#invented words

[cd-covington]

This is probably more of a personal preference question, but where do you draw the line between using existing words and making new words for a piece/world? It can get ridiculous in some cases, but there are a lot of words that have implications that you don’t necessarily want to invite into the story. I’m trying to write a deeply religious society without the implications of cultural Christianity, but I don’t think reading a book where I create half the vocabulary would be fun for anyone but me.

Hi @workofthehands!

This is one of the oldest questions in SFF writing, and I don't know if there's a good answer for it. Way back in 2009, the SFWA published the Turkey City Lexicon as a guide to writing workshops for beginners, and one of the entries says not to call a rabbit a smeerp. That's apparently a reference to Larry Niven, but I've never read him, so *shrug*. But what the existence of this line item suggests is that writers want to show off their cool world with these horse or rabbits that aren't Earth horses or Earth rabbits, so they make up names for them, and this can confuse or annoy a reader.

Of course, not all subgenres are equal, and in cyberpunk and related genres where the tech and the vibes are important, you see a lot of invented names for things, many of which may or may not exist in the real world, and people who read these genres expect it.

If you have a large lizard/bird-like creature that fills the niche of a horse on your planet, like CJ Cherryh's mecheiti, obviously call it whatever you want. If you call it a horse, your readers will have obvious expectations about its behavior and appearance.

If you have humans going from one planet to another, where they find animals that are kinda like horses but not quite, they can call them horses or maybe not-horses or maybe something you make up. But consider the following:

When Europeans crossed the Atlantic, they found birds with red breasts that sort of resemble the robins of Europe, so they called them robins. North American and European robins aren't even in the same family of birds!

So, in general, I'd say it depends on the specific situation and on the person.

I assume you're asking about things like cussing and blasphemous language, and maybe about things like "priest" or "rosary," so that's the direction I'm going in. I also assume this is an invented religion. Also, I was raised mainstream protestant in the US (United Methodist, mostly) but am not currently a believer.

Cuss words usually reflect what a society finds sacred and what they find dirty. Or as Melissa Mohr put it in her book Holy Shit, the holy and the shit. It's a really fun book about the history of English swearing, and I recommend it.

So you could, for example, make a list of things your society & religion find sacred and what they find dirty and build your cussing around that. Alternatively (or perhaps additionally), you could make a list of the culturally Christian terms you need a substitute for and make them up based on the first set of lists.

Everyone's line is a little different. I personally dislike smeerps but find mecheiti perfectly fine. I think for me, it's the difference between something that exists in the real world and something that doesn't. But with swearing and insults, invent with impunity. I think a lot of genre readers are happy to go along with frells and fraks.

I hope that answers your question! If I assumed wrong about what you're asking, reblog with more details and I'll see what I can do :)

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[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[fashionfotorecccluse]

GALAGOG n. the state of being simultaneously entranced and unsettled by the vastness of the cosmos, which makes your deepest concerns feel laughably quaint, yet vanishingly rare.

In fact: Being awestruck

Uncommonly invented words for what we feel but cannot name

Btw, "What's IN a name?"

[lucidloving]

Mahmoud Darwish, In the Presence of Absence // Ada Limón, "Lies About Sea Creatures" // Sherita Walker // @itsbaditsgood // Richard Siken, "I Had a Dream About You" // Richard Siken, "You Are Jeff" (8) // Richard Siken, "Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out" // @_demarmol on Instagram // Anne Sexton, "The Touch"

[jkvjimin]

(192/∞) the perfect nose for butterflies to land on it ♡ cr. @jung-koook

[dobbysimp]

pandora: reggie Evan is being xenophobic again

regulus: i beg your pardon?

evan: dora for the last time, that is NOT what that word means

pandora: you were mean to xenophilius, that makes your xenophobic

dorcas: i dont think you know how definitions work love

regulus: no, no, she’s technically right

barty: god forbid a girl lets language evolve past societal rules

pandora, high-fiving him: exactly, evan is xenophobic and reg and barty are homophobic

barty, with his hand still up in the air freezing: i’m what now?

pandora: you know, because you both hate your homes. homeophobic

regulus: okay never mind i take back my support

[hyunpic]

hyunjin — ‘so good’ behind the scenes

[barbieaemond]

FREDDIE FOX as Gwayne Hightower 2.08 "The Queen Who Ever Was"

[aurnohr]

you comin', blondie?

[s--strawberry]

mister sparkly soft puppy heart eyes they call him

[relaxxattack]

via the last ask, is Karkat a freak or would it just be a form of troll polyamory? or am I forgetting some important quadrant lore or smth and this is a dumb question

KIDS REALLY DON’T KNOW THAT KARKAT’S GAY ANYMORE… i joked about this earlier but i didn't think it was true 😭😭

ok i don't blame you for not knowing since, imo, fandom seems to have forgotten this when it comes to karkat and alternian analysis. somehow. even though it's his whole thing.. let me explain.

basically, karkat vantas is queer.

his arc sort of pointedly mirrors dave’s in that it’s about how hard he’s compensating for that - constantly obsessing over romance and “doing it right”, then enforcing that on himself and others.

karkat starts as a bootlicker. he wants to be in the military, he wants to fill his quadrants, he wants to lead, he wants to be the best and most successful troll that's ever lived... to make up for the fact that he's mutated. this isn't just implied, it's stated; karkat is desperate to prove he can be the Standard Alternian Troll.

karkat is a mutant marked for extermination, which obviously is different to sexuality. but it's worth noting that karkat's arc is already about putting up fronts for things about him that are "wrong"...

...especially when it's revealed that his sexuality is also "wrong".

trolls believe in having one destined partner per quadrant- four separate relationships that must not mix. it's enforced both culturally and by drones. but the concept of a troll romance that goes "beyond the four quadrants" is introduced to us by karkat's ancestor. we come to realize that karkat's romantic issues might not just be circumstantial-- they might be a legitimately different form of attraction he feels.

towards the end of the story, when davekat is officially canonized, the story plays a little cheekily about "nobody knowing" which quadrant dave and karkat settled in.

because just like how dave came to terms with how bullshit the cultural restrictions of human sexuality are, and talks about this at length; karkat may have realized that it's okay to break the rules.

while some people think that this means karkat was destined for "human romance"... i personally think that's a bit silly, since karkat has proven he can't stick to pure red feelings for someone. it's more likely that his new relationship involves all those quadrants he loves, simultaneously. who cares about rules?

TL;DR: yes, karkat vantas is queer for a troll and that's all there is to say on the matter.

[afterartist]

It’s a quick 20 minute sketch so shush but

No seriously

Where tf did he get that word

[byulyi]

[hualianschild]

absolutely love it when they put details like this

[estebunny]

ollie "i love bearcon as well👍" bearman

via GQ Sports Instagram reels