I HATE the term GISH

[Aeric]

The only time I've ever heard the term 'gish' used is in threads like these where people proclaim their hate for the term. Never heard it used in play.

 

[Psion]

Polyhedron 159 came out in 2003; did the term "gish" ever appear anywhere before that? Just curious as to how far back the term goes.

You mean in generic usage, or pretaining to Gith fighter/magic-users? The latter, which has been referred to several times in this thread, originated in the 1e Fiend Folio.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

You mean in generic usage, or pretaining to Gith fighter/magic-users? The latter, which has been referred to several times in this thread, originated in the 1e Fiend Folio.

The latter is what I'm interested in- wasn't sure whether it was a recent coinage or older (which your post confirms is the case). Linguistics is a sort of hobby of mine, and I'm kind of curious to figure out what the etymology of the term (if any) was. Maybe start putting together a gith lexicon or something.

 

[Sejs]

Polyhedron 159 came out in 2003; did the term "gish" ever appear anywhere before that? Just curious as to how far back the term goes.

1st ed.

Gith was a proper name, IIRC. Now, like many/most proper names it probably has some literal meaning/association with a word or phrase.

Rather important name at that. There wern't any Githyanki before there was Gith.

 

[Nyaricus]

Ha, that's awesome!

I know!

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

It's both stupid and wrong (unless the character in question is a githyanki, that is).

Bye
Thanee

QFT. And for githyanki it still sounds silly.

 

[GAAAHHH]

As a silent movie fan, I like Lillian Gish.

 

[3d6]

Gish (or zerth) would have been a much better name than "duskblade" for a melee combatant spellcaster. Neither name makes it obvious what your character actually does, but at least gish has a long history in D&D. It also avoids the silly trend in D&D towards classes whose names are just two words jammed together (duskblade, warblade, swordsage, spellsword, battlemage, soulknife, etc).

Also, gish being applied to non-githyanki is at least as accurate a moniker as the Eldritch Knight PrC.

 

[Thunderfoot]

As a gamer that has been playing since near inseption I will say that I heard the term once or twice "in the day" and thought it was dumb, hearing it now...I stand by it. Gish sounds like you stepped in something 'icky'

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Gish (or zerth) would have been a much better name than "duskblade" for a melee combatant spellcaster. Neither name makes it obvious what your character actually does, but at least gish has a long history in D&D. It also avoids the silly trend in D&D towards classes whose names are just two words jammed together (duskblade, warblade, swordsage, spellsword, battlemage, soulknife, etc).

Duskblade suggests shadows and the ability to use swords. And it turns out the class is ... a sword-using illusionist.

Warblade, we know it's a warrior type.

Swordsage, we know it's a warrior type with some other tricks up its sleeve.

Spellsword, we know it's a spell-using sword-user.

Warmage, we know it's a combat-oriented mage.

Soulknife, we know it has some sort of mystical knife. ("Mindknife" would be better.)

All "gish" tells us is that they live with their parents and have never known the love of a githwoman.