Mercurian adj.
of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the planet Mercury or its inhabitants
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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.
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1930 Attack from Space in Astounding Stories Sept. 400/1
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S. P. Meek
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The Mercurian ship rose to an elevation of a hundred feet, drifting gently over the city.
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1942 Runaround in Astounding Science Fiction Mar. 97/2
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Isaac Asimov
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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.
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1950 Five Years in the Marmalade in Fantastic Adventures July 63/1
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Robert W. Krepps
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‘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.’
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1951 Rocket Man in Illustrated Man 68
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Ray Bradbury
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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.
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1968 Nova ii. 15
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Samuel R. Delany
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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.
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1980 Sundiver xii. 126
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David Brin
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For Kepler’s benefit, deSilva ordered the entire base reduced to Mercurian gravity.
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1994 Stop Press in Alien Pregnant by Elvis 297
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Mike Resnick
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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.
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2013 In Tombs of Martian Kings in Old Mars 202
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Mike Resnick
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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 2026-01-09 16:29:13
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
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