TDM: Imagined slang that is then actually used

[Harold]

I haven't got very far into the book yet - I've been trying to finish several others before I dive fully into more - but I have to say I'm tremendously entertained by the slang that the characters use. Not just the 1950 cadence of things like "peep me," but also the use of "jet." I particularly find "jet" amusing because I have to work around my own knowledge of the actual slang word "jet." In the future of The Demolished Man, to "jet" is to move quickly (makes sense). But in the real-world 80s United States, to "jet" was synonymous with "skeedaddle"...for non-English speakers, "skeedaddle" means "to leave." So every time a character says "I'll jet," I have to chuckle. Why is everybody leaving all the time?

I don't actually imagine that there is a connection between Bester's "jet" and the adoption of "jet" by teens in the US three decades later. But I am curious: are there more instances of slang that was imagined in SF/F that later came to mean something different in the real world?

[Jeff]

I turned finding the word "jet" into a drinking game while I was reading the book. Trust me, it's used a lot!!

[Joe Informatico]

The Oxford University Press put out a short list of words that originated in SF stories. I'll note that "robot" as a term for manufactured artificial-labourer originated in Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. ("Rossum's Universal Robots") well before Asimov started writing his stories, and that Gregory Benford claims to have coined "computer virus" two years before Gerrold did.

[MarkB]

Not so much a coined phrase, but it was an interesting detail that the novel mentions people listening to audio books on several occasions, with some implication that it had become the primary means of consuming novels in the setting.

[Gary]

It's fallen a bit out of favor, but there's:

grok: To understand profoundly through intuition or empathy.

Coined by Heinlein in his Stranger in a Strange Land.

[Dave]

MarkB wrote: "Not so much a coined phrase, but it was an interesting detail that the novel mentions people listening to audio books on several occasions, with some implication that it had become the primary mean..."

Interesting that this book is not available as an audiobook then, eh?

[LegalKimchi]

how man non english speakers read are in this group?
I liked shiny from firefly. and of course frak.

[Gary]

My understanding is that "shiny" as a word to describe something that one approves of pre-dates Firefly. Apparently it's like the use of "gorram" instead of a more explicit profanity, which actually was in use during the 1800's in the West that the show's characters emulate. I think Whedon probably found those terms when doing research for the show--or as part of his broad, liberal reading background....

Apparently, BG did popularize "Frak!" but it predates that show was well.

Frak! is a 1980s computer game originally programmed by Orlando (aka Nick Pelling) for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron and published by his own 'Aardvark' software label in 1984. The game was ported to the Commodore 64 the following year by 'The B Team' (Jason Perkins, Anthony Clarke and Mark Rodgers).... Frak! is a platform game in which the player controls a caveman named Trogg.... Trogg exclaims "Frak!" (presumably an expletive) each time he dies.

I can't say for certain that's where the show's writers/producers got it, though....

[MarkB]

Dave wrote: "Interesting that this book is not available as an audiobook then, eh?"

Yeah, I'd be interested to see (or rather hear) how an audiobook handled the interesting textual interleavings which are used for some of the telepathic conversations.

(Unfortunately, the free ebook version I downloaded in order to re-read the book for this month utterly mangled them).

[Firstname]

Jeff wrote: "I turned finding the word "jet" into a drinking game while I was reading the book. Trust me, it's used a lot!!"

Must not post after trying this!

[Firstname]

Gary wrote: "It's fallen a bit out of favor, but there's:

grok: To understand profoundly through intuition or empathy.

Coined by Heinlein in his Stranger in a Strange Land."

I still use it.

[Harold]

'Grok' is one of the most common words coined in SF that's still in use today (at least in my circles of friends and co-workers), I'll admit. But it is used roughly the way Heinlein used it, whereas 'jet' is completely different. Any others that differ greatly from the source material?

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Harold wrote: "In the future of The Demolished Man, to "jet" is to move quickly (makes sense). But in the real-world 80s United States, to "jet" was synonymous with "skeedaddle"...for non-English speakers, "skeedaddle" means "to leave.""

I'm English, and I've heard talk of people 'jetting about all over the place' meaning 'rushing about all over the place'. I mean, it isn't terribly common, but as I've heard it, I wouldn't be too surprised if it was used with that kind of meaning more often in the past. And while the phrase 'gotta jet' would make me think someone was leaving, I would certainly imagine they were doing so quickly. I don't think the meaning is all that different.

[Thom]

I work with some people who use Niven's "tanj" (There Ain't No Justice) and "tanstaafl" (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch).

[Alan]

Gary wrote: "Apparently, BG did popularize "Frak!" but it predates that show was well...."

Frak was used in the original BSG, which started in 1978. I don't know if other shows used it even earlier.

[Gary]

Alan wrote: "Frak was used in the original BSG, which started in 1978. I don't know if other shows used it even earlier."

Really? Interesting. I have no memory of that. I'd check it out again, but I don't think I can get past the 70's hair... so I'll just trust you on that one.

[Joseph]

Gary wrote: "Alan wrote: "Frak was used in the original BSG, which started in 1978. I don't know if other shows used it even earlier."

Really? Interesting. I have no memory of that. I'd check it out again, ..."

I remember "felgercarb" but not "frak". If nothing else, I'm pretty sure they weren't quite as motherfrakking insistent on frakking working it into every frakking line of frakking dialogue.

[Alan]

Joseph wrote: "... I remember "felgercarb" but not "frak". If nothing else, I'm pretty sure they weren't quite as motherfrakking insistent on frakking working it into every frakking line of frakking dialogue. "

I recall Starbuck used to say frak every now and then - though not as much as after he became she ;)

I just checked the BSG wiki and it backs up my memory:

... ""Frack" is a Colonial expletive, roughly analagous to "shit" or even the milder "rats" or "darn" of the Original Series. Its subversive value, exploited far more extensively in the Re-imagined Series, is that it sounds like a variant of "fuck", and in the latter series it actually conveys that meaning.

There are two main ways to spell the term, but "frack" is how it appears in the Writer's Guide, dated October, 2, 1978.

With the exception of the Galactica 1980 episode "The Return of Starbuck", it is used solely in the Original Series episodes and publications relating to that series. For the first nine episodes of Galactica 1980, the term "felgercarb" is used in lieu of "frack", likely because of the "Kiddie Hour" timeslot 1980 held at the time."