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#206466 07/18/12 10:29 AM
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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 allīthe credit wink )
Thanks guys, I look forward to the argument um discussion...


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bexter #206467 07/18/12 10:53 AM
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What is the audience for this WiP?

bexter #206468 07/18/12 10:57 AM
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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.

Faldage #206469 07/18/12 11:41 AM
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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 smile


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bexter #206470 07/18/12 02:51 PM
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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..

tsuwm #206471 07/18/12 03:57 PM
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How about Grecian? Anhemoglobinic blood. Sounds almost medically terminologically speaking plausible. The adjective could also be anhaemoglobine I suppose if in a UK context.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
bexter #206473 07/18/12 04:22 PM
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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-.

bexter #206474 07/18/12 04:57 PM
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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


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bexter #206477 07/19/12 01:17 PM
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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... wink


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bexter #206479 07/19/12 04:55 PM
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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.

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