D&D and Vocabulary

[demiurge1138]

I was thinking a bit today (a nasty habit, to be sure), when I realized that I had learned a lot of actually handy vocabulary words from being exposed to D&D for years.

Some words I know I learned through D&D include...
celerity
charisma
epheremal
ethereal
fortitude

On a similar note, D&D has influenced my actual speech patterns slightly. For one thing, I now refer to things I don't like as "abyssal" or "infernal".

Anybody have any other words learned or commonly used through D&D?

Demiurge out.

 

[Pants]

Apothecary is a big one for me.

Plus all kinds of dungeon descriptor words like sconces, braziers, dais, and whatnot.

The Enworld forums have influenced my pattern of speech even moreso. I now refer to things as 'broken,' 'overpowered,' or 'nerfed.' I've even started calling most of my books by their shortened versions:

'Everyone... get out your FRCS's!'
'????'

or

'Man, WotC really bungled THAT one up.'
'Dude... what the hell is WotC?'

 

[Bloodstone Press]

When I was in high school, I took a "vocabulary" class. One day, we did a lesson on jargon. The teacher asked us to get out a piece of paper and write down a list of words that we knew as a result of a hobby, interest or job that we had. While most people made lists of 6-8 words, I was able to make a list that ran all the way down the front of the page and onto the back. I included all sorts of words for pieces of plate armor (tassets, greaves, pauldrons, etc), I also included Charisma and Dexterity (which were new to me when I started playing at 10 years old), along with plenty of other words, many of which the teacher herself had never heard before.

As an aside, I also score extremely high on vocabulary sections of standardized tests. As a high school freshman my vocabulary was the equivalent of a sophomore in college (according to the Iowa standardized achievement test, anyway).

A rich vocabulary is something that I have received from gaming and so it’s also something that I try to give back. That's why a lot of the spells I publish have names like callithumpian discord, diaphanous shift, and Chromatic Coruscation.

I have an old unabridged Webster's dictionary, handed down to me from my mother's side of the family. It was published in the 1860s and is over 3,000 pages long. It has more cool words in it than I could ever imagine. That's where I get a lot of the words I use for spells in my published works.

In common speech I often use words like adjudicate, which results in a lot of strange looks from other people.

 

[stevelabny]

i game. i read comics. i read fantasy. i always wind up with at least one word i expect everyone to know and they dont

one day i told the joke "a vulture walks onto a plane carrying two dead weasels and the stewardess says ' i'm sorry sir, only one carri-on per person'" and THREE people told me they didnt know what the word carrion meant.

i was stunned.

 

[Whisper72]

Well, since English is not my mother tongue, I learned a great deal from the old first edition ADnD books.... it helped me get a 9 (out of 10) for my final exam grade on english...

 

[Ryltar]

Ditto. I probably learned more English from reading fantasy novels and D&D stuff than back in school... it really helps to improve your vocabulary in certain ways (like scenic descriptions, arms & armor, tactics, flavored speeches) but (as Bloodstone Press already mentioned) also tends to get you lots of strange looks for sometimes using words others consider "old-fashioned". I don't.

 

[tarchon]

I learned to ever say "die."

 

[Dirigible]

I've found White Wolf games are good for their use of obscure words.

Arete? Gangrel? Caitiff? Golconda? Paradigm?

 

[the Jester]

Lessee, I've learned the following words (at least) via dnd:

chaos
charisma
portcillus
glaive
guisarm
ranseur
voulge
apotheosis
phylactery
periapt
corruscating
demiurge
meritocracy
oligarchy
ethereal
ballista
crenellations

I'm quite sure there are dozens (or even hundreds, who knows) more.

 

[Frostmarrow]

dweomer
anathema
archon
camarilla
justicar
oubliette
spelunking