Talk:Transmogrifier

Spelling[edit]

I think this may be spelled Transmog-rifier...that's how Calvin writes it, and that's how it appears in speech bubbles... --Wack'd About Wiki 15:41, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Bob Martin: Actually in speech bubbles, it appears without the hyphen: transmogrifier.

Etymology[edit]

The assertion that Bill Watterson coined the term "transmogrify" is incorrect. Though the origin is unknown (according to both American Heritage and Webster's), it's been in the dictionary for decades. Derekcslater 15:22, 9 April 2007 (UTC) Derek Slater[reply]

I found the word "transmogrify" in an American Heritage Dictionary that was published before Calvin and Hobbes existed. I have updated the article to reflect this.--PlantPerson 00:44, 24 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've read this in an article by Dennis Ritchie on the history of C ([1]):

Not long after Unix first ran on the PDP-7, in 1969, Doug McIlroy created the new system's first higher-level language: an implementation of McClure's TMG [McClure 65]. TMG :is a language for writing compilers (more generally, TransMoGrifiers) in a top-down, recursive-descent...

So, it seems that the term is really older and did not originate from Calvin and Hobbes... 134.169.77.186 12:22, 9 July 2007 (UTC) (ezander)[reply]

The word is much older. This is an excerpt from the Oxford English Dictionary. I copied it from a language forum, since I neither have online access to the OED nor own a hardcopy: transmogrify, v. [...] 1656 S. Holland Zara vi. (1719) 33 So that he remained for a time as one trans-elemented. [Note] Meaning transmografide, or metarmorphosed into a Mandrake. 1671 A. Behn Amorous Prince iii. iii, I wou'd Love would transmogriphy me to a maid now. [...]--Biologos 13:46, 26 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I found this word used by Gilbert Shelton in a comic book called 'Fat Freddy's Cat' book 5 page 14, Published in 1980. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.190.103.27 (talk) 05:34, 14 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Dr. Robert Beard of the Alpha Agora Language website says: "This word originated in someone's confused mind before 1656. It was occasionally spelled transmigrafy, which suggests (it) may have resulted from the addition of -fy to transmigure by someone less than fully educated. This corrupted verb is a conflation of transmigrate and transfigure that was used occasionally in the 18th century.[2] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.250.235.247 (talk) 03:25, 15 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Also, to be clear, the OED has usages of transmogrify, transmogrified, transmogrifying, transmogrification, and transmogrifier all before 1900. —Centrx→talk • 18:32, 15 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Really bad science fiction[edit]

"Origin in really bad Sci-Fi movies." POV much? I don't want to remove that section, because it seems to have some validity, but I don't even know what it's trying to say. 71.252.56.152 (talk) 22:37, 26 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Since bad sci-fi is unaddressed, I will confirm that at least Doctor Who used the term transmogrifier in the series called Vengeance or Varos from 1985 where a transmogrifier was used to turn people into the objects of their most fearful thoughts. It was used on Peri while Doctor Who was being hanged. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 1611kjb (talk • contribs) 19:59, 11 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Another reference[edit]

The second Jerry Cornelius novel (titled A Cure for Cancer from 1971) as mentioned in Jerry Cornelius