Talk:'verse

RFV discussion: June 2011–February 2012

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'verse

Moved from verse in accordance with spelling in sole citation. Contraction of universe. Plausible, but needs cites as other dictionaries don't have it. DCDuring TALK 05:06, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

Better? It also appears in combination. (deprecated template usage) Buffyverse we have; also possible are (deprecated template usage) Angelverse, (deprecated template usage) X-verse, (deprecated template usage) Jossverse and (deprecated template usage) Whedonverse—the latter two of course encompassing multiple universes. — Pingku^dimmi 11:40, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

The first cite is from a blog, which we don't consider durably archived. I appreciate how hard it is to find cites for this sense at bgc, but there must be a way to search for just a relevant subset of Usenet for the usage.

I would hypothesize that the sequence was: 1., blends ending in "verse"; 2., the shortening "'verse"; and, 3., a backformation "verse". DCDuring TALK 15:40, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

I have added a Usenet cite, based on a search limited to "alt.tv.*" groups. AFAICT, cited DCDuring TALK 15:56, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

In the meantime I found another book citation. This makes it all Joss Whedon (apart from the blog cite, which I've commented out). That fits with something I read in my search, indicating it is/was usage within his fan base. — Pingku^dimmi 17:07, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

I think this falls under “terms originating in fictional universes”. I’m pretty sure that the universe of Firefly and Serenity is referred to as “the ’verse” within the works themselves — it’s not like Buffyverse, which I presume was originated by fans — and all four of our quotations are referring to that universe, rather than supporting a general “fictional universe” sense. Admittedly, one quotation has “In the Firefly/Serenity ‘verse (as in ours)”, which tends to imply that “’verse” is simply “universe” (no one would ever write, “In the Star Trek Federation of Planets (as in ours)”, even after pages of explaining how the Federation is that universe’s U.N.), but even that implication doesn’t quite support a “fictional universe” sense. —Ruakh_TALK 16:43, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

I've made the definition specific to Firefly. If you think the term should be now deleted on WT:FICTIONal grounds, delete it; otherwise, I'm leaving it be. - -sche (discuss) 20:20, 5 February 2012 (UTC)