Extraterrestrials in fiction
Martian controlled Tripod, from H. G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds
GroupingScience fiction
Similar entitiesCryptids
Other name(s)Aliens, space aliens

An extraterrestrial or alien is any extraterrestrial lifeform: a lifeform that did not originate on Earth. The word extraterrestrial means "outside Earth". The first published use of extraterrestrial as a noun occurred in 1956, during the Golden Age of Science Fiction.[1]

Extraterrestrials are a common theme in modern science-fiction, and also appeared in much earlier works such as the second-century parody True History[2] by Lucian of Samosata.[3]

History

The 2nd century writer of satires, Lucian, in his True History claims to have visited the Moon when his ship was sent up by a fountain, which was peopled and at war with the people of the Sun over colonisation of the Morning Star.[4]:30–31

See also

Articles related to the phenomenon of extraterrestrials in fiction and popular culture:

Articles related to the purported or theorized existence of extraterrestrials:

  • Grey alien, frequently reported alien in field of ufology, now with some usage in fiction and popular culture

References

  1. Harper, Douglas. "extraterrestrial". Online Etymology Dictionary.
  2. Doody, Margaret Anne (1996), A True Story of the Novel, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, p. 26, ISBN 0-8135-2168-8, retrieved December 16, 2020
  3. Richter, Daniel S. (2017). "Chapter 21: Lucian of Samosata". In Richter, Daniel S.; Johnson, William A. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of the Second Sophistic. Vol. 1. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. pp. 328–329. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199837472.013.26. ISBN 978-0-19-983747-2.
  4. Grewell, Greg (2001). "Colonizing the Universe: Science Fictions Then, Now, and in the (Imagined) Future". Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature. 55 (2): 25–47. doi:10.2307/1348255. JSTOR 1348255. S2CID 171048588.

Further reading

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