stardate

84 9.9

An imaginary way to show time in the Star Trek TV show

noun
/ˈstɑrˌdeɪt/

Literature

: fecha estelar

Captain's log, stardate 4523.3.
stardate in the log
captain's log stardate
stardate entry

Examples

Personal log, stardate 3620.7.

Baraka (1992)
Captain's log, stardate 23.9, rounded off to the nearest decimal point.

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
What is the current stardate?

Star Trek (2009)
And as before, as she read the stardate, she recalled her circumstances at the time.

Fiction book (1991)
I don't remember the stardate.

Star Trek Beyond (2016)
Captain's log, stardate 7412.6, 1.8 hours from launch.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Stardate 41154, 1400 hours, three minutes.

The Shouting Men (2010)
Buzz Lightyear mission log, stardate 3901.

Lightyear (2022)
PICARD: Captain's log, stardate 48632.4.

Star Trek: Generations (1994)
On stardate 90000.2, the crew received orders to explore a new galaxy.

Surface Forms

stardate singular

stardates plural

Morphology

stardate = star + date (semi-transparent) = star + date

The components 'star' and 'date' are obvious, but the specific meaning as a fictional or specialized timekeeping system (not a general calendar date) is domain-specific and not fully derivable by general rules.

Etymology

Stardate mixes star and date, so you can think of it as a 'date' or 'time' that belongs to the 'stars'. It was made for science fiction, especially Star Trek, to mark a fictional time, which is why a stardate is a made-up calendar number used in space stories.