warp n.

= space warp n.; travel by means of a space warp, travel at warp speed; (also) = time warp n.

FTL

  • [1930 N. Schachner & A. L. Zagat In 20,000 A.D.! in Wonder Stories Sept. 314/1 (footnote) page image Arthur Leo Zagat Nat Schachner bibliography

    Jenkins had evidently fallen into a warp in space. The Vanishing Wood was a pucker—a fault, we might say, borrowing a geologic term—in the curvature of space. Through this warp he had been thrown clear out of our three dimensions into a fourth dimension. There he slid in time over the other side of the ridge or pucker, into the same spot in the three-dimensional world, but into a different era in time. Notice that he had not traveled an inch in space; all his journeying had been purely in time.]

  • 1936 J. Williamson Cometeers in Astounding Stories May 22/2 page image Jack Williamson bibliography

    Every atom of ship load and crew was deflected infinitesimally from the space-time continuum of four dimensions, and thus freed of the ordinary limitations of acceleration and velocity, was driven around space, rather than through it, by a direct reaction against the space warp itself.

  • 1941 Cosmic Stories May

    ‘Oh, he'll be back, I expect, as soon as I release the warp. He’s probably wandering around in some impossible world or other’.

  • 1954 T. R. Cogswell Invasion Report in Galaxy Science Fiction Aug. 80/2 Theodore R. Cogswell bibliography

    Halfway between Earth and Venus there was a sudden shimmer as the Vegan ship slipped out of warp into normal space.

  • 1968 G. Coon Arena in J. Blish Star Trek 2 (1968) 2

    The Enterprise had difficulty in closing with her even at warp eight, two factors above minimum safe speed.

  • 1968 S. E. Whitfield in S. E. Whitfield & G. Roddenberry Making of ‘Star Trek’ ii. ii. 192 bibliography

    Originally the Enterprise was said to be powered by something loosely called a ‘space warp’. As episode after episode went into production, it became increasingly obvious that this point would have to be tied down.

  • 1974 J. Blish Star Trek 10 13 James Blish

    A peculiar physical warp, Captain, in which none of our established physical laws seem to apply with regularity.

  • 1983 D. Duane So you want to be Wizard? 47 Diane Duane

    ‘A warp,’ Nita whispered. ‘A tunnel through spacetime. Are you a white hole?’

  • 1984 D. Duane My Enemy, my Ally iv. 45 Diane Duane bibliography

    She came out of warp and coasted down into 285’s feeble little gravity well, settling into a long elliptical orbit around the star.

  • 1990 A. McCaffrey & J. L. Nye Death of Sleep (1992) 300 Anne McCaffrey Jody Lynn Nye bibliography

    The ship was capable of running on its own power indefinitely in sublight, or making a single warp jump between short sprints before recharging.

  • 1997 J. Vornholt Mind Meld iv. 68 John Vornholt

    It was just the larger scout ship going into warp.

  • 1999 C. Pellegrino & G. Zebrowski Star Trek Next Generation: Dyson Sphere i. 9 George Zebrowski Charles Pellegrino bibliography

    No dust particles glowed and scratched warp trails on the bridgescreen.

  • 2013 G. Benford Man Who Sold the Stars in Hieroglyph (2014) 347 page image Gregory Benford bibliography

    ‘Wait, how the hell did you get here so fast?’ ‘Translight, sir. It’s a relativistic warp effect, been working on it for decades.’

Research requirements

antedating 1936
Earliest cite

Jack Williamson, in Astounding Stories
Research History
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2013 cite from Greg Benford.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 1930 cite from Nat Schachner and A. L. Zagat in reference to a time warp.

Last modified 2022-03-27 20:30:54
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.