Dicktionary

Please note...

This page was last updated on 18 Dec 1998.

This is a glossary of terms used by Philip K Dick (hereafter referred to as PKD). The description of each term is based on my (or someone else's) best guess at the meaning, with opinions, criticisms, bad jokes etc. Hopefully this approach will keep the thing interesting, instead of it being just a dry, dusty description of words that PKD used. It could be argued that some of the words here are not exclusive to PKD, but I've included them because I think he put a spin on the usual meaning. What I'm trying to achieve is an overview of the ideas that Dick grappled with- all of them, even the silly/trivial ones- via the terms that he used to label them.

I'd be grateful if you'd mail me at

sjh@minster.york.ac.uk

To save my blunt and bloody fingers, I've found it necessary to provide a reference section so I don't keep having to type out the full title of a PKD work. References to works where a term is used are represented by a code inside square brackets. A number refers to the year the work was first published (corrections with proof gratefully received), followed by a sensible four-letter reduction of the title of the work. I'm trying to give brief descriptions of each story I refer to - but sometimes I ramble on a bit!

I have recently accquired an earlier attempt at a Dicktonary by Al Tutt. Al actually sent this to a publisher, so you can but wonder at the hours he put in to it! I have now begun to type this in. To see how far I've got with my transcription of Al's work, click here.

Please note that due to the sheer amount of work involved in cataloguing all of PKD's stuff, I'll soon be splitting this work up into two chunks: the page you are reading now will be renamed THE BLACK DICKTIONARY and continue to act as a repository for any definitions I receive via e-mail. I intend to have another page, which I shall call THE GOLDEN DICTIONARY

, which will contain more detailed terms from what I consider to be PKD's most creative period of writing. This latter page will be all my own work, by which ye shall know me. I'm doing this partly to motivate me to finish the interesting bit of what I started and partly to give the whole project a bit more definition - since fragments of PKD works are still to be published or hard to find.

AGE OF WASTE: The time before the war in [56JAPE]. Note that Mr Spock refers to the 20th century in this way in the film Star Trek IV. Coincidence?

ALBEMUTH: [85RAFA]: To quote PKD: 'In a previous "dream" (truly, a vision experience) I saw the mysterious word ALBEMUTH. Maybe I mentioned this. They let me take a crack at decoding it on my own. Here's what I got: Al is a common prefix for star names, it being from the Arabic meaning "the." So ALBEMUTH is a star. "albe" is close to "alba" which is L. for "white." So we have "the white." The star we call FOMALHAUT means "Whale's Mouth." "Muth" is close in sound to "mouth." MOBY-DICK was called "The great white whale." So ALBEMUTH means "the great white way," which is "Broadway," so it can be finally decyphered as: "The Milky Way." Or. "A star in the Milky Way." Formalhaut is in the Pisces Constellation. Pisces means "fish." The fish sign was the original secret sign of the Christians. Thus ALBEMUTH is a cypher for Jesus.' Not much more to say about this other than it makes no sense at all. Surely no one would find this "deciphering" very convincing -- perhaps not even Phil. It looks like he must have already decided that "ALBEMUTH" did mean "JESUS" and then constructed this bogus logic to reach that answer. If you are prepared to root through three separate and dissimilar languages (Arabic, Latin and English -- not to mention American slang) you can ultimately reach any conclusion you want. Incidentally, the English word "mouth" actually derives from the Old English word "muth." Phil must have missed that bit of historical linguistic lore. Probably used an abridged dictionary.

ANDERSON THEORY: Identifies each sub-form of 'phrenia with a sub-form of religion. The primary form is heliocentric (sun worship), where the sun is seen as the patients father. Other forms include Magna mater 'phrenia. [68WEBY]

ANDROID: An artificial human [55SOLO]. In [68DADO] they are used by humans as slave labor on other planets. Sometimes they escape and get down to Earth where they are killed by bounty hunters. Technology is so advanced that the only distinguishing feature of androids compared to humans is that they are (supposedly) not able to empathize with others.

ANT TANK: Vast underground container, acting as a refuge from nuclear holocaust, the ant part is a contraction of antiseptic: [64PENT]

AQUASOMA 3: A previous polyencephalic world, where we were all dolphin-like mammals in warm seas. Not at all like Delmak-O: [70MAZE]

ARTIFORG: An artificial organ. When mentioned in [64PENT], they are no longer made and are therefore reserved for the top brass in the government. In [66NWLY], they usually insert themselves. People can live for two hundred years with artiforgs- like Virgil Ackerman, who was born (like PKD) in the late 1920's but is still alive when Dr Sweetscent travels forward in time to 2155.

ARTIGRAFT:[55SOLO] covers burn scars

ASSASSIN:[55SOLO] Chosen by the Challenge Convention, their job is to murder the Quizmaster. If an assasin succeeds he gets 1 million gold dollars and the "applause and acclamation of a whole cvilization". Men only can apply.

ATRONIC:[55SOLO] a different sort of power to electronic

AUD:[55SOLO] Audio(phone)

AUTOFAC: fully automated factory in [55AFAC]. You also find autofac rockets and stores in [56JAPE].

AUTONOMIC: After the autonomic nervous system; It means Intelligent. PKD used it to describe a range of things, e.g. In [69UBIK], there's an autonomic pharmacy. I think that PKD only used autonomic where (sometimes a very low level of) intelligence is implied. But that's only my opinion. There was an interesting article in New Scientist recently (1995?), where if the 'right' amount of noise is introduced to artificial neural networks, they become capable of creative thought. Phil set his stories in worlds where science had defined such vague concepts as intelligence and creativity, worked out how to bottle such things, and put them into machines. [65STIG]

BAG PLAGUE: Non - existent biological weapon invented by the Yance-men to prevent the masses from leaving their ant tanks. Symptoms: "those viruses get in and cause your head to expand until it pops like a blown up paper bag": [64PENT]

BATHED:[55SOLO] affected by radiation

BILTONG: A creature which "prints" or copies any item [56PAPR]. Such creatures exist (but might not have the same name) in [65STIG], but the only thing they can't copy is the skin of a certain fungus, which has to be used as money. Similar unicellular creatures are mentioned in [66NWLY], where they are the principal means of mass production used by the Tijuana Fur and Dye Co.

BLOBEL: Unicellular organism from Callisto. [64OBLO]

BLOOP: thrill? [69UBIK]

BLUE CEPHALOPOD MAN: A super-hero-genre comic book that turns out to be the source of advanced weapons design: [67ZAPG]

BOTTLE: Twitched to select the number of a power card, the owner of which becomes Quizmaster. Twitched at regular intervals unless a new Quizmaster is needed. Not really a bottle, but a complex mechanism based on Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle - the movement of subatomic particles, using a Plimp board. It's a "socialised instrument of chance", and part of the whole M-Game. The botle chooses random individuals at random intervals. [55SOLO]

BRAIN BASHER: Psychoanalyst in [66NWLY]

BSR:[55SOLO] Bad Security Risk.

BUILDING: Ominous structure that exists outside the colonists' compound in [70MAZE]. It's grey and large - a cube almost with odd spires from heat sources. There's activity (machinery) within - "a factory?". Tiny animated replicas of the building invade the compound, projecting tiny cannons and firing beams. When looked at under a microscope, these miniatures are inscribed "made at Terra 35082R". The real building is protected by a decoy phantasm device- If you don't approach it, it reveals itself. There's a sign above the door that entices the reader in. Susie Smart thinks the sign says WHIPPERY. Seth Morely ready WINERY - a wine tasting room. Maggie Walsh reads WITTERY - a room of absolute knowledge. Wade Fraser reads STOPPERY - where the mentally ill are "stopped". Mary Morley (Seth's spiteful wife) reads WITCHERY - where control of people through formulas and incantations are learnt. Ignatz Thugg reads HIPPERY HOPPERY - "where people hop onto animals for youknowwhat". Betty Jo Berm reads MEKISSERY - mekkis is the hittite word for power - the font of the universe. Each reader believes that only he/she should enter - the others wouldn't understand. Seth Morley suspects later that the building is an asylum that they all escaped from (but that would be too much like [64CLAN]). It seems that the building is the major manifestation of the unease among the ships crew. It wasn't designed into Delmak-O deliberately. That's why it has all these dream-like qualities associated with it. As Delmak-O disintegrates, Seth Moley sees everyone returning to the building, (and therefore their own psychoses?), but the building disintegrates before they enter, just as they are crossing a river. I expected the role of the building to be explained in more depth later in the book, but it's just described as the Boeing plant on Proxima 10 where the Persus 9 was built, and where the crew boarded it. I suspect that PKD originally planned to make more of it than that.

C-80: The new Australian rocket in [68WEBY]

C-PLUS:[55SOLO] faster than light.

CAN-D: Halluciogenic drug in [65STIG]

CAPTAINKIRK: a pop entertainment (e.g., a TV show) with an adventure or sci-fi theme.

CEPHALOCHROMOSCOPE: (Cephscope). An electronic gadget equipped with a screen upon which graphical, coloured representations of the user's thoughts and brain patterns are displayed. The purpose is to bring the user into a relaxing and pleasurable state of mind. Cephscopes are very expensive and considered as valuable household objects. Altec Corp. is the main manufacturer. [77SCAN]

CHALLENGE CONVENTION:[55SOLO] A means of challenging the quizmaster that needs to be set up to select a new assassin. The rule is "one assassin at a time, chosen by public convention" - or a violation has to be proved. You can arrange conventions to name the assassin of your choice. Teeps find out every strategy - they discover you as soon as you begin playing - so they force you to act randomly. Assasins lose the M-Game to teeps because there are 80 teeps to one assassin - even so occasionally an assassin wins. If you break the rules of the Convention you're out of the game for life.

CHEW-Z: Halluciogenic drug in [65STIG]

CHILD GUIDANCE CLINIC: [55SOLO] brain-washing school

COHORTS: The male descendants of Major Strieter, the founder of morec in [56JAPE]. humourless, devout as machines, dressed in drab khaki, they have a vague police-like role.

COMMERCIALS: Mechanical flies that the ads agencies release in [64SIMA]. They buzz out high-pitched adverts, or try to before people destroy them by swatting them, shooting them or stepping on them. Interesting idea, commercials as physical pests. They tend to be able to squeeze into people's personal spaces, though car windows, doors and so on. One of the characters in [64SIMA] develops a psychotic episode in which he believes he has a terrible body odor which nearly debilitates him after hearing one of these commercials.

CONAPT: A condominium-type apartment: [69UBIK]

CONTROLLED FUGUE THERAPY: Where you are given halluciogenic drugs to induce a psychotic break and give libido fulfillment. The fugal period is then reduced with the eventual goal of removing the need for it altogether [68WEBY]

CORTO-THIAMIN CAPSULES: A Pick-me-up for a hangover in [56JAPE]

CREEPER:[55SOLO] awry "if something goes creeper"

CUBBY: Short for a cubicle in an ANT TANK :[64PENT].

CURSE: In [70MAZE], according to Specktowsky, "we are prisoners of our own preconceptions and expectations". This is a condition of the Curse in the theology of the book. The Intercessor will release us from this condition (see that entry for more).

DARK-HAIRED GIRL: PKD is supposed to have an obsession with a "dark-haired girl", supposed by some to be his dead twin sister or an amalgam of his wives, or the particular appearence of girls that PKD was attracted to. It's odd that this philosophical writer was attracted to "Dark haired girls" regardless of their personality - is this why DHGs are often spiteful evil and unpredictable?. I've not read of any instances where PKD says "yes, I put dark-haired girls in my books when I want a character based on..." though. In [56JAPE] we see a brief early DHG as Gretchen Malparto. In [64WDMS], the DHG is the grand-daughter of a dead man who's ghostly thoughts are picked up by a radio telescope. She is an ex-drug addict who had a near-death experience herself. In [68WEBY] it's Pris Frauenzimmer, a particularly dark DHG, who loathes Luois Rosen, her besotted admirer who even hallucinates about her. In [77SCAN], the DHG is Donna the drug dealer, whom Bob Arctor loves but is "too ugly" to have a hope with. Donna steals everything she can lay her hands on and finds ingenious ways of making money from her thefts.

DAY OF AUDIT: The final period of time in Specktowsky's theology, in which the heavens roll back and all creatures are reconciled with the original Deity from whose unity of being everything has come: [70MAZE]

DELMAK-O: Planet on which the main events of [70MAZE] took place. Later in the novel, we find that it is really Terra. Still later we find that the name was made up by drawing random letters from the ship's computer.

DICKSON REPORT: An examination of an encephalogram in [56JAPE]

DILAPIDATED: Said of Louis Rosen's Special-birth brother Chester, who can't answer questions, but is damn fine with his hands [68WEBY]

DINGLING: Fiddling [69UBIK]

DIRECTORATE:[55SOLO] vague civil service that the Quizmaster is in charge of

DODDS PRESSURE SUIT: old type of space suit in [55SOLO] - can puncture on sharp rocks. replaced by Farley suits.

DOMINO METHOD: People believe what the group believes - therefore everyone behaves how the leader does. But one man who originated an idea would foul it up [56JAPE]

E THERAPY: Stimulates Kresy's gland in [65STIG]

EDUFACTURE: Instructional pastimes for the individual (c.f. Juggle for the group) in the morec society of [56JAPE]. To keep idle hands occupied.

ELECTRIC ANT: A simulacric robot that is controlled by a reality punch-tape, not necessarily aware that it isn't human. But if you alter the tape, who knows whose reality you will alter.. [69EANT].

EMPATHY BOX: A device used to merge with MERCER :[68DADO]

ENCEPHALOTROPIC FLOATING ANTIPERSONNEL MINE: ..,Japanese made, all-transistorised, is how Louis Rosen thought of his .38 pistol when threatening to shoot Sam Barrows in [68WEBY]. Barrows checked and found out that the Coast Army Arsenal actually had such a thing, and wondered how Rosen got hold of one. It homes in on your (unique) brain-waves..

ERG GUN: Gun of unspecified working: [70MAZE]

FINAL WAR:[55SOLO] last nuclear war

FAMNEXDO: To keep emigrants to Mars from going batty in their near-isolation, they take "famnexdo"s with them. Famnexdos are family replicas made of simulacra i.e., Family Next Door. The term appears in [64SIMA], but the idea crops up again in [68WEBY]

FARLEY SUIT:[55SOLO] a bulky space suit

FIZZLE:[55SOLO] fail

FLAME DISC:[55SOLO] 10th planet in our system. Also a book by Preston. It glows green with radioactive minerals, orbits at twice the dstance of pluto. The Voices say flame disc was carried across to the sol system by them -> an anomaly

FLAPPLE: A personal flying machine. Sometimes they are AUTONOMIC, sometimes they aren't. Described in [64PENT] as "fruit-fly like". Gives rise to such terms as "disemplappled".

FLURK: Expletive, as in "Flurk off, Zafsky!" [69UBIK]

FNUGGING: Expletive

FOODHEAD: Shithead. In [67COCW], where we eat our turds through our arses, we shit out food from our mouths.

FORK: Expletive, as in "What the fork?" [68DADO] or "fork off" [64SIMA].

FORM DESTROYER: The evil god in the theology of [70MAZE]. Entropy is his "method". The FD was called into being ("awakened") by God's act of creation. He entered the universe and hence time to corrupt it so that it was no longer the image of the Mentufacturer. It's not made clear whether FD is an aspect of god, or was self-creating. Tony Dunklewelt saw the FD in his trances, and clamed that there was a god-above-god that included the FD as well as the three conventional forms of god. The FD is absolutely-not-god, but since this is a form of being and god contains all being, god EQUALS not-god. woo.

FRAB: term of affection such as in "Hi, you old knurlheaded frab.": [64PENT]

FRIPPING: Expletive [67COCW].

FURBLE: does it mean to come up with a clumsy inelegant solution to a technical problem? kind of like kludge? Its like a combination of fumble and burble and fudge.

GANYMEDIAN SLIME MOULD: An intelligent being in [64CLAN], but a component of a tape recorder in [64SIMA]. Of course, it might not be the same SPECIES of mould.... ?[69GAPH]

GANYMEDIAN TOAD: "So beautiful with it's shining flame and long smooth hair: [70MAZE].

GETABOUT: Small car in [56JAPE]. holds four people at a push. Steered by a tiller, the motor is steam-driven.

GLIM:[55SOLO] to realize or detect the presence of "have they glimmed on the bug?"

GLIMMUNG: An alien [69GAPH]

GLOONK: Snooper? term of derision in [69UBIK]

GNOFF-HIDE: Fabric in [65STIG]

GOB: In [76DEUS], this was the "Great Objectless Bomb" designed by Carelton Lufteufel. Used in WWIII, this bomb detonated high in the atmosphere, spreading vast amounts of lethal radiation across entire continents. "Lufteufel" is German. "Luft" is "air", and "teufel" is "devil". "Lufteufel" may be an "airdemon", but it is not to be intended as an "air elemental", more of a winged beast, a "demonic dragon".

GOD-WORLD: planet where "non-humanoid quasi-biological ultra-sentient" life forms live - so advanced that we think of them as gods. Prayers in [70MAZE] were spread via the god-worlds to the Deity (even though it makes no sense because The Deity doesn't live on god-worlds).

GRAPPLE BEAMS:[55SOLO] used to guide cars to the ground from the air

GRASSED: Slang usage for being intoxicated: [70OFFF]

GREEN PEACH HAT: misnomer for Gracious Prospect Heights - one of the greatest multiple-unit housing developments in the Pacific north west. [68WEBY]. Is it a coincidence that Galactic Pot Healer has the same initials?

GRUNK: Term of derision in [69UBIK]

GUBBLE, GUBBISH: The accelerated entropy or rotting that Manfred Steiner saw in [64MATS]

H-GRENADE:[55SOLO] obvious

HALF-LIFE: In [64WDMS] and [69UBIK]. When you die, it's not the end. If you are placed in cold-pac, the death throes of your brain can be picked up by the living, allowing you to communicate. Since your brain signals decay after death, you only have a limited amount of time in half-life, but this time can be spun out if you are revived for communication rarely.

HEBE: Hebephrenia [68WEBY]

HILL: A separate economic unit - like an empire. There are five: Oiseau-Lyre; Farben (in Berlin); Westinghouse; Imperial; and Soong (in Peking) [55SOLO]

HOMEOPAPE: A newspaper that filters the news so it only shows what you are interested in- these are beginning to exist now in the form of web robots. There's a good description of what Phil imagined a homeopape to be in [69UBIK]. Along with many SF predictions, there are anachronisms in the way the thing operates. The homeopape asks you what you want to read about. (the forefront of our technology), and then prints it on paper. It's obvious that this was written before PCs were common.

HOMOSIMULACRIC: In the manner of an android. Appears in [69UBIK] even though there are no Simulacra in the novel.

HOPPER POPPER:[55SOLO] a big popper

HUBRIZINE: (from the latin "hubris"?) a drug that stimulates the anterior portion of the spetal region of the brain, increasing the alertness, cheerfulness and belief that everything will be OK in the taker. Approximates a setting on the Hammerstein Mood Organ (but more intense, since mood organ effects are restricted by law) close to the opening of Beethovens 16th quartet. "I can almost hum this drug" says Louis Rosen in [68WEBY].

IDENT-PAPE: identification papers [65STIG]

INERTIAL: Another name for an anti-psi. One who cancels out psionic ability in another. Inertials are usually members of Prudence organizations. [69UBIK]

INTERCESSOR: A part of the polyencephalic theology of [70MAZE]. He is a Manifestation of the Deity that can stand in for us collectively. The Intercessor arose as a result of the struggle between the Deity and the Form Destroyer, which took place over a very long time. The Intercessor offered himself as sacrifice by which The Curse could be partially nullified. This satisfied the Deity that this manifestation of Himself had been a partial victory. The Deity died and re-manifested himself to indicate that he had overcome the curse and hence death. Having done this, he moved up through concentric circles back to God himself. Since then, everything's happened so fast. Now that we are in the Specktowsky period it's easy to contact one of the Manifestations - this time is different from the first 2000 years since the Intercessor appeared. The Curse is lifted through him - we are released from our world and condition and see reality as it really is, without the modes of perception of space and time. In Maggie Walsh's post-polyencephalic-death hallucination, the Intercessor flutters up from the hell-world and Maggie drifts away from the red smoky lights of the "wrong wombs", carried by the warm wind of the Intercessor to a powerful flickering yellow light. The Intercessor is the only Manifestation to appear in the real world, not the polyencephalic construct in which most of the events of the novel take place. He appears to Seth Morely as he is about to kill himself and takes Seth away to be a desert plant, asleep but "aware of the sun and myself". I suppose the hint here is that the theology that was invented for Delmak-O is the theology of the real world.

INTERCON:[55SOLO] intercontinental

IPVIC: Inter-Plan Visual Industries Corporation: monopoly that controls all aud and vid communications [55SOLO].

JAPE: to take the piss out of - to make fun of a stale theme. When a theme is harped on too much, you get parody. [56JAPE]

JJ-180: A highly addictive drug, the nature of which alters throughout [66NWLY]. Early in the novel, it makes you feel like you are in control of objects; you 'know' them well and they serve you. As the drug wears off this control reverts to how you are normally, and then things starts to get heavy and unfamiliar. You can't pick things up . It is first taken by Kathy Sweetscent, wife of Eric Sweetscent. The supposed manufacturer of the drug changes as well. At first, it is supposed to be Made by Tijuana Fur and dye Co, but then it could be made by the Reegs. Then we suspect that Kathy was given the drug by secret agents from Lillistar. It turns out in the end that it was made on earth as a weapon AGAINST Lillistar. It is designed as a poison and was intended to be put in the water supply. It is addictive after a single exposure, causing damage to the liver and bloodstream that cannot be cured by artiforg replacement. Later in the book JJ-180 becomes a means of traveling in time, and still later we find that it allows the user to travel to parallel universes as well.

JUGGLE: Unspecified game in [56JAPE]

JUVENILES: Electronic snoopers that spy on ordinary folk in the Morec society of [56JAPE]. 1.5 feet long, they scuttle along the ground and walls at ferocious speed - they are oddly referred to as a species. They whirr as they surrender their tapes to committee representatives. The idea is that they only report what they see, so you are safe from hysterical heresay, malice and paranoia. But when you are caught, there is certainty about your actions - it is up to the courts to decide whether those actions were criminal.

KIPPLE: The physical and emotional junk in the lives and households of Deckard and Jack Isadore in [68DADO]. It builds up so much it almost smoothers Deckard, so he is forced to deal with all this kipple - his attitude to androids; his views on electric sheep; his wife; Mercerism - and either overcome it, or succumb to it. Note, however, that it's the intrusion of Roy Baty into his life which forces this action and self examination upon him. This theme pops up again for example in [66NWLY]; Here Dr. Eric Sweetscent is also under a pile of kipple, especially in relation to his wife and relationship to his employer. The novel in some ways is his journey to remove this kipple from his life, again forced upon him by the intrusion of President Molinari into his life. Kipple is also mentioned more flippantly in [69GAPH]. Joe Fernwright is on the shore of Mare Nostrum, where Glimmung is submerged and possibly dead. Phrases idly run through Joe's head: "Do you like Yeats?" "I don't know, I've never had any." "Do you like Kipling?" "I don't know, I've never kippled." This is in reference to the ancient cartoon ( early 1900s New Yorker?), one of the most popular cartoons of all time. And in [70MAZE]: "I'll pile her stuff outside and then get mine aboard. I'm under no mandate to load her kipple". James Tiptree Jr. has also used the term.

KR-3: In [74FLOW], KR-3 is an experimental drug which disables the "time-binding" and "space-binding" functions of the human brain. This can result in the radical alteration of reality - and not just the reality of the user. It's possible for someone to take the drug and place somone esle in another reality.

KRESY'S GLAND: Human gland which controls the rate of evolution in [65STIG]

L-CHANNEL:[55SOLO] literal channel. TV channel watched by the unks

LAND-O-SMILES: A brand of hash cigarette in [62HICA].

LIFE-PROTEK: Mechanism that keeps you alive while you're in polyencephalic doodah: [70MAZE]

LOCK ON:[55SOLO] act of giving/recieving an oath

LOONEY LUKE: discount space ship shark in [64SIMA].

M-GAME:[55SOLO] minimax game; Minimax is the method of surviving the great game of life - invented by 20th century mathematicians Von Neumann and Morgenstern. The method was used in WWII, Korea and the Final War and became the basis of government in 2.5 centuries. It places great emphasis on the Aristotlean Golden Mean. Social situations are analogous to strategy games like poker. So a system for poker will work like a system for society. If you act randomly, you avoid acting foolishly under the deception of your opponents. You can then use regular statistical methods to succeed. Opponents are then forced to give up deception and adopt a rational proceedure. There are two parts to the M-Game:[55SOLO] The Bottle and the Challenge Convention.

MACMILLAN ROBOT:[55SOLO] MacMillan did basic stuff on robots and created witless hulks - glorified vacuum cleaners, stoves and dumb waiters - big string things to lift stuff so the unks can lie down and sleep (MacMillan was pro-unk) - no more unk slaves and labourers. e.g. MacMillan taxis "all right sir or madam" - not capable of fine descrimination. waiters, newsmachines and heavy duty weapons can all be of the MacMillan type. An early description of Autonomic?

MAGNA MATER SCHIZOPHRENIA: A type of 'phrenia according to Anderson theory where the embodiment of your consciousness is projected out onto the cosmos, where it is perceived and worshiped. Louis Rosen's fixation with Pris Frauenzimmer is the result of such an illness. So-called after the great female deity cults of the Mediterranean at the time of the Mycenaean civilization, examples of which are Ishtar, Cybele, Attis, Athene and the virgin Mary. [68WEBY]

MASS-MAN: Mass-manufactured [68WEBY]

MARTIAN ROOT BUZZARD: Bones of which choked Seth Morley's greedy and mendacious tom cat: [70MAZE].

McHESTON ACT: Unspecified law which makes it necessary for compulsory testing for mental illness because "a truly psychotic individual could on his own never seek aid" [68WEBY]

MEKKIS: Ganymedian worm and ruler of the Bale of Tenessee in [67GANY]. See the entry on the Building for a possible source of the word.

MENTUFACTURER: another part of the Deity in [70MAZE], responsible for brining the universe into being and starting time in motion. Address a prayer to him if you want to roll back time and take a different path. Cause of coming into being unknown, but Specktowsky claimed that the Mentufacturer was self-creating, existing out of time and causality. A condensation of "firmament" and "manufacturer" ?

MERCER: An entity that humans "merge" with using an empathy box. By showing that they are able to empathize with another person, they also show that they are not androids. The grim gag here is that to prove you are human, you have to empathize with a machine.[68DADO]

METHANE GALE:[55SOLO] A drink from Callisto, which has a methane atmosphere. A sort of amber coloured whisky. Made by 1000's of slaves

MIN: to miniaturize anything. Lots of spy-type devices are often minned in PKD books

MOOD ORGAN: [68DADO]. Developed from the brain-mapping of the mid-1960s and the discoveries about the mid-brain (hypothalamus) and depth-electrode techniques of Penfield, Jacobson & Olds. The keys of the organ trigger off different depth-electrodes in the hypothalamus, allowing ones mood to be adjusted artificially - and even to produce entirely new emotions. The Hammerstein Mood Organ and the Waldteufel Euphoria are just such instruments, and render the conventional musical organs obsolete in [68WEBY].

MORATORIUM: where half-lifers are kept in [69UBIK]

MOREC: or Moral Reclamation; the delivery of moral messages and the basis of the morality of society in [56JAPE].

MOUTH-HOLE: In [67COCW], where time flows backwards, this expletive is the equivalent of our "Asshole". Think about it. See also FOODHEAD.

MUTED:[55SOLO] (Deliberately) mutated

NANNY: A robot attendant that protects children like a huge mechanical dog. Originally from the short story [55NANN], which is obliquely referred to in [68WEBY] as appearing in the fictional magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories.

NEBBISH: Unstylish "..nebbish clothes that Mary's collected in her jay-bird manner. Selecting whatever bright and gaudy"[70MAZE]. In [68WEBY], a nebbish is "..just another flunky type..you see in downtown business sections of every city in the US".

NEGATIVE HALLUCINATION: When you don't see something that's actually there: [70MAZE]

NEXUS-6: The most sophisticated android available in [68DADO]. Rush out and get some for YOUR off-world mine...

NEUTROLOGICS: higher-order cogitative methods used by the evolved NewMen. Beyond comprehension of Unusuals, Under Men and Old Men. So there. [70OFFF]

NOOSE: Contraction of Neuro Psychiatric. An inhabitant of Other World in [56JAPE]

NOSER: Cheap pod-like spacecraft (and handy plot device) that only carries enough fuel for one-way trips. There's one called the "Morbid Chicken" in [70MAZE].

NULL-LEGGED PLASTIC TABLE:[55SOLO] swanky piece of furniture

NURT: Expletive in [69UBIK]

OCCIFER: Joel Smith was tickled to find that the police title is "Occifer". This is definitely not a typo and pops up frequently. [70OFFF]

OPERATION 50 MINUTES: The name of the project to rehabilitate the colonists of the Alphane moon. So - called because American psychiatrists in the '50's and '60's used to charge an hourly rate for a fifty minute session: [64CLAN].

OPTUS: Martian trader in [52BWUB]. Wears a cloak that Captain Franco steps on in an early bit of slapstick.

OSTRICHES: loonies who remain on the planet-wide "aviary" of earth, "shut up in the sand-pile because they can't take the pressure of emigrating from the planet": [70MAZE]

OTHER WORLD: The off-world sanitarium of the health resort in [56JAPE], on Vega 4. It is the antithesis of the morec society.

PAC-PEOP: Pacific peoples? one side in the war that preceeded the events in [64PENT]

PELLIG-THING:[55SOLO] the android Keith Pellig, young, thin, blonde. An assassin picked by the convention. Controlled remotely by a group of people and switches randomly from person to person so that teeps can't follow him. (when all minds leave, Pellig is a vegetable) A single person can only run Pellig for 2 hours - then claustrophobia sets in. You have to be hooked up to implementation machinery. Has a thumb-gun - fires energy on a heat beam principle. Can fly and travel in deep space. The personality twitch isn't random so Moore can decide who is inside Pellig when he dies.

PERSUS 9: The stranded ship in [70MAZE]. Each crew member is tatooed with this name somewhere on their bodies - I dunno why.

PHENOLBARB DISPENSER:[55SOLO] drop a dime in one for a sedative.

PHRENIA: Schizophrenia [68WEBY]

PIZZLED: An inebriated state of some sort that loosens up one's wallet. You can get pizzled on papapot [69UBIK], or by "pizzling away at the bottle [70MAZE].

PLASTI-CUBE:[55SOLO] device for preserving corpses

PLIMP BOARD:[55SOLO] Pocket-sized boards which turn up random combinations by which any complexity of decision can be made. Used in the bottle and by assassins.

POLYENCEPHALIC FUSION: A sort of communal virtual reality. Used for recreational purposes: [70MAZE]

POOP: crazy "what is this poop place?": [70MAZE]

POPPER:[55SOLO] Unspecified form of Gun

POSCRED: A monetary unit in [69UBIK]

POWER CARD:[55SOLO] A sort of lottery ticket given to everyone on the planet. If your's is selected by the bottle, you become Quizmaster. There is a 1 in six billion chance of a p-card coming up. You give it up when you take a fealty oath to a Hill, but it must be returned if an oath is severed from above. Unks either give p-cards to Hills or sell them on the black market for 2 dollars. You lose your power card if you assasinate the Quizmaster unsanctioned by the challenge convention.

PRECOG: A mutant with precognition powers [65STIG]

PRESTON SOCIETY:[55SOLO] The whole Prestion thing in [55SOLO] shifts about so much it's difficult to describe coherently ...John Preston wrote crazed/prophetic books about a 10th planet in our solar system called "Flame Disc". Preston was an odd-ball astronomer - when observations couldn't find this planet, he set off to look for it in his ship and died. The goal of the society is to send a ship beyond the "colony planets" - beyond the regions controlled by the Directorate. And to find Flame Disc. Next to the society building is the crypt of Preston, a dummy of whom is sealed in a plasti-cube there. The Plasti-cube is vacuum-sealed - if opened (and if Preston's corpse was actually in there), Preston's body would be pulverised. The real Preston is alive on Flame Disc. He gives a clue about this in his books (one is called "Unicorn") when he speaks of the voices that will guide us. The voices speak in your mind - this happens even though when people arrive at Flame Disc Preston would be 150ish. Preston really just wanted a society where everyone had a real chance of winning. On Flame disc, there's a spherical building that contains a Preston in a nourishing suspension bath. The sphere is one of 1000's of buouys acting as guides to flame disc. put there by Preston. The bath is a volatile substance to project a vid image onto the Preston replica. The real Preston died a few years after finding Flame Disc. See what I mean about being vague?

PRINTER: A creature that can make exact replicas of objects. Biltongs [56PAPR], Tench and unicellular organisms in [66NWLY] all print things. In [65STIG], everything but Skins can be printed. In [70MAZE] there is a flea-sized printer that just produces copies of Specktowsky's book.

PRIZED-GRAM: also encephalogram, gram - examination of the brain in [56JAPE]

PROTECTOR:[55SOLO] Who you swear an oath to. Has power of life and death over escaped serfs. Not supposed to send a classified to his death - that's reserved for unks

PROTINE:[55SOLO] a foodstuff - not a natural algae, a mutant that started out in culture tanks in the Middle East and gradually spread over fresh water surfaces - even the wash tub and drain pipes and great lakes.

PROTOCOMPUTER: class of inorganic artificial construct. The autopilot of the squib in [70MAZE] is one such.

PROTOPHASON AMPLIFIER: a portable device that enables one to communicate with those in half-life: [69UBIK]

PROXER: An alien from Proxima centauri [65STIG]

PROXIMA 6 TAPE FLY: A large hairy beast with beating wings (what wlse would they do?) and protruding composite eyes. The mechanical singing flies of Delmak-O look like them. [70MAZE]

PRUDENCE ORGANISATIONS: Organizations of individuals with anti-psionic powers that allow them to annul the abilities of (for example) telepaths and precogs: [69UBIK]

PSI-PLUS: a less common form of ESP. There are some hilarious tests for this in [56JAPE]

PSYCH FRONT: army psych division in the war preceeding [56JAPE] which became the Health Resort. The old link to the army is why juveniles aren't allowed there.

PSYCHOCIRCUITBREAKER: Yanks you out of polyencephalic fusion if things go awry - but it didn't this time...: [70MAZE]

PSYCHO-HEALTH RESORT:[55SOLO] a moon base for mentally ill recuperation. A big balloon with entrance and exit sphincters..

PUDDINGED: Malformed. Said of objects made by the Biltong that began to decay: [56PAPR]

PURE FOOD AND DRUG LEAGUE: unspecified organisation reffered to by a sticker on a getabout in [56JAPE]

QUACK:[55SOLO] to lose out in an M-game

QUAKKIP: Goat-like sub-organisms at the Tekkel Upharsin Kibbutz that smell like the Form Destroyer's last years underwear. You can get a very poor quality cheese from them. [70MAZE].

QUART: a running-around-type team game in [56JAPE]. see juggle and edufacuture also.

QUICK-FREEZE: Inhabitants of the radioactive ruins of Hokkaido could be saved by it. We are not told how. [56JAPE]

QUIZMASTER:[55SOLO] Boss of Earth. Maximum 13 year term. position 1. In early 20th century underconsumption plagued society - things were burned because people couldn't afford them. But they could win them in a quiz. Eventually it became possible to win power and prestige in the quiz. The top position became quizmaster - the dispenser of power.

RANDOM-PAINTINGS: [55SOLO] - shifting swirls of random colour that decorate the Quizmasters office - symbolic of the society he rules?

RAW-CLAW-PAW: Another biological weapon (this time of unknown symptoms): [64PENT]

RECON DIS-IN COUNCIL: A bureaucratic authority in [64PENT]

RECORDING ROBOT:[55SOLO] Crawls across the table towards the sound source

REEGS: Insectoid aliens that are supposed to be our enemies but are actually quite nice. They communicate with humans via an electronic decoding box [66NWLY]

REMOVAL PROBE:[55SOLO] renders a teep a non-teep.

RETIRE: to kill an android. You can't say you're killing them because then you would have to admit that they were once alive. And if they were alive, they must ave been sentient beings....[68DADO]

REXEROID:[55SOLO] very tough material used to reinforece the quizmasters office.

ROBANT: robot servant in [66NWLY], used to help an old woman in [53IMPL].

S-CHANNEL:[55SOLO] ?symbolic channel. watched by the classifieds

SCENARA: Opium-based drug, named after Wade Scenara the drug's inventor. [70OFFF]

SCRAMBLE SUIT: worn by Bob Arctor in [77SCAN] as a means of concealing his identity whilst giving a lecture. The scramble suit is a thin membrane which displays different features of different faces etc. to blur your own features. The face of it's inventor appears once every twenty (?) odd years.

SEMI-MATTER: Substance between matter and anti-matter which can absorb either. Morgo the Frolixian in [70OFFF] claimed to be made of this.

SHAVING WAND: An edufacture building project in [56JAPE]

SIMULACRUM: A Synthetic human "I always thought of as [a] robot" in [68WEBY]. Used for Lunar exploration originally, but if the ruling monad guidance system is fed an entire body of data pertaining to a character (UCLA transcribes the data into instruction punch-tape for you), then a Simulacra can take on the personality of that person. A prototype of Edwin M Stanton cost 6000 dollars to build. Then they built an Abraham Lincoln. Sam K Barrows, entrepreneur wanted to populate new towns on the moon with simulacra so that the first human colonists wouldn't be lonely (see also famnexdo).

SKIN: A form of currency- the skin of a fungus- the only thing that cannot be reproduced by replicating organisms (see printers), and therefore the only thing that can be used as money. Must get awful smelly...[65STIG]

SLAVE SATTELITE: Orbits Delmak-O with taped instructions of the colonists mission. But the tape fails [70MAZE].

SLIVER: Interplanetary ship in [56JAPE]

SNIRT: Expletive ("Snirt it!") [69UBIK]

SPECIALS: Humans who's genes have deteriorated due to radiation in [68DADO]. They are considered sub-human by non-specials and are not allowed to emigrate off-planet. A typical Dickian Underclass - note that this underclass is called SPECIAL and not disabled/mutants etc- very PC! In [68WEBY], Special birth persons are similar radioactive mutants - Chester Rosen's eyes and mouth have swapped places for example. Sometimes an embryo is born in pieces - a jaw, an arm, teeth, fingers, like a kit that no glue in the world would stick together. Eeeeeugh!

SPECKTOWSKY: Egon Specktowsky was the captain of the Persus 9, but was killed in the unspecified accident which stranded the ship forever [70MAZE]. His crew name him as the author of the book "How I rose from the dead in my spare time and so can you", but change his initials to A J (an example of PKD not cross-checking things?). In the crew's polyencephalic world, AJS was a 21st century theologian and is cited as discovering the true nature of the Deity in that world. He specifies five time periods: the first was the period of purity before the Form Destroyer was awakened; the second is the period of the curse when the Deity was weakest and FD the most powerful; Then there was the birth of God-on-Earth; Currently god walks the world redeeming the suffering now and all life later through the Intercessor; Lastly, there is the period of the Final Audit. PKD defined this theology with William Sarill from Judaism, Christianity, Mohammedism, Zoroastrianism and Tibetian Bhuddism based on the postulate that God Exists.

SQUATTERS:[55SOLO] unauthorised colonists

SQUIB: In [70OFFF], it's a kind of hover car, steered with a tiller and has a boat-like description. In [70MAZE], it's a planet-bound flying ship "size B" with an autopilot, that can be guided to land by an RK beam

STIGMATA: In [65STIG], The three Stigmata are the physical alterations to Palmer Eldritch's body- metal teeth, Metal eyes with slit-lenses, and a metal arm. Originate in PKD's father's WWI gas mask

STINK OF SHRINK: Non-existent weapon of biological war. Like the BAG PLAGUE, but with the opposite effect "your head diminishes in size, features included, to the circumference of a marble" [64PENT]

SUB-C:[55SOLO] slower than light.

SUPRALOBE:[55SOLO] Part of the brain that allows telepathy

SWIBBLE: some kind of device to control the 'politically correct behavior' of citizens. It's "an artificially evolved telepathic metazoan." It's purpose was to stop war by ensuring that everyone maintained the same ideology [55SERV]. Swibbles are undefined household devices in [64PENT].

SWORD OF CHEMOSH: Tony Dunklewelt obtains this from the Deity through meditation and slays the Form Destroyer with it. But we find that it was Bert Kosler he killed in reality: [70MAZE]

TANK: see ant tank.

TEEP:[55SOLO] telepath

TEEP CORPS:[55SOLO] part of the Directorate - telepaths. The corps is a family, above man. Teeping is like hearing - if people within range think, you'll pick it up. Teeps all come from San Fransico because during the Final War a soviet missile hit research installations at Livermore - survivours badly BATHED. Teeps are all descendants of Earl and Verna Phillips...teeps find out every strategy devised to beat minimax. Teeps find assassins and make his job very difficult. Have a SUPRALOBE which if destroyed nulls their power.

TEKKEL UPHARSIM KIBBUTZ: Colony from which Seth Morley and his wife set off for Delmak-O [70MAZE]. PKD tells us that Tekkel Upharsim means "he has weighed and now they divide" in Aramaic, but I've no idea what the significance of this is. It's a reference to the biblical story of (some king) who saw, literally, the handwriting on the wall. What the hand wrote was "Mene Mene Tekkel Upharsim". I'd be grateful for any further information from any bible-readers out there...

TENCH: Strange creatures which inhabit Delmak-O. The less feeble of which are capable of printing (cf [56PAPR]) .If a tench prints a pen, the copy decays ("puddles"), but the ink in writing remains ok. Questions to the Grand Tench can be asked by placing pieces of paper in front of it. An answer is exuded from the body on a similar piece of paper (Tench have no vocal organs). Back on the Persus 9, TENCH 889B is the ship's computer: [70MAZE].

TERWEP: Weapon of terror (obviously enough) [67ZAPG]?

THALAMIC INDEX:[55SOLO] some sort of telepathic measure of stress

THINGTHING: presumably a thing that is best described as a thing; cruel, cold and sterile Pris Frauenzimmer is described as such in [68WEBY].

TIRE REGROOVING: Process of using a hot iron to melt deeper grooves into the bodies of already bald tires. Occupation of Nick Appleton in [70OFFF]. Outlawed by Gram in this novel.

TOXILAX ARTIFICIAL KIDNEY: An example of a small thing that isn't a toy in [70MAZE]. Compared with the mechanical flies and bees that monitor the colonists.

TURRET:[55SOLO] we don't find out what turrets are - but Cartwright worked at a turret factory as a mechanic.

UBIK: Ubik itself is a spray to stop objects regressing to a form they had in earlier time, e.g. a TV goes back to a valve radio. Trouble is, Ubik itself regresses to a point where it's magic ingredient isn't there. It's a contraction of ubiquity [69UBIK]

UNKS:[55SOLO] Unclassifieds - the masses

URBTRANS SHIP:[55SOLO] MacMillan-operated turbine-driven airborne taxi

VID:[55SOLO] video(phone)

VIEW WALL:[55SOLO] very large "window" with a variable translucent filter

VIGOTSKY-LURIA COLORED BLOCKS TEST: Used by the Russians to test for mental illness - you have to classify the blocks correctly. [68WEBY]

VISRECORD: like a video disc for 3D films. A film of a ?Tolkein story is watched in [70MAZE].

VOIGT-KAMPFF TEST: The test that is used to differentiate replicants from real human beings. [68DADO]

VUG: Alien invaders in [63GAME]

WALKER-ON-EARTH: The manifestation of the Deity (in [70MAZE]) that travels the universe helping folk in the Specktowsky period. He advises Seth Morely that the Morbid Chicken will not get them to Delmak-O. A kind of "anti-person from Porlock, instead of interfering with a good process or event, he..."

WASH-35: The Martian replica of 1935 Washington DC which Kathy Sweetscent's Artiforg-supported boss Virgil Ackerman maintains as a hobby to remember his boyhood. Note that PKD was a small boy in 1935, so Virgil's memories of this time were probably adapted from PKD's.

WES-DEM: Western Democracies? one side in the war that preceded the events in [64PENT]

WHEEL: Type of car in [66NWLY]

WILLIS: The robot in [69GAPH] who insists you always say "Willis, ..." when addressing it

WUB: An alien/Martian 400lb pig-like organism in [52BWUB]. But when killed, it seems to take possession of your mind - so the 400lb pig might just be a victim of the wub. The Wub also appears in [68NOCO], which deals with a Wub and the Water Union and the power struggle that plays large in [64MATS]. Wubs are mentioned but never seen in [69GAPH]

WUBFUR: A commonly encountered (sometimes) expensive material (used as mink would be used, I guess). A wub is a creature that invades/takes the form of other creatures [52BWUB], so it shouldn't really have a "fur"...this is a typical PKD in-joke....wubfur is used to make carpets and slippers in [64PENT]. There's also a short story (Vol 5 I think) in which the Wubfur is used to bind books and the Wubfur alters the text of the book to suit it's idealogical standpoint. So they decide to bind a bible in it. Also found in [65STIG].

YAH: (from Yahweh, or Jehovah: God) The Supreme Being as featured in [81DIVI]. A pagan deity who has great plans for a theological overtaking of Earth by appearing on the little planet of CY30-CY30B, secretly impregnating the Terran emigrant Rybys Rommey, instructing her emigrant colleague Herb Asher to marry her and sending them to Earth so that He will be reborn there as a human being (talk about mysterious ways).

YANCY: President. And when he died, they made a robot to do his job [64PENT]. President Yancy is also discussed in [55YANC].

YOUKNOWWHAT: sex : [70MAZE]