English
steampunk
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).
Formed from steam + -punk
Proto-Germanic *staubaz ‘dust’
Proto-Germanic *staumaz ‘steam, vapour’
Old English stēam ‘steam’
Middle English steem
English steam
The story
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).
Today it means
noun 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.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / steampunk