countergravity adj.

= antigravity adj.

  • 1940 ‘T. Ayre’ Twilight of the Tenth World in Planet Stories Winter 107/1 page image John Russell Fearn bibliography

    Suppose the shells that dropped released a counter-gravity force upon impact: do you see what would happen?

  • 1942 R. Cummings Rain of Fire in Future Aug. 65/1 page image Ray Cummings bibliography

    I'll turn a countergravity ray on you. You'll have a nice, long trip—until you starve to death!

  • 1952 I. Asimov Currents of Space in Astounding Science Fiction Oct. 11/2 page image Isaac Asimov bibliography

    In those days, Valona would borrow a diamagnetic scooter and take him out of the village every idle day. They would skim along, a foot above the road, gliding on the cushioned smoothness of the counter-gravity field, until they were miles and miles away from any human habitation.

  • 1965 J.H. Schmitz Goblin Night in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact Apr. 22/2

    The car was dropping, its forward momentum gone…If it hadn’t been for the countergravity materials worked into its structure, the Cloudsplitter would have plunged to the ground like a rock.

  • 1967 P. Anderson Outpost of Empire in Galaxy Magazine Dec. 69/1 Poul Anderson bibliography

    The engines driving that enormous mass were deathly quiet. But where their countergravity fields touched the planet, trees snapped to kindling and the lake roiled white.

  • 1999 D. Weber On Basilisk Station 111 David Weber

    The Admiralty Building was over a Manticoran century-and-a-half old and little more than a hundred stories tall, a modest little structure for a counter-gravity civilization, but that fireplace’s chimney bored up through thirty-odd stories of air shafts and ventilation ducting.


Research requirements

any evidence 1940

Earliest cite

in Planet Stories

Research History
Fred Galvin submitted a 1952 cite for "counter-gravity" from Asimov's "The Currents of Space"
Ralf Brown supplied a pointer for "counter-gravity" from an etext of David Weber's "On Basilisk Station", and Malcolm Farmer located the cite in a 1999 reprint.
Ralf Brown supplied a pointer for "countergravity" from an etext of James H. Schmitz's "Goblin Night", and Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1965 first publication..

Last modified 2021-01-09 23:09:12
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.