Jesse Sheidlower
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jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Jesse Sheidlower
@jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
120 followers 1 following 78 posts
Lexicographer. http://sfdictionary.com. The F-Word. Ex-OED. Past President, American Dialect Society. Adjunct at Columbia. Coder. Barbells. Threesome […]

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jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
If you need a break from , 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 […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
October 30, 2025 at 3:40 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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
October 27, 2025 at 7:50 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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! […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
October 16, 2025 at 2:39 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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 […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
October 9, 2025 at 2:32 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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.)
October 2, 2025 at 1:57 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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! […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
September 17, 2025 at 4:33 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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_.
September 2, 2025 at 12:08 AM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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
August 25, 2025 at 2:33 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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
August 12, 2025 at 3:13 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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 […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
August 11, 2025 at 3:26 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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 […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
August 8, 2025 at 3:19 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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
July 24, 2025 at 3:57 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
My correspondent is a non-native English speaker, but I think he's onto something here.
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"
July 24, 2025 at 2:11 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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
July 22, 2025 at 5:55 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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
July 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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 […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
June 19, 2025 at 2:14 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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 […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
June 11, 2025 at 2:40 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Today in website upgrades:
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)
June 5, 2025 at 2:45 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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 […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
June 4, 2025 at 4:18 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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 […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
May 30, 2025 at 2:56 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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
May 21, 2025 at 4:19 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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
May 15, 2025 at 3:40 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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 […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
May 9, 2025 at 3:42 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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 […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
April 23, 2025 at 5:06 PM
jessesheidlower.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
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 .
April 14, 2025 at 6:12 PM