Very true. In an alien world, it's problematic to reference words that drag along too much of our world's context along with them. A lot of religious organization and structural names are like this--just their architectural terms, for goodness' sake. Also, I was struggling with names for parts of plate and scale armor, as another example. Just trying to be precise without spending a lot of time on it means searching for words that ordinary readers might know. If I used detailed names that more expert people would recognize, that often brings up a clash of languages. When you're getting into details like vambrace and pauldron, it's got lots of associations for those who even know what the words mean.
no subject
Date: 1 Jul 2014 06:34 am (UTC)