Mercurian adj.

of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the planet Mercury or its inhabitants

  • 1897 Overland Monthly Nov. 472/2

    Jules Verne can make a visit to a planet an exciting affair enough, but our Mercurian friend here presented, leaves Jules Verne's powers of description far behind.

  • 1930 S. P. Meek Attack from Space in Astounding Stories Sept. 400/1 page image S. P. Meek bibliography

    The Mercurian ship rose to an elevation of a hundred feet, drifting gently over the city.

  • 1942 I. Asimov Runaround in Astounding Science Fiction Mar. 97/2 page image Isaac Asimov bibliography

    You know he’s perfectly adapted to a Mercurian environment. Heat doesn’t mean anything to him, and he’s built for the light gravity and the broken ground.

  • 1950 R. W. Krepps Five Years in the Marmalade in Best Science-Fiction Stories: 1950 226 page image Robert W. Krepps bibliography

    ‘Where else have you been?’ asked D’Angeur. ‘Oh, a great many places. The Mercurian Hell, for one. It’s really not a bad place. Most interesting.’

  • 1951 R. Bradbury Rocket Man in Illustrated Man 68 page image Ray Bradbury bibliography

    But I have to get my own collection, trading from other boys, the Martian rocks and Mercurian sands which filled my room, but about which Dad would never comment.

  • 1968 S. R. Delany Nova ii. 15 page image Samuel R. Delany bibliography

    The freezing lichen forests of the Martian polar caps or the raging dust rivers at the red planet's equator; or Mercurian night versus Mercurian day—these he had experienced only through psychorama travelogs.

  • 1980 D. Brin Sundiver xii. 126 page image David Brin bibliography

    For Kepler’s benefit, deSilva ordered the entire base reduced to Mercurian gravity.

  • 1994 M. Resnick Stop Press in Alien Pregnant by Elvis 297 page image Mike Resnick bibliography

    Dear Mr. Resnick: What is so newsworthy about President Meacham having an affair with a Neptunian? My own wife is an egg-laying seven[-]limbed Mercurian porble, and I take extreme umbrage at your pedestrian notion that there is something unsavory about inter[-]species romance.

  • 2013 M. Resnick In Tombs of Martian Kings in Old Mars 202 page image Mike Resnick bibliography

    The diminutive Mercurian waiter, who was used to him, paid him no attention as he brought Scorpio a drink and continued making his round of the tables.


Research requirements

antedating 1897

Research History
The OED has examples from 1879 in astronomical use; this dictionary only shows examples in science-fictional contexts.

Last modified 2021-04-29 15:40:31
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.