Wendall Wagner- I was speaking somewhat in jest. I’m sure “scry” is in the dictionary. However, not every word that is in the dictionary is actually used in real life by real people. I presume he does actually believe me, it’s just that he’s still teasing me about it (and saying “a scry” instead of “to scry”).
Oh, and thanks everyone. I think I’m going to further flummox Dad with “glyph” and “melee”. rubs hands in glee
Among my “normal” friends and co-workers I forget that not everyone knows the words for medieval/cultural weapons and armor
Cuirass
Greaves
Epaulette
Kris
Wakizashi
Naginata
Sabaton
I’ve been teased among the normals for knowing these - all of which come from gaming. I’m not a weapons geek at all, the deadliest thing I own is a Chef’s knife.
“Cuirass? Queer-ass? You sure are!”
Bailiwick which goes along with demesne.
Here’s a great list:
Vocabulary Words We Learned By Playing Dungeons & Dragons
I had cause to use “taiga” the other day which I first saw in M:tG.
It has its uses in Scrabble from time to time (though not a very high-scoring word).
You can learn a lot of armor and weapon vocabulary by playing any RPG (especially WoW because they have so many friggin’ items for so many slots). Magic: The Gathering cards are also a useful vocabulary learning tool.
“Acolyte” and “hierophant” spring to mind.
Not a fantasy fan (this is heresy, but I outgrew it a half century ago… or to be kind I’ll say I got tired of it).
But I do know all the words here!
Manticore from Emerson, Lake and Palmer–they even had an illustration; Golem from Jewish mythology; Hippogriff from Hogwarts (ok, SOME fantasy is so well-written that EVERYONE likes it); Basilisk from literature where it describes a stare; Kraken from ancient (greek?) mariner tales; and Wyvern from "Seize The Night"* by Dean Koontz.
I have no idea where I picked up weapon and supernatural terms, but I’ve recognized everything but Buffing in this thread.
Just like Dark Angel had Manticore, Koontz’s best 2/3 of a trilogy ("Fear Nothing"* and "Seize The Night") had the mysterious govt. installation called “Fort Wyvern”. Fun read, but the audiobook is even better. [okay, maybe I DO read SOME fantasy…]
It wasn’t until I read Tolkein that I realized that it was Dwarves not Dwarfs.
“Buffing” doesn’t really count as it’s slang. Or used to be slang. Or something.
In MMORPGs, enhancement spells are informally called “Buffs”. As in “I cast a strength buff on my pet before buffing the paladin with a haste spell”. Or the reverse, “I debuffed the werewolf with a slow spell”.
I don’t play pen & paper RPGs these days so I don’t know if the terminology has made its way into D&D games but it’s common parlance in MMORPGs. Doesn’t have much application outside in the real world though.
Sadly, it appears that Wizards of the Coast has forgotten this (along with the proper plural form of “cyclops”).
“Hierophant” is also a word you can learn from Tarot cards; as is “pentacle.” But anyone who knows that probably reads fantasy too.
My understanding is that it can actually be either (see “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”). I suspect that Tolkien played a strong role in popularizing the dwarves spelling in fantasy literature (and probably did the same for elves vs. elfs).
It’s crept in as fairly common slang in the past few years among pen-and-paper players (and undoubtedly came over from MMORPG players), though I don’t think it appears much (if at all) in the actual rulebooks.
Thews–Conan always had mighty ones.
I wonder how many people encountered words like that young enough and made up a pronunciation, that you never really got around around to check until you made an total ass out of yourself in college one day?
Hypothetically speaking of course.
A bunch I’m sure. There are probably even threads about it on here.
I was specifically going to mention caltrops, which I would have little reason to know about if it weren’t for my fantasy fixation.