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retcon: /retīkon/ [short for ‘retroactive continuity’, from the Usenet
newsgroup rec.arts.comics]
1. n. The common situation in
pulp fiction (esp. comics or soap operas) where a new story
‘reveals’ things about events in previous stories, usually
leaving the ‘facts’ the same (thus preserving continuity) while
completely changing their interpretation. For example, revealing that a
whole season of Dallas was a dream was a retcon.
2. vt. To write such a story
about a character or fictitious object. “Byrne has retconned
Superman's cape so that it is no longer unbreakable.”
“Marvelman's old adventures were retconned into synthetic
dreams.” “Swamp Thing was retconned from a transformed person
into a sentient vegetable.” [This term is included because it is a good example of hackish
linguistic innovation in a field completely unrelated to computers. The
word retcon will probably spread
through comics fandom and lose its association with hackerdom within a
couple of years; for the record, it started here. —ESR] [1993 update: some comics fans on the net now claim that retcon was
independently in use in comics fandom before rec.arts.comics, and have citations from
around 1981. In lexicography, nothing is ever simple. —ESR]
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