outworld adj.

on or from another planet, esp. one remote from the homeworld or far from a solar system’s star

  • [1808–26 S. T. Coleridge Marginalia (1980) I. 692

    The Resistance is a pleasurable energy, followed by a gladsome Self-finding (Empfindung)—but the Resistee or Out-world Influence is the Condition of this resistance.]

  • [1884 M. Crommelin Brown-Eyes iii. 28

    Sometimes…came a foreigner or two from far lands,…attracted, by hearing at Amsterdam of this strange out-world spot.]

  • 1932 Astounding Stories Sept. 78 (editorial summary for Nat Schachner’s Slaves of Mercury) page image

    Hilary returns to find alien diskoids in Earth’s stratosphere, and out[-]world lords patrolling her cities.

  • 1934 H. Bates Matter of Size in Astounding Stories Apr. 71/2 page image Harry Bates bibliography

    Among other things, the human race had perfected space ships and ventured out into the void. It set up colonies on other planets, suitable. And when the day predicted for centuries by its geologists came, and the great island that was its home began to sink under the surface of the sea, it was ready, and in thousands of space ships set forth, for some, out[-]world portions of the solar system, and the rest, to other and more stable parts of Earth.

  • 1950 A. Coppel in Planet Stories Fall 8/2 Alfred Coppel

    It was in the next chamber that the out-world warrior paused.

  • 1950 A. Coppel in Planet Stories Fall 8/2 Alfred Coppel

    Men who had stood with a planet for a throne and watched their Empire passing in ordered glory from horizon to horizon across the night sky of Earth—men worshipped as gods on out-world planets, who watched and guided the tide of Empire until it crashed thundering on the shores of ten thousand worlds beyond Vega and Altair.

  • 1958 R. Silverberg Stepsons of Terra 32 Robert Silverberg bibliography

    It is not often that an ambassador from an outworld colony arrives on Earth.

  • 1970 A. McCaffrey Ship who Sang (1991) iv. 95 Anne McCaffrey bibliography

    Among his many grievances with the galaxy at large, the extortionate price of repairs and maintenance made by outworld stations ranked high.

  • 1973 P. E. High Come, Hunt an Earthman (1985) 50

    Since, as yet, they have been unable to locate the source of our out-world help, they have decided to remove us.

  • 1977 A. D. Foster End of the Matter 12 Alan Dean Foster bibliography

    Something moved and partially emerged from cape folds. It was leathery, thin, and brightly colored. Without actually recognizing the object, the outworld tourist nonetheless had an immediate impression of serpentine lethality.

  • 1982 I. Asimov Foundation’s Edge 162 Isaac Asimov bibliography

    By one of our outworld agents? Are such agents to be expected to stand against those with the powers we have seen demonstrated here?

  • 1986 A. C. Clarke Songs of Distant Earth 19 Arthur C. Clarke bibliography

    It was an awesome responsibility, facing only the second outworld spacecraft in the history of the planet.

  • 1994 ‘L. A. Graf’ Firestorm x. 93 Julia Ecklar Karen Rose Cercone bibliography

    Outworld vermin!

  • 2013 D. Weber Shadow of Freedom xxiv. 285 page image David Weber bibliography

    And if I should happen to turn all suspicious and hand your out-world ass—if you’ll pardon my language—over to the Marshal Service with the recommendation that they just purely investigate the hell out of you?


Research requirements

antedating 1934

Earliest cite

H. Bates 'A Matter of Size'

Research History
Katrina Campbell submitted a cite from a 1985 reprint of Philip E. High's 1973 "Come, Hunt an Earthman".
Douglas Winston submitted a cite from a reprint of Robert Silverberg's "Stepsons of Terra"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1958 first edition.
Enoch Forrester submitted a cite from a reprint of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation's Edge"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1982 first edition.
Malcolm Farmer submitted a cite from a reprint of Alfred Coppel's "The Rebel of Valkyr"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1950 original magazine appearance.
Katrina Campbell submitted a cite from a 1985 reprint of Edmond Hamilton's 1968 "The World of the Starwolves".
Douglas Winston submitted a 1977 cite from Alan Dean Foster's "The End of the Matter".
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1957 reprint of Harry Bates' "A Matter of Size"; Alistair Durie verified this in its 1934 first publication.
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a quoted editorial blurb in the Project Gutenberg ebook of "Slaves of Mercury"; Jesse Sheidlower verified this in the original print publication (Astounding Stories, September, 1932.)
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2013 cite from David Weber.

OED entry revised in December 2004; the SF sense is not separated out.

Last modified 2022-03-14 16:38:23
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.