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Last night, a friend and I got into an argument over Greek Mythology and turned to the great interweb to help us settle our debate. While perusing the web, my eyes fell upon mention of Astarte. Curious, I looked it up to find that Astarte is the Greek name for the Mesopotamian Goddess Ishtar... who is the the goddess of Love, Sexuality, Sex in general, Fertility and War (and possibly overly demanding and potentially lethal significant others considering how bad stuff happens to everyone to ever be in a relationship with her... or turned her down).

With this in mind, I can no longer help but think that Fulgrim and the Emperor's Children (and any other marine who falls to the more sensual aspect of Slaanesh) were the only ones who truly lived up to the title Adeptus Astartes (and for gaks and giggles, it makes me wonder what the Emperor's true purpose behind the space marines was and if there's also sections for Love, Sex, and Fertility within Guilliman's Codex Astartes...)

So Dakkadakkites, what other interesting linguistic origins or roots have you stumbled across pertaining to 40k?

Lionel Johnson was a 19th century poet who wrote Dark Angel and was a repressed homosexual.

Robert Gilman published a series of papers regarding the sustainability of the ecology in the 1870s and 80s, around the time 40k was gestating, and famously stated "While the stars can wait, the planet can't." He was a great proponent of consolidating your holdings and planning for the future rather than over-reaching yourself.

Astarte was also conflated with Venus, as one of her titles is "The Evening Star.", which is where the 'Adepts of the Stars' translation of Adeptus Astartes comes from. She was the daughter of Sin (also called Nana), who was the god of the Moon - older fluff I believe puts the facility the Primarchs were created in on the moon.

There is a fair amount based on the medieval Latin States. The most obvious is of course the Black TEMPLARS, but characters such as Sigismund and the planet Barbarossa are named after famous Crusaders. It is even argued that Ultramar is derived from Outremer, the contemporary names for the Latin States.

Arbites is derived from Latin words with references to law (and funnily enough drinking!). Tyranids often have Latin names: Carnifex means executioner; Lictor was either a medium ranking official or a gaoler. However, the funniest Latin translation I find is Ventris, meaning stomach! I think McNeill was playing with his readers when he put Uriel Ventris into the Daemoncubla!

Most of the High Gothic names and phrases in 40k are grammatically incorrect Latin; 'Ordo Malleus' ought to be 'Ordine Malleus' if Google Translate is to be believed, for instance.

Eldar mythology is full of references to real world stuff. Kurnous, the husband of Isha and a hunting god, is a play on words for Cernous/Curnonous, the horned god from wiccan faith. Following that theme, Isha, Llilieth, and the Mora-Heg are the mother of the eldar, the goddess for whom the maiden worlds are named, and the goddess for whom the crone worlds are named respectively thus making them tie into the mother, maiden, and crone thing that pops up here and there (including in wiccan faith.)

Perhaps a bit of a stretch, but Khaine, the god of war and murder, is a homophone for Cain of the Bible who was the world's first murderer.

Saim-Hann is a pun for the old Irish word for Halloween, and Nuadu Fireheart (the old Saim-Hann special character) could be argued to be a reference to King Nuada Airgetlam (Nuada of the Silver Arm), an Irish deity.

In the 4th edition eldar book, back when Eldrad was dead, his fluff mentions a disciple of his whose name was basically Cassandra with apostrophes. It was implied that she believed he would return, but no one believed her. This is a reference to Cassandra of Greek mythology. Arguably reinforced by the fact that she had one of the spirit stones Eldrad had shoved his soul into pre-death and that spirit stones are the "tears of Isha." So Cassandra having a spirit stone of Eldrad means that said stone was sort of a "cassandra's tears" type thing. I'm stretching now though.

Vaul and Cegorach, while not direct references to anything, are both inkeeping with the mythological archetypes of the smith and the trickster.

Also, Asuryan and by extension Asurmen and the other phoenix lords (the "asurya") *might* be a bastardization of the word "asura," but I'm still stretching.

Yes, but also bugs:

Termagant: an ancient deity with turbulent and wild character appearing in morality plays

Hormagant: an undying long armed monster who steals children from their beds

Heirophant: an interpreter of runes and omens from Ancient Greece

Zoanthrope: Animal-man, the name for a mental condition in which a person believes they are an animal

Venomthrope: Poisonous man

Carnifex: Latin for butcher

Tyrannofex: bringer of tyranny in Latin

Shrike: any member of a species of birds known for impaling parts of the bodies of their prey on thorns

Biovore, Pyrovore: Life eater, Fire eater

Lictor: A member of the ancient Roman senatorial guard, famous for wielding an axe bound in a bundle of reeds known as a Fasces. The Fasces is the symbol and root of the word Fascism.

Biel Tan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltane

Lughannath

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lughnasadh

Saim Hann

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain

Morai Heg the Crone Goddess

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morr%C3%ADgan

The harliquins suit is called something like the Dathedi or somesuch.
Daithí is the Irish word for color.

IYBraesil is from "Hy-Brasil", the phantom island which was said to lie in the Atlantic Ocean west of Ireland. In Irish myths it was said to be cloaked in mist, except for one day every seven years, when it became visible but still could not be reached.

Faolchu is meant to be "falcon", from memory, one of the lesser gods in the eldar pantheon.

 Captain Galenus wrote:

Tyranids often have Latin names: Carnifex means executioner; Lictor was either a medium ranking official or a gaoler.

I will never forget the look on my Latin teacher's face when he googled the exact translation of Lictor and was bombarded with pictures of Nids!

 Paradigm wrote:

 Captain Galenus wrote:

Tyranids often have Latin names: Carnifex means executioner; Lictor was either a medium ranking official or a gaoler.

I will never forget the look on my Latin teacher's face when he googled the exact translation of Lictor and was bombarded with pictures of Nids!

Oh... My... GOD!

Rogal Dorn

Rogal is like a portmanteau of Royal and Regal (i.e. imperial).

Dorn is a celtic word for Fist.

Rogal Dorn, master of the Imperial Fists, is called Imperial Fist.

nareik wrote:
Rogal Dorn

Rogal is like a portmanteau of Royal and Regal (i.e. imperial).

Dorn is a celtic word for Fist.

Rogal Dorn, master of the Imperial Fists, is called Imperial Fist.

Fits with Ferrus Manus. Iron Hand of the Iron Hands.

Its a shame there is not more originality in their names, rather than grabbing them from elsewhere

Tailessine wrote:
Its a shame there is not more originality in their names, rather than grabbing them from elsewhere

Are you kidding? We have GW's own testimony in court that all of their IP is entirely their own invention and they never borrow ideas from anywhere else.

I'm with Peregrine. What could be more original than a raven (Corvus Corax ) writing "Nevermore" as he vanished? Or Marbo, a jungle fighter capable of fighting a one-man war against his foes?

 Peregrine wrote:

Tailessine wrote:
Its a shame there is not more originality in their names, rather than grabbing them from elsewhere

Are you kidding? We have GW's own testimony in court that all of their IP is entirely their own invention and they never borrow ideas from anywhere else.

They really said that? I hope they kept a straight face. What does grind my gears is that age of sigmar, a new game where they could turn over a new leag in originality, has the stormcasts designed from the sculptor basically looking at a selection of renaissance christian paintings, mixing in a bit of space marine, and a bloody big hammer.