The profound influence that the Star Trek had our common popular culture. But it turns out that some of the most well-known terms associated with the series –carrier, warp speed, and the famous First Directive– Actually at the forefront Star Trek: The Original Series by a decade or longer. According to Jesse Sheidlower, a lexicographer and editor of the newly launched online Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction (HDSF), the first mention of these terms appeared in 1956, 1952 and 1940, respectively.
The origins of this new online resource date back to 2001, when Sheidlower worked for the venerable Oxford English Dictionary (OED). “OED has always been a crowd entity,” Sheidlower told Ars. “In fact, it was probably the first thing that was obtained on a large scale.” In the late 19th century, OED editors usually placed notices in newspapers and magazines asking people to read different material and contribute to the coverage of the English language.
While at OED, Sheidlower noted that science fiction was an area not well served by scientists, in part because science fiction historically did not have much serious literary memory. This means that the most important (and rare) pulp magazines were not available in the regular archives, such as the Library of Congress or the New York Public Library. Therefore, he set up a Science Fiction Citations Project (SFCP) and appealed to the science fiction community (fans as well as writers) to submit examples of the specialized terminology they found, all compiled by moderators.
There was particular interest in ‘antedatings’, the earliest examples of given words, which are very interesting for scholars. For example, the MPE had an entry for mutant– “in the sense of a person with unusual abilities or appearance caused by a genetic mutation” – until 1954, but Sheidlower thought it was probably created much earlier. He was right: the first appearance of the term was in 1934. The site remained active for many years, and one of the moderators, Jeff Prucher, even published a Hugo Award-winning book, Brave new words, in 2007.
Over time, however, all activity declined, and the site became effectively static. Sheidlower left OED in 2013 and no longer had access to the SFCP. Last year, he asked OED for permission to revive the project, including a major design overhaul. The pandemic meant he had enough time to undertake such a massive overhaul, and the fact that numerous rare science fiction sources were now digitized – including the original masses – made it easier for him to do his own extensive research.
Jesse Sheidlower / HDSF
Like its predecessor, the HDSF helps to improve and expand our knowledge of antedating. So far, according to Sheidlower, the HDSF has found more than 400 antedates. For example, mind controlled is thought to date from 1977, but it is now traced back to 1934. Deep space dating from 1921 (instead of 1937), shotgun first appeared in 1923, deflect was first mentioned in 1931, and the concept a crazy scientist can be traced back to 1893. And the scientific terms biotechnologist and gravity was first created in science fiction, in 1940 and 1929 respectively.
The new HDSF also included useful features; it’s not just a list of words. Sheidlower went to great lengths to include, where possible, links to online source material – all added manually. For example, click on mutant, and you find yourself on the entry page with a chronology of the usage that begins with the first mention of the current usage. Click on the 1934 entry and it will take up an image of the actual page on which the word appeared.
“This is apart from a website that was basically a notebook where people could write down the research they were doing about something more useful, making it more enjoyable to explore and more useful to those who use it for serious scientific efforts, “Sheidlower said.
There are currently no plans to adapt the HDSF in a printed book, a la Brave new words. But Sheidlower hopes to continue expanding the source, especially to include more 21st-century science fiction terminology. It already contains terminology of fandom communities (-con, faan, sercon), critiques and especially influential science fiction films and television programs (light saber, red shirt, TARDIS).
And although the HDSF has no official affiliation with the MPE other than its origins, at least one MPE editor approves the project. Executive editor Peter Gilliver described it to The New York Times as’ fairly impressive and very stylishly presented ‘, adding:’ Jesse likes to leave no stone unturned. He is a very thoughtful researcher. ‘