D&D terms used by non-gamers?

[Quasqueton]

My (younger) brother is now 31 years old. He played D&D 2 or 3 times when he was like 9 or 10 years old. (He wanted to do what his big brother was doing.) But that was it for him and D&D. To my knowledge, he has never been exposed to it since.

A few days ago he told me he saw a store that had a back area that sold swords and armor. He told me because he thought I might be interested in checking it out. The thing about this that really struck me though, was that he used the term "plate mail" in naming the armor.

Is "plate mail" a term only found in D&D? Historically, there was plate armor, and there was mail. But from all I've ever read or seen on the subject of armor, "plate mail" only existed as a term in D&D books.

Is it possible that this D&D term stuck in my brother's head for 20+ years, from just a couple exposures to the game?

Have you ever spotted a strictly D&D term used in the standard/normal lexicon by non-gamers? Will we see a day when "armor class" or "hit points" or some such gets used in everyday talk?

And what are the strictly D&D terms? Would "longsword" (or "normal sword") be considered a D&Dism? How about "short sword"? What else? (Should we exclude proper names like mindflayer or beholder or drow from this discussion?)

Quasqueton

 

[Aeolius]

Have you ever spotted a strictly D&D term used in the standard/normal lexicon by non-gamers?

How about "Jesus Saves"?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

And takes half damage?

 

[johnsemlak]

I doubt a person who nevergamed would use D&D terms. However, a person who gamed a bit might keep using terms like plate mail or longsword.

 

[hong]

And what are the strictly D&D terms? Would "longsword" (or "normal sword") be considered a D&Dism?

"What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!" -- Capulet, _Romeo & Juliet_, Act I Scene I

 

[Remathilis]

I doubt a person who nevergamed would use D&D terms. However, a person who gamed a bit might keep using terms like plate mail or longsword.

Actually, the explosion of CRPGs have made many "D&D" terms commonplace. HP, Armor Class/Armor Rating, Critical Hit, Class, Race, The six ability scores (in more or less similar form.) Skills, Spell Slot, Spell Point/Mana Point, Leveling, mage/wizard, cleric/priest, fighter, rogue/theif, bard, paladin/holy knight, druid, assassin, monk, many spell names, and initative have all been used in various games (Everquest, Final Fantasy, Knights of the Old Republic) and wiggled thier way into the lexicon. (Don't believe me, ask any kid how much hp thier Pokemon has.)

 

[Mercule]

"What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!" -- Capulet, _Romeo & Juliet_, Act I Scene I

Oh, come on! You know as well as I do that Shakespear was a gamer. How do you think he got nicknamed "The Bard"?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Actually, the explosion of CRPGs have made many "D&D" terms commonplace. HP, Armor Class/Armor Rating, Critical Hit, Class, Race, The six ability scores (in more or less similar form.) Skills, Spell Slot, Spell Point/Mana Point, Leveling, mage/wizard, cleric/priest, fighter, rogue/theif, bard, paladin/holy knight, druid, assassin, monk, many spell names, and initative have all been used in various games (Everquest, Final Fantasy, Knights of the Old Republic) and wiggled thier way into the lexicon. (Don't believe me, ask any kid how much hp thier Pokemon has.)

Though a lot of those terms wiggled their way into D&D from elsewhere. Armor Class and Hit Points, IIRC, were originally cribbed from a tabletop naval wargame. And I'd hardly give D&D credit for druid ...

 

[Rashak Mani]

It was the "Saving throw" ! Baseball ?

I don't think strictly D&D terms are used outside gamers circle... thou we do think of certain terms as being D&Dish like Druid that aren't. Here we use "Baculejo" as in searching a body... and its origin is the derrogatory term for Police searching and patting down a suspect. If someone uses it in certain contexts we easily "mark" him as being a gamer.

 

[Storminator]

<SNIP>

And what are the strictly D&D terms? Would "longsword" (or "normal sword") be considered a D&Dism? How about "short sword"? What else? (Should we exclude proper names like mindflayer or beholder or drow from this discussion?)

Quasqueton

I've seen longsword used in history books to cover a large variety of specific swords... just like it's used in D&D.

PS