novum

Noun

novum (countable and uncountable, plural novums or nova)

1. A new feature, a novelty.
   • we find among the cultured devotees a tendency to idealize a foreign civilisation — a novum in Chinese history.1959, Erik Zürcher, The Buddhist conquest of China, volume 1, page 266
2. An innovation which is fictional, but, following the logic of cognitive estrangement (characteristic of science fiction), is afforded plausibility by the assumption that the fictional setting is scientifically consistent.
   • In his book Metamorphoses of Science Fiction (1979), Suvin introduced a number of ideas that remain central in sf criticism: cognitive estrangement, the novum and sf's genetic link with utopia.[…]Even more influential in sf theory than cognitive estrangement is Suvin's concept of the novum.[…]Suvin...2003, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., “7: Marxist theory and science fiction”, in Edward James, Farah Mendlesohn, editors, The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, Cambridge University Press, page 118
   • It seems that this ‘point of difference’, the thing or things that differentiate the world portrayed in science fiction from the world we recognise around us, is the crucial separator between SF and other forms of imaginative or fantastic literature. The critic Darko Suvin has usefully coined the...2006, Adam Roberts, Science Fiction, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), pages 6–7
3. (obsolete, uncountable) A game of dice, properly called novem quinque, the two principal throws being nine and five.
   • Abate throw at novum, and the whole world again
     Cannot pick out five such, take each one in his vein.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...