English

Noun

scientifictionist ‎(plural scientifictionists)

1. (dated, fandom slang) A fan or creator of science fiction; one involved in some aspect of science fiction.
   • 1933 April, Ackerman, Forrest J, Amazing Stories, volume 8, number 1, page 88:

     I correspond with a great number of scientifictionists, and I know they have remarked to me a number of times that AMAZING STORIES ran letters of theirs nine or ten months after they had been submitted.

   • 1944, Speer, John Bristol, Fancyclopedia, Fan:

     Professional editors like Palmer call all people who buy their magazines pretty regularly, fans; and indeed the term is so used by the scientifictionists who merely write letters to the editor and collect pro mags, but the fen of fandom have a more restricted meaning in mind.

   • 1945 December, Rosenblum, Michael, “What They Are About”, in Chanticleer, number 3, page 23:

     This is failure and the machine is worthless, except for "psychic research". Why, I can't see! So our hero smashes it and goes off to marry the faithful young woman. Make up your mind whether it is supposed to be a tragedy, but to a scientifictionist it definitely is.

   • 1947 August-September, Sheridan, Thomas, “The Feminine Touch”, in Fantasy Review, volume 1, number 4, page 15:

     By inviting authors to write a story around a perfectly meaningless piece of imagery by artist Paul, he discovered several useful contributors, not least among them the lady scientifictionist who, we are somewhat shocked to find, is now a grandmother.

Synonyms

• science-fictioneer, science-fictionist, sfnist
• (science fiction fan only): stfan

Derived terms

• stfnist (possibly)
• stefnist (possibly)

References

• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007) Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-530567-8, page 177
• scientifictionist n. at the OED Science Fiction Citations Project