D&D General The word "Dweomer" by Gygax

[Staffan]

What's his Superhero name? Synonyman?

 

[Parmandur]

I always thought Gygax was bitten by a radioactive thesaurus. I mean, who uses "deliquesce" in a sentence?

He lacked a formal.educaltion, but read widely. That's more rare these days, it seems.

 

[Raduin711]

I always thought Gygax was bitten by a radioactive thesaurus. I mean, who uses "deliquesce" in a sentence?

I believe that radioactive thesaurus's name was probably H.P. Lovecraft.

 

[John R Davis]

We love to use Puissance

 

[DeviousQuail]

British spelling makes words feel more fantastical to us. I’m only half-joking; if I’m honest, this is exactly why I insist on using fae and faerie instead of fey and fairy.

It really does feel more medieval and fantastical, two hallmarks of DnD. American history doesn't have it's own medieval history period to draw on so we have to borrow it from others. It's easiest to steal from the British due to the limited language barrier.

Also, I'm from the US west coast where we believe we don't have an accent. Except we do. It just lacks anything that would make it remotely interesting.

 

[James Gasik]

It really does feel more medieval and fantastical, two hallmarks of DnD. American history doesn't have it's own medieval history period to draw on so we have to borrow it from others. It's easiest to steal from the British due to the limited language barrier.

Also, I'm from the US west coast where we believe we don't have an accent. Except we do. It just lacks anything that would make it remotely interesting.

Most people don't believe they have an accent. I didn't think I had one and was floored when a friend said "your accent is weird".

I of course had to point out to the lady that she couldn't say the word "wash" without adding an "r", so I wasn't sure what she was on about.

 

[Nebulous]

Dweomer was still used in places in 3e and 4e. 3e has a spell called Analyze Dweomer, and a prestige class, Dweomerkeeper, and the 3.5 Mystra plane was called Dweomerheart (also referenced in 4e). 4e has a few powers and a monster with the word 'dweomer' in the names.

Oh, that's interesting, didn't know that. I think 5e should embrace the word and bring it back! It's a cool word.

 

[Shiroiken]

We also spell Gygax's setting as Greyhawk instead of Grayhawk. I guess using the British spellings in certain circumstances seems more "formal" or "unique," I guess.

I have heard that it was because "grey" could also be used to denote something old/decrepit, but I haven't been able to find the source of this.

 

[Morrus]

Most people don't believe they have an accent.

I don't think they do. In the age of the internet, everybody understands what an accent is, and that everybody by definition has one. There may be people who genuinely believe that, but no way is it most people.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I always spell the colour grey with an 'e'. (Note the 'u' as well). I guess that I get away with it by being Canadian. We never know if we should do things the British way or the American way.

The British way. Just ignore the red squiggly lines under your words when you type. It adds more flavour.