Full record for transhuman n.

Definition a human who has through evolution or augmentation acquired capabilities beyond the normal human range sufficient to be regarded as no longer merely human
OED requirements antedating 1978
Earliest cite R.C.W. Ettinger
Comment Douglas Winston submitted a 1999 cite from Rudy Rucker's "Saucer Wisdom". Malcolm Farmer submitted a 1994 cite from Charles Platt's "Taking the N Out of Entropy". Malcolm Farmer submitted a 2001 cite from Mark Peschke's "True Magic". Malcolm Farmer submitted a cite from a 1991 reprint of Ed Regis' "Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition"; we would like to check the 1990 first edition. Malcolm Farmer submitted a 1988 cite from Vernor Vinge's "The Blabber". Jeff Prucher submitted a 2003 cite from a review by Taylor Antrim in the New York Times Review of Books. Malcolm Farmer submitted a 1979 cite from a review by Gretchen Rix of the 1978 anthology "Immortal: Short Novels of the Transhuman Future (ed. by Jack Dann), and Irene Grumman submitted a 1978 cite from R.C.W. Ettingers's introduction to this anthology.

Fred Galvin found a reference in the ISFDB to a 1953 story by Murray Leinster, "The Trans-Human". Derek Hepburn confirmed the reference, but noted that the word is only used in the story title; Fred also located a paper copy and commented that the subject of the story is a kidnapped child raised by aliens, who is not augmented in any way.

Last modified 6 July, 2008

Citations for transhuman n.

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1979 G. Rix Review in Science Fiction Rev. Jan.–Feb. 50/3 The story of Joseph Tyba, an immortal learning to need someone, is skilfully meshed with a tale of transhumans being molded into new patterns.
1979 G. Rix Immortal in Sci. Fiction Rev. Jan.–Feb. 50/3 The story of Joseph Tyba, an immortal learning to need someone, is skilfully meshed with a tale of transhumans being molded into new patterns.
1988 V. Vinge The Blabber in Threats‥and Other Promises 253 I suppose she could be an ego frag. But most of those are brain-damaged transhumans, or obvious constructs.
1997 Interzone May 12/2 It is the century when it became possible to become transhuman, when humanity made the first steps beyond the surface of a single planet.
2001 M. Pesche in True Magic in True Names & Opening of Cyberspace Frontier 225 We understand nothing of their motivations, only that they serve as the midwives who attend the birth of a trans-human who could—with a wish—destroy the world. The forces that pull humanity into the transhuman—as characterized in science fiction—represent that liminal zone between artifact and infinity, the phase transition between two states of undifferentiated regularity.
2001 Dreamwatch Oct. 10/1 Cameron reveals that Dark Angel will play upon its ‘biopunk’ theme by introducing a new range of mutant characters called ‘trans-humans’.