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kjones
2009-07-09, 01:38 AM
Looking over some old rulebooks the other day, I realized that I probably owe a nontrivial chunk of my vocabulary to reading D&D books as a boy. I thought it would be fun to share which words of which we are particularly fond, and where they came from. Ideally, these are non-mythology-specific words, since there are plenty of mythological terms in D&D.

I'll start with:

Portmanteau, from a 2nd edition magic item, Tenser's Portmanteau of Frugality (Seriously! I have no idea what book it's from)
Deity, from the Priest section of the 2nd edition PHB
Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma - from the first time my DM told me to roll 3d6 in order

erikun
2009-07-09, 01:40 AM
Presdigitation. I never knew what the word meant, much less how it was spelled.

Remember, it's Pre-s-digit-a-tion.

Gaiyamato
2009-07-09, 01:40 AM
Presdigitation. I never knew what the word meant, much less how it was spelled.

Remember, it's Pre-s-digit-a-tion.

Same. o_O such a funny word..

random11
2009-07-09, 01:44 AM
English is not my first language.

One of the first books I tried to read in English was the first edition of D&D.
Sure, it was kind of pathetic trying to play a game when you don't understand half of the rules, but it was fun.

Without doubt, I owe a lot of my vocabulary to this game. I even remember teaching my cousin (who is from the US) a few words in English, including "Constitution" and "Undead".

Gorbash
2009-07-09, 01:49 AM
Presdigitation. I never knew what the word meant, much less how it was spelled.

Remember, it's Pre-s-digit-a-tion.

Well, it seems that you still don't know how it is spelled. :smallbiggrin:

It's Presti-digit-a-tion.

Catch
2009-07-09, 01:51 AM
Gestalt. Theurgy. Eschew. Salient. Thaumaturge. Augury. Simulacrum.

My high school English papers were pretty fun to read.

erikun
2009-07-09, 01:54 AM
Well, it seems that you still don't know how it is spelled. :smallbiggrin:

It's Presti-digit-a-tion.
And here, I thought I had it right from memory. O_o Ah well.

AslanCross
2009-07-09, 02:12 AM
-Vorpal.
-Amanuensis.
-Dictum.

That's all I remember right now.

kamikasei
2009-07-09, 02:16 AM
I'm not sure I'd ever encountered the word "dweomer" before coming across it in D&D. I'm pretty sure I'd not run in to "lucubration" before either.

Haven
2009-07-09, 02:17 AM
Altruism, empathy, nonconformance, ethereal...so many more. It's cheesy, but without D&D, and without Planescape in particular, I don't think I'd be the person I am today.

Kaiyanwang
2009-07-09, 02:20 AM
English is not my main language, so a lot of words.

Curmudgeon
2009-07-09, 02:31 AM
Portmanteau, from a 2nd edition magic item, Tenser's Portmanteau of Frugality

-Vorpal. You'd have discovered both words if your school made you read "Jabberwocky" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberwocky) by Lewis Carroll.

AslanCross
2009-07-09, 02:37 AM
You'd have discovered both words if your school made you read "Jabberwocky" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberwocky) by Lewis Carroll.

Unfortunately, they did not. ): (Now that I think about it, I'm wondering why they never included it in the curriculum.)
I only learned where the term came from way after I first played a D&D-based CRPG. It was truly a frabjous day. :P

Anyway, I also learned the term "orison" from D&D, as well as abjuration, evocation, and alacrity.

BobVosh
2009-07-09, 04:44 AM
Abjuration, orison

These are the only words so far presented in this thread I wasn't aware of until D&D.

SirKazum
2009-07-09, 07:39 AM
Not any word specifically, but I too learned a lot about the English language through D&D (or rather, 2E AD&D). The best way to learn or improve in a language is through practice, and the best way to practise is by reading stuff you're already interested in. That said, many of the supposedly "hard" words people learned from D&D, I either already knew or could figure out easily enough, since they tend to come from Latin roots :smalltongue:

Pie Guy
2009-07-09, 08:18 AM
Enervation.

Eldariel
2009-07-09, 08:25 AM
I don't really have many words due to being a Magic-player first for years which saturated my vocabulary in this regard. That said, I use the word "contingency" a lot more as a consequence of playing D&D, and overall prefer D&D terminology within synonymous morphemes. I've also come to create new words more easily thanks to stuff like Avasculate in D&D.

Eldan
2009-07-09, 08:27 AM
I'm not sure I would ever have done anything in english outside of the pitiful little bit we learned in school without DnD and magic: the gathering, so, yeah. PC-games in english came much later.

Magicus
2009-07-09, 08:32 AM
+1 Prestidigitation, of course. That even won me a dollar in a bet.
Also, celerity. Probably some others, as well... And reading modules has definitely increased my vocabulary somewhat.

Yuki Akuma
2009-07-09, 08:37 AM
-Prestidigitation
-Augery
-Dweomer
-Wax (as in the opposite of wane)
-Theurgy
-Gestalt
-Abjuration
-Eschew
-Salient
-Simulacrum

And many more that I can't think of currently.

mikej
2009-07-09, 08:49 AM
- Munchkin
- Theurgy
- Eschew
- Prestidigitation
- Dweomer
- Abjuration
- Ethereal
- Tarrasque
- Astral
- Gish
- Vorpal
- Augery
- Gestalt
- Simulacrum
- Celerity
- Halflings ( thought it was Hobbit )
- Psionics
- Illithids
- many more...

bosssmiley
2009-07-09, 08:59 AM
Prerequisite :smallamused:

kjones
2009-07-09, 08:59 AM
You'd have discovered both words if your school made you read "Jabberwocky" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberwocky) by Lewis Carroll.

That poem is where I learned the word "vorpal"... but "portmanteau" isn't in that poem, even though it is made up of many portmanteau words.

And I forgot about Amanuensis! That's a 0th-level spell, right?

(And I don't think "gish" is a real word...)

Indon
2009-07-09, 09:07 AM
Offhand: Cantrip, Comeliness (sp?). Sure there are others.

Night Monkey
2009-07-09, 09:42 AM
Celerity and salient come to mind as ones I now actually use, although there are loads of others.

Of course, from my very young Baldur's Gate days, cleric, druid and progeny.

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-07-09, 10:11 AM
That poem is where I learned the word "vorpal"... but "portmanteau" isn't in that poem, even though it is made up of many portmanteau words.

It's not in the poem, but if you'd studied it in school, your teacher would most likely have defined and explained portmanteau.


(And I don't think "gish" is a real word...)

Nope, it's just an in-game githyanki term.

--------------------------------------

I picked up 1e in 2nd grade, so I learned quite a bit of vocabulary from D&D. Interestingly enough, I got someone into D&D because of the vocabulary rather than the reverse. We were doing the very rudimentary beginnings of what might be called literary analysis in higher grades that year, and the teacher made a big deal about using context to determine the meaning of words. A kid near my desk complained at one point about it being very difficult to learn meaning from context, so I responded "It's not that hard; how do you think I knew words like inauspicious and disjunction and prestidigitation?" He gave me a deer-in-the-headlights stare and said "I...didn't know you knew words like presti--prestidig--like that." So I showed him the PHB and the rest is history.

GoatToucher
2009-07-09, 10:19 AM
Melee
Charisma
Dexterity

I was nine when I started.

Blackjackg
2009-07-09, 10:22 AM
That poem is where I learned the word "vorpal"... but "portmanteau" isn't in that poem, even though it is made up of many portmanteau words
...
(And I don't think "gish" is a real word...)

For the record, neither is "vorpal." Carroll made it up, as he made up a great many words in Jabberwocky. And it hasn't been integrated into the language quite as thoroughly as some words other authors have made up (like "assassinate," for instance).

I was reading my parents' AD&D books when I was just a little tyke, so I have doubtless learned a great many words from D&D over the years. "Polyhedral" springs to mind. And "cleric." Heck, probably even "longsword."

EDIT: Oh yeah, and "dexterity," "constitution," and "charisma."

Say, slight off-topic, but does anyone else remember when the order of abilities was Str-Int-Wis-Dex-Con-Cha, rather than Str-Dex-Con-Int-Wis-Cha? Oh those reckless, halcyon days of yore.

Random832
2009-07-09, 10:29 AM
"Polyhedral" springs to mind.

I've never understood the use of that. I mean... polyhedral dice as opposed to what other kind? Sure, some exotic dice like the golfball d100, or stuff like a coin used as a d2 aren't technically polyhedron, but the usual use of the phrase seems to be to contrast with 'ordinary' dice (hexahedron shape).

Coidzor
2009-07-09, 10:31 AM
Orison, gestalt, lich, celerity, abjuration, evocation...

A few others which slip my mind right now...

Anxe
2009-07-09, 10:32 AM
Paladin
Mindflayer
melee
Vargouille

ZeroNumerous
2009-07-09, 11:27 AM
It taught me to look up when I enter a room.. OH. What words. Ya.

Aside from a few mentioned already: Sigil and Geas. I never heard of either before D&D.

kjones
2009-07-09, 11:33 AM
For the record, neither is "vorpal." Carroll made it up, as he made up a great many words in Jabberwocky. And it hasn't been integrated into the language quite as thoroughly as some words other authors have made up (like "assassinate," for instance).

I was reading my parents' AD&D books when I was just a little tyke, so I have doubtless learned a great many words from D&D over the years. "Polyhedral" springs to mind. And "cleric." Heck, probably even "longsword."

EDIT: Oh yeah, and "dexterity," "constitution," and "charisma."

Say, slight off-topic, but does anyone else remember when the order of abilities was Str-Int-Wis-Dex-Con-Cha, rather than Str-Dex-Con-Int-Wis-Cha? Oh those reckless, halcyon days of yore.

There's a difference between a word that Lewis Carroll made up >100 years ago, and a word that TSR/WotC made up 10 years ago.:smalltongue:

But if we're integrating words from Jabberwocky, I say that we should be including "slithy" and "whiffling", which are perfectly cromulent words.

(I don't think "mindflayer" is a real word either...)

Blackjackg
2009-07-09, 11:36 AM
But if we're integrating words from Jabberwocky, I say that we should be including "slithy" and "whiffling", which are perfectly cromulent words.


The only ones that spring to mind as actually being somewhat integrated into the language are "burbled" and "chortled." Which, incidentally, are the only Carroll words in this post that my spell-checkers hasn't put a red squiggle under. There's also one under your Simpsons word (which has also been integrated more than "slithy" or "whiffling" or "frumious bandersnatch").

Thrawn183
2009-07-09, 11:38 AM
Ossuary - who doesn't love ye olde bone pit?

Arcane Copycat
2009-07-09, 11:39 AM
Celestial.

A group of friends passed by Celestial Lane and asked what it meant. Only upon answering did I realize where I picked up the term.

GoatToucher
2009-07-09, 11:47 AM
Phylactery
Poultice

Blackjackg
2009-07-09, 11:53 AM
Celestial.

A group of friends passed by Celestial Lane and asked what it meant. Only upon answering did I realize where I picked up the term.

I'm kind of curious what you told them, because the D&D definition is not what the word originally meant.

Fostire
2009-07-09, 11:56 AM
(I don't think "mindflayer" is a real word either...)

No, it's 2 words put together (mind + flaying (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaying))

Random832
2009-07-09, 11:57 AM
I'm kind of curious what you told them, because the D&D definition is not what the word originally meant.

Are you thinking of the modern use of it to refer exclusively to astronomical objects?

That originates in its meaning as a synonym for "heavenly", which used to be used in the same context.


adj. 1. Of or relating to the sky or the heavens: Planets are celestial bodies.
2. Of or relating to heaven; divine: celestial beings.
n. A heavenly being; a god or angel.

Optimystik
2009-07-09, 11:57 AM
Charisma
Prestidigitation
Phylactery
Various medieval weapons.

M:TG taught me a LOT more:
Lemure
Oubliette
Syncopate
Invoke
Enervate
Interdict
Abjure

And so on.


No, it's 2 words put together (mind + flaying (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaying))

Which is the definition of portmanteau, mentioned earlier in this thread :smallwink:

Arcane Copycat
2009-07-09, 11:58 AM
I'm kind of curious what you told them, because the D&D definition is not what the word originally meant.

I just said heavenly

HamsterOfTheGod
2009-07-09, 12:00 PM
Spetum and ranseur

Thespianus
2009-07-09, 12:02 PM
Pun-Pun

:smallsmile:

Blackjackg
2009-07-09, 12:04 PM
I just said heavenly

Sounds good. Color me placated (I think that's a shade of pink).

Hzurr
2009-07-09, 12:13 PM
Phylactery - I learned this one from d&d, and it was a bit awkward later when I learned that this was also the term used to reference the small boxes that super-traditional Jews wear on their forehead.

WalkingTarget
2009-07-09, 12:16 PM
Which is the definition of portmanteau, mentioned earlier in this thread :smallwink:

Well, it's the linguistic definition of the word (the use of which was, as far as I know, first made by Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass when he was trying to explain the strange words in "Jabberwocky").

Originally it was a suitcase (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau_(suitcase)).

As for "prestidigitation", it's literally fast-fingered (presto + digit).

I'm having trouble thinking of words that I first encountered in RPGs that aren't cultural/setting/game-mechanic dependent or specific weapon names (H&K MP5, glaive, etc). Then again, I read a lot and didn't get into RPGs until I was a senior in high school.

Arcane Copycat
2009-07-09, 12:21 PM
Sounds good. Color me placated (I think that's a shade of pink).

I'd say light blue, based on the Celestial Lion :elan: summoned and was what tipped me off to it's meaning in the first place

ashmanonar
2009-07-09, 12:23 PM
Well, it's the linguistic definition of the word (the use of which was, as far as I know, first made by Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass when he was trying to explain the strange words in "Jabberwocky").

Originally it was a suitcase (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau_(suitcase)).

As for "prestidigitation", it's literally fast-fingered (presto + digit).


Same sort of thing with Dexterity. It's really a measure of how right-handed you are. ;)

The Rose Dragon
2009-07-09, 12:26 PM
Same sort of thing with Dexterity. It's really a measure of how right-handed you are. ;)

And the opposite of it was sinisterity?

Mystic Muse
2009-07-09, 12:27 PM
adjacent. post too short.

Tyrmatt
2009-07-09, 12:38 PM
Ranseur is the only one that occurs to me that I learned recently. I was a scarily widely read kid, reading full scale adult books by age 10 at a rate of more than one a week. Though I imagine a lot of D&D common words came to me from Baldur's Gate 2 and Icewind Dale back when I was about 12. Ahh the heady days of 2.5...

shadzar
2009-07-09, 01:08 PM
Half of the words used in 1st edition DMG, PHB were new to me at that age. :smalltongue:

Ones that stick out without looking are melee, well without looking only melee sticks out.

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-07-09, 01:13 PM
I've never understood the use of that. I mean... polyhedral dice as opposed to what other kind? Sure, some exotic dice like the golfball d100, or stuff like a coin used as a d2 aren't technically polyhedron, but the usual use of the phrase seems to be to contrast with 'ordinary' dice (hexahedron shape).

I think that's because a lot of people hear "poly-" without knowing what "-hedral" means, and immediately think of "poly" as in "lots of kinds of dice".

Claudius Maximus
2009-07-09, 02:10 PM
"Ostensible"
"Prospective"
"Effulgent" and "Epuration"
"Flense"
"Ethereal"
"Gossamer"

I too learned "portmanteau" and "flay" from D&D. I think it's responsible for a huge portion of my vocabulary.

Edit: How could I forget "corporeal" and "incorporeal"?

Zaq
2009-07-09, 03:03 PM
Very few, actually. I have a pretty large vocabulary. What can I say, I've always been a word nerd and I see no reason I'd ever stop being one.

That said, there must be a couple. Amanuensis is one that I looked up as a result of D&D (hint: it doesn't mean what you probably think it does). Lucubration is another.

Honestly, most of the time when D&D uses a word I don't know, it's either made up or mythological (like "dweomer," which I can't find in my copy of M-W).

Moriato
2009-07-09, 03:10 PM
Weal!

I try to use it as much as I possibly can.

The Glyphstone
2009-07-09, 03:23 PM
Defenestrate!

Tengu_temp
2009-07-09, 03:24 PM
Grognard..

AslanCross
2009-07-09, 03:27 PM
M:TG taught me a LOT more:
Lemure
Oubliette
Syncopate
Invoke
Enervate
Interdict
Abjure



It's hilarious that when M:TG first printed a Lemure creature, the artist thought it was the animal lemur and not a lemure. Thankfully a later lemure card was correctly rendered as a bunch of wicked souls. (It seems D&D and M:TG have adopted "Lemure" as singular, since it happens that singular for this word is "lemur".)

Optimystik
2009-07-09, 03:38 PM
It's hilarious that when M:TG first printed a Lemure creature, the artist thought it was the animal lemur and not a lemure. Thankfully a later lemure card was correctly rendered as a bunch of wicked souls. (It seems D&D and M:TG have adopted "Lemure" as singular, since it happens that singular for this word is "lemur".)

Even more hilarious was that the flavor text on the subsequent card lampshaded the error:

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=111082&type=card