Naming the Future

Abstract

Futuristic writers like H. G. Wells, Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov have been an unusually fruitful source of new words needed for a changing world. Authors of science fiction imagine future societies with lots of conjured elements that need names. As contemporary life catches up with their imagined versions, we continually tap neologisms that have appeared in science fiction to name new phenomena. Terms such as robot, grok, karass, countdown, space cadet, test tube baby, pod person, Stepford, Cyberspace, and many more first appeared on the pages of futuristic fiction before joining the language as a whole.