anti-agathic adj.

(of a drug, medical treatment, etc.) that prolongs life

Drugs

  • 1954 J. Blish At Deathโ€™s End in Astounding Science Fiction May 41/1 page image James Blish bibliography

    You see, Joint knows about the anti-agathic drug, even though Appropriations and the Pentagon donโ€™t.

  • 1958 H. Ellison Nothing for My Noon Meal in Nebula Science Fiction May 45 page image Harlan Ellison bibliography

    With the new anti-agathic drugs, people just arenโ€™t dying.

  • 1982 M. Robins Boarder in Asimovโ€™s Science Fiction July 91 page image Madeleine E. Robins bibliography

    She was very old; even now, with medicines and therapies and anti-agathic science, she was an old woman.

  • 1985 K. Hansen Dream Games 35 Karl Hansen bibliography

    We do not suffer from disease. And we were given anti-agathic genes, so we do not age.

  • 2008 S. M. Stirling In the Courts of the Crimson Kings 286 S. M. Stirling bibliography

    Another relevant biological trait is the longer Martian life span, approximately twice the human norm, with lives of one hundred fifty to two hundred years not uncommon, and several decades more far from unknown; anti-agathic drugs may double this, if taken consistently from adulthood.

Research requirements

antedating 1954
Earliest cite

James Blish, 'At Death's End', in Astounding
Research History
Fred Galvin submitted a 1957 cite from James Blish's "Year 2018!"; Malcolm Farmer separately submitted a cite from a story that was ultimately turned into this novel (see below). (Fred Galvin checked "The Bridge" and the term does not appear there.)
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; Jesse Sheidlower verified this in the May 1954 American edition of ASF.

Last modified 2023-11-02 12:20:30
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.