time loop n.

a (short) repeating period of time, typically one which (some) people are aware they are experiencing repeatedly

SF Encyclopedia

Wikipedia


Time Travel

  • 1936 ‘E. Binder’ The Time Entity in Astounding Stories Oct. 76/2 page image Otto Binder bibliography

    Memory is another abstract quality hard to define, unless one thinks of reliving every instant over and over as often as the time loop curls back on itself. Why do we remember some things in our childhood vividly, and forget other events completely a week after hamppening? Simply—yet not so simply—because the successive loops of time are overlapping in places, far apart in others.

  • 1946 C. F. Ksanda Forever Is Today in Thrilling Wonder Stories Summer 96/1 page image Charles F. Ksanda bibliography

    The silver sphere before you is a perfect pendulum, its motion exactly adjusted by magnetic currents in the metal rail beneath it. The length of the time loop varies directly with the rate at which the sphere passes through the basin.

  • 1960 ‘D. Grinnell’ This Year & No Other in Science Fiction Stories May 63/2 page image Donald A. Wollheim bibliography

    Arthur Rainier determined that a time loop was due to open within striking distance of this city last year.

  • 1972 H. Harrison Stainless Steel Rat’s Return in Worlds of If 103/1 page image Harry Harrison bibliography

    ‘When was he born? Where does he come from?’ ‘Those terms are meaningless in this sort of temporal relationship. He exists only within this time loop.’

  • 1978 S. Springer Fragger’s Bottom Line…Line…Line… in Asimov’s Science Fiction July–Aug. 140 page image Sherwood Springer bibliography

    Was there something tricky about this time jumping that neither he nor Murdo knew about? Overlapping, maybe, or a time loop or something…that could bring him around in a circle. [ellipsis in orig.]

  • 1991 Cinefantastique Feb. 53/5 (caption) page image

    Kirtwood Smith, trapped in an unending time loop in 12:01 P.M.

  • 2016 ‘Tom Tomorrow’ Still More Primary Phenomena in 25 Years of Tomorrow II. (2017) 530 page image

    As it turns out, we are trapped in a time loop—doomed to repeat this election cycle for all eternity!


Research requirements

antedating 1936

Earliest cite

Otto Binder, in Astounding

Last modified 2024-07-09 11:50:00
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.