Arcturan adj.

of or relating to the Arcturus system or its inhabitants

Also Arcturian, Arcturean.

Demonyms

  • 1866 The Lion’s Mouth in Californian 17 Nov. 9/1 page image

    No doubt, when our world forms one of a ‘shower of stars’, visible by the inhabitants of the northern portion of Arcturus, the Arcturian ladies will exclaim, ‘Dear! how pretty!’ and never trouble their heads with thinking how we feel.

  • 1920 D. Lindsay A Voyage to Arcturus (1946) 28 page image David Lindsay bibliography

    Well, if that journey were a possible one, and I were given the chance of making it, I would be willing never to come back. For four-and-twenty hours in that Arcturian planet, I would give my life.

  • 1945 ‘Sergeant Saturn’ The Reader Speaks in Thrilling Wonder Stories Spring 6/1 (editorial introduction) page image Sergeant Saturn

    Brillig is no word for the Arcturean lapis lazuli toves in which ye Sarge finds himself at present.

  • 1950 F. Leiber The Lion & the Lamb in Astounding Science Fiction Sept. 9/2 page image Fritz Leiber bibliography

    ‘I believe I’ve pulled him through this attack,’ the Spaniard from Arcturus Quattuor replied, drifting closer. … ‘Ah!’ the Arcturan Spaniard said quickly, ‘But suppose she’d been space-wrecked; broken open, say, by a big meteorite.’

  • 1964 G. Fox Escape Across the Cosmos iii. 42 page image Gardner F. Fox bibliography

    There were clothes, too, Rigel silks and Arcturan cottons, cloaks of cloth-of-gold and wool, sandals of the finest leather available.

  • 1979 D. Adams The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy xxv. 127 page image Douglas Adams bibliography

    The Great Hyperlobic Omni-Cognate Neutron Wrangler could talk all four legs off an Arcturan MegaDonkey—but only I could persuade it to go for a walk afterwards.

  • 1986 J. G. Betancourt Starskimmer (Amazing Stories #5) xi. 156 page image John Gregory Betancourt bibliography

    One didn’t get a Patrol captain mad and expect him just to roll over and play dead like some Arcturan bunny.

  • 1991 ‘K. M. O’Neal’ Redemption of Light 98 page image Kathleen M. O'Neal Kathleen O'Neal Gear bibliography

    It made Cole feel as if he clung by his fingertips over the gaping maw of a fire-breathing Arcturian flame cat.

  • 2002 B. L. Pardoe Operation Audacity (BattleTech #55) v. 60 page image Blaine Lee Pardoe bibliography

    I am Felix Blucher of the Fifteenth Arcturan Guards.

  • 2012 C. J. Paget Interview with a Robot Heresiarch in J. R. Macumber et al. Explorers: Beyond the Horizon (Dead Robots’ Society) 80 page image C. J. Paget bibliography

    There’s a certain inevitability that some processes will be the same between Arcturean and Terran lifeforms.


Research requirements

antedating 1920

Earliest cite

David Lindsay, A Voyage to Arcturus

Research History
The 1979 Adams ‘Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy’ quot. is linked to a page image of a 1992 edition, but the quot. itself has been checked against the printed copy of the 1979 ed.

Last modified 2026-02-06 13:32:08
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.