steampunk

Definition

A subgenre of science fiction that depicts advanced technology combined with Victorian style and aesthetics, such as steam-powered machines and vehicles, visible gears and screws and people dressed in 19th-century attires.

Etymology

From steam + -punk, by analogy with cyberpunk, coined by science-fiction writer Kevin Wayne Jeter (born 1950) in a 1987 letter to the magazine Locus in response to a review of his book Infernal Devices published the same year (see the quotation below).

Example Sentences

• "There's railroad trains, a lot of steam-driven stuff, but that's about it. More ‘steam punk’, I suppose."
• "It is also the vision of steampunk, a subculture that is the aesthetic expression of a time-traveling fantasy world, one that embraces music, film, design and now fashion, all inspired by the extravagantly inventive age of dirigibles and steam locomotives, brass diving bells and jar-shaped protosubmarines."
• "The [Arboath North Signal Box] locking room's collection of chains, pulleys and wires resembles the inside of a piano, stretching to the 72-levered frame above. Lovers of steampunk will find it especially pleasing."