Original post on mastodon.social
If you need a break from <waves arms at everything>, you can distract yourself w/two new fandom entries in the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "newfan" & its frequent plural "newfen"! Both from 1945 onwards, the former now rare.
https://sfdictionary.com/view/3036/newfan […]
30.10.2025 15:40 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Helpful comment of the day, found in a test:
like($date, qr/^20/, "get_end_date will return a (probably current) date if nothing is passed in"); # N.B. this test will fail in 77 years
27.10.2025 19:49 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Original post on mastodon.social
New entry for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "Encyclopedia Galactica", prominently (though not originally) in Asimov's Foundation series, but also in HHGTTG, Carl Sagan, _Contact_, & more. We love reference works of all kinds! […]
16.10.2025 14:38 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Original post on mastodon.social
New entries for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: the "retro-futurism" terms, chiefly to support upcoming entries. Mostly based on the OED entries (though "-futurist" is an antedating). 1980s onwards.
https://sfdictionary.com/view/3045/retro-futurism […]
09.10.2025 14:17 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
For you conspiracy-theory fans, a very important new entry for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "medbed", in use regularly since the late 1980s:
https://sfdictionary.com/view/3049/medbed
(We do not discuss the conspiracy-theory stuff; that's not our jam.)
02.10.2025 13:56 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Original post on mastodon.social
New entry for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "Mercurian", a language/dialect spoken on Mercury or by Mercurians. Like many of the language-of-our-solar-system terms, it was common mid-century, but is now rare. From 1914, but antedatings welcome! […]
17.09.2025 16:32 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Took a look at the details of a software package I've been happily using for years, and discovered to my not-inconsiderable surprise that it's written in _Pascal_.
02.09.2025 00:07 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Today's new mid-century human/robot anxiety word for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "usuform", Anthony Boucher's term for a robot that, you know, does stuff, rather than one that looks like a human. No longer in use.
https://sfdictionary.com/view/3046/usuform
25.08.2025 14:30 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Terrific antedating for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction, for _xenocide_, from 1973 to 1964, thanks to @ausir. Also brought it up to date with a 2020 quote.
https://sfdictionary.com/view/2216/xenocide
12.08.2025 15:08 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Original post on mastodon.social
Important new Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction entry: _clanker_ 'a robot', which, despite the 50 articles last week claiming this is a 2005 Star Wars thing, has been in use since the '50s, from major authors such as Tenn, Saberhagen, Pohl, Rucker, &c […]
11.08.2025 15:24 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Original post on mastodon.social
New entry for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "terrestrial" adj., in reference to Earth. We hadn't bothered with this before. Quotes from (translated) Jules Verne onwards. Cf. many earlier examples in non-SF contexts: not always easy to tease apart […]
08.08.2025 15:15 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
New entries for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: _metahuman_, as noun and adjective. Inspired by discussion of the new #Superman movie. From 1970s, with non-SF antecedents.
https://sfdictionary.com/view/3042/metahuman
https://sfdictionary.com/view/3041/metahuman
24.07.2025 15:57 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Screenshot of a line of chat reading "Jesse Sheidlower As per misunderstanding you will not keep the records of the changes done but will give us latest and updated data"
My correspondent is a non-native English speaker, but I think he's onto something here.
24.07.2025 14:10 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Spectacular Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction antedating of "jump gate", otherwise associated chiefly with Babylon 5. @ausir found a 1966 example from Poul Anderson in Galaxy, antedating 1993.
https://sfdictionary.com/view/250/jump-gate
22.07.2025 17:55 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
New old-skool entries for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "interspace" as noun and adj. (in rather different meanings) both from the 1920s, both now rare.
https://sfdictionary.com/view/2769/interspace
https://sfdictionary.com/view/3038/interspace
16.07.2025 14:00 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Original post on mastodon.social
Important new fandom entries for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: Bob Tucker–related terms, referring to the use of real people's names in a work of fiction. _Tuckerism, -ization, -ize, -ized_. 1950s onward.
https://sfdictionary.com/view/1890/tuckerism […]
19.06.2025 14:13 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Bonus word-coinage connection: The actual person quoted as first using _gray goo_ is Christine Peterson, Drexler's then-wife, who is also generally credited with the suggestion of the expression _open source_ in software contexts.
#opensource
11.06.2025 14:57 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Original post on mastodon.social
New #nanotechnology entry for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "gray goo", which I've been sitting on for years because of bibliographical issues.
https://sfdictionary.com/view/2591/gray-goo
(Basically, this is always credited to K. Eric Drexler's _Engines of Creation_, but it […]
11.06.2025 14:37 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
@dpk
No, I don't record that.
05.06.2025 15:01 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
@dpk
Well, if you come up with something, please share! I actually have pages of this shit. I think I've accidentally blocked half of Ireland because of some Microsoft datacenter using up all of the country's IP range.
05.06.2025 14:51 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
A snippet from an nginx configuration file reading
if ($http_user_agent ~ "ChatGPT") {
return 403;
}
(i.e., block website access to anything identifying as a ChatGPT agent)
Today in website upgrades:
05.06.2025 14:45 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Original post on mastodon.social
Important additions from (modern) fandom for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "fix-it", adj. & n., from 1999 and 2001 respectively. Cites from LiveJournal, Tumblr, the Fanfic Symposium, &c.
https://sfdictionary.com/view/2394/fix-it
https://sfdictionary.com/view/3031/fix-it […]
04.06.2025 16:14 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
@fivetonsflax
Yes, and the original version of this misquoted even the non-obscene parts of the poem....
03.06.2025 01:00 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Original post on mastodon.social
New entries for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "universe-wide", as both adjective and adverb. From 1930s and 1950s respectively; joining existing entry pairs "galaxy-wide" and "planet-wide".
https://sfdictionary.com/view/2777/universe-wide […]
30.05.2025 14:56 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A new entry for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction in no one's favorite category: languages of solar system bodies! Today's entrant "Ganymedian". As with the others, fairly rare, mostly mid-20th C.
https://sfdictionary.com/view/2632/ganymedian
21.05.2025 16:16 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction new entry: I've been sitting on the complex "fan service" for two years, during which time other dicts. have finally entered it, but ours is earlier ;-) Enjoy!
https://sfdictionary.com/view/2650/fan-service
15.05.2025 15:39 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Original post on mastodon.social
After a substantial amount of work, I am pleased to announce new Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction entries for the #fandom sense of _alternate universe_, & for its shortened form _AU_. 1977 & 1993 respectively. Feedback welcome!
https://sfdictionary.com/view/3027/alternate-universe […]
09.05.2025 15:33 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
@fivetonsflax
Awesome!
24.04.2025 03:38 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Original post on mastodon.social
A matched set of 3 new entries for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction! For "earthport", "marsport", & "moonport", (usually capitalized as the name of) spaceports in those places. 1930s–.
https://sfdictionary.com/view/3029/earthport
https://sfdictionary.com/view/3030/marsport […]
23.04.2025 17:06 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
New entries for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: a pair of obsolete early fandom terms, "stfan" and "stfandom".
https://sfdictionary.com/view/1383/stfan
https://sfdictionary.com/view/1889/stfandom
Sorry for being slow with recent updates, but <waves hands at the world>.
14.04.2025 18:04 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
