Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • abbreviation sacrifice fly
  • abbreviation science fiction
  • abbreviation sinking fund

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • initialism San Francisco
  • initialism science fiction or speculative fiction, often used to avoid having to choose between the two.
  • initialism square feet
  • initialism Sinn Fein, an Irish political party
  • initialism Smoker Friendly; an establishment that welcomes smokers and caters to their needs.
  • initialism basketball Small forward
  • initialism Suomi–Finland, former country code for Finland

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word SF.

Examples

  • Nowadays I don't really care, but I consistently say and write sf not even SF, but sf -- that's just a convention I have adopted, and I see no reason to change it.

    15 things I actually did know about sf, and a Neal Stephenson question x00c5;ka 2008

  • Nowadays I don't really care, but I consistently say and write sf not even SF, but sf -- that's just a convention I have adopted, and I see no reason to change it.

    Archive 2008-01-01 x00c5;ka 2008

  • Thus sf fans once had to satisfy their need for SF books because no one published any.

    Neil R. Jones Dark Worlds Club 2008

  • At the back of the magazine is a long letter from Harlan Ellison, responding to a previous letter which seems to have suggested I don't have the issue it was printed in that there was something wrong with Ellison for wanting to be known as a "writer who writes some sf" rather than an SF writer.

    We Who are About To... 2004

  • At the back of the magazine is a long letter from Harlan Ellison, responding to a previous letter which seems to have suggested I don't have the issue it was printed in that there was something wrong with Ellison for wanting to be known as a "writer who writes some sf" rather than an SF writer.

    Archive 2004-02-01 2004

  • hihhihih , man you're attracting quite a crowd...sf mike boy, i'm a busy working dad , can't make it to the the Mills show, are you gonna be around this weekend? we're thinking about going to SF, might stop and say hi, maybe we could get a bit to eat and catch up?

    The Contemptuous Motorcade sfmike 2008

  • That doesn’t mean that *all* SF should be like that, or that *all pessimistic SF* is without merit, but just that IMHO we need more of ingredient “O” in the greater written SF mix.

    Jason Stoddard, Strange and Happy » Blog Archive » Stranger and Happier: A Positive Science Fiction Platform 2008

  • Out The Door in SF is a killer example of a tap program (disclaimer we are on tap there)

    Keg wine comes to the Finger Lakes, NY | Dr Vino's wine blog 2010

  • Ignoring the gender disparity in SF is not going to make it go away.

    TOC: Eclipse 2 2008

  • If the term SF has acquired negative brand equity, it may be time to rebrand the genre.

    Burn After Reading – ‘Science Fiction, And Why It Needs Secret Decoder Rings’ by Gary Gibson 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • abbr. sacrifice fly

    What is a sacrifice fly?

    December 28, 2011

  • Ho-hum. It's only baseball terminology. I'd hoped it had something to do with a virgin housefly plunging itself into a bowl of soup.

    December 28, 2011

  • When a flea-flicker won't suffice! InSufficent Flea-flickering. Who is fleeing?

    *oh*

    *Wrong sport*

    December 28, 2011

  • Untwisting fbharjo's cryptographic puns is like solving Sudoku puzzles.

    I love them! In the present instance we see fs-SF chiasmus; flea/flee homophones each contrasting with the fly implied in the definition of SF; and baseball vs. football in sacrifice fly vs. flea-flicker.

    When I analyze fjharbo's puns I feel like Roman Jakobson, who might term these and others a bright paronomasia.

    December 28, 2011

  • Yes--fbharjo's comments are always super fantastic, sagaciously fabulous, and stupendously fascinating. :-)

    (That article about Roman Jakobson mentions Charles Sanders Peirce--thanks for that, hh.)

    December 30, 2011

  • When I see SF I am reminded of two of my favorite places - San Francisco and Santa Fe.

    Thanks for the SF (so friendly) compliments, Ruzuzu.

    December 30, 2011