 1955 J. Vance Meet Miss Universe in Fantastic Universe Mar. 6/2 page image Jack Vance bibliography

    But how in the world could I compare some cute little Earth girl with a Sadal Suud Isobrod? Or one of those Pleiades dragon-women?

  • 1956 M. Lesser Meet Miss Solar System in Fantastic Universe Apr. 58/1 page image Milton Lesser bibliography

    Jack the Ripper (said the Earth videocaster) has slashed his way into the public eye today by apparently rigging the Beauty Contest in favor of the Earth girl, Dawne Flaim of Richmond, Virginia, then declaring Earth-like Eros out of bounds for the contest, putting Miss Flaim at a terrible disadvantage in competing with the artifically evolved denizens of the outworlds.

  • 1988 (title of film)

    Earth Girls Are Easy.

  • 2008 J. Varley Rolling Thunder iv. 29 page image John Varley bibliography

    She’s not an imposing figure, certainly not on Mars. Maybe a little bit less than average height for an Earth girl.

Research requirements

antedating 1911
Earliest cite

H. K. Vielé
Research History
Fred Galvin submitted a 1942 cite from Ray Cummings's "Gods of Space".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1950 cite from John D. MacDonald's "Shadow on the Sand".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1955 cite from Jack Vance's "Meet Miss Universe".
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1982 reprint of Jack Vance's 1945 "The World-Thinker"; Mike Christie verified it in the original magazine appearance.
Fred Galvin submitted a 1947 cite from "James MacCreigh's" "Donovan Had a Dream".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1947 cite from Henry Hasse's "Trail of the Astrogar".
Fred Galvin submitted a cite for "earth girl" from a 1975 reprint of A. Macfadyen, Jr.'s 1936 "The Time Decelerator"; Mike Christie verified the first magazine appearance in the July 1936 Astounding Stories.
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1959 reprint of Robert Silverberg's "The Planet Killers" (originally published in 1957 as "This World Must Die!".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1946 cite from John Douglas' "Futura".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1949 cite from Thornecliffe Herrick's "The Lost World".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1956 cite from Milton Lesser's "Meet Miss Solar System".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1951 cite from Sylvia Jacobs's "The Pilot and the Bushman".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1939 cite from Hal K. Wells's "Moon of Mad Atavism": currently this is the earliest cite for "earthgirl" as a single word.
Bee Ostrowsky submitted a 2008 cite from John Varley.
Fred Galvin submitted a 1930 cite from Ray Cummings' "Brigands of the Moon".
Fred Galvin located a reference to the story "The Earth Girl" by Carroll K. Michener (Weird Tales, 12/1924); Jesse Sheidlower verified it in the original appearance.

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