Zylons and cylons

[Daniel L Newhouse]

Being as subjective as possible what might zylon (bad extraterrestrials in Solaris) and cylon (bad extraterrestrials in Battlestar Galactica) mean in English? I've heard cylon means death to eternity.

 

[Iáson]

cylon is a postclassical word which means 'jelly', unless it is a Greek loanword (from κῦλον) meaning 'groove above upper eyelid'.

zylon doesn't really mean anything, unless it is meant to be related to ζύμη, 'yeast', or ζῦθος, 'beer'.

 

[Iohannes Aurum]

Cylon is invented by Glen A. Larson, a Mormon with no classical training, yet created popular sci-fi media. He probably liked the name Cylon as a malevolent extraterrestrial species.

 

[scrabulista]

xylon (from Greek) would be "wood," no?

 

[Iáson]

xylon (from Greek) would be "wood," no?

Yes, but Daniel gave zylon with a z...

 

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

How much wood would xylon be if xylon would be wood? Hmm, needs work.

 

[Mafalda]

How much wood would xylon be if xylon would be wood? Hmm, needs work.

Zyllions of zillions of it.

 

[scrabulista]

Was Solaris a TV show/movie or a book?
If the former, OP might have heard "xylon" as "zylon." (as in xylophone).