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In Cyteen characters use the term "eetee" a few times. Normally I'd take that to be a representation of ET (extraterrestrial) spelled out, but in the context of the quotes, that doesn't seem to fit. For example:

But that's not real easy unless you know what your value-sets are, and most CITs don't. CITs have a trouble with not wanting to know that kind of thing. Because some of them are real eetee once you get to thinking about how they link. Especially about sex and ego-nets.

(CIT are "citizens" - humans)

and after getting personal advice from someone, a character says:

“We are into eetee psych, aren't we?”

Does eetee perhaps mean "abnormal" (because aliens would have unusual psychology compared to humans)?

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    I don't have a citation for it right now, but your feeling is correct; "eetee" basically means "outside modelable human thought patterns." Criminal, neurotic, pathological, etc. patterns can be understood; eetee is beyond that. If you understand a human's (cit, azi, whatever) value set, you can predict what situations might drive them to do, even if it's murder. If someone's gone eetee you don't understand what they might do or what might trigger them.
    – DavidW
    Commented Nov 10 at 19:43
  • That makes sense - if you can find a cite, I'll gladly accept that as an answer
    – Andrew
    Commented Nov 10 at 20:16
  • Either "farout, man!" or literal alien, depending on context.
    – FlaStorm32
    Commented Nov 10 at 23:47

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In-universe, it's a slang term for someone who is acting in a way that is beyond understanding.

Note that technically (again, in-universe) it does mean "alien;" in Tripoint the Downers are referred to as "eetees." Tom's internal monologue:

Even so, you weren't supposed to [Downers], trade with them, touch them, or 'impede them in any way whatsoever, under penalty of law and a substantial fine...' Which was probably for everybody's protection, humans as well as the eetees.

It doesn't precisely mean "crazy" though; in Cyteen the word "crazy" is used all the time; "eetee" is stronger than "crazy." Justin to Yanni:

"I'm saying it's solved here. I'm saying I've got it. You critique my designs, then. You want to tell me I'm crazy, show me where I'm wrong."

Whereas an alpha azi, looping on its own mind-state can go completely beyond normal understanding:

And once an Alpha stops re-analyzing his input and starts outputting only, he's gone completely eetee.

One theme that shows up in many of Cherryh's stories (like Forty Thousand in Gehenna, Cuckoo's Egg, Foreigner, Chanur, and others) is that aliens are alien and that it may be impossible to actually really understand one another. "Eetee" is used to describe someone who has gotten to a point where their thought processes are alien to another human.

In Rimrunners, Yeager considers the possibility that NG might "go eetee:"

But NG waited, he sat there on this ship that saner crew like Parker and Merrill were complaining about and ready to duck out on, the whole crew ready to mutiny if they hadn't done it already out there—and they were sitting still on her say-so, too, she didn't know why. They might be worried about the consequences of guessing wrong, but if NG decided to go eetee he didn't always think five minutes down the line, damn sure he didn't play team with anybody—

While at the same time, other people are just "crazy:"

"I tell you," she said, "they're all crazy."

Note that this is on the other side of the Union/Alliance divide, so this isn't just a regional dialect issue.

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    Thank you. I haven't read much Cherryh, so I didn't know this was a term that she used in more than one book
    – Andrew
    Commented Nov 10 at 23:54
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https://sfdictionary.com/view/340/eetee

It seems like C. J. Cherryh didn't invent the term, being used as a substitute for ET, a.k.a "extraterrestrial", one of the earlier examples being R. Dee 1953's Oh Mesmerist from Mimas! in Planet Stories Jan. 96/2?

But as for use in Cyteen, seems to be a mix of "alien" and "crazy", what with

She knew damn well that Denys was asking for himself. What's it like? Will—I—remember? That was the really eetee one, which a sane man knew better than to wonder.

Comparing "eetee" to "sane" means that "eetee" would be the opposite, a.k.a "crazy"?

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  • But that's not right. It's being used here to describe people. Sure, people have used that spelling before, but not the same intended meaning.
    – DavidW
    Commented Nov 10 at 20:43
  • @DavidW - Seems close enough? If this search is right, Eetee doesn't matter much to the story, only 15 results, over 800 pages? Seems like a substitute for "crazy" with Page 738: Will—I—remember? That was the really eetee one, which a sane man knew better than to wonder. ............. archive.org/details/cyteen0000cjch/page/n9/mode/2up?q=eetee
    – Malady
    Commented Nov 10 at 20:57
  • Thanks. I must have missed that one quote that explicitly contrasts "sane" with "eetee" (I was aware that "eetee" was a not uncommon way to indicate that someone was saying the letters E and T (in one book a child wonders what the adults are talking about when they say "eetee" - and who the "eater" might turn out to be (since in the child's mind, "eetee" means "one who is eaten")
    – Andrew
    Commented Nov 10 at 21:21
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    Pretty much every use could be interchanged with the word 'crazy' and still make sense in context.
    – Valorum
    Commented Nov 10 at 21:24

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