antispinward

comparative more antispinward · superlative most antispinward

1. oftenliteratureIn a rotating reference frame, against the direction of spin.

   To antispinward was the largest mountain men had ever seen.

   1970 October, Larry Niven, Ringworld, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 152

   5 more examples

   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.

   1978, Galileo: Magazine of Science & Fiction, Boston, Mass.: Avenue Victor Hugo Publishers, page 77

   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.

   1985, Nancy Kress, Trinity and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: Bluejay Books, →ISBN, page 214

   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, Arthur C. Clarke with Stephen Baxter, Firstborn [A Time Odyssey; 3], New York, N.Y.: Del Rey Books; Ballantine Books, →ISBN

   antispinward adv. in or toward the opposite direction that something (a space station, galaxy, etc.) is rotating.

   2007, Jeff Prucher, editor, Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 9

   "[…] 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."

   2015, Steven Burgauer, Skullcap, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN