What's so bad about the word, you filthy logophobe? ;-P
What's so bad about the word, you filthy logophobe? ;-P
They also use "The" far too often!
=)
I wonder how many writers post-Lovecraft realise that Cyclopean is just a style of ancient Mycenaean masonry and does not mean 'vast and ominous'.
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I fecund the motion.
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Silly me and i thought Cyclopean meant large and ominous because it referred to Polyphemus and his ilk. I had no idea it referred to Mycenaean masonry....
What do the Cyclopes have to do with Lovecraft? I will admit i don't know a whole lot about him.
I know that Love craft uses "Dagon" I assumed he appropriated it from the bible, the Philistine god of fishing and the sea.
Hmm perhaps i should read some more of his stories.
oh i happen to like the word Fecund.
Lovecraft was notorious for misusing Cyclopean. Whenever I see it, it bugs me if it is intended to mean anything other than 'rough-fit stone architecture using large boulders'.
If you think paizo uses the word Cyclopean too much, try reading the Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader rulebooks. I swear every planet in the sector seems to have some 'Dark, Cyclopean Ruin from a Long Lost Civilization'.
Antediluvian is another very mythology-specific term. It literally means 'before the deluge'. If your world has an equivalently watery cataclysm in its past, it can fit. At a stretch, you could have it extend to a deluge of something other than water.
Pathfinder seems to love the word "Fecund"
Why . . . how . . . ?
How did this find its way into a thread? It's just . . . random??????
Paizo also likes playing in... waste products too:
RotRL -- Yup there's poop filled dungeons with incest committing Orges
SD -- I remember something but I don't recall what.
CotCT -- Not sure didn't get too far in this one
LoF -- Gnolls seem to love living in their own filth.
CoT -- Through the sewers everyone!
KM -- Do the mites count? If not there are the trolls... and Staglord who's not noted for cleanliness.
Anyway they seem to love running PCs through crap when they aren't shunting them off into pocket dimensions. Honestly I bet the pocket Dimensions are why Galorian is so screwed up with the world wound and Eye plus whatever else you have -- the place is dimensional swiss cheese.
Antediluvian is another very mythology-specific term. It literally means 'before the deluge'. If your world has an equivalently watery cataclysm in its past, it can fit. At a stretch, you could have it extend to a deluge of something other than water.
Can we please, PLEASE, not even start thinking about what else it could be?
Oh, to hell with it! Speculate away.
I'll take the non-creepy option away now to make you all look like total creeps:
I think it was a sort of alcohol, probably beer!
Chthonic is a nice word.
So is Chimichanga.
Chimichanga
Chimichanga
Chimichanga
Just doesn't get old.
Chimichanga
Chimichanga
Chimichanga
Woot! WOOOOOOOT! Chimichanga chimichanga chimichanga...
Another nice one: seraglio
And, of course: squamous! That word gives me the creeps!
And I have just invented a new word, that is perfectly suitable to describe an insane, malevolent person from the Dark Ages (or similar epoch):
madevil!
I've noticed this word a lot, too. Makes you almost think the staff at Paizo have dared each other to use it as much as possible.
Or it's an in-joke, like Alfred Hitchcock's cameo appearance in his own films.
I read this just now in my copy of Curse of the Crimson Throne:
"Worst of all are the chokers, hideous aberrations with
long boneless arms who have taken to the Shingles with a
tenacious fecundity that has resisted all attempts to date at
eradication. Stories of chokers wending arms down through
chimneys or upper windows are common."
Tenacious fecundity. What can beat that?!?
I like Halcyon, myself. It doesn't get used enough.
Thing is, in roleplaying games, there's a lot of nasty stuff like undead, oozes, fungi, corpses, stagnant water, old blood, refuse piles, and even monsters that love poop.
They need to reproduce to be a threat, which means a lot of "fecundity." And they're always nasty, which means a lot of "rankness," "foulness," "putrefaction," and the like. Those words all have a certain strength to them, and are allowable in courteous conversation, so of course they are going to see a lot of use.
In the same way, all the dungeons, shadows, midnight attacks, darkness spells, and the like mean we're bound to see phrases like "creeping shadow," "utter darkness," "pitch black," "cimmerian," etc.
Fecundity and utter darkness are just standard tropes, and those are the words for them.
I think it was a sort of alcohol, probably beer!
There we are, again.
I like Halcyon, myself. It doesn't get used enough.
Sadly, I see it used to mean 'nostalgic' far too often, likely as a result of the common use of 'halcyon days'. It means tranquil, not fond remembrance. Dangit.
I like Halcyon, myself. It doesn't get used enough.Sadly, I see it used to mean 'nostalgic' far too often, likely as a result of the common use of 'halcyon days'. It means tranquil, not fond remembrance. Dangit.
It is understandable, though, considering how often they are synonymous (literature-wise, at least).
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Another nice one: seraglio
That was the name of my Deltan's star ship in Star Trek Online, staffed entirely by hot bald alien women. (Well, his second ship was the USS Seraglio. The first, the USS Debauch, was decomissioned.)
And, of course: squamous! That word gives me the creeps!
Ooh, good choice! Also, fetid and stygian!
I like that, in Golarion, 'cyclopean' actually means 'built by cyclops.'
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Thing is, in roleplaying games, there's a lot of nasty stuff like undead, oozes, fungi, corpses, stagnant water, old blood, refuse piles, and even monsters that love poop.
They need to reproduce to be a threat, which means a lot of "fecundity." And they're always nasty, which means a lot of "rankness," "foulness," "putrefaction," and the like.
The Aristocrats!!
Tenacious fecundity. What can beat that?!?
Party of PCs -- you wouldn't think it looking at them, but they tend to get the job done.
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Lovecraft was notorious for misusing Cyclopean. Whenever I see it, it bugs me if it is intended to mean anything other than 'rough-fit stone architecture using large boulders'.
Now I want to see a story about a kingdom of cyclopes defeated by a mysterious force of regimented beings called the Ashlar.
And when I think squamous, I also think glabrous.
Also, Chimichthonga.
Antediluvian is another very mythology-specific term. It literally means 'before the deluge'. If your world has an equivalently watery cataclysm in its past, it can fit. At a stretch, you could have it extend to a deluge of something other than water.
...oh. Really.
SPOOGEDAMMARUNG.
The Life Tide that spared none.
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Raging Swan Press
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Seriously, i have spotted it in several places just in the Inner sea world guide. And also in bestiary 2...i wonder if anyone else has noticed the same thing...
Fecund crops up a lot in the old Greyhawk boxed set and folio (and later in Ivid the Undying). Given the pedigree of Paizo's designers, I suspect the word got into their brains there.
you start to notice his pet words. Most writers have them.
Way better than Eríkson´s "appalling".
As to "fecund": somehow you gotta explain, how there are still so many critters, buggers and assorted green-skins around. Encountered it describing hobgoblins...
Now I want to see a story about a kingdom of cyclopes defeated by a mysterious force of regimented beings called the Ashlar.
And when I think squamous, I also think glabrous.
Also, Chimichthonga.
Squamous means scaly like fish or reptiles. Unfortunately, I've seen it used to mean cancerous or shapeless due to its frequent appearance in works alongside such things as shoggoths.
Thing is, in roleplaying games, there's a lot of nasty stuff like undead, oozes, fungi, corpses, stagnant water, old blood, refuse piles, and even monsters that love poop.
They need to reproduce to be a threat, which means a lot of "fecundity." And they're always nasty, which means a lot of "rankness," "foulness," "putrefaction," and the like. Those words all have a certain strength to them, and are allowable in courteous conversation, so of course they are going to see a lot of use.
In the same way, all the dungeons, shadows, midnight attacks, darkness spells, and the like mean we're bound to see phrases like "creeping shadow," "utter darkness," "pitch black," "cimmerian," etc.
Fecundity and utter darkness are just standard tropes, and those are the words for them.
I like "noisome," myself.
At least we have a pledge to retire Carrion and Harrowing.
I think Pickle is up and coming though...
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Sometimes they publish stuff from the same writer back-to-back and you start to notice his pet words. Most writers have them. For example, as a GM my flavor text seems to favor "rank" (as in, the odor is rank), "scuttling" (as in, the kobolds are scuttling) and - for happy scenes, when there are any - "tranquil" (as in, 'There were pillars and stuff. It was most tranquil.')
(On the other hand, I refuse to acknowledge "horrific," which has started sneaking its way into dictionaries lately.)
My dictionary traces horrific back to 1650.
Mind you, it also spells flavour and favour correctly. :b
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Lovecraft was notorious for misusing Cyclopean. Whenever I see it, it bugs me if it is intended to mean anything other than 'rough-fit stone architecture using large boulders'.
He actually used it entirely correctly.
Cyclopean refers to the architecture of Mycenae from the point-of-view of Archaic Greeks.
They described that architecture in terms that were translated into cyclopean because, as Greek culture emerged from a dark age, they thought that the buidings had been built by the cyclops, or at least that the scale might be properly suggested by allusion to the cyclops.
So, cyclopean properly means: Of a scale that suggests it might have been built/used by giants.
Edit: and incidentally 'rough fit'? 'boulders'!
Edit: and incidentally 'rough fit'? 'boulders'!
That's Ashlar.
And yes, I'm aware it was thought to have been made by cyclopses. However, it's a specific kind of structure thought to be made by cyclopses. A vast and ominous building of finely sinister architecture is not cyclopean, no matter how vast and how ominous it is unless it is made of rough, dry-fit boulders.
Creative Director
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Lovecraft was notorious for misusing Cyclopean. Whenever I see it, it bugs me if it is intended to mean anything other than 'rough-fit stone architecture using large boulders'.He actually used it entirely correctly.
Cyclopean refers to the architecture of Mycenae from the point-of-view of Archaic Greeks.
They described that architecture in terms that were translated into cyclopean because, as Greek culture emerged from a dark age, they thought that the buidings had been built by the cyclops, or at least that the scale might be properly suggested by allusion to the cyclops.
So, cyclopean properly means: Of a scale that suggests it might have been built/used by giants.
You get +1 Cool Point for getting on here to defend HPL before I did! Well played!
Also: the meaning of words can and does change with time and usage.
It's hard to draw the line between linguistic evolution and ignorant misuse.
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Also: the meaning of words can and does change with time and usage.It's hard to draw the line between linguistic evolution and ignorant misuse.
Certainly it is. Fortunately it’s not my job to do so; it’s generally accepted that the usage and meaning of words is established first by common usage and codified by the publishers of dictionaries (I think it’s the Oxford English Dictionary that is generally considered the ‘official’ English language dictionary?)
Now I don’t have access to the OED here at my computer, but according to Dictionary.com (which is presumably a somewhat reliable source), there are three meanings for Cyclopean:
adjective
1. of or characteristic of the Cyclops.
2. (sometimes lowercase ) gigantic; vast.
3. (usually lowercase ) Architecture, Building Trades. formed with or containing large, undressed stones fitted closely together without the use of mortar: a cyclopean wall.
So it would appear that, in modern usage, both GeraintElberion and Umbral Reaver (not to mention HPL) are correct enough on the meaning.
I really can’t recall all the particular uses of the word by Paizo (or HPL), but it’s quite possible that they do refer to structures of large, undressed stones closely fitted together without the use of mortar (that’s certainly the image I get when I read the word ... that and big).
Chthonic.
It looks like it comes from Lovecraft!
Also: the meaning of words can and does change with time and usage.
Like decimate.
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Creative Director
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I really can’t recall all the particular uses of the word by Paizo (or HPL), but it’s quite possible that they do refer to structures of large, undressed stones closely fitted together without the use of mortar (that’s certainly the image I get when I read the word ... that and big).
Being a big fan of Lovecraft and a big fan of the English language, I can assure you that the use of the word in our products has been used correctly. Often SUPER-correclty, since we sometimes use it to describe buildings in Ghol-Gan, for example... which are enormous ruins actually built by cyclopes.
In New England, and perhaps elsewhere, we use the word "wicked" to mean "very." As in, that's wicked cool, or, if you're really a Bostonian, that's wicked pissah.
I was led to believe that this was some regional slang, but I looked "wicked" up in the dictionary once and it indicated that this was a valid, albeit archaic, usage of the word.
I wish I remember where I looked it up, because wiktionary says it's New England/UK slang, but the dictionary I looked it up in dated it back to at least the 18th century.