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sputnik|ˈspʊtnɪk, ˈspʌt-|
Also Sputnik.
[a. Russ. spútnik, lit. ‘travelling companion’, f. s with + put′ way, journey + -nik, agent suffix (cf. -nik).]
An unmanned artificial earth satellite, esp. a Russian one; spec. (usu. with capital initial) the proper name of a series of such satellites launched by the Soviet Union between 1957 and 1961.
The first Sputnik, launched on 4 October 1957, was the first artificial satellite.
1957Times 9 Oct. 10/6 Pride in the launching of the sputnik (‘fellow-traveller’), as the satellite is called, as well as the guided missile, were reflected in a speech by Mr. Krushchev..last night. Ibid. 30 Oct. 10/2 Mr. Khrushchev replied: ‘To peace and to the sputnik as a symbol of peace!’ Ibid. 4 Nov. 11/2 The régime which sends a second Sputnik girdling the earth has just emerged from another of its secretly contrived shifts of political power. 1958A. Huxley Let. 15 Feb. (1969) 846 The technical advances in these psychological, physiological and bio-chemical fields are probably far more important..than the physical and engineering advances which have put sputniks into the heavens. 1964M. McLuhan Understanding Media iii. 44 When Sputnik had first gone into orbit a schoolteacher asked her second-graders to write some verse on the subject. 1971New Scientist 10 June 638/1 China's remarkable progress in the field is underscored by the weight of its first sputnik (unmatched..by any satellite launched by France or Japan). 1983N.Y. Times 7 Jan. a1/4 It is not a dangerous situation..and we have no worries about the fate of this sputnik.
b. transf. and fig.
1958Newsweek 10 Feb. 25/1 We may find ourselves confronted with a sputnik in the chemical, biological, and radiological field, as we did in missiles. 1959Daily Tel. 10 Dec. 16/7 Internal ‘sputniks’, pills containing miniature radio transmitters, which can travel around the intestines. 1963Punch 17 Apr. 549/1 Such Hollywood sputniks as Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jnr. 1968[see loop v.1 6].
2. attrib. and Comb., as sputnik diplomacy, sputnik race, sputnik town; Sputnik double Bridge, a take-out double of a suit overcall of one's partner's opening bid; also absol. as Sputnik.
1957N.Y. Times 20 Oct. iv. 4/1 Since the Soviet space satellite has been in its orbit, Moscow has been showing what many are now calling sputnik diplomacy. 1959Listener 15 Jan. 96/2 The rocket would set the stage for a diplomatic offensive [in Russia] similar to the sputnik diplomacy a year ago.
1958Bridge World July 33/2 We noticed that the negative double (‘Sputnik’) would fit. 1976Country Life 1 Apr. 846/2 A Sputnik double, if played, will lead to the same final contract.
1957Times Lit. Suppl. 27 Dec. 782/4 America's defeat in the sputnik race. 1959Daily Tel. 27 Apr. 10/2 The political sensationalism of the sputnik race.
1958Daily Mail 7 June 5/5 Russian planners will deal with overspill population from big cities... They are planning ‘sputnik’ towns. 1966Listener 19 May 729/3 In preparation for the creation of Moscow's own ring of ‘Sputnik towns’—though this development may not happen until after 1980.
Hence ˈsputnik(e)ry, sputniˈkitis (nonce-wds.).
1957Observer 20 Oct. 14/2 We rang up Hamley's to see how Sputnikitis was hitting them... ‘No, I'd not say our space toys were on the up... It's always in competition with cowboys and Red Indians, you see.’ 1957Economist 30 Nov. 762/1 The United States and the Soviet Union are pouring in money and scientists in an Antarctic form of sputnikitis. 1960Spectator 10 June 826 The abnormal concentration of effort in such fields as ‘sputnikery’. 1961New Scientist 6 July 38/1 The narrower field of sputnikry. |