three vee n.

a device capable of transmitting or displaying a (moving) three dimensional image

  • 1954 J. Blish At Death’s End in Astounding Science Fiction May 16/2 page image James Blish

    Paige supposed that the Believers had managed to….project a 3V tape against the glass crystals with polarized ultraviolet light.

  • 1963 Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact Sept. 20/1

    He wasn’t any 3V star himself, he decided as he smeared cream over his face: big, homely, red-haired.

  • 1963 Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact Sept. 25/2

    But you were home not so long ago. You talked with people, read the news, watched the 3V. Can’t you at least give an impression?

  • 1975 J. Brunner Shockwave Rider 174 page image John Brunner bibliography

    These days, you simply did not go call on somebody without advance warning. It wasn’t worth it. For one thing, people were spending less time in their homes, statistics said, than ever before in history—despite the arrival of the world in full color and mock solidity thanks to three-vee in the corner of the living room. And for another, perhaps more important, calling without notice was liable to get you webbed in a net of unbreakable plastic, possibly even gassed, at any home above the poverty level. So you used the veephone first.

  • 1984 D. Brin Practice Effect iv. vi. 72 David Brin bibliography

    It was a late-night talk show on the three-vee.

  • 1991 R. Garcia y Robertson Plague Ship in Amazing Stories Aug. 22/1 page image R. Garcia y Robertson bibliography

    Muskrat was imagining the mass converter running wild or the ramscoop collapsing. Catastrophic failure. One instant you were thrilling to your favorite feelie on the three-V and the next nanosecond you were a greasy streak on the void. Such thoughts made her fidget.

  • 2020 E. Bear Machine vi. 91 Elizabeth Bear bibliography

    Even ridden by my guest ayatanas, I was the one in control—whatever you might have seen on your late-night three-vee. Reality is seldom as melodramatic as entertainment.

Research requirements

antedating 1954
Earliest cite

J. Blish 'At Death's End'
Research History
Looking for 'three vee', 'threevee', 'three-vee', 'ThreeV', '3V', and '3-V'.

Rick Hauptmann submitted a 2002 cite for the form "3V" from R. Garcia y Robertson's "Ring Rats".
Malcolm Farmer submitted a cite for the form "3V" from a reprint of Poul Anderson's "Star Fox"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1965 first magazine appearance.
Malcolm Farmer submitted a cite for the form "3-V" from a reprint of Frederik Pohl's "The Children of Night"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1964 first magazine appearance.
Enoch Forrester submitted a cite for the form "tridee" from Larry Niven's "World of Ptavvs" which Mike Christie discovered to have used the form "threevee" in the original 1965 magazine version.
Malcolm Farmer submitted cites for the forms "3V" and "ThreeV" from a 1971 reprint of Poul Anderson's "Industrial Revolution"; Mike Christie checked the 1963 first magazine appearance and found that only the form "3V" appears there.
Malcolm Farmer submitted a 1954 cite for the form "3V" from James Blish's "At Death's End"; and a cite for the form "3-V" from a later reprint which Mike Christie verified in a 1957 edition.
Malcolm Farmer submitted a 1967 cite for the form "three-V" from James Blish's book adaptation of "Star Trek".
Mike Christie submitted a 1963 cite from Poul Anderson's "Industrial Revolution", which was published as by Winston P. Sanders.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2020 cite from Elizabeth Bear.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 1975 cite from John Brunner's "Shockwave Rider".
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 1991 cite from R. Garcia y Robertson.

Last modified 2021-11-30 12:44:02
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.