steampunk

English

WOTD – 26 March 2017

A steampunked mobile home called the “Neverwas Haul” at the 2010 Burning Man event in Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA

A man at the Greenbelt Maker Faire in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA, wearing a steampunk-style artificial arm

Etymology

steam +‎ -punk, by analogy with cyberpunk, coined by science-fiction writer Kevin Wayne Jeter (born 1950) in a 1987 letter to the magazine Locus in response to a review of his book Infernal Devices published the same year (see the quotation below).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈstiːmpʌŋk/
• Hyphenation: steam‧punk

Noun

steampunk (countable and uncountable, plural steampunks)

1. (uncountable) A subgenre of science fiction that depicts advanced technology combined with Victorian style and aesthetics, such as steam-powered machines and vehicles, visible gears and screws and people dressed in 19th-century attires.
   • 1987 May, James Blaylock, Locus, volume 20, number 5 (#316 overall), page 57:

     There's railroad trains, a lot of steam-driven stuff, but that's about it. More ‘steam punk’, I suppose.

   • 2008 May 8, Ruth La Ferla, “Steampunk moves between 2 worlds”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     It is also the vision of steampunk, a subculture that is the aesthetic expression of a time-traveling fantasy world, one that embraces music, film, design and now fashion, all inspired by the extravagantly inventive age of dirigibles and steam locomotives, brass diving bells and jar-shaped protosubmarines.

2. (countable) A writer of steampunk fiction.
   • 1987 April, Kevin Wayne Jeter, “[Untitled letter]”, in Locus‎^[2], volume 20, number 4 (#315 overall), page 57:

     Personally, I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long as we can come up with a fitting collective term for Powers, [James] Blaylock and myself. Something based on the appropriate technology of the era; like steam-punks, perhaps...

3. (countable, cosplay) A person cosplaying as a steampunk character.
   • 2009 September, Klaude Davenport, “An interview with Emmett and Klaude Davenport of the Clockwork Cabaret”, in Exhibition Hall‎^[3], number 1, page 6:

     It wound up being an overwhelmingly positive experience that made me appreciate the steampunks around me even more.

   • 2010 September 24, John Naylor, “Re: [Steam-Scholars] Hello again and a query”, in steam-scholars‎^[4] (Usenet), message-ID <45b85.6b512dc6.39cddc00@aol.com>:

     It is extremely rare that you speak to someone who says "I want to be an ...." This would suggest that for the vast majority of steampunks their choice of outfit (at least intitially) is less a conscious attempt at portrayal and more of a spontaneous and potentially subconscious growth of an idea.

Derived terms

• steampunker
• steampunkish
• steampunky

Translations

subgenre of speculative science fiction

• Belarusian: парапа́нк m (parapánk), стымпа́нк m (stympánk)
• Czech: steampunk m
• Esperanto: vaporpunko
• German: Steampunk (de) n
• Japanese: スチームパンク
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Lithuanian: stimpankas m
• Polish: steampunk m
• Russian: паропа́нк (ru) m (paropánk), стимпа́нк (ru) m (stimpánk)
• Ukrainian: паропа́нк m (paropánk), стімпа́нк m (stimpánk)

Verb

steampunk (third-person singular simple present steampunks, present participle steampunking, simple past and past participle steampunked)

1. (transitive) To depict in a steampunk manner.
   • 2012, Sybil Fogg, “Mechomancy: Steampunk Sensibilities in Pagan Traditions”, in Llewellyn's 2013 Magical Almanac: Practical Magic for Everyday Living, Woodbury, Minn.: Llewellyn Worldwide, →ISBN, page 90:

     There is also a strong draw on literature and film for ideas. Some steampunks will take a favorite character, such as Boba Fett, Alice, Dorothy, Professor Snape, or Sherlock Holmes, and “steampunk” him or her out by adding elements of leather (or faux leather), gears, clock parts, electricity, motors, and so on.

References

• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “steampunk”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 221.
• Template:R:OED SF (genre)
• Template:R:OED SF (writer)

Further reading

• steampunk on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

---

Czech

Etymology

Borrowed from English steampunk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈstiːmpaŋk]
• Hyphenation: steam‧punk

Noun

steampunk m inan

1. (singular only) steampunk, a subgenre of science fiction
   • 2014, Klára Šumová, Hra na lež, Ostrava: Domino, translation of The Lying Game by Tess Stimson, page 97:

     Ten styl se prý jmenuje steampunk, je to tak správně? Má to být obdoba viktoriánské gotiky.

     He says it's called steampunk. Is that right? Victorian Gothic. (Original English text.)

Derived terms

• steampunkový

Related terms

• kyberpank, kyberpunk
• pank, punk
• pankáč
• pankový, punkový

Further reading

steampunk on the Czech Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^cs

---

Hungarian

Etymology

Borrowed from English steampunk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈstiːmpaːŋk]
• Hyphenation: steam‧punk

Noun

steampunk (uncountable)

1. steampunk (subgenre of speculative science fiction set in an anachronistic 19th-century society)

Declension

Inflection (stem in -o-, back harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	steampunk	steampunkok
accusative	steampunkot	steampunkokat
dative	steampunknak	steampunkoknak
instrumental	steampunkkal	steampunkokkal
causal-final	steampunkért	steampunkokért
translative	steampunkká	steampunkokká
terminative	steampunkig	steampunkokig
essive-formal	steampunkként	steampunkokként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	steampunkban	steampunkokban
superessive	steampunkon	steampunkokon
adessive	steampunknál	steampunkoknál
illative	steampunkba	steampunkokba
sublative	steampunkra	steampunkokra
allative	steampunkhoz	steampunkokhoz
elative	steampunkból	steampunkokból
delative	steampunkról	steampunkokról
ablative	steampunktól	steampunkoktól
non-attributive possessive - singular	steampunké	steampunkoké
non-attributive possessive - plural	steampunkéi	steampunkokéi

Possessive forms of steampunk
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	steampunkom	steampunkjaim
2nd person sing.	steampunkod	steampunkjaid
3rd person sing.	steampunkja	steampunkjai
1st person plural	steampunkunk	steampunkjaink
2nd person plural	steampunkotok	steampunkjaitok
3rd person plural	steampunkjuk	steampunkjaik