“Warp speed” and “Prime Directive” predate Star Trek, according to new benchmark

It cannot be denied the profound influence that the Star Trek the franchise has had on our common popular culture. But it turns out that some of the more well-known terms associated with the series –conveyor, chain speed, and the famous Main directive—In previous reality Star Trek: The Original Series a decade or more. According to Jesse Sheidlower, lexicographer and editor of the brand new 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 date 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 in crowdsourcing.” By the end of the 19th century, the editors of the OED generally placed notices in newspapers and magazines asking people to read various documents and contribute to their coverage of the English language.

While at the OED, Sheidlower noted that science fiction was an area that was not well served by scholarships, in part because science fiction historically did not have much hiding. serious literary. This meant that the most important (and rarest) pulp magazines weren’t available in the usual archives, like the Library of Congress or the New York Public Library. So he set up a Science Fiction Quotes Project (SFCP) and called on the sci-fi community (fans and writers) to submit examples of the specialized terminology they found, all organized by moderators.

There was particular interest in “antediatures”, the earliest known examples of given 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 resulting from a genetic mutation” – dating from 1954, but Sheidlower thought it was probably invented much earlier. He was right: the term first appeared 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 of this activity decreased and the site effectively became static. Sheidlower left OED in 2013 and no longer has access to SFCP. Last year, he asked OED for permission to relaunch the project, including a major design overhaul. The pandemic gave him enough time to undertake such a massive overhaul, and the fact that many rare sci-fi sources have now been digitized – including the original pasta – allowed him to do his own extensive research. .

Like its predecessor, the HDSF improves and expands our knowledge of backdating. So far, according to Sheidlower, the HDSF has found more than 400 antediatures. For example, controlled by thought It was thought to date back to 1977, but it has now been traced back to 1934. Deep space dates back to 1921 (instead of 1937), ray gun first appeared in 1923, deflector was first mentioned in 1931 and the notion of mad scientist dates back to 1893. And the scientific terms biotechnician and graviton were first invented in science fiction, in 1940 and 1929, respectively.

The new HDSF also included useful additional features; it’s not just a list of words. Sheidlower went to great lengths to include as many links to online sources as possible, all added manually. For example, click mutant, and you’ll end up on the entry page with a timeline of its use starting with the oldest mention of current use. Click on 1934, and it will display an image of the page where the word first appeared.

“This is a site that was essentially a notebook where people could write down their research on something more widely useful, which makes it both more fun to explore and more useful to those who use it for serious scientific endeavors, ”said Sheidlower.

There are currently no plans to adapt the HDSF to a printed book, to the Brave new words. But Sheidlower hopes to continue expanding the resource, particularly to include more 21st century sci-fi terminology. It already understands the terminology of fandom communities (-con, faan, sercon), critics and particularly influential science fiction films and TV shows (lightsaber, red shirt, TARDIS).

And if the HDSF has no official affiliation with the OED, other than the association of its origins, at least one editor of the OED approves the project. Editor Peter Gilliver described it to the New York Times as “quite impressive and presented with a lot of style,” adding: “Jesse doesn’t like to leave any stone unturned. He’s a very stubborn researcher.”