Orphaned Etymology Examples

Lore Story Forum
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https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OrphanedEtymology

The Orpahaned Etymology Trope is basically when words are used in a setting which have a real-word etymology that doesn’t make sense in the setting. An example would be saying “Jeez” in a world where Jesus definitively did not exist. I wanted to make a fun little thread listing examples.

No Switzerland in WoW.

  1. https://www.wowhead.com/npc=24448/christian

No Christianity in WoW. Heck, there are also a couple of NPC’s named “Chris” or “Chrirstopher.” I am aware of the Greek and Latin Words that “Christ” is derived from, but I’m pretty sure Christopher and Christian came after Jesus Christ.

  1. The word “humanoid,” though I’m not sure if it exists in lore, and adjacent words like “humanity” being used to describe non-human populations. Why would humans be the standard by which other races are compared? Again, I’m not sure if "humanoid geneuinly exists in lore, but there is a Night Fae who gets confused when you try to say “humanity.” You could’ve been only referring to humans to be fair, though.

https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Daffodil

*Oh friend of humanity?

What’s a humanity? Is that you? Are you a humanity? This song isn’t for you, you know. It’s to inspire the night fae all across Ardenweald–and particularly the ones right here–that we are heroes, worthy of praise, adulation, and compensation!

I also recall an NPC in the Shaman Order Hall saying “humanity” to describe all of Azeroth, but I don’t remember. I could be mistaken.

  1. https://www.wowhead.com/news/anvil-mastery-blacksmith-specialization-dragonflight-professions-preview-327956

Idk if this went to live, but there was a “Spartan Blacksmithing” specialization. No Sparta in WoW.

Feel free to list other examples.

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Your examples were great.

Alterac Swiss is like, the prime example of some incongruity. It can throw off alot of discussion. That one always gets my thinker thunkin.

Spartan is often used as bare bones, or simply making do with what is available. I would guess it comes from the descriptions of the ancient people of Sparta.

It seems a strict standard- to divorce a fictional setting from the reality we may tether our understanding.

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https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Meet_Me_at_Triumph

Barton Trask says: Were he still alive to avenge himself, General Hawthorne would have no doubt ordered a retaliatory massacre of biblical proportions.

There’s no Bible in Azeroth.

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“Alterac Swiss” lmao I swear if the Alteraci were given some actual lore and characterization they’d probably be the most interesting Human nation

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Makes me wonder if the Church of the Holy Light has a holy book.

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it’s lazy, but I guess you have to shrug and guess that they’re actually saying something different that’s being ‘translated’ into a word we Earth-based humans would recognize. In my urban fantasy story there is no Mexican state of Chihuahua, so the tiny dogs that look like rats are called ‘Yapilotls’ (from 'Yapi [self-explanatory], and lotl [from that Mexican salamander, the axolotl]).

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