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Do slangs and puns for the English language for the Imperium still exist in the warhammer 40k universe?

I know it does for the Orks

Yes. Books are full of it.

IMPERIUM! FETH YEAH!

Like that?

different worlds have their own slang words.

some are derivitives of old Terran phrases.


some Characters are fond of using Terran idioms.

one important word which come sup all the time is Feth. you can probably guess what it's a substitute for.

Gak is also used. some people use it today.

Feth yeah, slang still exists.

It's used by characters in the Eisenhorn and Ravenor books all the time.

Kara Swole calls people "ninker" all the time. We assume it's something bad, but it's never really explained. I've heard it suggested as a combination of "nitwit" and "w*nker" (Dan Abnett IS English) but I'm sure it's probably worse.

Cain uses Frak all the time.

if you read any book that involves Guardsmen or Inquisitors you will run into common slang.

go read some BL books.

Grey Templar wrote:if you read any book that involves Guardsmen or Inquisitors you will run into common slang.

go read some BL books.

+1 BL book about guardsmen is gonna be your best bet for this.

guardsman: that cultist ate all that & a bag of potato chips

Commisar: *BANG* i hate potatoes

so the moral of the story is slang.....is......HERESY

Feth yes we have slang here.
Go eat gak, zhek yourself and frak off, you fragger!

"Frak" is often used by Cadians too

"Feth" obviously Tanith

"Gak" obviously Verghast

"Kec" another common slang word

and a few others I can't think of

There's also Groxshit, mentionned in a few novels involving guardsmen. You can guess what it means...

Slang will always exist in language, there is no reason for people 38,000 years from no to just stop using something people have been using for ages.

yournamehere wrote:Slang will always exist in language, there is no reason for people 38,000 years from no to just stop using something people have been using for ages.

This. As long as there have been languages, there have been slang terms created. The 41st millennium is no exception. Actually, in that much time, humanity's language should evolve so much that we wouldn't be able to understand it. When I read BL stuff, I always assume it's just all translated into English for the sake of readability.

Well everyone else has had some good examples of pejorative slang; their are many examples that can be brought up that are not as negative, or replacements for swear words:

Bolter: bolt gun The 2 are inter-changeable but boltgun is the "correct" term, while bolter is the slang term.

Terminator: Tactical Dreadnought armor

Greenskin: Ork

Leman Russ: Leman Russ Main Battle Tank(all others use just the end designations for the russ variants as slang terms for which variant they are referring to; ex: "demolisher")

The IG codex is full of examples, both pejorative, and non-pejorative, as is the uplifting primer.

The language spoken (Gothic) is divided to high and low, with low containing many kinds of slang. However some people have been said to be trying to batter the language into submission with excessive slang.

Pretty much any IG BL book you read will enlighten you on this subject. I would suggest Gunheads by Steve Parker, not necessarily as an example for this, but because it is very good

I've always been a fan of "Go frag yourself"

ph34r wrote:Yes. Books are full of it.

This.

They also call coffee coffee.

no, they call it Caffine.

As with the above contributions... in any language there are certain to be shortenings and slang which form localised dialects...

Some of the 40k short stories which involve regular humans (not all about space marines) will exhibit many commonly-used slang terms...

Also, Iron Snakes is good for this.

There is a full page of slang term that the IG use in one of their old codecies (dont know which one off the top of my head though). It was a funny read.