planetside adj.

located or occurring on the surface of a planet

  • 1955 β€˜A. North’ Sargasso of Space ii. 22 Andre Norton bibliography

    The voyage to Naxos was routine. And the frontier world where they set down at its end was enough like Terra to be unexciting too. Not that Dane got any planet-side leave.

  • 1956 D. Knight Stranger Station in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Dec. 11/1 page image Damon Knight bibliography

    Wesson had been a space-dweller for most of his adult life, and knew even in his bones that if an orbital station ever collapsed, the β€˜under’ part would not be crushed but would be hurled away by its own angular momentum. This was not the oppressiveness of planetside buildings, where the looming mass above you seemed always threatening to fall: this was something else, completely distinct, and impossible to argue away.

  • 1963 H. B. Piper Space Viking 35 H. Beam Piper bibliography

    And his having the blazonry changed, from the sword-and-atom symbol to the blue crescent. And the ill-feeling on the part of other captains and planet-side employers about the men he'd lured away from them.

  • 1968 A. Norton Zero Stone (1977) 140 Andre Norton

    Though they wore the conventional planetside dress of any crewmen, coveralls and boots, those had no insignia on breast or collar.

  • 1979 O. S. Card And what will we do Tomorrow? (1980) 182 Orson Scott Card

    He bloodied himself in a dozen planetside wars, sent fleets here and there at his command, but it was I who made the plans…I who fired the starships and sent them on their way.

  • 1988 L. E. Modesitt, Jr. In Endless Twilight 213 L. E. Modesitt, Jr. bibliography

    Gerswin ignored the Imperial byplay, since neither corvette could fire again without risking planetside damage.

  • 1991 T. Zahn Star Wars: Heir to Empire (1992) 98 Timothy Zahn

    Communications stations flared and went black; planetside industrial targets flared, went dark, then flared again as secondary fires were ignited.

  • 1993 D. Weber On Basilisk Station (1994) 106 David Weber

    Merchant houses started establishing local planetside offices to manage their part of the network as it grew.

  • 2000 E. Moon Against Odds (2001) 313 Elizabeth Moon

    The planetside headquarters of the Regular Space Service comprised a warren of buildings that radiated from the back of the Ministry of Defense.

  • 2009 Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Apr. 203

    No one now expected to hear from the planetside colony.


Research requirements

antedating 1955

Earliest cite

Andre Norton

Research History
Mike Christie submitted a cite from a 1980 reprint of Orson Scott Card's story "And What Will We Do Tomorrow?" in "Capitol".
Mike Christie submitted a cite from a 1977 reprint of Andre Norton's 1968 "The Zero Stone".
Douglas Winston submitted a 1988 cite from L.E. Modesitt, Jr.'s "In Endless Twilight".
Douglas Winston submitted a cite from a 1992 reprint of Timothy Zahn's 1991 "Heir to the Empire".
Douglas Winston submitted a 1963 cite from H. Beam Piper's "Space Viking".
Michael Dolbear submitted a cite from a 2001 reprint of Elizabeth Moon's 2000 "Against the Odds".
Michael Dolbear submitted a cite from a 1994 reprint of David Weber's 1993 "On Basilisk Station".
Douglas Winston submitted a cite for the form "planet-side" from a 1985 reprint of Andre Norton's 1955 "Sargasso of Space"; Mike Christie verified this from a 1957 reprint.
Fred Galvin submitted a 1956 cite from Damon Knight's "Stranger Station".

Last modified 2020-12-16 04:08:47
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.