OED Science Fiction Database Updated 267
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?"
War stimulates the imagination? (Score:5, Insightful)
Bombs falling, V2 rockets, mad dash for jet fighters... not surprising the entire culture is leaping into the future.
Scary shit, actually.
Not to mention... (Score:2, Insightful)
Nothing like a world war to stimulate the imagination.
Massive spending on R&D (Score:2, Interesting)
It was the massive spending on R&D.
There was plenty of new development involved in the trips to the moon.
Some of the best "words" developed in the 1960s probably involved personal research and LSD trips.
Re:War stimulates the imagination? (Score:2, Offtopic)
Hopefully our descendents won't look back and say "Bizarre peaks around the 1940's and early 2000's..."
Re:War stimulates the imagination? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:War stimulates the imagination? (Score:3, Insightful)
Although one might say they're actual
Re:War stimulates the imagination? (Score:4, Interesting)
well.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:well.... (Score:5, Funny)
-5, Pedantic but wrong (Score:4, Informative)
Re:well.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:well.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:well.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:well.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:well.... (Score:2)
Re:well.... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:well.... (Score:2, Informative)
The usage was not strictly VR in the sense we know it today, but awfully close.
Re:well.... (Score:3, Insightful)
nice graph (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Pulp mags (Score:3, Informative)
What happened in the 30s (Score:3, Informative)
Science fiction, under whatever name, goes back centuries. Cyrano de Berger
Morph (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Morph (Score:2)
Re:Morph (Score:4, Informative)
to the Aardman site [aardman.com]
Morph (Score:5, Interesting)
And his mutant ability was that he was a shapeshifter. He could morph into just about anything.
Re:Morph (Score:2)
Re:Morph (Score:5, Insightful)
Interestingly, ILM was pushing hard for the alternative 'morf' spelling, and we spent considerable effort seeding our preferred 'morph' spelling into the trade press. Fortunately for us, we were working on music videos and television commercials that showed off the technique well, and ILM only used their tool for a few shots in a few movies.
I think that Black or White is still the most impressive morph ever done -- probably because we spent about six person-months refining it. Jamie Dixon and Amie Slate did the bulk of the work for that video.
Thad Beier
Re:Morph (Score:5, Informative)
Maybe in the US. Here in the UK, a generation of kids grew up with Morph - he was a shape-shifting plasticine stop-motion animated character created in 1980. In fact, Morph was the very first creation of Aardman Animations, who went on to produce Wallace & Grommit and Chicken Run. Learn (slightly) more at http://www.aardman.com/showcase/amazing.html.
Re:Morph (Score:2)
And certainly the storyboards of T2, created in late 1989 or early 1990, were full of references to 2D and 3D morphs. We were bidding on things that we had no idea how were were going to accomplish -- but that is something we did on every job (and still do today.)
thad
Re:Morph (Score:3, Informative)
It was a magic-spell effect... therefore it should be considered related to Gary Gygax's use of the "polymorph" spell in 1974's Dungeons and Dragons.
Re:Morph (Score:2, Informative)
"In the beginning there was modelling clay. And from the clay came forth Morph a 6" high terracotta person with the ability to 'morph' into inumerable forms but who mostly stayed true to his original human-like form. Morph lived in a wooden artbox on the desk of tv artist and presenter Tony Hart and originally appeared in Tony's BBC art series Take Hart..."
Re:Morph (Score:4, Informative)
I've no idea where the "morph" of sci-fi came from but perhaps too much BBC childrens TV ?
(http://mag.awn.com/index.php?article_no=1438)
Avatar from Ultima games (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Avatar from Ultima games (Score:2)
Re:Avatar from Ultima games (Score:2)
Re:Avatar from Ultima games (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Avatar from Ultima games (Score:4, Funny)
There's a difference? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Avatar from Ultima games (Score:3, Funny)
Wouldn't think so. Let's see how Virtuous we can find Perl:
Wrong usage. (Score:3, Informative)
That's because the character was an avatar in the traditional sense of the word; the plot of Ultima IV was the character's quest to become an embodiment and exemplar of the 8 virtues. It has nothing to do with the word "avatar" in the VR sense, which is the usage that is being discussed here.
avatar
n.
2. An embodiment, as of a quality or concept; an archetype: the very avatar of cunning.
Re:Wrong usage. (Score:2)
I doubt the sci-fi usage was coined without any thought to the traditional usage.
Missing words (Score:5, Funny)
Bite my shiny metal ass
its full of stars
Spock, why does your underwear have three legs?
I don't think that this project is complete yet.
Here's a mirror of the graph... (Score:3, Informative)
Hmmm (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hmmm (Score:2, Informative)
If the term was this commonly used back in the 80's, you should just find a printed example. Granted, it's harder than using Google -- but think of the satisfaction!
Cool technology for the future (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Cool technology for the future (Score:2)
and
Imagine in 100-200 years
So much for a dieing OS. What about when this guys HD blows out or he stops updating the site?
Tony Hart's "Morph" (Score:4, Informative)
Religion... (Score:2, Insightful)
My question-- where do you draw the line between "science fiction" and mythology/religion?
Re:Religion... (Score:3, Insightful)
By determining the focus and intent of the stories. Those using religion to explain and/or using the explanations to promote religion are clearly not science fiction.
A more general point to ponder is that the key word is "science", not "fiction".
Re:Religion... (Score:2)
The mythology of the Greeks and Romans was in part their science of their day.
*That* was the point of the original poster.
Re:Religion... (Score:3, Insightful)
Hardly any. String theory perhaps. Maybe superconductors, although most scientist in 1904 were equiped with the basics to be able to be brought to an understanding about it. Heck, the fabled "fifth state of matter", the bose-einstein condensate [colorado.edu] was postulated 80 years ago. 550 years ago Da Vinci was drawing helicopters!
The mythology of the Greeks and Romans
Re:Religion... (Score:2)
Look up the book "The Hero with a thousand faces" by Joseph Campbell.
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Morph! (Score:2)
Avatar (Score:2)
paper? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't understand: why does a usage have to be on paper to count for this project?
Re:paper? (Score:5, Informative)
The original project was not simply (hah) to collect every word in usage in the English language, but to trace the evolution of meaning of each single word from its first recorded use on paper to its current day usage. A vast team of volunteers and paid members produced and selected quotations from verifiable documents that illustrated the changing meaning of every single word throughout its recorded existance.
The Dictionary in OED is somewhat of an understatement. But then, we talk not merely of the English, but of the Victorian English.
Show them the novels (Score:2, Informative)
So they are the very definition of pedantic, big deal. Just show them one of the novelizations by James Blish or Alan Dean Foster (for the animated ones) that came out a couple of years later.
-Dave
Re:Show them the novels (Score:2)
don't these people use google groups? (Score:3, Informative)
google groups [google.com]
of course, these may very well not match OED definitions of a good citation, but i would think you could then compare to other sources, like news papers and magazines.
it is exciting (being both a computer and language/words geek) to see such a project, though. it will surely keep the pressure on the OED to modernize and improve, as well as to accept other kinds of citations.
Apparently they don't... (Score:2)
I found that one, as well as other references through the next decade culminating in several 1991 references to existing morphing software for the Amiga. I think they're mistaking a meaning in common usage for a word derived from SF, because it sounds like a science fiction idea.
I guess they must be using patent examiners to do their research.
Morph's historic appeareance in SF (Score:5, Funny)
Everyone knows the word Morph's first use in science fiction can be traced back to Lord Albiron's 1929 novel "Danger, Danger High voltage." Quoting from the 3rd edition (Bantam), p. 33, 3rd paragraph :
"Blast it Timmy!, that durn George Bush specimen has morphed into some kind dumb ass nucular monkey. They must be running some kind of avatar process on him."
I'll never forget the first time i read that.
Re:Morph's historic appeareance in SF (Score:4, Funny)
To wit:
"Through the hallucinogenic effect of avatars on the moderators, less than witty joke posts morphed into insightful ones."
how to get a story accepted (Score:2)
Ah yes, it's not enough to simply point to an "interesting" story (whether this one qualifies or not is debatable). You have to mentioned that the potential Slashdot victim is running some sort of OSS.
Seriously, is it newsworthy that these guys are running their little show on FreeBSD and MySQL? Besides which, I couldn't find anything on their site which actual
Re:how to get a story accepted (Score:2)
Re:how to get a story accepted (Score:2)
MM
--
Re:how to get a story accepted (Score:2)
Roots of words (Score:2, Interesting)
Serious omission! (Score:4, Funny)
Avatar (for VR) predates 1990, morph sounds ~right (Score:3, Informative)
My first memory of the term "Avatar" being used to represent an online persona was on the online service Q-Link aka Quantum Link, a nationwide BBS system for the popular Commodore 64. (The parent company later became AOL.) They had a 2D graphics chat world called "Club Caribe" [vzonesnetwork.com] which I remember using the term "Avatar". (At the time, I thought it was a bit odd, since I was used to the term Avatar being used for the main character of Ultima IV (1985) [mobygames.com].) This would have been around 1988-1989 or so, which is earlier than the OED citation, although I do not have a printed source backup for this. (Check a C-64 magazine of that time period? Old copies of Compute Gazette, anyone?)
I've found a post from a MUD-Dev mailing list [kanga.nu] discussion thread held in 2001 on the same topic (what's the earliest use of the term avatar) that supports this recollection, and adds to it that the term might have been used by the predecessor of Club Caribe, Lucasfilm's Habitat (1984-1988), or possibly even earlier by Jaron Lanier. Again, no paper-based backup on this.
Regarding the term "morph", 1993 doesn't sound too far off; it might be a year or two earlier though. I ran across the term in late 1993 when trying to replicate the morphing process used by Michael Jackson's "Black or White" music video for a computer graphics class (based on a white paper by Pacific Data Images). Both that video and Terminator 2: Judgement Day which used morphing came out in 1992. The CG morphing technique was known as morphing when I took the class in 1993. I'm not sure the PDI white paper used the term morphing though, so maybe the term's name caught on some time after the video came out. So it might be 1993, but I wouldn't be surprised if the term was used in 1992.
--LP
Avatar in 1981 (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Avatar from True Names? Help (Score:2, Interesting)
Ignore the man behind the iron curtain
Skip the graph (Score:4, Interesting)
However, this is the beginning of something that will be interesting in a couple decades. I'd like to see how these numbers change over time.
Right now we have a peak of new Sci Fi words from the 40s and 50s (about 50 years ago). The slope is shallow coming up to the present, but the drop off is steep to the 20s and earlier.
Does this mean it takes about 40-50 years for new words to work their way into a more main stream usage, but then they fall out of fashion quickly? If so, the shape of the graph would change little over time, just the years along the X-axis would advance.
On the other hand, this could mean peaks in new words correspond to peaks in scientific innovation or other social factors. What we see happening to language in the 40s and 50s could correspond to the heightened anxiety of WWII and the cold war. Or it could follow the historic changes to our fundamental understanding of the universe occurring during the first couple decades of the century.
Of course, none of that can be determined from this one snap shot. Nothing to see here folks...yet.
Re:Skip the graph (Score:2)
Why was it the Golden Age? Well, with the atom bomb and the space program, i
Re:Skip the graph (Score:2)
Clarification for my Slashdot brethren (Score:5, Informative)
I noticed several people mentioning concerns about the use of words prior to some of the dates mentioned and also about non-print use of words. The thing is, the OED attempts to define words as they have been used in printed literature. In other words, without the Star-Trek script that illustrates the use of the term "cloaking device", they cannot verify it and date it properly.
The thinking, if I am not mistaken, is based on the idea that a word in published print has gone through an editing process. The editor is then responsible for making sure that the words used in the final publication are valid and used accurately. The OED attempts to catalog any new words or new uses of existing words that appear after having gone through this process. The assumption being that any new words or new uses of words are now "valid" as a result of having been printed.
Whether you agree with this process is probably not relevant; but that is the way that I understand it to work.
If you would like more information you should read the book "The Professor and The Madman" by Simon Winchester. It's a great story that details how the OED came to be; and Mr. Winchester is a fine autor.
Re:Clarification for my Slashdot brethren (Score:2)
does Usenet count as print? some would say yes, some no, but the point remains is that it's an archived form of communication, in text form. the OED needs to figure out, soon, what they're going to do about electronic text- and about how they're going to reference it, and potentially cache those referencing pages. the conservatism of british academics is almost cliched; good or bad, it at least ensures continuity.
as
Re:Clarification for my Slashdot brethren (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Clarification for my Slashdot brethren (Score:2)
Mr. Winchester wrote another book, The Meaning of Everything [quinion.com], which covers the history of the OED in more detail. I just finished reading the book yesterday; quite a fun (for a book about a dictionary), and often touching, read.
Unnecessary Details (Score:2, Insightful)
Superb book about the history of the OED (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Superb book about the history of the OED (Score:3, Interesting)
Morph is Greek! Avatar is Sanscrit. (Score:3, Insightful)
It took me two seconds to find this information on dictionary.com. It baffles me how a site claiming to be affiliated to the OED could make such errors.
Re:Morph is Greek! Avatar is Sanscrit. (Score:5, Insightful)
What about Grok? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:What about Grok? (Score:4, Funny)
And do you get beat up on daily basis, too?
I mean, I read the book and know the term, but I have never used it. I always thought it was rather odd seeing someone else use it outside of the book.
-- C.
Re:What about Grok? (Score:4, Informative)
Grok, Tackymat, Offog (Score:2)
Not a mention of Jules Verne (Score:2)
Dates make sense... in a way (Score:2)
Morph in the sense described is the computer shape change like in Terminator 2 or that old Michael Jackson face shift video (the heck if I can remember the name), not the greek word for changing shape, which has been used for lots of stuff WAAAAY before then.
Avatar in VR is the user's VR form, or in a different wording, the character being role-played in the VR
Where's Fembot? (Score:2)
Especially funny since the OED is considering adding fembot [ncbuy.com] to the OED as a whole.
I recall a Slashdot reference to this as well, but could not find it searching on "fembot" with the Slashdot search function.
Didn't Have "Robot" (Score:5, Interesting)
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) [setonhill.edu] 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":
Morph - 1986/7 (Score:2, Interesting)
I think they even talked of how the word was developed in the making-of documentary.
Re:The word Morph (Score:2)
FWIW Re:The word Morph (Score:2)
Re:MySql vs Slashdot (Score:2)
Further, it has been running FreeBSD since 19 February 2003, and prior to that ran Open/NetBSD from October 2002.
God bless Netcraft.
Re:Android? (Score:5, Informative)
The notion of human-shaped machines goes a lot further back than that - right back to Greek mythology. But such things were considered magic and/or supernatural: only with the Industrial Revolution did it become possible to think of machines that were manufactured, which is about the right date for a 1727 citation.
Even at that, robots remained nasty dangerous things-Man-wasn't-intended-to-know (cf Frankenstein) until the 20th Century, when writers like Capek created/popularized the concept (and the word, too: depends on who you ask), and Asimov depicted them as tools, designed for a purpose by engineers.
...laura, still a fan of Susan Calvin
Re:Android? (Score:3, Informative)
Also, even Capek's usage of the term "robot" isn't really our usage -- the "robots" of Capek's RUR were artifical (but still biological) humans, much like the replicants of Blade Runner.
Re:Android? (Score:2)
Re:Awesome!!! (Score:2)