Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction is a website created by lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower that traces the origin of terms in science fiction literature. The website launched in January, 2021. Background The genesis for the site was the Oxford English Dictionary's Science Fiction Citations Project, begun in 2001. Sheidlower, an editor-at-large for the OED, used crowdsourcing to collect words and their history from science fiction. The project resulted in the Hugo Award-winning book Brave New Words. In 2020, Sheidlower obtained permission from the OED to continue the project independently. Development The Internet Archive had scanned large numbers of science fiction pulp magazines, providing a digital resource that was not available when the earlier project began. With that resource and the extended period of isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sheidlower tracked down the original appearance of words such as "mutant", "first contact", and "deep space", and began assembling the new website, launching it live in January, 2021. As a historical dictionary...