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OED Science Fiction Database Updated
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?"
I remember Morph being an oooold X-men villain, like late 70s or early 80s.
And his mutant ability was that he was a shapeshifter. He could morph into just about anything.
I don't think its "VR" but the 1980s Ultima series adventure games used Avatar to describe your character.
In the future, these sites will be a great tool. Imagine in 100-200 years, there will be a map of the English language that is traceable to a degree not currently possible, and we'll all understand language patterns better. I have heard that something like 10% of Shakespeare is completely lost in translation due to changes in the language, so one can only imagine what a resource like this will be able to provide for future generations -- hopefully, there won't be as much cultural reinvention (i.e. the printing press: China -> Europe)
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That is a good observation and perhaps not bizarre at all. I think it might be even more basic to say that "war stimulates technology" and that, as a consequence, "war stimulates vocabulary." This is because new technologies generate their own terms of art, buzzwords, and jargon. Think of all the words and phrases that were coined to describe each aspect of those technologies that you identified -- launch pad, blast shield, telemetry, sound barrier, ejection seat, etc.
It seems to me that they are missing "Grok." Seems rather strange that they would leave that one out. I use it on a daily basis, and so do most other people I know.
Hockey - Canada's gift to the world
This was easy enough to get as a google search (having seen the origin before)
The 1920 story/play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) Czech Author: Karel Capek, however his brother Josef is credited with coining the word.
I am unable to cite this correctly, not having the original publication, but am sending it off in any event.
It would seem even the simplest SciFi words should be considered for submission. So rack your brains then do a search.
(from the play, English translation, page 1):
On the right-hand wall are fastened printed placards:
"CHEAP LABOR. ROSSUM'S ROBOTS."
"ROBOTS FOR THE TROPICS. 150 DOLLARS EACH."
"EVERYONE SHOULD BUY HIS OWN ROBOT."
"DO YOU WANT TO CHEAPEN YOUR OUTPUT? ORDER ROSSUM'S ROBOTS":
Letter To Iran