sailpunk

English

Etymology

sail +‎ -punk

Noun

sailpunk (uncountable)

1. A subgenre of speculative fiction, focusing on life at sea during the eras of exploration and piracy.
   • 1996 April 27, Carl Perkins <carl@gergo.tamu.edu>, “Re: Barriers”, in rec.games.frp.cyber‎^[1] (Usenet), message-ID <f2ab6ed35a112b8d>:

     Don't forget about chain - great for shredding your target's rigging and not half bad as an antipersonnel round too. (Well, if you're in a "SailPunk" setting it's useful, anyway... Arrr, matey; scupper me wi' a handspike if it ain't so.)

   • 2010 April 25, dott.Piergiorgio <dott.PiergiorgioNIHON@KAIGUN.fastwebnet.it>, “Re: Steampunk Martians”, in sci.military.naval‎^[2] (Usenet), message-ID <854ef539444badc6>:

     I notice also that on paper are available nifty and *original* places for live sailpunk RPG'ing but I fear that RN and USN will really frown at the idea of a bunch of live role-players fooling aboard HMS Victory and USS Constitution respectively...

   • 2011, Noam S. Cohen, Speculative Nostalgias: Metafiction, Science Fiction and the Putative Death of the Novel, →ISBN:

     The specificity of steampunk's Victorian setting, particular in light of the relative presence and notoriety of steampunk vis-à-vis similar subgenres set in other time periods ('clockpunk' or 'sailpunk' set in the Renaissance, such as Paul McAuley's Pasquale's Angel; 'sandalpunk,' set in a technologically innovative ancient world; 'dieselpunk,' 'stonepunk,' etc.) argues for the importance to the present of shifts in technological culture that took place during the Victorian era.