Definitions
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable, neologism A subgenre of speculative science fiction set in an anachronistic 19th century society.
- n. countable, cosplay A person cosplaying as a steampunk character.
- v. transitive To depict in a steampunk manner.
Etymologies
- steam + -punk, by analogy to cyberpunk (Wiktionary)
Examples
“This led to books like "Morlock Night" (1979), by K.W. Jeter (who invented the term "steampunk"), or Stephen Baxter's "The Time Ships" (1995).”
“Compared to say, high fantasy, it is actully pretty hard to find good (or any) material in steampunk (and other smaller genres).”
“But I think it will contain steampunk and bloodmagic, prophets and gladiators.”
“Jenny – I really need someone to explain steampunk to me!”
“One of the interesting things about steampunk is that it hasn't formed an expectation of tone in the same way that something like cyberpunk has.”
The art of Leviathan, Part Two: An interview with Keith Thompson
“Sherlock Holmes has pretty much convinced me that steampunk is just not for me.”
and if you win you get this shiny fiddle made of gold, but if you lose the devil gets your soul
“I'd argue that steampunk is basically a form of science fiction that looks backwards rather than forwards.”
“I believe that steampunk is transhumanist Singularitarianism transposed to the key of Victorian adventure-writing.”
[GUEST POST] Lavie Tidhar Asks 'What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Steampunk?'
“Your "Clarkean" argument of steampunk is quite elegant, Lavie - I couldn´t agree more!”
[GUEST POST] Lavie Tidhar Asks 'What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Steampunk?'
“The interest in steampunk is, in fantasy, part of the larger expansion that had writers and readers becoming more interested in writing contemporary "urban" fantasy, satiric fantasy, dark fantasy and horror, and finally historical fantasy.”
[GUEST POST] Lavie Tidhar Asks 'What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Steampunk?'
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘steampunk’.
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chambers dictionary 12th edition
a list of whats new
anyone read the Chambers?agroterror, agroterrors, agroterrorist, agroterrorists, backronym, backronyms, bahookie, bahookies, beatboxed, beatboxing, biocomputer, biocomputers and 65 more...
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Imagical: Words You Should Be Falling...
Come on, we need a counterbalance...
This has the potential to be the fluffiest list on Wordie.nebula, piglet squid, chinchilla, steering winds, the two towels, haboob, duckling, paradise, rainbow, steampunk, peacock, cthulhu and 11 more...
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Terms That Should Be Banished to a Km...
No one knows why.
steampunk, klangfarbenmelodie, twitterdom, imbroglio, maspeth, camcorder, cicada, charcuterie, giggle, hortatory, susurration, bensonhurst and 16 more...
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style
film / art visual styles, genres. technical or otherwise.
(art, style, genre, storytelling, visual, communication, technique, randomness)neo-noir, tilt-shift, grindhouse, cubist, musical, dark satire, slapstick, extreme, absurdism, dadaism, post-modernism, pop and 18 more...
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ecbrenner's list
flatline, luddism, apocalipstick, muttsucker, leviathan of fore..., flint, coryphaeus, donnybrook, bandwidth, bagpipe the mizen, cheesed off, asterism and 525 more...
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edwardvielmetti's Words
wordhord, wordhoard, wordy, wordie, wiki, toriokyo, superpatron, vacuum, crazy, crazybusy, a2b3, 48104 and 220 more...
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lavendargrrl's Words
surfeit, radiant, sussuration, sustenance, authenticity, aching, solitude, solicitous, limerance, compersion, philanthropy, mystery and 108 more...
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Quirkstyle
Fashion elegance, oddities, styles, and cool garments.
tatterdemalion, froufrou, gingham, argyle, corset, hoop skirt, pantaloons, bloomers, jaunty, seersucker, twill, ganguro and 126 more...
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zzyyxx's Words
plethora, drout, functional, rye, wring, doubt, cognative, weird, gnaw, surcease, rend, languish and 438 more...
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Chainlink's Words
hat, opalescent, opal, emerald, sapphire, scythe, carnival, calliope, brilliant, awesome, feather, fantastic and 268 more...
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sillygoose's Words
nefarious, waffle, dilettante, love, obstreperous, suggestible, fodder, plucky, trajectory, eclectic, juggernaut, demure and 115 more...
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Logophile, The Back Page (AKA: just c...
node, nexus, locus, toroidal, ivory, kestrel, lyre, muscat, caldera, tapestry, codex, paragon and 103 more...
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Words grabbed from real life conversa...
If I've seen it, heard it, or marvelled at it, I'll stick it here.
cruft, ermine, redundant, shakespearean, camino, marvelous, stupendous, chagrin, shaven, sleek, smug, stillness and 325 more...
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AbraxasZugzwang's Words
atavism, abraxas, sisyphean, frust, fetus-in-fetu, arhythmically, queef, epidemiology, abecedarian, troglodyte, chiaroscuro, philology and 631 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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Dain's Words
rabble, terminus, archaic, atavism, demiurge, waylay, syzygy, jocoserious, quark, entropy, cinnabar, shamble and 912 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for steampunk.

erinmckean "steampunk is nothing more than what happens when goths discover brown" (Charles Stross) Nov 6, 2010
loulou Steampunk seems to have started as a SciFi genre - sort of scifi set in the past, rather than the future. Hence the 'steam' part - this is cyberpunk in the age of steam-driven things. At the same time, it named the writer/creator of such SciFi "he's quit writing cybertrash, and become a true steampunk with his latest backwards time-travel epic". Of course, it's broadened its meaning & fields, as words will, and is now used to describe anything that's willfully 'behind its time' technologically, as in "I love your Cona coffee machine, it's so steampunk" Jun 9, 2009
ecbrenner "Item of SF terminology coined in the late 1980s, on the analogy of cyberpunk, to describe the modern subgenre whose SF events take place against a 19th-century background." --Encylcopedia of Science Fiction, 1161. Mar 30, 2009
edwardvielmetti Half the excitement about the online steampunk revival seems to source from the fact that it's only been done once before. That's what it comes to, in the anachronesis condition: it's exciting because it's only a bit old.
Warren Ellis,
http://suicidegirls.com/news/culture/22516/ Oct 21, 2007