Most Misused Word in Science Fiction

[PhoenixDarkDirk]

I think the word that deserves this dubious honor is "intergalactic." Anything that doesn't involve more than one galaxy is NOT intergalactic.

Another contender is "dimension," which just refers to a pair of opposite strait-line directions, and not another universe that can be reached by travelling through other dimensions.

I'm interested in what others think about this.

 

[Mark]

I think the word that deserves this dubious honor is "intergalactic." Anything that doesn't involve more than one galaxy is NOT intergalactic.

"Inner" and "Inter" are often misappropriately substituted for one another.

Another contender is "dimension," which just refers to a pair of opposite strait-line directions, and not another universe that can be reached by travelling through other dimensions.

"Dimension has come to have a great many meanings such as "a level of consciousness, existence, or reality" which is a bit less defined in physical terms.

I'm interested in what others think about this.

So am I.

 

[reanjr]

I think the word that deserves this dubious honor is "intergalactic." Anything that doesn't involve more than one galaxy is NOT intergalactic.

Another contender is "dimension," which just refers to a pair of opposite strait-line directions, and not another universe that can be reached by travelling through other dimensions.

I'm interested in what others think about this.

In the case of intergalactic, many people misunderstand inter- for trans- or pan-. No big surprise that intergalactic is misused.

As to dimension, that of course stems from parallel dimension. In other words a mathematical dimension that does not intersect with our own and is therefore entirely distinct. It is reasonable to assume that a people who travel to places lying in one of these parallel dimensions would begin to call each separate place a dimension. It's just ease of use.

 

[Greylock]

"Inner" and "Inter" are often misappropriately substituted for one another.

Methinks, once upon a time it was "intra-galactic".

I'd like to toss anything non-Trek which uses Trek tropes, such as "Warp" or "phaser".

 

[Mouseferatu]

I still occasionally run across people (and writers, though they aren't usually true sci-fi writers) who think "lightyear" is a unit of time, rather than of distance.

(Of course, there's one certain movie writer out there, whose initials are GL, who at one point seemed to think that a "parsec" was also a measure of time, rather than distance. And no, I don't buy the scrabbling for corrections they did in the later novels. )

 

[Mouseferatu]

Methinks, once upon a time it was "intra-galactic".

Yup. I see "inter-" and "intra-" confused constantly. "Inter-party conflict" instead of "intra-party," for instance.

I blame the ancient Romans, for that silly little language of theirs.

 

[Lobo Lurker]

Well, I don't know about words, but the concept of teleportation is moderatly popular in sci-fi... I love the explanations for it. A machine rips you apart atom by atom, digitizes the info (somehow) and sends it to another machine the reconstructs you, atom by atom.

Don't people realize that you DIE when you'e teleported?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Well, I don't know about words, but the concept of teleportation is moderatly popular in sci-fi... I love the explanations for it. A machine rips you apart atom by atom, digitizes the info (somehow) and sends it to another machine the reconstructs you, atom by atom.

Don't people realize that you DIE when you'e teleported?

You know, that topic actually came up in one of the old Star Trek novels. (One of the few that was actaully decent, IIRC, though I can't for the life of me remember which one.) Someone--probably Dr. McCoy, though I couldn't swear to that--was discussing the transporter, and wondering if it didn't kill you. After all, if it killed the original person but created a perfect duplicate that believed it was the original person, or if it created a thing that was alive but had no "soul," how would anyone ever really know?

 

[Dagger75]

TIME TRAVEL

Those 2 words should not be allowed to sit next to each other. While some stories are interesting most just annoy me with the paradoxs.

 

[Filby]

Well, I don't know about words, but the concept of teleportation is moderatly popular in sci-fi... I love the explanations for it. A machine rips you apart atom by atom, digitizes the info (somehow) and sends it to another machine the reconstructs you, atom by atom.

Don't people realize that you DIE when you'e teleported?

Heh, I remember an episode of Trek:TNG where Reg Barkley cited that as the reason he's deathly afraid of transporters. Of course, he was afraid of everything in space...

Ever seen Galaxy Quest?

"And it exploded."