extra-terrestial adj.

= extraterrestrial adj.; cf. terrestial adj.

  • 1856 The Plurality of Worlds in Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature Jan. 38/2 page image

    Astronomers of every grade are at issue with the advocate of extra-terrestial [in original text: extra-terrestrial] chaos. Every one who has made the planetary discs objects of close contemplation, has discerned in all of them features that can be due to nothing else than gaseous and vaporous coverings.

  • 1868 Meteoric Astronomy in New Englander Jan. 9

    Meteorites, Fireballs, and Shooting-stars…now are known to come to us, all of them from regions extra-terrestial, and some of them from the remotest depths of space.

  • 1877 M. A. Terreil On the Metals Which Accompany Iron in Chemical News (vol. 35, no. 914) 1 June 226/2 page image

    It may throw some doubt on the extra[-]terrestial origin of certain irons supposed to be meteoric.

  • 1938 C. A. Mills in Science Digest July21/1 page image

    There are several indications that human advance comes in long undulations of progress and recession, and that these waves are truly biologic and based on some extra-terrestial force affecting man.

  • 1940 O. J. Friend Impossible Highway in Thrilling Wonder Stories Aug. 87/2 page image Oscar J. Friend bibliography

    Like a puppet controlled by extra-terrestial strings, Nelson shifted his burden dexteriously [sic] around to face him.

  • 1946 R. Phillips Battle of the Gods in Amazing Stories Sept. 92/1 page image Rog Phillips bibliography

    Suddenly with the force of a physical blow the realization came to him that of course there would be extraterrestial entities of incredible age and power, against whom he would be as a child. [Ibid.] 94/1 ‘Are you an extra-terrestial being or just a new development of George’s?’ asked Arny, the mockery in his voice now undisguised.

  • 1954 R. D. Locke Final Curtain in Nebula Science Fiction Oct. 60 page image Robert Donald Locke bibliography

    Mass hysteria caused the people to believe they saw space vessels in the sky—flying saucers. Why were they so willing to believe? Because the literature of the day had made them grow accustomed to the possibility of extra-terrestial life.

  • 1959 L. S. de Camp The Krishna Stories in New Frontiers (vol. 1, no. 1) Dec. 3 page image L. Sprague de Camp bibliography

    Teaching children to read by the sight-reading method may or may not make good readers of them, but it makes them utterly intolerant of words whose shapes they don’t recognize. This puts the author of extra-terrestial romances on the spot. If he calls his Martians Smith and Brown he is ridiculous, but if he calls them Thims and Nworb the readers fidget at the sight of strange letter-combinations.

  • 1965 B. W. Aldiss Supercity in New Worlds July 93 page image Brian W. Aldiss bibliography

    It has seeped back over the space routes, like a thousand other extra-terrestial words, to become a temporary or integral part of our ever-expanding vocabulary.

  • 1982 T. Crawley Things to Come in Starburst (#43) Mar. 7/3 page image

    A new science fiction movie has opened in France. I think. It’s all about this cuddly, not to say fat extra-terrestial alien invading the lives of a couple of old, very old Frenchmen.

  • 1993 DarkSide Apr. 66/1 (advt.) page image

    Something Else is the club for admirers of all extra terrestial lifeforms. Free membership.

  • 2011 J. M. Ledgard Submergence 157 page image

    He felt that the search for extraterrestial life was compromised by surface chauvinism: it looked only on the outside of planets, moons and rocks, not deep in the cracks where it was more likely to be.


Research requirements

antedating 1856

Research History
Fred Galvin submitted a 1960 cite from George W. Earley's "Moon Gun".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1946 cite from Rog Phillips.
The 1856 cite is from an article reprinting an 1855 essay in The Edinburgh Review; but the 1855 text uses the spelling "extra-terrestrial".

Last modified 2025-01-30 15:14:59
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.