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OED Science Fiction Database Updated

Posted by simoniker on from the flash-wordgone dept.

solferino writes "The Oxford English dictionary commenced a project back in 2001 (Slashdot report) to solicit reader citations of the earliest uses of science fiction words. The most recent OED newsletter covers the progress of the project, which has its own site hosted on a FreeBSD box running a MySQL database engine. An interesting graph on the site shows date of word origin by decade. Surprisingly recent words featured on the site are /avatar/ (1990 - in the VR sense) and /morph/ (1993) - unless the Slashdot readership can report earlier uses?"

13 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Re:well.... by some_schmuck · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yah, and I don't think I'd qualify "persay" as a word, per se.

  2. And we all know.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    no one would care about this article unless the obligatory OS it is running on comment is made.

    *sigh*

  3. Missing words by drsmack1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I searched for but could not find:

    Bite my shiny metal ass

    its full of stars

    Spock, why does your underwear have three legs?

    I don't think that this project is complete yet.

    --

    Humor from a Genetically Molested Mind

  4. Morph's historic appeareance in SF by rafael_es_son · · Score: 5, Funny

    Everyone knows the word Morph's first use in science fiction can be traced back to Lord Albiron's 1929 novel "Danger, Danger High voltage." Quoting from the 3rd edition (Bantam), p. 33, 3rd paragraph :

    "Blast it Timmy!, that durn George Bush specimen has morphed into some kind dumb ass nucular monkey. They must be running some kind of avatar process on him."

    I'll never forget the first time i read that.

    --
    HAD
    1. Re:Morph's historic appeareance in SF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I think it was actually used before that, in the 1913 novel "Mods on crack."
      To wit:
      "Through the hallucinogenic effect of avatars on the moderators, less than witty joke posts morphed into insightful ones."

  5. Serious omission! by Dystopian+Rebel · · Score: 4, Funny

    What is the earliest usage of the verb "to slashdot"?

    --
    Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
  6. Re:Awesome!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    He's just waiting on the dupe.

  7. Re:Avatar from Ultima games by OzPeter · · Score: 3, Funny

    Damn I need to increase the size of the font on my screen .. I read "rescue the world from peril" as "rescue the world from perl".

    --
    I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
  8. Re:What about Grok? by Cerpicio · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wow.

    And do you get beat up on daily basis, too?

    I mean, I read the book and know the term, but I have never used it. I always thought it was rather odd seeing someone else use it outside of the book.

    -- C.

  9. There's a difference? by edremy · · Score: 3, Funny

    NM

    --
    "Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
  10. Re:Avatar from Ultima games by WWWWolf · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wouldn't think so. Let's see how Virtuous we can find Perl:

    • Humility: Perl fails here, as everyone knows Hubris - striving to write programs that are good so that no one can find anything to complain, and getting people to praise the author for good hackery - is the virtue of Perl programmers.
    • Compassion: Likewise, Laziness and Impatience could lead to lack of compassion. Also, fans of the language - well, any programming language - tend to ignore and belittle other languages, showing certain lack of understanding.
    • Sacrifice: Getting better. Perl makes it easy to sacrifice any part of the design goals (be it readability, efficiency, maintainability, portability or whatever) to enhance others.
    • Honor: The openness and open-source ideas lead to honorific use of the language and libraries, even the sharing of source code.
    • Justice: Open Source, of course, leads to un-be-lieveable rantfests in Slashdot YRO and other sites that discuss the nassss-ty laws and such. Using Perl develops the sense of justice.
    • Valor: Who wouldn't feel valorous with a powerful programming language in their hands? Even the mightiest and most difficult programming tasks seem simple. Onward!
    • Spirituality: Put some rabid Perl geeks and Python geeks in the same room and come count the bodies the next day. Unwavering faith here, folks.
    • Honesty: "Yes, I know this language sucks. It just sucks less than other languages."

    That's six out of eight?

    (Note: The above analysis is not accurate and contains severe vague interpretations of the true natures of the Eight Virtues. Don't take this as a guide if you are going to play U4 some day.)

  11. Re:well.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Per se nazi.

  12. Re:Cool technology for the future by paughsw · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yes, but shakespear doesn't fully achieve it's highest glory unless it's written in it's orginal klingon