Full record for Belter n.

Definition one who is born/lives in an asteroid belt
OED requirements antedating 1966
Earliest cite Larry Niven, 'The Warriors'
Comment Mike Christie submitted a 1967 cite from Larry Niven's "Flatlander". Larry Niven has indicated that he invented this term.

David Siegel submitted a 1969 cite from Walt & Leigh Richmond's "Phoenix Ship". Mike Stone identified a cite in Larry Niven's "The Warriors", and Mike Christie located the cite in the 1966 first magazine appearance. Winchell Chung Jr. submitted a 1974 cite from an article by Jerry Pournelle in Galaxy. Edward Bornstein submitted a 1991 cite from C.J.Cherryh's "Heavy Time". Malcolm Farmer submitted a cite from a 1989 reprint of Robert Reed's 1987 "The Hormone Jungle".

Enoch Forrester submitted a cite from Larry Niven's "World of Ptavvs", which appeared in magazine form in 1965; Mike Christie checked that version and "Belter" does not appear there -- Niven uses "Belt" throughout.

Malcolm Farmer submitted a cite from a 1996 reprint of Gregory Benford's 1979 "Dark Sanctuary".

Last modified 8 March, 2005

Citations for Belter n.

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1966 L. Niven in Worlds of If Sci. Fiction Feb. 152/2 You noticed a habit of mine once. I never make gestures. All Belters have that trait. It's because on a small mining ship you could hit something waving your arms around.
1966 L. Niven in Galaxy Mag. Dec. 100/1 Those hotels, and the scattered hotels in the other bubbleworld, served every Belter's occasional need for an Earthlike environment.
1967 L. Niven in If Mar. 81/2 Even in the Belt, within the solar system, a Belter strip haircut adorns both men and women.
1969 W. Richmond & L. Richmond Phoenix Ship 34 The Belt, he thought. I'm going to be a Belter now.
1974 J. Pournelle in Galaxy Sci. Fiction May 105/2 Belters are asteroid miners—they flit from asteroid to asteroid, slicing them up for the mineral wealth they presumably contain.
1974 J. Pournelle in Galaxy Sci. Fiction May 106/1 One supposes there's a local source of both energy and fuel in the Belt, of course, or there couldn't be a Belter Civilization to begin with.
1979 G. Benford Dark Sanctuary in Matter's End (1994) 152 Belters aren't scientists. They're gamblers, idealists, thieves, crazies, malcontents. Most of us are from the cylinder worlds orbiting Earth.
1979 G. Benford Dark Sanctuary in Matter's End (1994) 147 That happens every time the cylinder boys build a new tin can and need to form an ecosystem inside. Rock and ore they can get from Earth's moon. For water they have to come to us, the Belters.
1979 G. Benford Dark Sanctuary in Matter's End (1994) 147 That happens every time the cylinder boys build a new tin can and need to form an ecosystem inside. Rock and ore they can get from Earth's moon. For water they have to come to us, the Belters.
1979 G. Benford Dark Sanctuary in Matter's End (1994) 152 Belters aren't scientists. They're gamblers, idealists, thieves, crazies, malcontents. Most of us are from the cylinder worlds orbiting Earth.
1987 R. Reed Hormone Jungle (1989) 7 And there is the multitude of Belter worlds, each unique.
1991 ‘C. J. Cherryh’ Heavy Time 1 Nervous man, Ben Pollard. Twenty-four and hungry, a Belter kid only two years out of ASTEX Institute.
1993 G. Bear Moving Mars 386 Cameron gave me an eager, anxious look, backed away, spun around with the expert grace of a belter, and took a tunnel leading to the surface.