nano n.

= nanotechnology n.; (also) = nanobot n.

  • 1987 Washington Post (Nexis) 5 July (Mag. section) w35 (heading)

    Just say nano.

  • 1990 G. Bear Queen of Angels (1991) i.ii. 11 Greg Bear

    News of some late progressive insult to the arts nano or another outraging medium compelled them all to laugh, full of hate and envy.

  • 1990 G. Bear Heads 26 Greg Bear

    High-quality surgical nano wasn’t enough to do the trick.

  • 1993 G. Bear Moving Mars 109 Greg Bear

    By mid-twenty-one, nanotechnology factories were inexpensive; nano recyclers could provide raw materials from garbage; data and design reigned supreme.

  • 1993 G. Bear Moving Mars 297 Greg Bear

    Nano fibers will make neural connections within an hour of the implanting, and you should be able to experience heightened abilities—certainly heightened knowledge—within twenty-four hours.

  • 1993 G. Bear Moving Mars 109 Greg Bear

    Wars declined, the labor market fluctuated wildly as developing countries joined in—exacerbated by nano and other forms of automation…

  • 1993 G. Bear Moving Mars 351 Greg Bear

    In just twenty-four hours, architectural nano delivered and activated by a squadron of shuttles made a solid, moderately comfortable preliminary structure, a hideaway near the edge of the plateau.

  • 1993 G. Bear Moving Mars 428 Greg Bear

    Medical nano filled my bloodstream, rooting out problems, controlling my tendency to slip into shock.

  • 1995 Interzone May 33/2

    But even at speeds far slower than that of light, surely nanos in tiny vessels could reach the furthest part of our own galaxy within, say, 20 million years at most.

  • 2020 A. Irvine Anthropocene Rag iii. 38 Alex Irvine bibliography

    They said that if you got too close, robots would come down out of the sky and kill you, or the ground itself would turn into monsters that would eat you, or that defense nanos would turn you into gray goo.


Research requirements

antedating 1987

Earliest cite

in Washington Post

Research History
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2020 cite from Alex Irvine.

Added to the OED in June 2003, with an earliest cite from 1987.

Last modified 2021-02-06 21:16:58
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.