Drunkard's Walk Forums

Well, not specifically.
But I was browsing the Oxford English Dictionary SF project (www.jessesword.com/SF/sf_citations.shtml), and I noticed that the earliest cite they have for the word 'morph' is 1995 as a verb, and 1994 as a noun.
This seems oddly late to me, and it occured to me that if anyone would have reference material on this, it'd be Bob...
('Shapeshifter', by the way, is 1967, though 'shapeshifting' is 1884.)

Actually, way back at the start of this project, I went to them, saw the dates and decided to keep an eye out for anything that could update their info. So far I haven't seen anything.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Although more science fact than science fiction, when ILM developed the software to handle that special effect (in Willow, 1988) they called it 'Morf. Usage of the word since can probably be traced back to that. (And 'morf' is itself tracable as a contraction of 'metamorphosis' and ultimately works back to the greek 'morphe' meaning shape.
(note of course that the technique had been in use earlier: Star Trek IV had a morph that was fully CGI instead of using live action film -- I imagine that simpler CGI morphs were being done even before that)
Maybe the real OED should be consulted.

If I recall correctly, Captain, they are a project subcontracted by the OED. But it's been a long time since I visited their site.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.