antispinward

English

WOTD – 19 December 2015

Etymology

anti- +‎ spin +‎ -ward

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˌæntiːˈspɪnwɜ(ɹ)d/
Audio (RP) (file)
Hyphenation: anti‧spin‧ward

Adverb

antispinward (comparative more antispinward, superlative most antispinward)

(often science fiction) In a rotating reference frame, against the direction of spin.
- 1970 October, Larry Niven, Ringworld, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 152:
  To antispinward was the largest mountain men had ever seen.
- 1978, Galileo: Magazine of Science & Fiction, Boston, Mass.: Avenue Victor Hugo Publishers, page 77:
  My fathers and mothers tell that we have been moving to antispinward since they were little. They remember that they had to go around a great sea, but they did not come too close, because the beasts would not eat the plants that grow around the shore.
- 1985, Nancy Kress, Trinity and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: Bluejay Books, →ISBN, page 214:
  Laura imagined that he would expect them to flee along the beams, and she watched his narrow face searching the impenetrable shadows antispinward of where they hid.
- 2007, Arthur C. Clarke; Stephen Baxter, Firstborn [A Time Odyssey; 3], New York, N.Y.: Del Rey Books; Ballantine Books, →ISBN:
  Edna's language was peppered with the unfamiliar. You found your way around a spinning space habitat by going spinward or antispinward or axisward ...
- 2007, Jeff Prucher, editor, Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 9:
  antispinward adv. in or toward the opposite direction that something (a space station, galaxy, etc.) is rotating.
- 2015, Steven Burgauer, Skullcap, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN:
  " […] You would fall against the anti-spinward wall and slide down along that wall until you hit the floor ..." / "Whoa, whoa, whoa ..." Lars interrupted. "Anti-spinward? What in the world?" / "Moving in the same direction as the Station's direction of spin is considered spinward. Moving in the direction opposite the spin is considered anti-spinward. You sound like a boy asking what one does with his hands when the rollercoaster car leaves the track."

Antonyms

spinward