uptime adv.

esp. in time-travel contexts: in, into, or toward the future; cf. downtime adv.

Time Travel

  • 1972 ‘J. Tiptree’ Forever to a Hudson Bay Blanket in Fantastic Aug. 70/2 page image James Tiptree, Jr. bibliography

    And which by a million-to-one chance shot young Dov Rapelle uptime into the lethal half-hour when a coronary artery ballooned and ruptured as he lay alone in a strange city.

  • 1972 P. Anderson There Will Be Time (1973) 51 Poul Anderson bibliography

    He would take certain stamps and coins uptime and sell them to dealers.

  • 1978 C. Kilian Empire of Time (1985) 3 Crawford Kilian bibliography

    He was…born 985 BC… Tested four years ago at age sixteen, and brought uptime…for his education.

  • 1983 J. Varley Millennium ii. 25 John Varley bibliography

    Uptime, it was already being prepared.

  • 1984 P. Anderson Discovery of Past in Past Times 186 Poul Anderson bibliography

    Science fiction, of course, generally turns uptime, toward the future.

  • 1997 J. Kessel Corrupting Dr. Nice (1998) 69 John Kessel bibliography

    Smuggling a dinosaur uptime would be tricky.

  • 2007 G. Wolfe Green Glass in Asimov’s Science Fiction Apr.–May 173 page image Gene Wolfe bibliography

    I’m not allowed to bring you into your future, you understand—uptime into my own period. It’s against regulations.

Research requirements

antedating 1972
Earliest cite

James Tiptree
Research History
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1985 reprint of Crawford Kilian's "The Empire of Time".

We would like cites of any date from other sources.

Fred Galvin found a reference that suggests the term is used in the sense 'in or towards the past' in Ian Wallace's "Croyd Spacetime Maneouvres" series; we would like to check these books to verify this use.

Last modified 2021-02-22 14:02:15
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.