So, need some assists with my ongoing WIP (a fantasy novel based on the Jean d'Arc story).
I'm looking for alternate words for the following. They need to have an appropriate fantasy feel/sound. They don't neccessarily need to be English or even currently existing words; completely made up words are fine. If you're gonna go that route, I'd love words that have a vaguely French sound to them.
Church
Cathedral
Priest
Mass
Father (as in, 'Father Smith')
Bishop
Pray/Prayer
I sort of wanted to evoke the trappings of the Roman Catholic Church circa the late 14th / early 15th century, because the story is based, semi-loosely, on the Jean d'Arc story.
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7,195 / 50,000
nov. 8, 2007 - 12 03
Do you want more 'technical' sounding words, or random ones that sound important.
If you want technical, just make stuff up:
Melinan or bishop or priest.
Feribu for prayer.
Or you could go with random things that sound important. Think of objects that you think are beautiful/important.
Call your bishops 'Speaker of the Sun', 'Speaker' for short. It may be simple, but it portrays a strong idea and it makes it easier for your reader to keep things straight.
I dont know if this helps you or not :) Good luck
0 / 50,000
nov. 8, 2007 - 12 08
Church in French is 'eglise' maybe shortened to glise?
Father = 'Per' (from French 'pere')
Bishop = ' Vesque' (from Italian 'Vescovo' plus French 'Eveque'
Priest originally meant 'elder' so maybe 'Ancy' (from French 'ancien')?
Cathedral is the church were the Bishop's 'cathedra' (formal seat) is, so maybe 'Tronel'? (from 'trone' = 'throne')
At the moment I have no ideas for the last two...
50,053 / 50,000
nov. 8, 2007 - 12 20
"Mass" comes from the end of Mass - "Ite, missa est" (translated as "go, it is the dismissal" according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, but I've heard it as "go, you are sent"
Other rites use different "this is the end, go away" messages. According to Wikipedia, some are:
* Ambrosian Rite: "Procedamus in pace" (Let us go in peace). Response: "In nomine Christi" (In the name of Christ).
* Mozarabic Rite: "Solemnia completa sunt in nomine D. N. I. C: votum nostrum sit acceptum cum pace" (The celebration is completed in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ; may our prayer be accepted with peace). Response: "Deo gratias" (Thanks be to God).
So, perhaps it's called the Procedamus, or the Proced, or the Inpace, or the Solemnia? Or even the Gratias? I don't know what sounds a native French speaker would emphasize if they were pronouncing the words as French and not Latin, but that might be a place to start.
Again according to Wikipedia, when the Latin-rite Mass did not have the Gloria (during Lent, for funerals, &c), the ending was "Benedicamus Domino" (with the response "Deo Gratias" as usual). Perhaps that's the more-common ending, and the whole service is instead called a Benedicamus or a Benedic? ("Domino" might bother your readers, or make them giggle inappropriately, so I don't recommend it.)
"Cathedral" comes from the word for "chair", since the bishop's chair is there. I don't know the word for chair or throne in French, but that might be somewhere to start, and then "church" could be "little chair" or "below the chair" or "below", in French.
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Uncle Cosmo, why do they call this a word processor?
It's simple, Skyler. You've seen what food processors do to food, right?
8,422 / 50,000
nov. 8, 2007 - 12 30
Wow, you guys rock. :-) Please keep them coming!!!
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8,422 / 50,000
nov. 12, 2007 - 11 20
Bump... still need some ideas/input on this, please!
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nov. 12, 2007 - 13 33
An oratory is a place to pray. The root word is "ora" meaning of course prayer.
There are several words that branch off of this such as Orator as a someone who leads prayers (though it does have a more modern mundane meaning too.)