Ahoy, lads and laddles! Umm.. in my current piece, there are sentient machines who, for eyes, have lights. At some point, there are inactive ones where their eyes are nothing but black holes and the narrator describes them as "lightless". I know, technically, you say unlit but then it kinda dehumanizes the eyes of sentient creatures (The fact they're man-made machines doesn't change that) so lightless seem to imply something important lost akin to the lifeless eyes of a dead human. I think it works and makes sense to anyone who reads it but this work is for submission and I would hate to hinder my chances by the editor thinking "Well, he obviously doesn't know his words" >.>
It works for me. I don't think it needs an explanation but if you want one, you could use something to the effect of: Lightless was first used by Barry Pratt to describe an inactive machine. It seemed rather an apt term and had become something of a neologism over the following months.
Glad you think so, Steer. Oh, goody :3 Some other guy from the sci-fi made it okay to use! That actually elates me quite a bit, thank you. Though, I'm kinda bummed I'm not as poetic as I thought
Actually I was just giving an example of how you may explain its usage if you chose to. I made the name Barry Pratt up. But since then I've looked it up and it's in the dictionary- it means exactly what you would expect.
Woo! Back on being poetic and number one! lol, I thought it was a real thing I Googled the word but didn't find anything -,- Weird. Either way, you helped :3 Think I was worried over nothing.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/lightless light•less (ˈlaɪt lɪs) adj. 1. without light or lights; dark. 2. giving no light.
@Shadowfax So weird... All I get is music stuff from Google >.> Should have just used a dictionary website directly, lol.
Lightless exists as an adjective in the Oxford English Dictionary: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/light?q=lightless&searchDictCode=all#light__85 And besides, even if it wasn't a word, it's pretty obvious what you mean, so I'd say use it anyway
