Where did the word "stargate" come from?

[Stubba2]

What about inside Uluru, "Ayres Rock", they say it is like an iceberg with 80 per cent below the surface, and there is plenty of ancient rock art depicting alien like spirits? It is the worlds biggest monolyth and is more than big enought to hide a large alien city, and it is in the middle of nowhere.

[Snowman37]

The rock is too small, and I don't like the idea of the city being completely concealed underneath. Who builds a city inside a rock? The reason why I want my alien city buried in ice is so that it could have been this beautiful city back in the day, before the formation of the polar ice caps. Nature camouflaged the city over thousands of years with ice. Today, the only way anyone could ever find it, is if they know exactly where to look.

[Stubba2]

The rock is too small, and I don't like the idea of the city being completely concealed underneath. Who builds a city inside a rock? .

Fair enough, must be a huge structure your thinking of, and its not like we haven't ever seen subteranian cities before, I can think of several in the SG franchise alone and many more if you go to general Scifi. I was merely offering you other options that were different from the SG franchise of an alien structure buried under the ice, after all wasn't that one of the issues you were concerned about?

[Scion]

In Dan Simmon's Hyperion they are called Farcasters.

I wouldn't worry about skating to close to the Stargate franchise, so long as it isn't hugely derivative. The whole Ancient Astronauts thing wasn't thought up by the writers of the movie or show.

H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness is about people discovering in Antarctica an abandoned city created by extra-terrestrials that inhabited the Earth prior to the evolution of humans.

As for why would anyone build a city inside a rock, there is the whole Hollow Earth thing, which has some common elements with the Ancient Astronauts 'movement' that served as the original inspiration for the Stargate franchise. There is obviously lots of mythology relating to the 'underworld'. Works especially well if your aliens, and their city are somewhat ominous (as is the case with At the Mountains of Madness). There is also the Hard SciFi element, where Earth once upon a time didn't have an atmosphere conducive to any species that is remotely similar to humans physiologically speaking, creating a pretty good reason for enclosed/subterranean cities.

The whole exploration genre is a bit under saturated imo, so good luck. I really liked Clark's Rendezvous with Rama, and that is basically nothing but astronauts exploring a tiny fraction of a derelict generation ship that comes close enough to Earth, and discover basically nothing before they are forced to leave by the ship leaving Earth's solar system. Absolutely thrilling.

[Stubba2]

Some great references here, and a couple I haven't read before, thanks for the info.

[jojojo70]

I read that Dr. Jackson said that "stargate" was a literal translation from the ancient language.
I'm a Probie, but IMO unless your writing is connected with the franchise, I would use a different word. I noticed suggestions above.

[Flyboy]

What if the gate isn't a gate, but a tear in the fabric of reality, not a physical structure? Ala 'His Dark Materials'.

[Dr. D.]

Wow...

Oh I know I know: The Gatehole!

"What's going on?"
"I'm not sure, Cap- something is making the Gatehole pucker."
"Why do you have to say it like that?"

"What's happening?"
"The replicoids are trying to penetrate our Gatehole, Cap!"
"STOP SAYING IT LIKE THAT!"

"Why haven't they come through yet?"
"I don't know, Cap- something's constipating the Gatehole."
"Okay now you're just doing it on purpose."

Also second the idea of the Bermuda Triangle locale:

"What the hell? Where's our flying city?"
"Holy! The city's vanished, Cap! The Bermuda Triangle strikes again!"
"You remember when I told them not to put it in the Bermuda Triangle?"
"Yep."
"You remember when I said that, right?"
"I remember."
"Okay. Well. Let's head back through the Orifice."
"Gatehole, Cap."
"Whatever."

...just... wow.

I ended up getting a literal-laugh-out-loud moment out of that. I almost forgot what I was going to originally write in response to the original post in this thread.

The term "stargate" was mentioned in the 1988 golden anniversary issue of Action Comics - issue #600 - though, technically, I think it was "star gate". It was mentioned by Wonder Woman to Superman regarding Darkseid's "boom tube". I have an image scan of the excerpt from that issue where that is mentioned. If anybody would like, I can upload it.

[Peterking72]

What about Bifrost. Yeah I know it's Marvel "property", but it would fit with the Antarctic setting. How about Quantum Rift then. It should be a ring-shaped platform with alien symbols on it surrounded by eight obelisk forming an octagon. There should be another device like the dhd in Stargate which controls the device. The obelisks should stand in a ring shaped platform which can revolve around the center ring platform. When activated the outer ring with the obelisks begin to revolve faster and faster eventually moving faster than light. They would create half sphere around the central platform. Then they would stop revolving allowing the user to step into the "rift" as soon as you step trough the rift. As soon as someone step trough the barrier of this sphere rift he/she would find him/herself on an alien planet. He/she can step back and forth as long as the rift is open:two way travel.
The aliens would call it Dieva veid? or something sounding like nordic.

[Merle_Haggard]

I am pretty sure I've heard the word stargate in a context that predates the 1994 film. However, I can't remember the source, only that it predated the movie. My question to you all is, do the term originate with the movie, or did it exist prior?

I know this is an old post and that my response will likely not be relevant to you personally anymore, at least other than to simply satisfy your curiosity, but I thought I'd respond anyway just for the record.

For anyone here that just may be curious, or for anyone who may do a Google search regarding this in the future, I heard the word "stargate" used in a 1979 episode of the television series "Buck Rogers In The 25th Century." Episode - The Plot To Kill A City, Part 2. I also believe I may have heard the word used in another television show from around this era or earlier.

[billtkd]

The portal/monolith orbiting Jupiter (Saturn in the novel) in 2001: A Space Odyssey was called a 'stargate' or 'star gate'.