gas giant

English

Etymology

From gas +‎ giant, coined by American science-fiction writer James Blish and first attested in 1952 in a rewritten version of his 1941 short story "Solar Plexus".[1][2]

Noun

gas giant (plural gas giants)

(astronomy) A large planet composed mostly of gaseous hydrogen and helium, along with methane and ammonia; possibly with a solid core.
- 1954, Blish, James, “Solar Plexus”, in Beyond Human Ken, Random House, page 106:
  A quick glance over the boards revealed that there was a magnetic field of some strength near by, one that didn't belong to the invisible gas giant revolving half a million miles away.
- 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, OCLC 246633669, PC, scene: Altanorch:
  Altanorch is a small but typical hydrogen-helium gas giant with no outstanding features. Its combination of strong magnetic field and relatively shallow gravity well make it a popular "stopover" world for discharging FTL drive cores.
- 2013 May-June, Kevin Heng, “Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily?”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 184:
  In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter.

Synonyms

Jovian planet
gas giant planet

Hypernyms

giant planet

Hyponyms

Jupiter
Saturn

Coordinate terms

terrestrial planet / rocky planet
- silicate planet / silicon planet
- carbide planet / carbon planet
major planet

Related terms

ice giant

Translations

large planet of gas

Chinese:
Mandarin: 氣態巨行星／气态巨行星 (qìtài jùxíngxīng)
Esperanto: gasogiganto
Finnish: kaasujättiläinen
French: géante gazeuse (fr) f
German: Gasriese (de) m, Gasplanet (de) m
Hungarian: gázóriás (hu)
Japanese: 巨大ガス惑星 (kyodai gasu wakusei)
Portuguese: gigante gasoso m
Russian: га́зовый гига́нт m (gázovyj gigánt), га́зовая плане́та f (gázovaja planéta)
Slovene: plínski velikán m
Spanish: gigante gaseoso (es) m
Swahili: pandikizi la gesi
Swedish: gasjätte (sv) c

References

Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2023), “gas giant, n.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.
Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “gas giant”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 75–76.

[1] Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2023), “gas giant, n.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.

[2] Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “gas giant”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 75–76.