Full record for rocketman n.
| Definition | someone who pilots, or works on, a rocket or rockets |
| OED requirements | antedating 1931 |
| Earliest cite | Salt Lake Tribune |
| Comment | The OED entry currently has cites from 1964 onwards.
There is one entry in the Incomings database from a 1968 reprint of Heinlein's 1959 collection 'The Menace From Earth'. Fred Galvin submitted two 1949 cites from the same issue of Startling Stories: one from Rene LaFayette's (L. Ron Hubbard pseudonym), 'The Unwilling Hero' for the sense of a rocket pilot, and one for for the sense of a rocketry hobbyist, from "Review of the Science Fiction Fan Publications" by "THE EDITOR". Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1958 reprint of Manly Wade Wellman's "Men Against the Stars" which Mike Christie verified in its June 1938 first publication. The OED found a 1931 cite in a SFnal context in a local newspaper. We would also like to see any earlier cites from any author. |
| Last modified | 15 June, 2009 |
Citations for rocketman n.
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| 1949 ‘R. Lafayette’ Unwilling Hero in Startling Stories July 102/2 | To see Earth and the Moon grow small, to behold the Sun dwindling to an unimpressive star, is an experience which has unnerved many a hardy rocket man. |
| 1949 Startling Stories July 158/2 | THE ROCKET NEWS LETTER, 5747 University Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. Editor, Vincent Story. Published monthly. 15¢ per copy, $dollar.1.50 per annum. If you're a hot rocketman, this is your dish. |
| 1959 R. A. Heinlein Menace From Earth (1968) 115 | He held a torcher's contempt for the vast distance itself. Older pilots thought of interplanetary trips with a rocketman's bias in terms of years—trips that a torch ship with steady acceleration covered in days. |