Word: Ansible
Apr. 29th, 2026 02:59 pmCopy-and-pasting from my
1word1day Monday post because I finished Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed this week.
ansible [an-suh-buhl]
noun
(in science fiction) a device for instantaneous communication, or other purposes, across cosmic distances
examples
1. I could show them the ansible, but it didn’t make a very convincing Alien Artifact, being so incomprehensible to fit in with hoax as well as with reality. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
2. "What is an anisble, Shevek?"
"An idea." He smiled without much humor. "It will be a device that will permit communication without any time interval between two points in space." The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
origin
Shortening of answerable; coined by Ursula K. Le Guin in her novel Rocannon's World (1966)

ansible [an-suh-buhl]
noun
(in science fiction) a device for instantaneous communication, or other purposes, across cosmic distances
examples
1. I could show them the ansible, but it didn’t make a very convincing Alien Artifact, being so incomprehensible to fit in with hoax as well as with reality. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
2. "What is an anisble, Shevek?"
"An idea." He smiled without much humor. "It will be a device that will permit communication without any time interval between two points in space." The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
origin
Shortening of answerable; coined by Ursula K. Le Guin in her novel Rocannon's World (1966)

no subject
Date: 2026-04-29 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-30 12:53 am (UTC)