[Johnny Phoenix]

Surprised no ones mentioned efficacy, that word pops up more than anything else I've read on this thread.

[HedgeWalker]

Do you think some kind of Potsdog is needed to tend those Potsherds?

[noothergods32]

The only word usage that I picked up on which kind of annoyed me at first was Unhuman...then I got over it.

[noothergods32]

And potsherds are AWESOME!!!...no really, they are.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Garden Rake, on 15 June 2010 - 02:28 PM, said:

Do you think some kind of Potsdog is needed to tend those Potsherds?

It's not pots-herds, it's pot-sherds. As in shards of pots. I have no idea why it is spelled with an E though.

[HedgeWalker]

Whisper, on 16 June 2010 - 05:11 PM, said:

Garden Rake, on 15 June 2010 - 02:28 PM, said:

Do you think some kind of Potsdog is needed to tend those Potsherds?

It's not pots-herds, it's pot-sherds. As in shards of pots. I have no idea why it is spelled with an E though.

I herd that too.

[Mastodon Empire]

I also noticed that in MOI he uses the term "bell" a lot, in reference to time. I just don't recall it at all in the first 2 books. And it may be a common English term, i just don't ever hear it.

[Findarato]

Mastodon Empire, on 05 July 2010 - 01:55 AM, said:

I also noticed that in MOI he uses the term "bell" a lot, in reference to time. I just don't recall it at all in the first 2 books. And it may be a common English term, i just don't ever hear it.

I remember that the term 'bell' was used in former times on sail ships to measure the time. At least I came to that term when quite long ago I read the story of the 'Mutiny on the Bounty'. They had bells or other sound marking the passing of certain amounts of time (hours?). Might be wrong, but that's what I thought when reading the books.

[Traveller]

Bell is a nautical term, but I think SE uses it as 'hours' are very much a construct of our world; he just uses a different term as it's a different world.

Like the years, months, seasons etc are all different, with a history in Wu. He also tends to use 'heatbeats' or 'beats' for smaller increments of time instead of seconds, for the same reason. There are probly more examples.

Anyhoo, sherds are shards; sherd is the more frequently used term in an archaeological context though.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 05 July 2010 - 09:24 AM

[worry]

There's surely some words to feel lucky he isn't using. For instance, 'eldritch'.

[Juss]

D, on 17 April 2008 - 04:06 PM, said:

"must needs" is weird, but he's definitely not the only author who has been using that in their writing. At first I thought it was some british thing, but now it's just some weird fantasy-author thing. I wonder if it's some strange oxfordian-english linguistic thingamajig?

I believe it is a part of the different accents used by characters in books.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

The way I understand the word bells is that every period of time (in cities and towns) someone would ring a bell. So, every hour, they would ring a bell.

[MTS]

worrywort, on 05 July 2010 - 10:35 AM, said:

There's surely some words to feel lucky he isn't using. For instance, 'eldritch'.

ICE uses that one a lot, doesn't he?

I noticed that he used to use paces as a measurement of length up until around the 6th book. I can't remember seeing it since.

Whisper said:

The way I understand the word bells is that every period of time (in cities and towns) someone would ring a bell. So, every hour, they would ring a bell.

We've had this discussion before, and IIRC a bell was the marking of each separate watch on a ship.

This post has been edited by MTS: 06 July 2010 - 12:22 AM

[ansible]

MTS, on 06 July 2010 - 12:20 AM, said:

Whisper said:

The way I understand the word bells is that every period of time (in cities and towns) someone would ring a bell. So, every hour, they would ring a bell.

We've had this discussion before, and IIRC a bell was the marking of each separate watch on a ship.

However, on a ship, one bell only lasts for a half-hour, and there are only eight bells, which repeat six times a day for the separate watches. The term "four bells" does not tell you what time it is unless you already know what watch it is or what time of day it is. I do not believe SE uses the term in this manner (although it may have inspired its usage). I'm more inclined to agree with Whisper, in that a belltower would chime on the hour in cities and thus marked the passage of time.

[worry]

I don't remember if ICE uses it much but it should be stricken from the fantasy vocabulary for at least a century.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Also, 'bells' is not limited to just Erikson and Esslemont. I've seen it tons of times before.

[Treg]

In the first few books I remember encountering more than one welter of blood.

Is there a welter of anything else, for that matter?

(Ain't there just?)

[Testluv]

How about "Alas".

[Leo]

Perhaps I'm a little late finding the thread, but there were two words that really bugged me while reading. I can't remember in which book(s) their usages really flared up. 'Twas in the latter half, for sure. Every time I came across 'conceit' and some other I can't remember right now, I punched myself in the face. 'Tis a rather painful way of showing frustration.

I always believed bells referred to a belltower that would ring the hour in a city/town.

This post has been edited by Leo: 11 July 2010 - 11:19 AM