Full record for off-planet adj.
| Definition | originating on another planet; located away from a particular planet |
| OED requirements | antedating 1945 |
| Earliest cite | M. Jameson 'Lilies of Life' |
| Comment | Douglas Winston submitted a 1963 cite from H. Beam Piper's "Space Viking".
Mike Christie submitted a 1945 cite from Malcolm Jameson's "Lilies of Life".
Douglas Winston submitted a 1966 citation from Kris Neville's "The Price
of Simeryl". Douglas Winston submitted a cite from
a reprint of H. Beam Piper's 1963 "The Cosmic Computer" (aka "Junkyard
Planet"). Douglas Winston submitted a cite for "off planet" from a 1985 reprint of Andre Norton's 1955 "Sargasso of Space"; Mike Christie verified this in a 1957 reprint.
Added to the OED in March 2004 with an earliest date of 1966. |
| Last modified | 6 July, 2008 |
Citations for off-planet adj.
click here for more information about the citation list
| 1953 H.B. Piper Ullr Uprising in Space Sci. Fiction Feb. 6/1 | People came to Niflheim, and worked the mines and uranium refineries and chemical plants, but they did so inside power-driven and contragravity-lifted armor, and they lived on artificial satellites two thousand miles off-planet. |
| 1963 H. B. Piper Space Viking 38 | The Enterprise carries four pinnaces, the same as the Nemesis ; in his place, I'd have at least two of them on off-planet patrol. So let's accept it that we'll be detected as soon as we come out of the last jump, and come out with the moon directly between us and the planet. |
| 1972 U. K. Le Guin The Word for World is Forest in H. Ellison Again, Dangerous Visions 37 | There were two possibilities. One: an attack from another camp. Some officer on King or New Java had gone spla and was trying a coup de planète. Two: an attack from off-planet. |
| 1974 J. Haldeman Forever War (1976) 163 | Earth's population is stable at just under a billion. When one person dies or goes offplanet, another is quickened. |
| 1975 M. Z. Bradley Heritage of Hastur iii. 39 | The Terran was deported and the Guardsman's brother was held in the brig until the Terran was off-planet. |
| 1982 I. Asimov Foundation's Edge 194 | Apparently accustomed to off-planet guests, he had smiled paternally as Trevize and Pelorat gingerly scooped at the steaming bits of meat. |
| 1983 M. Z. Bradley Thendara House (1991) i. 148 | What would you do if I had gone offplanet, as I would have had every right to do? |
| 1985 M. Larson Pawns & Symbols viii.182 | But he will never expect us to send you off-planet. |
| 1990 J. Tiptree, Jr. Color of Neanderthal Eyes 47 | In any event, the need to get off-planet and do something for the Mnerrin will dominate my life for a while. |
| 1991 M. Weiss King's Test ii.v. 145 | And now the boy is gone. Off-planet? |
| 1991 O. S. Card Xenocide xi. 246 | She'll have the single starship she needs to get offplanet. |
| 1991 O. S. Card Xenocide viii. 115 | To him, going offplanet meant taking the shuttle to the orbiting station. |
| 1993 J. Pournelle & S. M. Stirling Prince of Sparta 17 | They've got too much off-planet support. |
| 1993 D. A. Smith In Cube xvi. 203 | In the disneys, anyone not a tourist must dress, speak and behave in period fashion‥.So private security rods, who lived in the Cube like everyone else, donned breeches, long hose‥and practiced archaic English, mock-arresting offplanet Tulguts or Adjawi for their podmates' vids. |
| 1993 Sci. Fiction Age Jan. 53/2 | If he got off-planet quickly and converted the styxite into something else of value, he could probably survive. |
| 1997 J. A. Gardner Expendable (1997) xiv. 230 | The synthesizers made that axe‥. As long as no one took weapons offplanet, the League didn't care. |
| 2001 Sci. Fiction Chron. July 27/1 | Those of us stuck on the Earth will come to resent those in space‥even to the point where we don't want them to take their personal belongings with them because they'll be taking Earth stuff off planet. |
| 2004 P. F. Hamilton Pandora's Star xix. 626 | It was inconceivable to build any kind of fuel-burning power station on Earth. Instead it was done cleanly and efficiently offplanet. |
| 2006 N. Asher Polity Agent ix. 212 | In two weeks the AI had managed to move off-planet only two per cent of MA's billion population. |