The new online Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction is a comprehensive, quotation-based online resource that’s a delight for language lovers of all kinds, and a treasure trove for sci-fi fans. It’s the work of lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower and grew out of the crowdsourced Science Fiction Citations Project, which also led to a print historical dictionary, Brave New Words, edited by Jeff Prucher. (Bookshop|Amazon) Some entries, like earthborn and dirtsider, remain outside the cultural mainstream. Warp speed, on the other hand, originated in a 1952 science fiction work, and is now so widely known to mean “very fast” that it ends up in names like that for the all-out vaccine-development effort, Operation Warp Speed. This is part of a complete episode.
More from this show
When you’re talking about the location of an inanimate object, is it okay to say that it lives there, as in The peanut butter lives in that cabinet or The flashlight lives on that shelf? Strictly speaking, of course, that object isn’t...
Sean in Oneonta, New York, says that when he was growing up in New Jersey, his family would pile in the car and set off on a surprise adventure, whether a short distance or long, and the kids would be told only that they were going on Buxtehude...