space sailor n.

a person who travels in space, esp. as a profession

  • 1933 J. Winks Adrift on a Meteor in Amazing Stories Aug.–Sept. 431/1 page image Jack Winks bibliography

    We were playin' space sailor, an' Jimmy, here, says that there’s air out there… There ain’t any air out in space, is there?

  • 1942 E. Hamilton World with a Thousand Moons in Amazing Stories Dec. 66/2 page image Edmond Hamilton

    Earthmen were fairly numerous in this main port of the planet. Swaggering space-sailors, prosperous-looking traders and rough meteor-miners made up the most of them. There were a few tourists gaping at the grotesque old black stone buildings, and under a krypton-bulb at a corner, two men in the drab uniform of the Patrol stood eyeing passersby sharply. Kenniston breathed more easily when he and the Jovian had passed the two officers without challenge.

  • 1953 M. Clifton Bow Down to Them in Universe Science Fiction June 85/2 page image Mark Clifton bibliography

    Admiral Littlefield was a space sailor of the old school.

  • 1980 R. F. Young Haute Bourgeoisie in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Jan. 15/2 page image Robert F. Young bibliography

    Originally, to explain my periodic absences…I passed myself off as a space sailor.

  • [2002 G. A. Landis At Dorado in Asimov’s Science Fiction Oct.–Nov. 67 page image Geoffrey A. Landis

    His skin was the rich black of a deep-space sailor.]


Research requirements

antedating 1933

Earliest cite

Jack Winks, in Amazing Stories

Last modified 2020-12-16 04:08:47
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.