There is no denying the profound influence that the Star Trek franchise had in our shared popular culture. But it turns out that some of the more familiar terms associated with the series—conveyor, bending speed, and the famous First Guideline– really previous Star Trek: the original series for a decade or more. According to Jesse Sheidlower, lexicographer and editor of the recently launched Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction (HDSF) online, the first mention of these terms appeared in 1956, 1952 and 1940, respectively.
The origins of this new online resource go back to 2001, when Sheidlower worked for the venerable Oxford English Dictionary (OED). “OED has always been a crowdsourcing entity,” Sheidlower told Ars. “In fact, it was probably the first thing with crowdsourcing.” In the late 19th century, OED editors used to place advertisements in newspapers and magazines asking people to read various materials and contribute to the coverage of the English language.
While at OED, Sheidlower noted that science fiction was an area that was not well served by scholarships, in part because science fiction has not had a great literary treasure historically. This meant that the most significant (and rare) cellulose magazines were not available in the usual archives, such as the Library of Congress or the New York Public Library. He then set up a Science Fiction Quote Project (SFCP) and called on the science fiction community (fans and writers) to send examples of the specialized terminology they found, all curated by moderators.
There was a particular interest in “antedatings”, the first known examples of certain words, which are of great interest to scholars. For example, the OED had an entry for mutant– “in the sense of a person with unusual abilities or appearance who came about through a genetic mutation” – dating from 1954, but Sheidlower thought he was probably coined long before. He was right: the term’s first appearance 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 that activity declined and the site became effectively static. Sheidlower left OED in 2013 and no longer had access to SFCP. Last year, he asked the OED for permission to revive the project, including a major design review. The pandemic meant that he had enough time to undertake such a massive review, and the fact that many rare sources of science fiction had already been digitized – including the original pulps – made it easier for him to do his own extensive research.
Jesse Sheidlower / HDSF
Like its predecessor, HDSF helps to improve and expand our knowledge of predecessors. So far, according to Sheidlower, HDSF has found more than 400 antedatings. For example, thought-controlled it was thought to be dated 1977, but has now been traced back to 1934. Deep space dates back to 1921 (instead of 1937), ray gun first appeared in 1923, baffle was first mentioned in 1931, and the notion of a crazy scientist can be traced back to 1893. And the scientific terms biotechnical and graviton were first coined in science fiction, in 1940 and 1929, respectively.
The new HDSF also included some useful additional features; it is not just a list of words. Sheidlower went to great lengths to include links wherever possible to the source material online – all added manually. For example, click mutant, and you will find yourself on the home page with a chronology of its use, starting with the first mention of the current use. Click on the mention of 1934 and a picture of the actual page will appear where the word first appeared.
“It stopped being a website that was basically a notebook where people could write their research into something more widely useful, making it more fun to explore and more useful for those who use it for serious academic efforts,” said Sheidlower .
There are currently no plans to adapt the HDSF in a printed book, a la Brave new words. But Sheidlower hopes to continue to expand the feature, especially to include more 21st century science fiction terminology. It already includes terminology from fandom communities (-con, faan, sercon), critics and sci-fi films and particularly influential television programs (lightsaber, red shirt, TARDIS)
And although HDSF has no official affiliation with the OED, other than the association of its origins, at least one OED editor approves the project. Executive editor Peter Gilliver described The New York Times as “quite impressive and presented with a lot of style”, adding: “Jesse doesn’t like to leave a stone unturned. He is a very obstinate researcher”.