What do you really know about terms like warp drives and transporters? You likely associate them with Star Trek, but what else? You can expand your knowledge of these and other science-fiction words with the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, which we first learned about at Winter Is Coming. Edited by its creator, Jesse Sheidlower, a lexicographer and former editor-at-large for the Oxford English Dictionary, this new online resource is for more than checking the correct spelling of words like lightsaber. The tool defines sci-fi words and provides their history and earliest known uses.
The genre of science fiction reaches back through the decades. Its words and ideas have influenced other genres and even the real world. Browsing the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction gives sci-fi terminology context and even more weight.
Sheidlower’s creation just came online recently, but it’s been in the works since
