Full record for pseudo-science n.

Definition science-fiction
OED requirements antedating 1927
Earliest cite Willis Knapp Jones in "The Author & Journalist"
Comment Science fiction stories were often referred to as "pseudo-scientific" or "pseudo-science" stories in the pulp era.

Fred Galvin submitted a 1948 cite from editorial matter in Thrilling Wonder Stories. Fred Galvin submitted a 1957 cite from Sam Moskowitz's "How Science Fiction Got Its Name". Fred Galvin submitted a 1959 cite from Dick Eney's "Fancyclopedia II". John Locke submitted a cite from Willis Knapp Jones's "Listening in on the Editors" in an (unpaginated) electronic verion of "The Author & Journalist" from August 1927; Jeff Prucher verified the cite in the original publication.

Fred Galvin located a 1947 book by Clare Winger Harris, titled "Away from the Here and Now: Stories in Pseudo-Science"; we would like to obtain a cite from a print edition.

We would likes citations of any date from other authors.
Last modified 6 July, 2008

Citations for pseudo-science n.

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1948 Thrilling Wonder Stories Feb. 109/1 Failure to like good fantasy (No, don't say it, plizz) seems to us to reveal a lamentable lack of imagination. After all, the most highly technical pseudo science story is truly nothing but fantasy dressed up with a lot of fantastic, slide rule suppositional gadgets.
1957 S. Moskowitz 1957 in Mag. Fantasy & Sci. Fiction Feb. 76/2 Similarly, when a 1949 cover of The Writer's Monthly featured a review of ‘pseudo science’ publication requirements, many of the newer writers weren't quite sure what was being referred to, so anachronistic had the term become.
1957 C. W. Hart ‘Pseudo-Science’ & Reader's Guide in Mag. Fantasy & Sci. Fiction Mar. 47 (title) ‘Pseudo-Science’ and The Reader's Guide
1959 R. H. Eney Fancycylopedia II 130 PSEUDOSCIENCE ‘Scientific’ explanations which actually clash with accepted scientific beliefs and findings, but by glossing-over are made to pass for plausibility in the, uh, minds of Palmer's readers, Scientologists and other children. The use of the word to describe science-fiction in general is fiercely fought by lovers of the literature.
1985 J. P. Kelly Solstice in B. Sterling Mirrorshades (1986) 87 The mere mention of telepathy gave the whole project the smell of pseudoscience.
1993 K. S. Robinson Red Mars ii. 58 Clearly a lot of them considered psychology a pseudoscience.
2005 C. Stross Accelerando ii. 65 Two years before the central committee denounced computers as bourgeois deviationist pseudoscience intended to dehumanize the proletarian.