The science fiction reader sneers at fake SF, artificially produced film tie-in novels and stories, most SF films, most TV SF. This he calls sci-fi (or "skiffy")—junk no right-thinking omnivore or chronic should read, watch, or support.

Many of the best new writers seem openly ashamed of their backward Skiffy nationality.

Around 1978 the critic Susan Wood and others began pronouncing the term "skiffy". In 1980s-1990s usage "skiffy", which sounds friendlier than "sci fi", has perhaps for that reason come to be less condemnatory. Skiffy is colourful, sometimes entertaining, junk sf: Star Wars is skiffy.

Skiffy

Meaning

Noun

Rhymes