D&D terminology pet peeves

[arscott]

Monk.

 

[reanjr]

I wouldn't exactly call it a pet peeve, but the mispronunciation of coup de grace is rampant.

It's supposed to be "strike of mercy"

Most often I hear "strike of fat" [a bit of interpretation]

Occasionally I hear "cup of mercy" or, even more rarely, "cup of fat"

I point it out to my players often (I also point at them while I laugh)

But my real pet peeve is the fault of Wizards. So many things are called Level, it gets ridiculous. While I fully understand the difference between caster level, spell level, class level, character level, effective character level, and level adjustment, most people I've met do not. They really should have changed those terms (except for class level).

[edit] I also hate the mispronunciation of paladin and that of ixitxachitl.

 

[Turjan]

While I fully understand the difference between caster level, spell level, class level, character level, effective character level, and level adjustment, most people I've met do not. They really should have changed those terms (except for class level).

You forgot dungeon level !

 

[reanjr]

I think my only pronunciation pet peeve would be the rogue <-> rouge thing. It's not just wrong prununciation. It's something entirely different.

Huh, I've never heard this mispronunciation. I suppose it is common enough among non-role players, but I've never heard a gamer mispronounce it.

 

[Yami no Hon]

Like the pronunciation of "forte". It's not pronounce "for-TAY". It's pronounced "fort". "Underwater basketweaving was never my fort" is correct. Read the usage notes here: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=forte

I know I pronounce 'forte' incorrectly. I do it because a learned the word first as the musical term, and therefore an Italian pronunciation, and it is "for-tay" in that instance. (See the last usage note.) I think I have said the word in the sense of 'something I'm good at' maybe twice in my life.

 

[reanjr]

Ooh, this is the thread for me! I'm known as the Grammar Police by my fellow players (who for some reason remain my friends ).

One GM in our group constantly commits my pet peeve: he says "nucular" instead of "nuclear". We also have an occasional player who insists that "lich" should be pronounced "lick".

In America the pronunciation of nuclear has been changed by executive decree.

I try to be forgiving regarding a lot of the monster names, and some of the unusual weapons. After all, how often have you heard "guisarme" or "tarrasque" used in casual conversation? And how many people stop to look up a strange word in the dictionary when they see it? Not to mention, how many dictionaries contain the pronunciation for either of those words?

OK, but how often do we see French words in our language? These should be self-evident. I think most decent dictionaries would have guisarme in them. [quickly checks dictionary.com...] Nevermind.

My pet peeves with game terminology have more to do with misuse of terms than pronunciation. For example, the names of some of the character classes. Classes such as bard, fighter, wizard make sense because they are occupations or specialties. But "barbarian" is not an occupation. It's a derogatory term used by one culture to refer to another culture. (And why do character sheets have a "profession" space on them? Isn't my character's class her profession? )

What's wrong with not speaking Greek? I've never played a campaign where any of the players were NOT barabarians (original meaning is someone who doesn't speak Greek).

I feel the same about referring to the different peoples of fantasy worlds as "races". Elves are not a race. They are a species, or a genus of the same species as humans (since elves and humans can interbreed). Sun elves are a race of elves. Svirfneblin are a race of gnomes. If dwarves and halflings are races, then why can't they interbreed with elves, humans, or each other? Yeah, I hear you out there shuddering at the thought of "dwarflings".

I think you mean a subspecies of the same species or a species of the same genus. Yeah, I wish they would call them something else. Peoples might work. I also think that all the core races should be able to breed with one another.

 

[reanjr]

I know I pronounce 'forte' incorrectly. I do it because a learned the word first as the musical term, and therefore an Italian pronunciation, and it is "for-tay" in that instance. (See the last usage note.) I think I have said the word in the sense of 'something I'm good at' maybe twice in my life.

But 74% of a Usage Panel said use the Italian pronounciation, despite the etymology. I never knew it came from French, I always thought it was Italian. I actually think the translation works better with the Italian, as well.

 

[reanjr]

Not D&D specific, but one of the player's in our group was
talking about the MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot and referred
to a trebuchet as a "TRAY - BUCKET".

That's creative. I like that.

 

[reanjr]

The common English is MIHN-OH-TAHR but it comes from the Greek Minotauros (mu iota nu omega tau alpha upsilon ro omicron sigma) which would properly be MEYE-NUH-TAH-OOR-OHSS. Most dictionaries give pronunciations with both the short and long I.

That's one I flip-flop on. I know it can be pronounced both ways, so I'll change it to fit better with the flow of my sentence.

 

[reanjr]

I can confirm that Tarrasque should be pronounced Tarask.

I don't know why much, but I pronounce Babau as if it was a german word. Babao sounds slightly less silly than Babo IMO.

I'm pretty sure, BAY-bow (as in take a bow), is correct. Wizards used to have a zip file of people saying all the Planescape words.