Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Late 20th century ·1983
Cyberpunk
cybernetics punk
- Meaning
- A science-fiction subgenre of high-tech, low-life near-future dystopias.
- Source words
- cybernetics + punk
- Coined by
- Bruce Bethke
- Year
- 1983
Background
Bethke used the word as the title of a short story in *Amazing Stories* (Nov 1983) — a year before William Gibson's *Neuromancer* defined the genre it named. The word now covers a whole aesthetic spanning literature, film (*Blade Runner*), and videogames (*Cyberpunk 2077*).
Late 20th century
Marketing, media, and the early internet. Infomercial, emoticon, workaholic — the coinages name phenomena of mass media and white-collar life. Several predate the decades they're associated with.
Two words, one coinage.
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