First Contact

(See First Contact (Disambiguation) for others.)

First contact became a stfnal trope for any first encounter by earthlings with intelligent aliens. The phrase is now widely used outside fandom, as well. Murray Leinster apparently coined the phrase in a March 1935 Astounding story, “Proxima Centauri,” and used it as the title of a 1945 novelette.

The fannish use to describe the first meeting of a protofan with fandom has become just “Contact,” the name of magic wand with which the Spirit of Fandom touches Jophan at the beginning of The Enchanted Duplicator, published in 1954.

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

In Murray Leinster's story of that name, the first encounter of humans with intelligent ETs; by extension, with us, the first meeting of stfnist with actifan.

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Fanspeak

1935—

This is a fanspeak page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was coined, whether it’s still in use, etc.