Terran adj.

of or pertaining to Earth or its inhabitants

Demonyms

  • 1935 R. Tooker Moon of Arcturus in Amazing Stories June xii. 67/1 page image Richard Tooker bibliography

    β€˜Terran,’ cried the brain-woman. We have heard your plans. If it were not for that gentle emotion that has been instilled in us by these two Terran lovers, you would be worse than dead. Let me see the plaything in your hand, the toy of your feeble brain. Try its potency. Demonstrate the wizardry of your science. See! I have no weapon. I look and speak. That is all.’

  • 1940 L. Brackett Stellar Legion in Planet Stories Winter 99/1 page image Leigh Brackett bibliography

    It was something that took him back across time to a day when he had been a green subaltern in the Terran Guards, and a hard-bitten, battle-tempered senior officer had filled the horizon for him.

  • 1946 G. O. Smith Pattern for Conquest in Astounding Science Fiction Mar. 9/1 page image George O. Smith bibliography

    His family could trace its line back to the first group of Terran colonists that braved the rigors of Martian life before technology created a Martian world that was reasonably well adapted for human life.

  • 1953 β€˜N. R.’ Terran Menace in Cosmos Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine Nov. 83/2 page image bibliography

    A chant rose to assail his ears, and the steady beat of a drum thundered in the Terran night.

  • 1962 M. Z. Bradley Planet Savers in Planet Savers/Sword of Aldones (1982) i. 8 Marion Zimmer Bradley bibliography

    During the last epidemic, a Terran scientist discovered a blood fraction containing antibodies against the fever.

  • 1970 J. Blish Spock Must Die! xiv. 106 James Blish bibliography

    A spot which represented the mightiest machine ever conceived by Terran humanity.

  • 1978 G. Eklund Starless World i. 2 Gordon Eklund bibliography

    Mr. Spock, his Vulcan first officer, whose knowledge of Terran literature was immense.

  • 1984 D. Duane My Enemy, my Ally i. 6 Diane Duane bibliography

    She had been distastefully fascinated to find the word’s meaning rooted in some weird Terran story of twin brothers abandoned in the wild.

  • 1990 β€˜J. Tiptree, Jr.’ Color of Neanderthal Eyes 19 James Tiptree, Jr. bibliography

    It has occurred to me that some Terran mammals, like rabbits, will give birth parthenogenetically if stimulated by saline water.

  • 1993 K. S. Robinson Red Mars iii. 120 Kim Stanley Robinson bibliography

    So they had been on Mars for half a Martian year. Phyllis was using the calendar devised by planetary scientists; among the colonists it was becoming more common than the Terran system.

  • 1993 K. S. Robinson Green Mars (new ed.) 13 Kim Stanley Robinson bibliography

    Of course, all the genetic templates for our new biota are Terran; the minds designing them are Terran, but the terrain is Martian.

  • 2001 Locus June 25/2

    The peculiar difficulties of alien/terran interaction seem to be a popular theme lately.


Research requirements

antedating 1935

Earliest cite

Richard Tooker, in Amazing

Research History
Fred Galvin submitted a 1946 cite from Astounding.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 1935 cite from Richard Tooker, in Amazing Stories

Last modified 2022-03-17 17:09:31
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.