Mind Meld Make-Up with Gillian Pollack: Words We Learned from Genre Fiction
This week we asked our participants to talk about Words they first encountered in genre.
Words make me happy in so many ways. I get a Word of the Day from the OED (today it is ‘oliprance’ which I knew of as ‘orprance’ until this moment and which I need to see more of), but these words seldom change the words I use. They’re remiinders and they’re words I needed to learn, but it’s words in use, in texts that change me.
Since I like euphemisms (I don’t have to remember if I’m swearing in front of children if I don’t actually use bad language, after all), my favourite SFnal borrowing is Joan Aiken’s “Drabbit” from her Wolves of Willoughby Chase series. Useful in all circumstances. Also, not perhaps the source of SF language that most people expect. The usual suspects tend to be cyberpunk and robot and other words with a high geek factor. ‘Drabbit’ remains a personal favourite, despite everything.
