Hey guys,
wow I haven't started a topic off for a while!
Was trying to do a litcrit on a WiP for someone on another forum I visit and they were having issues with the word exsangue, right sort of meaning but not quite. They are looking for a latin/romance language word that means roughly "of the wrong blood", umm the wrong blood having copper rather than iron, if I surmise correctly and exsangue doesn't really hit on the meaning they're looking for.
So, thought I, I shall be all knowledgeable and clever and go ask the word people on my favourite forum if they have any ideas for a word meaning what they want it to mean...then I can go back and report my findings (mentioning you of course! I won't take
all´the credit
)
Thanks guys, I look forward to the
argument um discussion...
What is the audience for this WiP?
And what language is this WiP in? Exsangue does not appear to be an English word and as a French word it looks its meaning is not even of the right sort, but I'll leave that to people who have a much better command of French than I do.
Haha sorry, forgetting important info! I believe it to be Young Adult, it's in English, but fantasy, and the word would be in common use in the WiP world...the writer wants a Latin/Romance word...as it sounds a bit better than the English "wrong type of blood" as a caste type...but at the moment is stuck with exsangue...although they're very happy to swap to a better word...but unable to come up with one themselves, lacking the Latin or Romance language knowledge...thought we may be able to help
English does have the fine word exsanguination (and others), the process of draining or losing blood, which nicely aligns with F. exsangue, bloodless.
fr. L. exsanguinatus, drained of blood
I agree, this doesn't at all approach what the writer seems to want..
How about Grecian? Anhemoglobinic blood. Sounds almost medically terminologically speaking plausible. The adjective could also be anhaemoglobine I suppose if in a UK context.
These days you can get away with pretty much anything in words for strange conditions in sci-fi and fantasy. Back in the Golden Age you had to explain everything because people weren't prepared to accept weird stuff without having it all laid out for them. It would be like if, in writing about a 20th century storyline, having one of the characters say, "You know, of course, when you change the position of this switch the circuit is completed and it allows the electricity to flow through the filament in the light fixture causing it to emit photons." Nowadays you can say, "He slid the cube into the reader and pulled up all the information he needed to refute his opponent's fallacious arguments." I like Nuncle Z's suggestion but might use cupro- instead of anhemo-.
They do both sound good...I think, those with copper in their blood can do a certain type of magic, which is illegal unless you are born into certain families/crafts sort of thing...so it's a name for a caste of people really I think, who have the wrong blood, from the excerpt up for critique it seems they get killed...so anything that could cover that, I think Greek probably counts as an option on Latin, so I'll expand it to Latin, Greek or Romance languages...a couple of people have suggested, and put up their lack of Latin, so only as a guess "malasangue", "essangue" "insangue", "unsangue" and "utsangue"...but the discussion is still trying for more of a wrong blood, not of the correct blood etc
You've been reading some very shoddy Sci-Fi then Faldage! Although I suppose it does depend on the hardness how well explained the technology will be...any more exsangue improvements are welcome...
The shoddy sci-fi was stuff from the so-called Golden Age, back in the '30s and '40s. They really did feel that they had to explain things because the audience wasn't quite tuned into the genre. That's not the case any more.
bexter! Lovely to see you again!
How 'bout just calling them Cubloods, Cu being the symbol for copper? Or is that too close to J. K. Rowling's mudbloods?
Faldage! Blasphenmy! haha Golden Age SF is wonderful...mmm I think that is probably a bit close to Rowling, which has been specified now as trying to keep as far away from as possible...clever though, I hadn't thought of that...ooops
And it's lovely to be back
Yes, Golden Age SF is wonderful, but it was written for a less sophisticated audience. Toss some China Miéville, or even someone as conservative as Samuel Delaney, at '40s sci-fi readers and they will come out with brain hemorrhages.
Golden Age SF is wonderful
Ah yes, 'tis about time to reread Weinbaum's Martian Odyssey stories again ...
I'm coming up on my seventh decennial reading of Pebble In The Sky.
Case in point:
I am reading Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston. In the first chapter we are introduced to the society of independent asteroid miners in the Kuiper Belt. They have relatively closed groups of families who are spending, essentially, their whole lives in what amounts to a band level, maybe 80 or 90 people, all related to some degree or another. Marriage to anyone second cousin or closer is strictly forbidden. To marry someone in this forbidden group is referred to as dogging, the word being derived from endogamy. This etymology is explicitly pointed out in the text of the story. Later on in the chapter we get the word zogging with no accompanying explanation. We are expected to work it out for ourselves.
The word that sprang to mind, when rreading through the first couple of posts of this thread, was cuprosanguine. Someone with "the wrong" blood type could be called acuprosanguine
Assuming that the main purpose of the blood, in the WiP, is to carry oxygen to the body cells, then the cuprosangoids would have green blood, which would also affect their complexion, I guess. I believe they would have a greenish skin tone, rather than the pinkish tones of the ferrosangoids, making them immediately obvious - which might spoil the plot a little?
BTW, I have a feeling that copper oxides are toxic: not that that matters, as the natural selction inherent in successful mutation would have dealt with that problem. [apologies to my creationist readers]
Thanks, Rhuby, those are great
I agree... brilliant Ruby.
The green blood carriers might synthesize Chlorophyll.
Green blood reminds me of Mr. Spock.
Green blood reminds me of Mr. Spock.
It was explained on Star Trek that a Vulcan's blood was copper-based rather than iron.
true, that, I remember
On the USA channel last week, an injury encountered green blood
and the patient had been taking sulfa-based drugs for migraines.
He had been up in outer space and wanted to go back but could not
with migraines, so these pills allegedly helped. No medical
background here, but the explanation reminded me of this thread.
Very interesting Luke.
'The Case Of The Man With The Green Blood' could be a title of a Sherlock Holmes mystery.
The drug might have been sumatriptan....which in large doses can cause sulfhemoglobinemia..where the blood changes from red to greenish-black, due to the action of sulphur with the hemoglobin molecule.
That is exactly what it was. The show was "Royal Pains" and
they usually have the medical stuff correct, at least
according to medical personnel I've spoken with.
And that word (sulphe......)is where I got the term
"sulpha drug" in previous post. Thanks.
Thats good