D&D terminology pet peeves

[Tolen Mar]

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".

Ah...that explains where my brother in law came up with the 'trench-bucket.'

 

[Tolen Mar]

I have, to my shame, already begun the creation of dwelves as a PC race for my campaign. -2 to charisma. Big penalties on interactions with elves and dwarves. Some nifty bonuses, though.

Heck I did that years ago in high school, for 2E...

Didnt get much of a response though.

 

[The Shaman]

I'm irked by the misuse of the word "fey."

Fey is an adjective, not a noun - someone can be fey ("Having or displaying an otherworldly, magical, or fairylike aspect or quality; having visionary power - clairvoyant; appearing touched or crazy, as if under a spell; fated to die soon (Scots.); full of the sense of approaching death") but something cannot be a fey.

"A fairy or an elf" is a fay, which means that a fay can be fey.

Dang, now I'm ticked off from thinking about it - I need to send a letter to WotC (pronounced "whacked," by the way) and ask them to stop abusing the English language, or to at least hire editors that speak it.

Grrrr. :\

 

[Psion]

Or when people say wizards/clerics "memorize" spells instead of "prepare" spells.

I must admit that one drives me into a frothing rage.

 

[Altalazar]

I don't have many in-game issues but the terms 'fluff', 'crunch' and 'flavour(ful)' are the messageboard equivalents of fingernails on a blackboard for me.

I agree about "crunch" and "fluff" - though sometimes flavor is ok...

 

[reanjr]

Even if they would be around much longer it would still be Guisarme. The French invented it and gave it the name Guisarme. Same for Main-Gauche or Arquebuse. If you make it you can name it

This reminds me of how the French government wanted to pass laws so that internet terminology had to be translated into French for any government publication or any private publication funded with government money. Unfortunately, this leads to confusion as to what all the acronyms mean as they no longer apply. I concur, if you invent it, you can name it and - for the sake of increasingly global economy and information exchange - it shouldn't be localized unless there is a good reason (for instance, the term is completely descriptive).

 

[reanjr]

"Gosh darn it Napolean, go in the kitchen and make yourself a kase-a-dill-a!"

and my mom always has 'tor-till-a" chips

...stupid americans.

I've never heard anyone pronounce either of those words incorrectly. I don't think most Americans have much issue with borrowing foreign pronunciation. We only use phonetics as a last resort, because it's usually wrong.

 

[reanjr]

The D&Dspeak I don't like is the insular jargon in general, including the videogame imports.

I couldn't agree more. I think eeps is the worst (for XP). Fluff and crunch follow that up (with fluffy and crunchy being even wors). Buff and tank are bad as well. Tank is especially annoying as a verb.

 

[Turjan]

I'm irked by the misuse of the word "fey."

Hmm... is this not on the same level as complaining about the spelling of 'elves' and 'dwarves'? You can also compare it to the fact that many creature types are adjectives, like 'elemental', 'humanoid' or 'reptilian'.

 

[The Shaman]

Hmm... is this not on the same level as complaining about the spelling of 'elves' and 'dwarves'? You can also compare it to the fact that many creature types are adjectives, like 'elemental', 'humanoid' or 'reptilian'.

"Elves" and "dwarves" follow Tolkein's usage - if they're good enough for an Oxford professor of ancient languages, then I'm content with them.

The difference between fey and elemental et al. is that elemental and friends are new applications of a word - there is already a word for fey, and it's fay. There was no reason to extend the language to cover something new, since the correct word already exists. It's just sloppy editing.