groundlubber n.

It’s a nuisance to have a bunch of ground-lubbers on board, sir.

With thousands of groundlubbers aboard, he was reluctatant to increase the acceleration above that point for any sustained period—even two g’s might put too much of a strain on some of them.

I suppose I am a bit of a groundlubber, but I keep expecting a floor underfoot and a ceiling overhead.

For an amateur—and a ground[-]lubber at that—you’ve done right well.

Designed by some groundlubber in the hope of giving offense to nobody (or, as the official publicity had put it, ‘to accommodate all faiths of all planets,’ a task impossible on the face of it), the chapel was simplified and devoid of symbols to the point of insipidity; but its very existence acknowledged that even the tightly designed Enterprise was a world in itself, and as such had to recognize that human beings often have religious impulses.

Li is one of those paradoxes, like Isaac Asimov refusing to fly. For all his understanding of the issues of space, this is the first time he’s been further off-planet than a jetliner goes. He’s a groundlubber at heart.

And Hhayazh, in particular, is the sort of twiggy, bristle-covered, black-carapaced insectoid sentience that gives groundlubbers the shrieking jimjams.