D&D terminology pet peeves

[Rystil Arden]

Unfortunately I don't have an answer either, at least not a good one - while I'm tempted to say that perhaps Morgan had gender reassignment that the Arthurian saga overlooks, I think it's more likely that it's something to do with the possessive article in Old French.

I can tell you with absolute certainty (or at least as close as we can ever get on anything from the past) that Morgan did not undergo gender reassignment. You probably don't care about the Celtic sources that led to the later French where she was female, so I won't go into it.

 

[Turjan]

That's interesting as none of the three dictionaires I have sitting around my house nor the one that I checked on-line, including my Webster, has that definition - is this quote taken from the 1912 edition by chance?

No, it's from 'Webster's Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language' from 2001, with the dictionary based on 'The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, the Unabridged Edition', 2nd edition from 1993.

But instead of the definition, what part of speech does your dictionary assign to fey? I'd be willing to bet it's adjective, not noun.

As my rationale was based on 'fey' as adjective, this was never in question.

Again, my take is that where adjectives were made nouns to fill a gap that didn't exist (e.g., water elemental), I have no major issue, but where the word already exists in the language, there's no need to take liberties. That's just ignorant.

As I said, the definition of 'fey' is much broader than that of 'fay'. like the definition of 'humanoid' is much broader than that of 'human'.

I think we'll just have to disagree on this one, Turanil.

Actually, I have not the slightest idea what Turanil might think of this matter .

 

[Gez]

You're right - I missed that.

Unfortunately I don't have an answer either, at least not a good one - while I'm tempted to say that perhaps Morgan had gender reassignment that the Arthurian saga overlooks, I think it's more likely that it's something to do with the possessive article in Old French.

I'm rather sure the possessive articles in French have always been "mon", "ma", "mes", or something closer to these words than to "le", "la", "les".

 

[seankreynolds]

Here's one for the Greyhawk fans.
I was at a Greyhawk seminar at Gen Con a few years ago (1997 or 1998, I think) and I and the other panelists got a strange question from a guy in the audience.

See, in the World of Greyhawk, the human cultures have distinct racial origins. The Suel humans are pale-skinned and fair-haired, the Flan are tan or ruddy with dark hair kinda like Native Americans, the Oeridians are pale with dark hair, and the Baklunish are olive or tan with dark hair like Arabs.

So it took us a second to figure out what the guy was talking about when he asked, "Are there any plans for a book on the Balunkish countries?"

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

A friend of mine prounounces "falchion" "falsushiun." Fal-su-shi-un.

Yarg!

 

[woodelf]

I had a friend (Reddist, I'm looking at you!) pronounce Paladin "puh-LAD-in" (rhymed with Aladdin).
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=forte

Shouldn't be any question on that one. Unlike most of these terms, there's a very accessible audible (rather than written) example:

'Have gun, will travel' read the card of the man.
A knight without armor in a savage land.
Paladin, Paladin, where will you roam?
Paladin, Paladin, far, far from home.

 

[woodelf]

I prefer "free attack" or "Op-attack" or "AoO" because they roll off the tongue better than the concentration-breaking "Attack of Opportunity."

Really? Do you really mean "aoo"? You guys say "I aoo the orc"? Or do you mean "aye-oh-oh"?

Mind you, i rather like the idea of actually pronouncing "AoO", rather than spelling it out. Especially for berserker, werewolf, or wookie PCs, getting to scream "aooooo!" every time someone does something stupid within reach would be pretty cool!

 

[CRGreathouse]

The only thing that really bothers me in this regard is the misuse of "memorize" to mean "prepare" (wizards prepare spells daily, but only memorize spells when they take Spell Mastery).

 

[Henry]

Really? Do you really mean "aoo"? You guys say "I aoo the orc"? Or do you mean "aye-oh-oh"?

Actually, we often refer to it as an "Ay-oh," taking out the middle "oh."

 

[RSKennan]

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. :\

I use "the Fey" for "those that are fey/have fey qualities", personally. I also use "A fey creature" rather than just "a fey".

As for dwelfs, I believe Rolemaster had them in one of the monster books. My buddies and I thought we had come up with them until we saw that.

How about a half-dwarf, half-orc called a Dwork (pronounced 'dork')?