Skiffy

Template:Distinguish Template:Sister project Skiffy is a deliberate humorous misspelling or mispronunciation of the controversial term "sci-fi", a neologism referring to science fiction.

The term "sci-fi" was suggested as an abbreviated term for "science fiction" by Forrest J Ackerman in 1954, an analogy to the then-cutting edge term "hi-fi" (for audio high fidelity). Ackerman was a long-time fan, and at the time was the literary agent for science fiction authors Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, A. E. van Vogt, Curt Siodmak and L. Ron Hubbard.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Ackerman pronounced his new term as Template:IPAc-en or "sigh figh". In the 1970s, some members of science fiction fandom began to pronounce the term Template:IPAc-en or "skiffy" for unclear reasons.

Peter Nicholls writes that "SF" (or "sf") is "the preferred abbreviation within the community of sf writers and readers."<ref name="nicholls sf">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> David Langford's monthly fanzine Ansible includes a regular section "As Others See Us" which offers numerous examples of "sci-fi" and "skiffy" being used in a pejorative sense by people outside the genre.

Skiffy is the name of the science fiction and fantasy club at the College of William & Mary,<ref>SKIFFY - the science fiction & fantasy club of the college of william and mary Template:Webarchive</ref> and VCU,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as well as not always affectionate shorthand for the American cable channel once named the Sci-Fi Channel.

In 1998, Mike Resnick and Patrick Nielsen Hayden released a book called Alternate Skiffy.<ref>Alternate Skiffy, ed. Mike Resnick & Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Wildside Press 1998. Template:ISBN.</ref> In keeping with the tongue-in-cheek intent of the term, this was an anthology featuring stories about what might have happened if the lives of various well-known science fiction writers had turned out differently.

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