insectoid n.
an insect-like alien
Aliens
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1937
In the ‘Other Earth’, the first world the narrator visits outside our own, he finds prevailing many of the conditions which agitate Europe to-day; in later stages of his quest, among the ‘insectoids’, for instance, he finds these difficulties resolved.
in The Sketch 7 July 44/1 -
1953
Olaf Stapledon
bibliography
Of the populations of the sub-galaxy most were descendants of the original Ichthyoids or Arachnoids; but…not a few that had sprung from avians, insectoids or plant-men.
Star Maker in To End of Time 340 -
1957
Poul Anderson
bibliography
Or consider one of the small insectoids I studied. It breeds here in the usual manner, then the female crawls out into the light to lay her eggs.
Life Cycle in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction July 55/2
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1972
Alan Dean Foster
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From a counter of her variegated display booth, Mother Mastiff was pleading amiably with a pair of small, jeweled thranx touristas. Her technique was admirable and competent. It ought to be, he reflected. She'd had plenty of time in which to perfect it. He was only mildly surprised at the insectoid’s presence. Where humans go, thranx also, and vicey-versy, don’t you know?
Tar-Aiym Krang (1983) 12
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1973
Lin Carter
bibliography
CAPOK: an impolite colloquialism by which the baser elements of the various human races of Thanator refer, derogatorily, to the Yathoon insectoids; cognate to ‘bug’.
Black Legion of Callisto 198
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1981
Vonda N. McIntyre
bibliography
This is a slightly less blatant version of the game of space opera, in which one writes a western, then trades earth for Omega Orion XI, trades the six-guns for lasers, masers, rasers, phasers, or occasionally for broadswords and crossbows (in a high-tech civilization, mind you); the horses transmute to FTL starcruisers, the cleancut collegiate-type good guys in white hats turn into cleancut collegiate-type good guys in mylar jumpsuits, and the squinty-eyed bad guys in black hats turn into clones, giant ambulatory carrots, humanoids, virusoids, or insectoids (or vice-versa, depending on one’s level of xenophobia).
Straining Your Eyes Through Viewscreen Blues in F. Herbert Nebula Winners Fifteen 80
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1983
Poul Anderson
Gordon R. Dickson
bibliography
A creature the size of his thumb fluttered clumsily, ever closer to him. Multiple legs brushed his skin again. ‘Damn,’ he mumbled, and once more made futile swatting motions. The insectoid was as persistent as a terrestrial fly.
Napoleon Crime in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact Mar. 49/2
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1996
David Brin
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One by one, the insectoids drifted upslope to the makeshift cavity where Dwer and Rety exposed their faces for air.
Infinity’s Shore (1997) 242
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1998
John Meaney
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He pictured wriggling insectoids, dropping from the night-bound branches.
To Hold Infinity i. 18
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2015
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James Patterson
Chris Grabenstein
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I was out there racking my alien brain, trying to formulate some sort of plan to take down Number 1—a plan that didn’t include me dying. The way my parents did when they went up against the six-and-a-half-foot-tall insectoid with the bulging, plum-colored body and stringy red dreadlocks dangling down between his antennae.
Daniel X: Lights Out i. 5
Research requirements
antedating 1937
Earliest cite
L. P. Hartley, reviewing Olaf Stapledon's "Star Maker"
Research History
Enoch Forrester submitted a cite from a 1983 reprint of Alan Dean Foster's "The Tar-Aiym Krang".Douglas Winston submitted a 1977 cite from Alan Dean Foster's "The End of the Matter".
Jeff Prucher submitted a 1981 cite from Vonda McIntyre's "The Straining Your Eyes Through The Viewscreen Blues".
Jeff Prucher submitted a cite from a 2000 reprint of Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson's "The Napoleon Crime", which Mike Christie verified in the 1983 first publication.
Fred Galvin submitted a 1957 cite from Poul Anderson's "Life Cycle"
Fred Galvin submitted a 1987 cite from Thomas R. McDonough's "The Architects of Hyperspace"
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1973 reprint of Lin Carter's 1972 "Black Legion of Callisto".
Simon Koppel submitted a 1937 cite from a review (by the novelist L. P. Hartley) of Olaf Stapledon's "Star Marker" (see below).
The OED database has an example from a later printing of Olaf Stapledon's "Star Maker". We would like to check this in the 1937 first edition.
Last modified 2021-08-16 15:55:17
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.