Post by Mauler on Jun 26, 2014 7:14:55 GMT
I couldn't find an existing thread for this topic and at least one person expressed an interest so I've created a thread specifically. This was originally written for a FB group who are mostly friends so the tone is rather informal...
I figured that given the frown that I wore upon reading the name of the new Tyranid construct of murder previewed at the FW open day (thanks againto those who attended for the info!) I would give a nod of credit to the GW chaps who dragged the Tyranids hissing and slicing from their Screamer-Killer and Hunter-Slayer 1991 roots to their imaginative nomenclature that persists today. At first glance the sometimes baffling names given to Tyranid units can seem to be made up nonsense but the majority of the more unusual designations are actually based in the historical, mythological or biological. Types of units seem to follow a theme, which is a nice touch: like all the large fliers are uppity females where the Harpy was created first, then the Harridan & Crone built on that.
The work in progress and labelling of the Tyranid (that's pronounced Tie-ran-id as in Tie-rant, not Tee-ran-id as many people tend to say) Dimachaeron reminded me of how the Haruspex and Exocrine prompted me to research the origin of some of these names and so here's some of what I found when it comes to names that aren't as obvious as Tyrants, Warriors, Gargoyles & Rippers:
Lictor - in Ancient Rome a lictor was a bodyguard of a important Magistrate. Always armed, they would walk ahead of the VIP until ordered to stand aside. The higher ranking the magistrate the more lictors preceded and guarded him.
Dimachaeron - A dimachaerus was a type of highly-skilled and exalted Roman gladiator that fought with a pair of blades instead of the more popular and far less 'pro' blade and sword.
Zoanthrope - The original Zoanthrope design had a head with a large flat top, surrounded with spikes, not unlike a type of undersea coral called Zoanthus. The design's changed over the years but the name's remained.
Termagant - Not so original now I'm afraid, I think that man-sized dragon-type creatures are originally from a novel by Jack Vance called "The Dragon Masters" which early GW loosely based their Gants on. However...
Tervigon - In checking this out it seems that Tervigant is a spelling variant of Termagant, which GW have "on"ed (like a Trygon & Dimachaeron) into a Tervigon. Pre-dating Vance's novel it seems that originally a 'termagant'/'tervigant' is a medieval term that used to be applied to a quarrelsome or overbearing woman (so the Tervigon is quite aptly named, really).
Hormagaunt - Like their brother the Termagant, the Hormagaunt is named after a child-killing monster from a Jack Vance book called "The Killing Machine". As GW have pinched both names from a 1960s book series I'll consider it a homage or a tribute. *cough* Historically a "horma" was a tribute (or tax) paid from a weaker tribe to a more powerful one.
Raveners - Obvious to some but maybe not to others I'm including these guys here for clarity. A 'ravener', similar to a 'reaver' is something which hunts and preys voraciously.
Biovore - A bit of a misnomer here as far as I can tell; 'vore' means 'to feed' so usually as a suffix it denotes the type of consumption: a carnivore is a flesh-eater, an omnivore is an everything-eater, and so on. GW seem to have faffed this a bit so that the name now describes something that "devours with", so a Biovore is something that devours using biological means. Like spore mines.
Pyrovore - See 'Biovore'; 'pyro' means 'fire'. Vwooosh with that heavy bio-flamer...if you ever see one.
Exocrine - A new one, in the human body an exocrine gland is a gland that excretes (produces) a substance into a duct that then is carried somewhere external, like a sweat gland for example. We see what you did there GW, very clever.
Haruspex - More Ancient Rome! A Haruspex was a priest who would attempt to predict the future by inspecting the entrails of sacrificial animals. Nice. It's also a genus of beetle so I think GW combined the two.
Mawloc - Another sci-fi tribute! Morlocks are cave-dwelling creatures from H.G. Wells' book "The Time Machine", but these ones have a massive gob so GW changed the name to 'maw' to match.
Trygon - A bit of an odd one, 'trigon' was a game in Ancient Rome that involved three players throwing a ball to each other. There is a reference to a wealthy player not retrieving balls that are dropped and instead having a slave produce a new ball from a large container for each that is dropped. A bit like gribblies from a tunnel. It's also a type of ray fish but I don't think that's relevant.
Crone - Derived from an old Anglo-French insult meaning a disagreeable or malicious old woman or hag. I'd consider a flying MC covering units with corrosive snot fairly disagreeable. It also ties in nicely with...
Harpy - Flying female creatures from Greek mythology that steal from and harasses a blind chap called Phineus. In modern usage it's often used to describe an annoying, nasty or abrasive woman. Ow.
Carnifex - The old Screamer-Killer favourite given a Latin name. A species of crab, it's actually Latin for executioner or butcher: carnis - flesh & facio - maker. It was also a title of executioner in...oh, Ancient Rome.
Tyrannofex - Another misnomer similar to the Biovore, it literally means "tyrant-maker". As this is fairly nonsensical I believe that the name is a combination of "Tryannus" and an abbreviation of Carnifex, which makes far more sense; ruler of the executioners.
That covers most of the codex, it's just some Forge World units missing but to wrap up the whole thing:
Hierophant - An Ancient Greek priest that interpreted ancient mysteries and principles.
Hierodule - An Ancient Greek religious slave.
Harridan - A scoulding mean vicious woman.
Malanthrope - 'Mala' means 'jaw' in Latin, 'to grind' in several old languages and 'crown' in Sanskrit, seems apt for a giant 'Thrope that grinds up biosamples on the battlefield to taste things for the Hive Mind.
So, yeah. I hope that at least one person found out something new from this lot, as far as I can tell they're as correct as I could get.
I figured that given the frown that I wore upon reading the name of the new Tyranid construct of murder previewed at the FW open day (thanks againto those who attended for the info!) I would give a nod of credit to the GW chaps who dragged the Tyranids hissing and slicing from their Screamer-Killer and Hunter-Slayer 1991 roots to their imaginative nomenclature that persists today. At first glance the sometimes baffling names given to Tyranid units can seem to be made up nonsense but the majority of the more unusual designations are actually based in the historical, mythological or biological. Types of units seem to follow a theme, which is a nice touch: like all the large fliers are uppity females where the Harpy was created first, then the Harridan & Crone built on that.
The work in progress and labelling of the Tyranid (that's pronounced Tie-ran-id as in Tie-rant, not Tee-ran-id as many people tend to say) Dimachaeron reminded me of how the Haruspex and Exocrine prompted me to research the origin of some of these names and so here's some of what I found when it comes to names that aren't as obvious as Tyrants, Warriors, Gargoyles & Rippers:
Lictor - in Ancient Rome a lictor was a bodyguard of a important Magistrate. Always armed, they would walk ahead of the VIP until ordered to stand aside. The higher ranking the magistrate the more lictors preceded and guarded him.
Dimachaeron - A dimachaerus was a type of highly-skilled and exalted Roman gladiator that fought with a pair of blades instead of the more popular and far less 'pro' blade and sword.
Zoanthrope - The original Zoanthrope design had a head with a large flat top, surrounded with spikes, not unlike a type of undersea coral called Zoanthus. The design's changed over the years but the name's remained.
Termagant - Not so original now I'm afraid, I think that man-sized dragon-type creatures are originally from a novel by Jack Vance called "The Dragon Masters" which early GW loosely based their Gants on. However...
Tervigon - In checking this out it seems that Tervigant is a spelling variant of Termagant, which GW have "on"ed (like a Trygon & Dimachaeron) into a Tervigon. Pre-dating Vance's novel it seems that originally a 'termagant'/'tervigant' is a medieval term that used to be applied to a quarrelsome or overbearing woman (so the Tervigon is quite aptly named, really).
Hormagaunt - Like their brother the Termagant, the Hormagaunt is named after a child-killing monster from a Jack Vance book called "The Killing Machine". As GW have pinched both names from a 1960s book series I'll consider it a homage or a tribute. *cough* Historically a "horma" was a tribute (or tax) paid from a weaker tribe to a more powerful one.
Raveners - Obvious to some but maybe not to others I'm including these guys here for clarity. A 'ravener', similar to a 'reaver' is something which hunts and preys voraciously.
Biovore - A bit of a misnomer here as far as I can tell; 'vore' means 'to feed' so usually as a suffix it denotes the type of consumption: a carnivore is a flesh-eater, an omnivore is an everything-eater, and so on. GW seem to have faffed this a bit so that the name now describes something that "devours with", so a Biovore is something that devours using biological means. Like spore mines.
Pyrovore - See 'Biovore'; 'pyro' means 'fire'. Vwooosh with that heavy bio-flamer...if you ever see one.
Exocrine - A new one, in the human body an exocrine gland is a gland that excretes (produces) a substance into a duct that then is carried somewhere external, like a sweat gland for example. We see what you did there GW, very clever.
Haruspex - More Ancient Rome! A Haruspex was a priest who would attempt to predict the future by inspecting the entrails of sacrificial animals. Nice. It's also a genus of beetle so I think GW combined the two.
Mawloc - Another sci-fi tribute! Morlocks are cave-dwelling creatures from H.G. Wells' book "The Time Machine", but these ones have a massive gob so GW changed the name to 'maw' to match.
Trygon - A bit of an odd one, 'trigon' was a game in Ancient Rome that involved three players throwing a ball to each other. There is a reference to a wealthy player not retrieving balls that are dropped and instead having a slave produce a new ball from a large container for each that is dropped. A bit like gribblies from a tunnel. It's also a type of ray fish but I don't think that's relevant.
Crone - Derived from an old Anglo-French insult meaning a disagreeable or malicious old woman or hag. I'd consider a flying MC covering units with corrosive snot fairly disagreeable. It also ties in nicely with...
Harpy - Flying female creatures from Greek mythology that steal from and harasses a blind chap called Phineus. In modern usage it's often used to describe an annoying, nasty or abrasive woman. Ow.
Carnifex - The old Screamer-Killer favourite given a Latin name. A species of crab, it's actually Latin for executioner or butcher: carnis - flesh & facio - maker. It was also a title of executioner in...oh, Ancient Rome.
Tyrannofex - Another misnomer similar to the Biovore, it literally means "tyrant-maker". As this is fairly nonsensical I believe that the name is a combination of "Tryannus" and an abbreviation of Carnifex, which makes far more sense; ruler of the executioners.
That covers most of the codex, it's just some Forge World units missing but to wrap up the whole thing:
Hierophant - An Ancient Greek priest that interpreted ancient mysteries and principles.
Hierodule - An Ancient Greek religious slave.
Harridan - A scoulding mean vicious woman.
Malanthrope - 'Mala' means 'jaw' in Latin, 'to grind' in several old languages and 'crown' in Sanskrit, seems apt for a giant 'Thrope that grinds up biosamples on the battlefield to taste things for the Hive Mind.
So, yeah. I hope that at least one person found out something new from this lot, as far as I can tell they're as correct as I could get.
It is certainly more fitting, but I can't shake off definition 2, which is the "common" usage of the word today.
