anti-agathic n.

a drug or other medical treatment that prolongs life

Drugs

  • 1954 J. Blish At Death’s End in Astounding Science Fiction May 36/1 page image James Blish bibliography

    So what you’re looking for now is not an antibiotic—an anti-life drug—but an anti-agathic, an anti-death drug.

  • 1970 E. C. Tubb Spawn of Jupiter in Vision of Tomorrow Aug. 41/1 page image E. C. Tubb bibliography

    All that was important was that the shedeena crystals were an anti-agathic, an anti-death drug which enabled the old, the rich, the influential to gain renewed youth and extended virility.

  • 2008 S. M. Stirling In the Courts of the Crimson Kings 32 S. M. Stirling bibliography

    One of them was a genuine anti-agathic, slowing down aging for Martians and probably for Terrans too.

Research requirements

antedating 1954
Earliest cite

James Blish, 'At Death's End'
Research History
Fred Galvin submitted a 1957 cite from James Blish's "Year 2018!"; we originally wanted to verify this in the 1956 British version, "They Shall Have Stars" or the stories that were turned into the novel, perhaps "At Death's End" (Astounding, May 1954). (Fred Galvin checked "The Bridge" and the term does not appear there.) Independently, Malcolm Farmer submitted a 1954 cite from James Blish's "At Death's End" in the October issue of the UK edition of Astounding Science Fiction; Mike Christie verified it in the May 1954 American edition of ASF.

Last modified 2023-11-16 22:30:08
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.