Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.
Frak/frakking, Gak/gakking and Grox/grox**** (sounds like spit) as expletives
Cogboy = Techpriest
Crate = Tank
Homebrew Imperial Guard: 1222nd Etrurian Lancers (Winged); Special Air-Assault Brigade (SAAB)
Homebrew Chaos: The Black Suns; A Medrengard Militia (think Iron Warriors-centric Blood Pact/Sons of Sek)
Amasec - A Widely available and highly alcoholic beverage distilled from wine.
Aquila/Sign of the Aquila -- A sign of devotion to the imperium that forms the Imperial Eagle, by crossing the hands with the palms pressed to the chest and the thumbs linked.
Augmetic - Cybernetic/Bionic, usually in the sense of body implants or repairs.
Bleed Out - To die of blood loss before medical attention can be given.
Blunt - Sanctioned Psyker slang for a non-telepath.
Bone 'ead - An Ogryn sergeant with surgically enhanced intelligence who can interpret orders for his less advanced squadmates. Also used as a term of abuse for anyone given to taking orders too literrally to the detriment of their subordinates.
Catachan Kiss - Headbutt
Chart Table/Chart Desk - A small, portable easel-like device for displaying tactical hololithic maps and three-dimensional terrain models. A chart desk is a heavier and usually non-portable version.
Codifier/Cogitator/Logic Engine - Device empowered by the Machine Spirit to perform complex calculations and battlefield metriculations.
Cooker - Melta-gun
Counterseptic - Antiseptic and analgesic fluid used to combat infection.
Dataslate - Hand-held device used to store and transfer information, imagery and orders.
Det-tape - tape peeled off to detonate tube charges (time delay determined by length tape is trimmed to). Also used as a general-purpose detonator material.
Do a Yarrick - take a trophy from a dead enemy.
Emperor's Benediction - Euphemisim for a Mercy Killing.
Enginseer - A Techpriest of the Adeptus Mechanicus charged with the responsibility of tending the machine spirits of a regiment's vehicles.
Flakboard - General Purpose Sheet Material for defence and repair. Fitted to the inside walls of defensive positions to prevent spalling material - dislodged by weapon impacts - causing injury.
Found Wanting - Euphemism for field execution by a Commissar; "He was found wanting at the front line."
Freak, Brain, Bolt Magnet - Derogatory terms for Sanctioned Psykers.
Fyceline - Principal chemical ingredient used in the manufacture of standard Imperial Guard explosives.
Greenskin, 'skin - Slang for an Ork.
Gun-Baby - Whiteshield, or Conscript.
Hangman, Leash - Derogatory terms for a Commissar.
Hololithic - Three-Dimensional Imagery.
Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer - Standard text manual issued to every Guardsmen, containing proper procedure for everything from marching to bayonetting techniques. Also includes prescribed prayers and hymnals.
Interior Guards - General Term, a world's PDF or a Guard Regiment given colonial duties.
Juvenat - As in "Juvenat Processes" or "Juvenant Drugs" Techniques of prolonging youth and virility. Usually highly expensive and reserved for senior officers or Imperial Nobility.
Lamp-Pack - Standard Guard Issue, compact lamp with internal (limited) power supply, designed to be hand held, or fixed onto lasgun's bayonet lugs.
Leftovers - An incomplete squad built from the remnants of squads that have suffered casualties.
Lho Sticks - An addictive narcotic rolled into a compact tube and smoked by guardsmen. Officio Medicae personnel have warned that they may cause respiratory damage.
Long-las - Any model lasgun modified or designed for sniper use. (As the name implies, they are usually longer than standard-pattern weapons.)
Magnoculars - Powerful optical device for the magnification of distant objects. Can be modified to varying levels of complexity, with range-finders, azimuth metriculators and heat-sensing equipment.
Micro-bead - (also Micro-bead link, micro-bead intercom) small, short-range Vox system for inter-trooper communications in the field. Usually a small ear-plug with a tiny wire mouth-stalk. Generally only found on regiments from civilised or industrialised worlds.
One-way Ticket - Assignation to a grav-chute landing. "To be given a one-way ticket."
Pict - A video-feed equivalent of vox.
Plank - idiot, also a derogatory term for an Ogryn.
Promethium - A general term for fuel, but commonly used to refer to the highly volatile and incendiary jelly used as fuel in flamer units. Designed to adhere to the target and rapidly immolate them. Promethium reaches extermely high temperatures within seconds of ignition, and even burns underwater.
Resuscitrex - Offico Medicae device incorporating a number of specialised devices, most frequently used to fibrillate patients who have suffered Cardiac Arrest.
Savlar - A thief or drug addict.
Scope - General term for powered spotter sights. May be the telescopic sights on a long-las, or a hand-held "telescope" used by an officer.
Scrambled - Insane, shell-shocked.
Screamer-Killer - Tyranid "Carnifex" genus.
Shell - Carapace Armour.
Slap - Disciplined by a senior officer for minor infraction (possession of unauthorised publications, for instance.)
Tube Charges - 20cm (approx) long metal tubes filled with explosives for demolition work or grenades-type work.
Twist - Imperial Slang for a mutant.
Vox-Caster - A powerful, usually backpack-carried, communications gear. "A vox set"
Vox-Officer - the member of a squad or platoon trained to carry the vox-caster and operate it and other communications systems. General term for this branch of specialisation is "Signals."
One of the things I like about the Guard is that each regiment will (and should) have not only their own slang, but their own language. Not everyone in the Imperium speaks Low Gothic, by a long shot, and although officers will learn it, if the men come from a world with a different first language, the regiment is encouraged by it's commissars to come up with their own 'combat cant' while en-route to their first deployment. The diversity of languages, together with the fact Guardsmen rarely fight on home turf, makes it much harder for the enemy to decode their internal messages - a bit like the US using Navaho encoding during WWII.
Run a whole lot of wfrp and other rpg's, play The Woods and Kill Team, gather and look mournfully at imperial guard knowing I'll never finish enough to use them on the tabletop
Captain Roderick wrote: One of the things I like about the Guard is that each regiment will (and should) have not only their own slang, but their own language. Not everyone in the Imperium speaks Low Gothic, by a long shot, and although officers will learn it, if the men come from a world with a different first language, the regiment is encouraged by it's commissars to come up with their own 'combat cant' while en-route to their first deployment. The diversity of languages, together with the fact Guardsmen rarely fight on home turf, makes it much harder for the enemy to decode their internal messages - a bit like the US using Navaho encoding during WWII.
This goes for Marine Chapters, too, who are said to have their own home-world brewed battle-cant. I've yet to see this effectively intergrated/expressed in fiction, however. It's usually something like "and using their battle-cant, the sergeant quickly and discreetly ordered his squad open fire" and things like that. Very dull.
Homebrew Imperial Guard: 1222nd Etrurian Lancers (Winged); Special Air-Assault Brigade (SAAB)
Homebrew Chaos: The Black Suns; A Medrengard Militia (think Iron Warriors-centric Blood Pact/Sons of Sek)
Sounds like you've been reading some Matt Ward fluff...
Run a whole lot of wfrp and other rpg's, play The Woods and Kill Team, gather and look mournfully at imperial guard knowing I'll never finish enough to use them on the tabletop
The thing about feth, tread-fethers, gak, etc. is that they are only used by the residents of certain planets. The are not universally known and are specific to a single world's culture.
I can testify for the guard slang, they are only humans, and they come from over a million different worlds. It would be crazy for them to try to make them all use the same slang, when they could mean different things (like the rocket launcher, it's called a drain pipe in the Cain novels, cogboys, spooks (psychers), etc.). Still, that is an impressive list.
Fields of War is a fantasy turn based strategy game that uses the innovative command system in place of more traditional turn structures.
http://fieldsofwar.blogspot.com/
Andy Hoare (Savage Scars) and Graham McNeill (Courage and Honour) are the culprits from memory.
Homebrew Imperial Guard: 1222nd Etrurian Lancers (Winged); Special Air-Assault Brigade (SAAB)
Homebrew Chaos: The Black Suns; A Medrengard Militia (think Iron Warriors-centric Blood Pact/Sons of Sek)
Andy Hoare (Savage Scars) and Graham McNeill (Courage and Honour) are the culprits from memory.
That's a shame - I've quite enjoyed those writers from time to time. Nobody else at BL seems to have Abnett's love and skill in creating new words unfortunately. I think he picked it up at 2000AD.
Run a whole lot of wfrp and other rpg's, play The Woods and Kill Team, gather and look mournfully at imperial guard knowing I'll never finish enough to use them on the tabletop
Captain Roderick wrote: That's a shame - I've quite enjoyed those writers from time to time. Nobody else at BL seems to have Abnett's love and skill in creating new words unfortunately. I think he picked it up at 2000AD.
Yeah, I've yet to enjoy one of Hoare's books unfortunately, but I've often heard good things about McNeill, particularly for his writing on Marines - his Iron Warriors and HH contributions being among the best BL fiction there is, apparently. Maybe I just got unlucky with Courage and Honour, but of all the elements to that story, I found Ventris and the 4th Ultras to be the dullest part, and not much better than Savage Scars... disappointing.
Homebrew Imperial Guard: 1222nd Etrurian Lancers (Winged); Special Air-Assault Brigade (SAAB)
Homebrew Chaos: The Black Suns; A Medrengard Militia (think Iron Warriors-centric Blood Pact/Sons of Sek)
I think the only real way to get all the guard slang is to read all the guard novels. I just came across another term for psychers which refers to them as bolt magnets. There's also 'slaught, but I don't know what that is (some sort of drug.)
Fields of War is a fantasy turn based strategy game that uses the innovative command system in place of more traditional turn structures.
http://fieldsofwar.blogspot.com/
jaggedjaw wrote: I think the only real way to get all the guard slang is to read all the guard novels. I just came across another term for psychers which refers to them as bolt magnets. There's also 'slaught, but I don't know what that is (some sort of drug.)
'Slaught is short for Onslaught, it's from Necromunda: Outlanders expansion. It's a bit like Frenzon. Hidden away in 'official' 40k canon since the 90's
Run a whole lot of wfrp and other rpg's, play The Woods and Kill Team, gather and look mournfully at imperial guard knowing I'll never finish enough to use them on the tabletop
I believe in path of the seer one of their swears is "By the emperors holy shrivelled gonads!" if you've read it they yell that while needing ammo, so does that count?
It's better to die with a smirk, knowing you played your part in Tzneetch's plan
Slang can also be service or Arm dependant, in addition to planetary or regional as also mentioned. For example tankers often refer to dismounts (enemy foot soldiers) as crunchies. Aviation, armor, artillery, medical and other combat arms all have their own slang. Were I to write a story that would use guard slang, I would like, check out current equivalents and modernize or 'futurize' them as appropriate.
any one else get a funny metal image of a imperial guards man yelling "yo dawg!" to a space wolf?
Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.
George S. Patton : The wode capn deaf klawz Freebooters Shas'O Storm knifes Shan'al
Andy Hoare (Savage Scars) and Graham McNeill (Courage and Honour) are the culprits from memory.
That's a shame - I've quite enjoyed those writers from time to time. Nobody else at BL seems to have Abnett's love and skill in creating new words unfortunately. I think he picked it up at 2000AD.
I'm going to have to personally disagree with you there. I enjoy Abnett's writing very much, but a lot of his made up words are cringe inducing. His words that are supposed to have a analog in pop and or youth culture are particularly bad. Maybe I'm a bit more discerning as a minority myself, but I can't imagine anyone reading any of the conversations involving "twists" or "pound" and not rolling their eyes.
And as far as considering author's not subjecting us to bad faux Latin or incomprehensible gobbledygook, not many authors are also linguists or studied philology. Most attempts end up detracting from the flow of the story and are pretty superfluous.
Andy Hoare (Savage Scars) and Graham McNeill (Courage and Honour) are the culprits from memory.
That's a shame - I've quite enjoyed those writers from time to time. Nobody else at BL seems to have Abnett's love and skill in creating new words unfortunately. I think he picked it up at 2000AD.
I'm going to have to personally disagree with you there. I enjoy Abnett's writing very much, but a lot of his made up words are cringe inducing. His words that are supposed to have a analog in pop and or youth culture are particularly bad. Maybe I'm a bit more discerning as a minority myself, but I can't imagine anyone reading any of the conversations involving "twists" or "pound" and not rolling their eyes.
And as far as considering author's not subjecting us to bad faux Latin or incomprehensible gobbledygook, not many authors are also linguists or studied philology. Most attempts end up detracting from the flow of the story and are pretty superfluous.
What's wrong with "pound"? I hear it almost on a daily basis. "I'm gonna pound his face in" or "He just got pounded into the ground". Also several adult uses.
Oakenshield wrote: I enjoy Abnett's writing very much, but a lot of his made up words are cringe inducing. His words that are supposed to have a analog in pop and or youth culture are particularly bad. Maybe I'm a bit more discerning as a minority myself, but I can't imagine anyone reading any of the conversations involving "twists" or "pound" and not rolling their eyes.
And as far as considering author's not subjecting us to bad faux Latin or incomprehensible gobbledygook, not many authors are also linguists or studied philology. Most attempts end up detracting from the flow of the story and are pretty superfluous.
Point. And there have been points when reading later Abnetts where I've twitched and thought 'did he really go there?' Like the way the jargon of the Ghosts keeps evolving in later books, and you find yourself wondering 'why didn't they always use that term? And why does it just not have the crunch of earlier jargon?' But despite this, I still think he does the best in the BL stable - and more importantly, he created a lot of guard slang that later became canon.
Please don't ask for examples though, all my GG books are in the UK in storage
What's wrong with "pound"? I hear it almost on a daily basis. "I'm gonna pound his face in" or "He just got pounded into the ground". Also several adult uses.
But pound as a genre of music? It's the kind of name a middle-aged married man would give to Dubstep... no, wait...
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/10/06 11:07:10
Run a whole lot of wfrp and other rpg's, play The Woods and Kill Team, gather and look mournfully at imperial guard knowing I'll never finish enough to use them on the tabletop
10k Black Templar
Warhound Titan "Legio Matallica" 
)
Homebrew Imperial Guard: 1222nd Etrurian Lancers (Winged); Special Air-Assault Brigade (SAAB)
Homebrew Chaos: The Black Suns; A Medrengard Militia (think Iron Warriors-centric Blood Pact/Sons of Sek) 
The wode
capn deaf klawz Freebooters 
Shas'O Storm knifes Shan'al 
