The Oxford English Dictionary (famed in song and story) is seeking the help of science fiction readers in finding citations for such science fiction terms as “commlink,” “dirtside,” and “multiverse” and even words from fandom, like “filk” and “mundane.”
Interestingly, the vast majority of these terms seem to be derived from the world of hard science fiction. Only a few, like “hobbithole” or maybe “shapeshifter” seem to have an origin in fantasy. I guess it’s because fantasy books don’t tend to create as much of a shared vocabulary, or because fantasy terms often draw from folk traditions that would already be included in the OED. . . I’m thinking of spell, troll, elf, etc.
I’m puzzled about a few of these, particularly the eponyms. How can there be any doubt about the first use of “Dyson sphere”, for example? Find where Dyson first described such an object, bingo, that’s it.
That ain’t necessarily so. Freeman Dyson proposed the concept of an artificial sphere the size of an planetary orbit[sup]*[/sup], but unless he also said, “…and I shall call this a Dyson sphere”, the term itself should be attributed elsewhere.
I couldn’t believe their earliest reference for “commlink” was 1990. The word was spoken on-screen by C-3PO in the first Star Wars movie, for crying out loud.
Just pulling up this thread.
I also wanted to add that if anyone knows of earlier uses of the words listed in the OED document, then it might be useful to send along such information. This is a link to the directions on how to cite: O.E.D. How to Cite
And, upon reading through the site a bit closer, I notice that they consider “comlink” to be an alternative spelling… although they DO list Star Wars as being the earliest found usage of the term.
I am happy to see that “droid” is now, essentially, a generic term…
