![Screenshot of the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction](https://i1.wp.com/boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/scifidictinoary.jpg?fit=1200%2C632&ssl=1)
My old friend the lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower has launched an incredibly cool project: the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, which tracks down how sci-fi terms were first used, and then evolved over time.
For example, in that screenshot above is the entry for "first contact", which was first used in a short story in 1935, gets picked up by Arthur C. — Read the rest