Word(s) of the Week: Ion drive.

a space drive that generates thrust by emitting a stream of ions in the direction opposite to that of travel; (especially in modern and scientific use) such a drive generates a relatively weak but steady acceleration that accumulates over time to produce high sub-light velocities.

1947 J. Williamson Equalizer in Astounding SF (Mar.): It had its own ion drive, a regular crew of six, and plenty of additional space for our party.

Word of the Week: Virus

[a computer program that is capable of replicating itself and installing these copies onto other computers without the users’ knowledge, and which usually also performs damaging or irritating actions on the computers]

1972 D. Gerrold When Harrie Was One 175: You know what a virus is, don’t you […]. The VIRUS program does the same thing.

Word of the Week: Android

[modern L. androides Gk. Andr-, “man”] an artificial being that resembles a human in form, especially one made from flesh-like material (as opposed to metal or plastic). [Early cites refer to an alchemical creation and to purely mechanical automata.]

1727-51 E. Chambers Cyclopaedia: Albertus Magnus is recorded as having made a famous androides.

1883 J. Ogilvie Imperial Dictionary of English Language 102/1: Android […] A machine in the human form which, by certain springs, imitates the natural motions of a living man.

Word of the Week: Dystopia

[Gk. Dys-, “bad” + topos “place”, after UTOPIA] an imagined society or state of affairs in which conditions are extremely bad, especially in which these conditions result from the continuation of some current trend to an extreme; the genre of fiction set in such a society.

First recorded use: 1868. J.S. Mill Hansard Commons (March 12): It is perhaps, too complimentary to call them Utopians, they ought rather to be called dys-topians, or caco-topians. What is commonly called Utopian is something too good to be practical; but what they appear to favour is too bad to be practical.