This is part of a series I'm posting, giving players who are looking for something to help "get into character" when chatting with other players, writing their stories, or even just posting on the forum. I'll update this as more lists are made available:
Traders: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=115768&p=1797210
Bounty Hunters: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=116133&p=1803554
Pirates and Privateers: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=116134&p=1803574
Miners: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=116644&p=1811584
Explorers: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=116536&p=1809874
General Slang: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=61871 (This is a great list compiled by Anopheles some time back, which could be seen as a "universal" slang outside of specific occupations if you want)
---
Exploring the Void - But Ready To Make Contact
Why are explorers called Bowman? Some say it goes back to the old sailing days, with a brave explorer standing on the bow looking to the horizon. But a lot of history’s real explorers weren’t all they were cracked up to be. Others say it has to do with an ancient Earth movie called 2001. I don’t know. It’s not like Dave Bowman stands out as a charismatic paragon of sci-fi captains. But I guess that old movie was one of the first to captured a realistic thrill of the unknown, rather than filling the void with laser beams and explosions.
Either way, that’s why we’re out here. To see what no one else has seen, to find what no one else thought would be found. There’s more risk out here than hunters or traders would have you believe. For now it’s of the astronomical variety – jumping into a tight binary system and finding yourself wedged in the inferno, getting too close to a supermassive black hole, jumping to a region needing to gas up only to find the gas station closed and you’re surrounded by fuel dumps.
And of course, there’s always the possibility of first contact. Not yet, perhaps, but soon. There’s a lot of yellow tape out there for a reason. And if you listen, carefully, sometimes you swear you heard something over the radio.
But even explorers run into one another once in a while. Heck, sometimes we even do it on purpose. And when we do, we like to swap stories as well as drink or two. So naturally enough our own shorthand evolved.
----
ATM - Derogatory term for a Stellar Cartographics office
Badlands - a region of brown dwarfs, an explorers nightmare.
Bagged and Tagged - A fully explored system, down to the last moon.
Banquet - A system that turns up a whole host of stars, planets and other objects. Far more than you expected.
Battle Bowman – explorer in an armed Asp or other combat ship.
Big Sky Country - The area past inhabited space and the Twilight Zone. Uninhabited, unexplored space.
Bowman – an explorer (some female explorers prefer Janeway).
Bowman Boogie – Reaching 2001c (happens if a second star is REALLY far away and you’re just that much of a completionist)
Bowman Blues - when an explorer has returned home and starts missing the exploring life.
Bubble (aka The Bubble) - The sphere of human influence. Human inhabited space. Not to be confused with the Bubble Nebula. Those who have never left it sometimes referred to as "Bubble Brains".
Budget Bowman – explorer in a Sidewinder or an Adder.
Beach Buggy - SRV
Cash Comet - An explorer who is just going out for quick cash, mostly pinging systems and not bothering to scan anything in detail that isn’t worth big bucks.
Chooglin' - An enjoyable day of exploring. Used as a verb. "Yeah, I was really chooglin' today. Had a ball (a good time)!" Said to derive from an ancient Earth song. The opposite of a 'grind'.
Closed gas station – a T Tauris star that looks scoopable at first.
Columbused – You thought you were first in an area, only to find someone else got there before you (darn Vikings).
Comet – an explorer who gives up quickly and goes back Sol-ward. Exploring isn’t for everyone. 'Connie - Anaconda ship class, rarely used for exploration, but is actually quite capable at it when outfitted accordingly. Those who can afford one are typically exploring for the love of the unknown, not for profit.
Coreward - Towards the Galactic Core.
Costner System - A system with three or more Water Worlds in it
Countdown Dementia - When you've gotten absolutely sick of your onboard computer's voice (most common thing heard is the countdown to your next jump). Some explorers have smashed their speakers before realizing the voice could be switched off.
Data Miners - Bandits who attack explorers outside of populated space, with the intention of stealing their cartographical data to sell back Solward.
Disco - Discovery Scanner
Disco Party - Finding more than 50 unidentified objects when using the Discovery Scanner.
Dropping someone a Postcard - Sending messages (and/or pictures) back Solward. Can refer to talking to people on your friends list despite the great distances involved. "I'll drop you a postcard."
Falling into the monolith – visiting a star that is orbited by nothing but more stars (ie “My God, it’s full of stars!”)
Flying Brick – A Lakon Type 6, while it’s a trading ship by design, it’s easily converted into a fairly impressive long range explorer with a great cockpit view. (also called a Flying Pig)
Flying Squirrel - Slang terms for the venerable Lakon Asp Explorer (picture the squirrel with its "wings" extended).
Frontier - Rough edge of human occupied space (aka the Bubble) beyond which there are no settlements ("The edge, beyond which only the bravest go, some call it the Frontier.")
Fuel dump – uninteresting system with an unscoopable star that has to be jumped to in order to get where you’re going
Gas station – uninteresting system visited only to pick up fuel from its star
Gas up – to fuel scoop
Gasbag - A jovian type world
Gazed into the Abyss - someone who has been out so long they've gone a bit nutty. Could be harmless or eccentric, could be dangerous.
Ghost - Spotting another ship in deep space, but they jump system before you can make contact.
Grind - Frustrating day of exploring, full of problems or just dull.
Gumballs - Planetary string of little to no interest. Boring star with rocky/ice bodies. (Cause you never get the good gumballs just the bad ones.)
Hail Mary - Equipping the best life support on your ship even though after you get to a certain distance it will not save your ship.
Hot Fart - A T or Y-class brown dwarf. Technically, this name is more appropriate to describe solely T-class dwarfs, as they are the ones known as 'methane dwarfs', but as Y-class dwarfs look similar, they are often lumped in as well. Often used as a derogatory term, as they cannot be scooped from and, when found as the main star in a system, often have a low value system of 'iceballs' orbiting them.
Hydrogen Headbutt - flying headlong into a star (usually through inattention)
Icarus – taking heat damage getting too close to a star (often fuel scooping) – “I had to turn back, I pulled an Icaraus two jumps ago and my hull is fried.”
Icarus Jump - diving into the ejections of a Neutron Star or White Dwarf in order to supercharge your FSD for an enhanced jump range.
Iceball - An icy world of any sort.
In a gadda da vida – Two or more Earth-like planets in system
Jovian – Any gas giant
Jumponium - Materials needed to synthesize FSD Jump Boosts
Kylie - 1000LY (the maximum your computer can plot a course for). Based off of "kilo" for thousand. Used as a basis for general distance traveled over long trips
La-Z-Boy – Advanced Discovery Scanner – because it pings everything in a system regardless of distance, some explorers see this as “lazy” and takes away the excitement of hunting shift.
Last Homely House - The final station you see before you start into unpopulated areas. Traditional to stop and have a drink there.
Lighthouse - A beacon or otherwise noteworthy system used in general interstellar rangefinding/triangulation.
Locked on - if you have a specific destination in mind, rather than a general meandering trip (see Walkabout)
Long Dark - Beyond civilized space (see also "Big Sky Country")
Longest Mile - The return trip after an expedition - usually if your ship is in poor shape and you're worried you might not make it back at all.
Main, The - The initial star you jump to in any system. Sometimes needed for reference when dealing with systems with many nearby stars.
Marco – Trader term for an explorer, often used by traders turned part or full time explorers.
Marco Polo – Trader term for an explorer who’s travelled more than 25,000LY
Mis-jump - Failed hyperdrive jump (Note: currently obsolete, but was a factor in previous Elite games and its lore)
North (and South) - Up (or down) in respect to the Galactic plane.
Ping – objects found by a Discovery Scanner. "I sounded the spacehorn and got a bunch of pings."
Planting a flag – First to detail scan an earth-like or terraformable planet.
Ratsignal - a call for help to the Fuel Rats (www.feulrats.com), because you're stranded in deep space without fuel.
Ratted Up - your exploration ship is Fuel Rat compliant, with at least a fuel drone controller and a number of fuel drones so that you can assist in deep space rescue if called upon.
Record Store - System containing mostly ringed planets/orbital bodies
Rimward - towards the Galactic Rim.
Rocks – metal, icy, rocky planets.
Saga - Shorthand for Sagatarius A*, location of a supermassive black hole. Reaching Saga for some is like a pilgrimage, and for others an achievement like climbing Mount Everest.
Share some Indi Bourbon - rendezvousing with another explorer in deep space to chat and share information.
Shiny Bowman - Explorer in an Imperial Clipper or other ship designed with comfort and luxury in mind.
Shift – the parallax effect in nearby stars. Explorers without an Advanced Discovery Scanner will “hunt shift” to find distant planets or stars beyond their range.
Shotgun wedding - Accidentally flying into a planet's ring.
Solward - back towards civilized space. Many non-explorers call this "coreward" but for explorers the Core is the galactic core.
Sounding the Spacehorn - Using the discovery scanner. Also called "Boom" and just "Honking the Horn"
Suburbs - A region of pretty monotonous, uneventful space (such as M-star fields with ordinary rocks around them). Usually used as a stark contrast to a far more interesting deep sky object nearby
Static - the noise on a Wave Scanner - High Static indicates manmade objects, Low Static indicates natural points of interest
Spare Tire - An extra fuel tank added to your ship
Tag (a system) – First in a star system.
Topside – flying “North” (or “South”) in a system a long ways, so you can come back at it in a way that lets you see all the elliptical orbits. Going topside is one way to find a black hole if you don’t have an Advanced scanner.
Turnwise - Travelling with the galactic rotation (clockwise on the galactic map). Also known as Spinward.
Twilight Zone - that area after you leave civilization where you still meet pirates, data miners, or those who have gazed too long into the Abyss. Refers to the unreal experience of being attacked out there. (Note - Since 1.2 the Twilight Zone has not been as dangerous place, but that can always change)
Void - Reference to space in general - ("Somewhere... out there... in the void.")
Walkabout – a meandering journey with only the vaguest sense of destination or purpose.
Wedged in the Inferno – Jumping to a very close binary star system, so close you very quickly start taking damage. Also called "The Crush".
Widdershins - travelling against the galactic rotation (counter clockwise on the galactic map). Also known as Tracking.
Witchspace - The 'area' you traverse during a hyperspace jump, containing strange clouds and lights... or are they? ("Witchspace? You sound like my grandmother...")
Worlds – Water, Earth-like, or Ammonia planets
Yellow Tape – a star or region of space inaccessible (permit only). “The whole area is blocked off with yellow tape.”
Zulu Time - Ancient term used to refer to the time at Earth's prime meridian. Now refers to Galactic Standard Time. Most explorers stick to it not only as a way to regulate their sleep schedules, but maintain a semblance of normalcy and hold off staring into the Abyss.
Special thanks to the intrepid explorer Erimus for his initial input and suggestions, and Drew Wagar for contributing some of the terms from his book, as well as everyone who have since posted their own additions in this thread and the others!
Traders: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=115768&p=1797210
Bounty Hunters: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=116133&p=1803554
Pirates and Privateers: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=116134&p=1803574
Miners: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=116644&p=1811584
Explorers: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=116536&p=1809874
General Slang: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=61871 (This is a great list compiled by Anopheles some time back, which could be seen as a "universal" slang outside of specific occupations if you want)
---
Exploring the Void - But Ready To Make Contact
Why are explorers called Bowman? Some say it goes back to the old sailing days, with a brave explorer standing on the bow looking to the horizon. But a lot of history’s real explorers weren’t all they were cracked up to be. Others say it has to do with an ancient Earth movie called 2001. I don’t know. It’s not like Dave Bowman stands out as a charismatic paragon of sci-fi captains. But I guess that old movie was one of the first to captured a realistic thrill of the unknown, rather than filling the void with laser beams and explosions.
Either way, that’s why we’re out here. To see what no one else has seen, to find what no one else thought would be found. There’s more risk out here than hunters or traders would have you believe. For now it’s of the astronomical variety – jumping into a tight binary system and finding yourself wedged in the inferno, getting too close to a supermassive black hole, jumping to a region needing to gas up only to find the gas station closed and you’re surrounded by fuel dumps.
And of course, there’s always the possibility of first contact. Not yet, perhaps, but soon. There’s a lot of yellow tape out there for a reason. And if you listen, carefully, sometimes you swear you heard something over the radio.
But even explorers run into one another once in a while. Heck, sometimes we even do it on purpose. And when we do, we like to swap stories as well as drink or two. So naturally enough our own shorthand evolved.
----
ATM - Derogatory term for a Stellar Cartographics office
Badlands - a region of brown dwarfs, an explorers nightmare.
Bagged and Tagged - A fully explored system, down to the last moon.
Banquet - A system that turns up a whole host of stars, planets and other objects. Far more than you expected.
Battle Bowman – explorer in an armed Asp or other combat ship.
Big Sky Country - The area past inhabited space and the Twilight Zone. Uninhabited, unexplored space.
Bowman – an explorer (some female explorers prefer Janeway).
Bowman Boogie – Reaching 2001c (happens if a second star is REALLY far away and you’re just that much of a completionist)
Bowman Blues - when an explorer has returned home and starts missing the exploring life.
Bubble (aka The Bubble) - The sphere of human influence. Human inhabited space. Not to be confused with the Bubble Nebula. Those who have never left it sometimes referred to as "Bubble Brains".
Budget Bowman – explorer in a Sidewinder or an Adder.
Beach Buggy - SRV
Cash Comet - An explorer who is just going out for quick cash, mostly pinging systems and not bothering to scan anything in detail that isn’t worth big bucks.
Chooglin' - An enjoyable day of exploring. Used as a verb. "Yeah, I was really chooglin' today. Had a ball (a good time)!" Said to derive from an ancient Earth song. The opposite of a 'grind'.
Closed gas station – a T Tauris star that looks scoopable at first.
Columbused – You thought you were first in an area, only to find someone else got there before you (darn Vikings).
Comet – an explorer who gives up quickly and goes back Sol-ward. Exploring isn’t for everyone. 'Connie - Anaconda ship class, rarely used for exploration, but is actually quite capable at it when outfitted accordingly. Those who can afford one are typically exploring for the love of the unknown, not for profit.
Coreward - Towards the Galactic Core.
Costner System - A system with three or more Water Worlds in it
Countdown Dementia - When you've gotten absolutely sick of your onboard computer's voice (most common thing heard is the countdown to your next jump). Some explorers have smashed their speakers before realizing the voice could be switched off.
Data Miners - Bandits who attack explorers outside of populated space, with the intention of stealing their cartographical data to sell back Solward.
Disco - Discovery Scanner
Disco Party - Finding more than 50 unidentified objects when using the Discovery Scanner.
Dropping someone a Postcard - Sending messages (and/or pictures) back Solward. Can refer to talking to people on your friends list despite the great distances involved. "I'll drop you a postcard."
Falling into the monolith – visiting a star that is orbited by nothing but more stars (ie “My God, it’s full of stars!”)
Flying Brick – A Lakon Type 6, while it’s a trading ship by design, it’s easily converted into a fairly impressive long range explorer with a great cockpit view. (also called a Flying Pig)
Flying Squirrel - Slang terms for the venerable Lakon Asp Explorer (picture the squirrel with its "wings" extended).
Frontier - Rough edge of human occupied space (aka the Bubble) beyond which there are no settlements ("The edge, beyond which only the bravest go, some call it the Frontier.")
Fuel dump – uninteresting system with an unscoopable star that has to be jumped to in order to get where you’re going
Gas station – uninteresting system visited only to pick up fuel from its star
Gas up – to fuel scoop
Gasbag - A jovian type world
Gazed into the Abyss - someone who has been out so long they've gone a bit nutty. Could be harmless or eccentric, could be dangerous.
Ghost - Spotting another ship in deep space, but they jump system before you can make contact.
Grind - Frustrating day of exploring, full of problems or just dull.
Gumballs - Planetary string of little to no interest. Boring star with rocky/ice bodies. (Cause you never get the good gumballs just the bad ones.)
Hail Mary - Equipping the best life support on your ship even though after you get to a certain distance it will not save your ship.
Hot Fart - A T or Y-class brown dwarf. Technically, this name is more appropriate to describe solely T-class dwarfs, as they are the ones known as 'methane dwarfs', but as Y-class dwarfs look similar, they are often lumped in as well. Often used as a derogatory term, as they cannot be scooped from and, when found as the main star in a system, often have a low value system of 'iceballs' orbiting them.
Hydrogen Headbutt - flying headlong into a star (usually through inattention)
Icarus – taking heat damage getting too close to a star (often fuel scooping) – “I had to turn back, I pulled an Icaraus two jumps ago and my hull is fried.”
Icarus Jump - diving into the ejections of a Neutron Star or White Dwarf in order to supercharge your FSD for an enhanced jump range.
Iceball - An icy world of any sort.
In a gadda da vida – Two or more Earth-like planets in system
Jovian – Any gas giant
Jumponium - Materials needed to synthesize FSD Jump Boosts
Kylie - 1000LY (the maximum your computer can plot a course for). Based off of "kilo" for thousand. Used as a basis for general distance traveled over long trips
La-Z-Boy – Advanced Discovery Scanner – because it pings everything in a system regardless of distance, some explorers see this as “lazy” and takes away the excitement of hunting shift.
Last Homely House - The final station you see before you start into unpopulated areas. Traditional to stop and have a drink there.
Lighthouse - A beacon or otherwise noteworthy system used in general interstellar rangefinding/triangulation.
Locked on - if you have a specific destination in mind, rather than a general meandering trip (see Walkabout)
Long Dark - Beyond civilized space (see also "Big Sky Country")
Longest Mile - The return trip after an expedition - usually if your ship is in poor shape and you're worried you might not make it back at all.
Main, The - The initial star you jump to in any system. Sometimes needed for reference when dealing with systems with many nearby stars.
Marco – Trader term for an explorer, often used by traders turned part or full time explorers.
Marco Polo – Trader term for an explorer who’s travelled more than 25,000LY
Mis-jump - Failed hyperdrive jump (Note: currently obsolete, but was a factor in previous Elite games and its lore)
North (and South) - Up (or down) in respect to the Galactic plane.
Ping – objects found by a Discovery Scanner. "I sounded the spacehorn and got a bunch of pings."
Planting a flag – First to detail scan an earth-like or terraformable planet.
Ratsignal - a call for help to the Fuel Rats (www.feulrats.com), because you're stranded in deep space without fuel.
Ratted Up - your exploration ship is Fuel Rat compliant, with at least a fuel drone controller and a number of fuel drones so that you can assist in deep space rescue if called upon.
Record Store - System containing mostly ringed planets/orbital bodies
Rimward - towards the Galactic Rim.
Rocks – metal, icy, rocky planets.
Saga - Shorthand for Sagatarius A*, location of a supermassive black hole. Reaching Saga for some is like a pilgrimage, and for others an achievement like climbing Mount Everest.
Share some Indi Bourbon - rendezvousing with another explorer in deep space to chat and share information.
Shiny Bowman - Explorer in an Imperial Clipper or other ship designed with comfort and luxury in mind.
Shift – the parallax effect in nearby stars. Explorers without an Advanced Discovery Scanner will “hunt shift” to find distant planets or stars beyond their range.
Shotgun wedding - Accidentally flying into a planet's ring.
Solward - back towards civilized space. Many non-explorers call this "coreward" but for explorers the Core is the galactic core.
Sounding the Spacehorn - Using the discovery scanner. Also called "Boom" and just "Honking the Horn"
Suburbs - A region of pretty monotonous, uneventful space (such as M-star fields with ordinary rocks around them). Usually used as a stark contrast to a far more interesting deep sky object nearby
Static - the noise on a Wave Scanner - High Static indicates manmade objects, Low Static indicates natural points of interest
Spare Tire - An extra fuel tank added to your ship
Tag (a system) – First in a star system.
Topside – flying “North” (or “South”) in a system a long ways, so you can come back at it in a way that lets you see all the elliptical orbits. Going topside is one way to find a black hole if you don’t have an Advanced scanner.
Turnwise - Travelling with the galactic rotation (clockwise on the galactic map). Also known as Spinward.
Twilight Zone - that area after you leave civilization where you still meet pirates, data miners, or those who have gazed too long into the Abyss. Refers to the unreal experience of being attacked out there. (Note - Since 1.2 the Twilight Zone has not been as dangerous place, but that can always change)
Void - Reference to space in general - ("Somewhere... out there... in the void.")
Walkabout – a meandering journey with only the vaguest sense of destination or purpose.
Wedged in the Inferno – Jumping to a very close binary star system, so close you very quickly start taking damage. Also called "The Crush".
Widdershins - travelling against the galactic rotation (counter clockwise on the galactic map). Also known as Tracking.
Witchspace - The 'area' you traverse during a hyperspace jump, containing strange clouds and lights... or are they? ("Witchspace? You sound like my grandmother...")
Worlds – Water, Earth-like, or Ammonia planets
Yellow Tape – a star or region of space inaccessible (permit only). “The whole area is blocked off with yellow tape.”
Zulu Time - Ancient term used to refer to the time at Earth's prime meridian. Now refers to Galactic Standard Time. Most explorers stick to it not only as a way to regulate their sleep schedules, but maintain a semblance of normalcy and hold off staring into the Abyss.
Special thanks to the intrepid explorer Erimus for his initial input and suggestions, and Drew Wagar for contributing some of the terms from his book, as well as everyone who have since posted their own additions in this thread and the others!
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