ansible

Meaning

Noun

• A hypothetical device that enables users to communicate instantaneously across great distances; that is, a faster-than-light communication device.

Origin

• in her novella Rocannon's World; Le Guin states that she derived it from answerable. The word was further spread by its adoption into other science fiction worlds, including by Orson Scott Card in Ender's Game (1986) and Dan Simmons in Hyperion (1989).