October 4th, 2009
There seems to be a little, but not very much. I mean, if we go way back, we have the word robot:
“The acclaimed Czech playwright Karel Capek (1890-1938) made the first use of the word ‘robot’, from the Czech word for forced labor or serf. Capek was reportedly several times a candidate for the Nobel prize for his works and very influential and prolific as a writer and playwright.”
From Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, the word “grok” sort of made it. I remember a head shop in St. Louis where I grew up called “The Hidden Grok.” I’ve occasionally seen the word used in articles and things, but very rarely in conversation (outside of sf fans).
Frak, from Battlestar Galactica, seems to have a chance to break in, but with the new series over, I’m not sure it’s going to stick.
A word that has seeped in pretty deeply and successfully is cyberspace, coined by sf author William Gibson.
There are a lot of other words, and more words, but they don’t seem to have originated in science fiction exactly, or don’t seem to have made much headway in the public discourse. I found a webpage (cached version) that seems very slow to load that gives a list of nine:
1. Robotics. This is probably the most well-known of these, since Isaac Asimov is famous for (among many other things) his three laws of robotics. Even so, I include it because it is one of the only actual sciences to have been first named in a science fiction story (â€Liar!â€, 1941). Asimov also named the related occupation (roboticist) and the adjective robotic.
2. Genetic engineering. The other science that received its name from a science fiction story, in this case Jack Williamson’s novel Dragon’s Island, which was coincidentally published in the same year as “Liar!†The occupation of genetic engineer took a few more years to be named, this time by Poul Anderson.
3. Zero-gravity/zero-g. A defining feature of life in outer space (sans artificial gravity, of course). The first known use of “zero-gravity†is from Jack Binder (better known for his work as an artist) in 1938, and actually refers to the gravityless state of the center of the Earth’s core. Arthur C. Clarke gave us “zero-g†in his 1952 novel Islands in the Sky.
4. Deep space. One of the other defining features of outer space is its essential emptiness. In science fiction, this phrase most commonly refers to a region of empty space between stars or that is remote from the home world. E. E. “Doc†Smith seems to have coined this phrase in 1934. The more common use in the sciences refers to the region of space outside of the Earth’s atmosphere.
5. Ion drive. An ion drive is a type of spaceship engine that creates propulsion by emitting charged particles in the direction opposite of the one you want to travel. The earliest citation in Brave New Words is again from Jack Williamson (â€The Equalizerâ€, 1947). A number of spacecraft have used this technology, beginning in the 1970s.
6. Pressure suit. A suit that maintains a stable pressure around its occupant; useful in both space exploration and high-altitude flights. This is another one from the fertile mind of E. E. Smith. Curiously, his pressure suits were furred, an innovation not, alas, replicated by NASA.
7. Virus. Computer virus, that is. Dave Gerrold (of “The Trouble With Tribbles†fame) was apparently the first to make the verbal analogy between biological viruses and self-replicating computer programs, in his 1972 story “When Harlie Was One.â€
8. Worm. Another type of self-replicating computer program. So named by John Brunner in his 1975 novel Shockwave Rider.
9. Gas giant. A large planet, like Jupiter or Neptune, that is composed largely of gaseous material. The first known use of this term is from a story (â€Solar Plexusâ€) by James Blish; the odd thing about it is that it was first used in a reprint of the story, eleven years after the story was first published. Whether this is because Blish conceived of the term in the intervening years or read it somewhere else, or whether it was in the original manuscript and got edited out is impossible to say at this point.
Better than my list, I think, although some of the terms are not commonly used in the mainstream.
Any others I’ve missed? I’m sure there are more.
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That list of “75 words” includes “sentience”, which I’d say is well known, except that a dictionary check says it’s from 1830, not from 20th century sf as the list claims…
Similarly the list of “25 words” includes “alternate history”, but I’m not sure I believe the phrase originated with modern sf…
Seems like “starship” is certainly well-known by the masses, and I assume originated in sf.
In my experience, “grok” is used by many computer/software geeks, who may not necessarily have gotten it directly from sf and don’t necessarily know its origin.
Have you come across Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, edited by Jeff Prucher? SF Site review by Paul Kincaid at the link. I haven’t seen it, but it looks fun.
Russ, sentience seems like a Latience-derived word to me, so I’m a little surprised it is so recent (even if 1830). Starship seems like a word that doesn’t come up outside of science fiction, however, even if the masses use it…when talking about science fiction.
And that’s a good example in “grok.” It’s being used by people who have not read the original book.
Nicholas, I know of the book, but never saw it myself.
For the record, I wrote those TechRepublic sci-fi word pieces and the Brave New Words list was one of my primary sources. Though I would never claim most of them were mainstream — if anything I was advocating for them to *become* mainstream, as they were bywords in SF circles but not so much among the mundanes.
It’s a shameless plug, but I still play around with this concept in my personal Nerd Words column, which I post every Thursday.
http://www.jaygarmon.net/search/label/nerd%20words
Personally, as a guy who loves language, I think that the Internet has allowed some remarkable factional vitalization of vocabulary, as those of us with common interests cam congregate rather easily online and our collective verbal shorthand gets propagated and adopted much more quickly within the group. Take a look at today’s xkcd comic (http://www.xkcd.com/645), which is a joke about slang language associated with mail server software, and tell me that this isn’t happening. Thinkgeek.com makes a whole business out of it. And R. Stevens sums up the whole meta-aware shared culture phenomenon with this t-shirt: http://store.dieselsweeties.com/products/hilarious-joke-shirt
Personally, I think geeks have gone mainstream in the sense that joining a subculture with its own language is no longer considered geek. We’re all geeks, it’s just a question of which flavor. Which goes back to another of my old TR columns:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/geekend/?p=1041
Thanks for contributing those comments, Jay. I think you’re right about the power of the internet to concentrate and spread new language quickly.
And I do enjoy your articles on techrepublic, too!
(Nitpick alert.) Unless I’m missing something, saying that the “Reverse Polish Sausage” xkcd is about a slang language associated with mail server software seems about like saying that this blog entry of Mike’s (titled “Science Fiction Words in the Mainstream”) is about Microsoft Word…
That xkcd joke is simply a reference to Reverse Polish Notation (aka postfix notation).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_Polish_notation
The fact that there’s a mail server named postfix seems purely coincidental, as the joke would work exactly the same if a mail server by that name didn’t exist.