Skiffy

Not to be confused with skiff.

Skiffy is a deliberate humorous misspelling or mispronunciation of the controversial term "sci-fi", a neologism referring to science fiction.

Background

The term "sci-fi" was suggested as an abbreviated term for "science fiction" by Forrest J Ackerman in 1954, an analogy to the then-cutting edge term "hi-fi" (for audio high fidelity). Ackerman was a long-time fan, and at the time was the literary agent for science fiction authors Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, A. E. van Vogt, Curt Siodmak and L. Ron Hubbard.^[1] Ackerman pronounced his new term as /ˈsaɪˌfaɪ/ or "sigh figh". In the 1970s, some members of science fiction fandom began to pronounce the term /ˈskɪfi/ or "skiffy" for unclear reasons.

Peter Nicholls writes that "SF" (or "sf") is "the preferred abbreviation within the community of sf writers and readers."^[2] David Langford's monthly fanzine Ansible includes a regular section "As Others See Us" which offers numerous examples of "sci-fi" and "skiffy" being used in a pejorative sense by people outside the genre.

Skiffy is the name of the science fiction and fantasy club at the College of William & Mary,^[3] and VCU,^[4] as well as not always affectionate shorthand for the American cable channel once named the Sci-Fi Channel.

In 1998, Mike Resnick and Patrick Nielsen Hayden released a book called Alternate Skiffy.^[5] In keeping with the tongue-in-cheek intent of the term, this was an anthology featuring stories about what might have happened if the lives of various well-known science fiction writers had turned out differently.