What does "starship" mean?

A type of spacecraft capable of traveling to the solar systems of other stars.

Starship

Common synonyms include: spaceship, aspirational, astronautic, cruiser, cruisers, fictional vessel.

/stɑɹʃɪp/ noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A type of spacecraft capable of traveling to the solar systems of other stars.
2
a spacecraft designed to carry a crew into interstellar space (especially in science fiction) wordnet

"When did starship captains develop the habit of … talking like … this?"

From star + ship.