Another one from MJH, from "Settling the World," the first story in Things That Never Happen:
My very first glimpse of God's Own Road awaited me; the scent of my Palaeonophis mingled deliciously what the scent of the sea
in which the unfamiliar word seems to come from an H. G. Wells story called "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid."
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 22 September 2013 22:50 (ten years ago) link
Remembered the word I was looking for because I found it here: http://www.catb.org/esr/sf-words/glossary.html#sophont
sophont[From Poul Anderson's `Polesotechnic League' stories, going back at least to 1963]An evolved biological intelligence. Implies human-level cognitive and linguistic ability but not necessarily tool use. More specific and etymologically correct than sentient. Still less common than that term, but has been used by multiple writers.
An evolved biological intelligence. Implies human-level cognitive and linguistic ability but not necessarily tool use. More specific and etymologically correct than sentient. Still less common than that term, but has been used by multiple writers.
― Sodade Stereo (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 26 October 2013 19:26 (ten years ago) link
Already posted that upthread, sorry, although not the link to the glossary.
― Sodade Stereo (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 26 October 2013 20:41 (ten years ago) link
i finally finished green mars. no more pistes and escarpments for me for awhile.
― scott seward, Saturday, 26 October 2013 20:55 (ten years ago) link
I like some of his short stories and have a copy of Red Mars -they were giving the ebook a few years ago in the hope that you would read the whole series- but never managed to get too far into it.
― Sodade Stereo (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 26 October 2013 21:13 (ten years ago) link
The fourth word in this sentence, from the beginning of Jack Vance's "Mazirian the Magician": And beyond the roqual hedge the trees of the forest made a tall wall of mystery. In fact I'm still not sure what it means, I couldn't find it in any dictionary and if I google it I only get references to this exact same passage, or the suggestion Did you mean 'rorqual'?
― Pazz & Jop 1280 (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 15 November 2013 03:40 (ten years ago) link
not a word afaict (did an oed check), only thing i can think of is whether it's an invented adjectival form of 'roque':
"A form of croquet played in the United States on a court surrounded by a bank and using ten hoops and short-handled mallets."
still doesn't really make sense, but is closer than 'rorqual'. you might at a (very great) stretch replace 'the bank of a roque court' with a hedge?
Roque features heavily in Stephen King's novel The Shining. Where in the film adaptation Jack Torrance wields an axe, his weapon in the book was a roque mallet. The character Ullman tells Torrance that roque is the older, original form of the game and croquet is a "bastardized" American version. In fact, croquet is the original European game and roque is a later American variation.
but yeah, i think it's a made up word.
― Fizzles, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 11:45 (ten years ago) link
http://jackvance.yuku.com/topic/3599/Nuggets-kinds-specifically-Wodehouse-Vance#.WSfCTlP1A0o
― The Pickety 33⅓ Policeman (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 26 May 2017 05:55 (seven years ago) link
gloottokoma. I've only ever seen this word used by M. John Harrison, in the Viriconium books and in an introduction to Disch's 334.
― Dr. Winston ‘Merritone’ Blecch (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 1 January 2018 01:53 (six years ago) link
oh coolAn Unnatural Order: The Roots of Our Destruction of Naturehttps://books.google.com/books?isbn=1590560817Jim Mason - 2004 - NatureHe explains the Greek word gloottokoma, which refers to boxes used to lock up little children with the aim of shaping their growth for a lucrative career as circus dwarfs. The Roman Longinus wrote in the first century a d, of the practice of caging people in order to stunt their growth. Romans were known to have disfigured
― dow, Monday, 1 January 2018 02:03 (six years ago) link
Speaking of words, last night I sent a New Year's greeting to an olde pal, addressing him as "Richard Chivas Regal---he just now responded with this (30 years he waits to tell me):...my Kraut ancestors had nothing to do with anything royal, in fact, in German "Riegel" means "bar," not a saloon, but the bar that slides in a deadbolt...By extension from that usage, "Riegel" also came to mean "chocolate bar" in German (still not making this up.) I've been considering dubbing myself "Rich Candybar" should I need another nom de plume...
― dow, Monday, 1 January 2018 02:54 (six years ago) link
"Luna"
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 10 July 2019 22:17 (five years ago) link
words I only ever see in sf or sf criticism: “jonbar point.”
― Jazz Telemachy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 02:09 (four years ago) link
Jonbar usually capitalized, also known as a Jonbar Hinge.
― Jazz Telemachy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 02:11 (four years ago) link
ansible
― YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 10:56 (four years ago) link
^excellent
― Jazz Telemachy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 11:46 (four years ago) link
words invented especially for sci-fi that describe a fictional concept, tbf(I know it from https://ansible.uk)
― insecurity bear (sic), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 12:21 (four years ago) link
yeah, me too
― Jazz Telemachy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 13:00 (four years ago) link
maybe that’s another thread, for words like that and “waldo.” There’s also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansible_(software)?wprov=sfti1
― Jazz Telemachy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 13:02 (four years ago) link
"Iris" as a verb. ("The door irised open")
― Øystein, Wednesday, 18 December 2019 14:32 (four years ago) link
didn’t RAH famously come up with that?
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 01:34 (four years ago) link
Cranch
― Οὖτις, Monday, 30 December 2019 01:59 (four years ago) link
apparently that is a real last name but yeah.The story also makes reference to “the wire of Eustace Cranch.”
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 02:15 (four years ago) link
wait, I just happen to own the Cordwainer Smith concordance, let me look in that.
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 02:21 (four years ago) link
which quotes this from J. J. Pierce’s intro in The Best of:
At the time Smith wrote the story in 1945, there was an abandoned shop in his neighborhood called the Little Cranch—what “cranch” meant, he had no idea—but he used the word anyway.
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 02:31 (four years ago) link
then adding that “cranch” is a variant of “craunch” which I see in other sources seems to be an ancestor of “crunch.” /themoreyouknow
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 02:35 (four years ago) link
And here I thought all along it had something to do with Lucas Cranach.
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 02:36 (four years ago) link
Cranch, won’t pick it up
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 02:39 (four years ago) link
― Øystein, Monday, 30 December 2019 10:44 (four years ago) link
oh right the original was “dilated.” Still...
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 12:17 (four years ago) link
i thought iris as a verb was used early in the movie industry to describe the wipe
― Bojo Rabid (Noodle Vague), Monday, 30 December 2019 12:27 (four years ago) link
torus
― mookieproof, Monday, 30 December 2019 12:41 (four years ago) link
“strato-“ as a prefix
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Monday, 30 December 2019 12:44 (four years ago) link
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 12:58 (four years ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_shot
"iris out" and "iris in" are usually noun phrases -- "the film ends with an iris out" -- that encourage the belief in "iris" can act as a verb with "in" or "out" as its adverb: "let's end the film by irising out"
― mark s, Monday, 30 December 2019 13:07 (four years ago) link
Thanks for, um, irising in, Mark.
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 13:24 (four years ago) link
offworld
― Manitobiloba (Kim), Monday, 30 December 2019 14:44 (four years ago) link
The f-stop aperture of cameras was known as an iris decades before sci-fi got hold of the term.https://tubularinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/f-stop-scale.gif
― The dead swans lay in the stagnant pool (Sanpaku), Monday, 30 December 2019 16:45 (four years ago) link
"as a verb"
― mark s, Monday, 30 December 2019 16:51 (four years ago) link
https://img.apmcdn.org/fab975fb18fd043b3007cd9d7eb8a357e712cf50/uncropped/27c825-20110402-bob-dylan-1975.jpgIris, oh, Iris, you’re a mystical child
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 16:55 (four years ago) link
the element in a camera is anyway transferred from the anatomical region that surrounds the pupil in the eye, so-called (since 1525 via SOED) bcz it is rainbow coloured, iris being the greek goddess of the rainbow -- and "irised" did actually pre-exist (acc.SOED, i've never spotted it) as a poetic verb meaning "exhibited the characteristics of a rainbow"
so there's a quadruple meaning transference, which is fun: from name-of-a-god to colour quality to mechanism (purposive-muscular) to mechanism (purposive-mechanical) to mechanism (similar mechanism different purpose)
― mark s, Monday, 30 December 2019 17:01 (four years ago) link
El show de Iris Chacon to thread!
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 20:53 (four years ago) link
lidar
― mookieproof, Monday, 30 December 2019 22:42 (four years ago) link
there's a lot of lidar talk in 1491! which, okay, does read a bit like science fiction in places
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Monday, 30 December 2019 23:22 (four years ago) link