hovercar n.

a car that hovers above the ground, typically conceived as using antigravity technology

Vehicles

  • 1958 Sunday Dispatch (London) 16 Mar. 10/4

    [headline] Hover-cars[…] An American car designer has predicted that cars will fly by 1978. Mr Carl Reynolds says that future cars will be wheelless, and move 2ft. or so above the surface.

  • 1959 Salisbury Times 30 July 9/4 (caption)

    Hovercar, shown in artist’s conception, is one possible development of revolutionary lift and propulsion principle.

  • 1959 Progress 17 Sept. 2/4

    An air-borne vehicle called the “Hovercar” is being produced commercially by Saunders-Roe Ltd., British aircraft manufacturer.

  • 1986 B. Sterling & L. Shiner Mozart in Mirrorshades in B. Sterling Mirrorshades (1986) 233 Lewis Shiner Bruce Sterling bibliography

    Rice’s hovercar huffed along at a steady 80 mph.

  • 1986 D. Carey Battlestations! iii.35 Diane Carey

    Beyond them were two private hover-cars.

  • 1999 M. J. Friedman My Brother's Keeper iii. ii. 31 Michael Jan Friedman bibliography

    High overhead, a hovercar skimmed the tops of the buildings, twisting in the bright sunlight.

  • 2019 Y. H. Lee Dragon Pearl xxxviii. 308 Yoon Ha Lee bibliography

    My scooter was long gone. Seok rented us a hover-car. I was disappointed but not exactly surprised that he wouldn’t let me drive it, considering all the illegal things I’d already gotten away with.

Research requirements

antedating 1958
Research History
Roberto Labanti submitted cites from two newspaper reports: a July 30 1959 cite from "The Salisbury Times" [Salisbury, MD], and a September 17, 1959 cite from "The Progress" [PA].
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2019 cite from Yoon Ha Lee.
Simon Koppel submitted a 1958 cite from a newspaper.

Earliest cite in the OED database: 1961

Last modified 2022-05-08 18:44:40
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.