# I need some fantasy medieval slang



## Sword of Spirit (Mar 17, 2015)

"Cool!"
"Awesome!"
"Cool. I'm up for that."
"Sounds fun!"

These are not things I want to say in-character in my medieval fantasy roleplaying gaming. Unfortunately, I find myself doing so, as such sentiments are non-removable aspects of my communication. So I need a way to express such sentiments that doesn't sound like this:

"Quite interesting!"
"Indubitably is that exceedingly oustanding!"
"That is agreeable. I shall be pleased to accompany you, my good man."
"Yes, that could be an exciting diversion!"

Or this:

"Excellent!"
"Most Triumpant!"
"Indeed. Let us journey forthwith."
"That sounds unrivaled!"

I don't want to sound like a pseudo-Victorian aristocrat or Bill & Ted. I'm looking for the sort of language any average person could use. In particular, the word "cool" is my biggest hurdle. There just isn't anything I can think of that has quite the right breadth, feel, and connotations. But I do need alternatives for other terminologies and expressions also.

I may have to make up words or gather archaic synonmyms together and pick some, but I thought I'd first check and see how others have dealt with this sort of problem.

It doesn't matter how old the terms are, as long as they are old enough to not be in common use anymore, and don't sound like something only the upper class would use.

Thanks for any help!


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## Mark CMG (Mar 17, 2015)

Here are a couple of sources and then a couple places with discussions of same.  Some of the places have words that are not used here mixed in among some other words one might use freely.  Be careful if you have youngsters peeping over your shoulder or a boss who likes to do likewise but wouldn't giggle as much after reading what you find. 

http://www.citrus.k12.fl.us/staffdev/social studies/PDF/Medieval English.pdf

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/20/958188/-The-Mad-Logophile-Olde-Slang#

http://aelfgifu.livejournal.com/105169.html

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=286557


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## GMMichael (Mar 17, 2015)

Read enough fiction, and it just might come naturally.

Try Mark CMG's links first, then try Etymology Online.  It won't give you the phrases you want, but it will give you roots of words, and maybe, some ideas.
http://etymonline.com/


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## Celebrim (Mar 17, 2015)

It probably shouldn't be surprising that the informality, vagueness, and terseness of an exclamation like, "Cool.", might not have easy counterparts in older cultures where informality and terseness were considered to be in very poor taste.  

"Cool" covers a lot of ground, from assent, to affirmation, to expressions of delight.  Most of the terse equivalents are probably vulgar in one form or another.  It's quite possible that given the normal formality of earlier English, the word "Yes" itself is the nearest equivalent.   A barren yes, undecorated, is a bit indecorous.  But if intensifiers are needed, it can easily be appended with oaths, as in "Yes, by God!" or a perhaps politer and less stern but equally emphatic, "Faith, yes!"   But I suspect that it would be considered a bit childish to be so readily transported, and a more mature mode of assent would be expected normally.

As for the problem of making everyone who is expressing delight, affirmation, and consent sound like a snooty member of the upper class, I think you can solve this by making the expressions in a vulgar mode whenever you want to show that the person is low born.  "That suiteth me like willing strumpet.  Lead on to the devilment.", says much the same thing as, "That is agreeable. I shall be pleased to accompany you, my good man." but is of I think a markedly different character.

I think also that for most of your examples, the older idiom would be more clearly one of submission.  A person answering in the affirmative would generally be making it clear that they were conforming their will to someone else's, or granting their blessing and authority to some enterprise.  Remember unlike the modern society, this is a society were everyone has a rank and a position and upholding the social order means continually acknowledging that there is an order.   There would be a lot of rank indicating speech.  So, "Cool, my lord." would be expressing an ideal like, "I obey with a glad heart" and "Cool, my servant." would be more in the context of, "Make it so."   The sort of expressions you get out of this would be like, "With a good will." and "Gladly, my lord." or "Let it be just as you have said."


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## Sword of Spirit (Mar 18, 2015)

Thanks folks! I'll take a look at the links.



Celebrim said:


> "That suiteth me like willing strumpet.  Lead on to the devilment."




I just had to LOL at that one.


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## steeldragons (Mar 18, 2015)

Borrowed from a Scottish friend of mine, "Ace."

As in, "That's ace. That would be ace." and/or simply, "Ace!" = that's good, cool, enjoyable, pleasant, a general affirmative.

Also, first thing I thought of, "Zounds!"

Regardless of how it was used in the real world, no reason you couldn't be your fantasy world's trendsetter and get a culture saying "Zounds!" to indicate something good instead of surprise or disapproval or whatever the original meaning was.


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## Celebrim (Mar 19, 2015)

steeldragons said:


> Also, first thing I thought of, "Zounds!"
> 
> Regardless of how it was used in the real world, no reason you couldn't be your fantasy world's trendsetter and get a culture saying "Zounds!" to indicate something good instead of surprise or disapproval or whatever the original meaning was.




Zounds = Contraction of "God's Wounds", referring to the marks on the body of Christ.

One of a very large body of mild oaths of Christian origin intended to skirt prohibitions against naming God in vain, such as: dagnabbit, goshdarnit, gadzooks ("God's hooks", or hands), odsbodkin ("God's body"), "Holy smoke", etc.   These oaths and curses are in the medieval period moderately vulgar, as they reference very vulgar and stronger oaths.  Yes, Robin in the old batman series is cursing up a storm.


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## Olgar Shiverstone (Mar 20, 2015)

Forsooth! Pick up some Shakespeare.  Yeah, it's technically Renaissance (you could grab Chaucer for medieval English), but it will sound cool.


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