Timeline for I found a reference to ‘naysmith’ in a work of science fiction. Is anybody familiar with the term?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| Oct 4, 2022 at 0:09 | answer | added | Nick Purdy | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jun 15, 2020 at 7:40 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Apr 12, 2020 at 2:54 | comment | added | Digcoal | @Hot Licks: I appreciate the effort, and the suggestion to use Google Books for research before I pose a question like this. It seems that by most accounts that 'naysmith' is a piece of fictional history from a fictional future. | |
| Apr 10, 2020 at 6:07 | comment | added | Anton Sherwood | Admiral Naismith of the Dendarii Free Mercenaries is often contrarian. | |
| Apr 10, 2020 at 0:05 | comment | added | Hot Licks | Just slogged through close to 400 hits for "naysmith" in Google Books. In every case, where I could actually view the text, the use was as a surname. Many of the references were to the steam hammer inventor and members of his family. Interestingly, beginning around 1940 the name became a very popular surname in fiction, particularly science fiction. | |
| Apr 9, 2020 at 21:52 | answer | added | Ariel NATAF | timeline score: 0 | |
| Aug 15, 2019 at 22:01 | vote | accept | Digcoal | ||
| Aug 20, 2019 at 3:11 | |||||
| Jun 14, 2019 at 9:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackEnglish/status/1139457668605775872 | ||
| Jun 10, 2019 at 16:06 | answer | added | herisson | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jun 10, 2019 at 15:36 | answer | added | David Robinson | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jun 10, 2019 at 15:22 | comment | added | Lambie | to naysay, to say no: to naysmith: to fabricate disagreement as a profession. | |
| Jun 10, 2019 at 15:21 | comment | added | S Conroy | That passage looks like a bit of classic exposition. He asks 'do you know what a naysmith is?' and explains then exactly what it means in the context of the story. The occupational-name meaning doesn't seem to be the usage here. | |
| Jun 10, 2019 at 14:50 | answer | added | TripeHound | timeline score: 4 | |
| Jun 10, 2019 at 5:19 | answer | added | WerdNerd | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jun 10, 2019 at 3:45 | comment | added | Jason Bassford | It sounds like a naysmith is a professional naysayer. | |
| Jun 10, 2019 at 3:42 | history | edited | Jason Bassford | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jun 10, 2019 at 1:04 | comment | added | Andreas Blass | My impression, when seeing the word in the title of the question was the same as @Cascabel's. It may not be a word, but its meaning and etymology are nevertheless clear. | |
| Jun 10, 2019 at 0:57 | comment | added | The Photon | @GregLee, also a pseudonym of Miles Vorkosigan in Lois McMaster Bujold's novels. | |
| Jun 10, 2019 at 0:40 | review | Close votes | |||
| Jun 14, 2019 at 3:05 | |||||
| Jun 9, 2019 at 23:03 | comment | added | Greg Lee | I'm not sure, but I think "Naismith" is mentioned as one of the pseudonyms used by the immortal protagonist of vanVogt's sci-fi classic The Weapon Shops of Isher. And it is the name of a character in Damon Knight's Beyond the Barrior (see mporcius.blogspot.com/2014/08/…). | |
| Jun 9, 2019 at 21:56 | comment | added | Robusto | Also Naismith (e.g., as in the inventor of basketball) and Nesmith (e.g., of The Monkees band fame). | |
| Jun 9, 2019 at 21:48 | comment | added | Michael Harvey | Naysmith is a proper name (surname) in the English speaking world. Spelled Nasmith or Naysmith, it derives from an archaic name for the occupation of cutler. My local member of Parliament was Douglas Naysmith from 1997 to 2010. | |
| Jun 9, 2019 at 21:45 | comment | added | JeremyC | It is obviously an invented word for the purposes of what sounds like a really good story. You should be aware that Nasmith (pronounced naysmith) is a family name in the UK. Not all of the members of that family would regard disagreeing with everything as a virtue. | |
| Jun 9, 2019 at 21:33 | comment | added | Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ | Nope...it sounds like a portmanteau of nay (meaning "No") and smith as in "wordsmith". ...close to Devil's Advocate, or maybe some kind of Greek chorus. Sci-fi writers often invent their own words (neologisms) to give a sense of futuristic verisimilitude. | |
| Jun 9, 2019 at 21:10 | review | First posts | |||
| Jun 9, 2019 at 22:05 | |||||
| Jun 9, 2019 at 21:08 | history | asked | Digcoal | CC BY-SA 4.0 |