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I was recently thinking of how it's a bit of a misnomer to call the Dark Eldar by that name, seeing as they're the closest in culture to pre-fall Eldar, and the most numerous. So logically, they should just be 'The Eldar', with Craftworlders, Exodites, etc, getting a qualifier.

Then I realised, as with the Tyranids (called so due to the IoM first encountering them on the planet Tyran), the game uses the IoM's designations for the races. As the DE are secretive, as far as the IoM is concerned (when they bother to make the distinction), the DE are the outliers, not the norm.

So the question is, what do the Eldar call the Tyranids? The Necrons call the Orks? The Orks call themselves? The Chaos Gods call the Tau? Etc, etc, etc? The only one I know is the Eldar call humans Mon-Keigh. Do we even have any examples of the Hive Mind referring to individual races?

The Tau have names for most of the other races.

Without doing any research, I can tell you that

Gue'la refers to humans - literal translation something akin to "helper/servant person"

Gue'ron'sha refers to the Astartes - something akin to "Swift wind servant"

The Orks are Be'gel - I've forgotten what the translation is supposed to be.

The Demiurg are Ben'tusi (or something like that) - a clear reference to the Bentusi of Homeworld, and translating to something akin to "wise travelers" or something like it.

I know for a fact they have a name for the Kroot, but I can't recall it off-hand.

I'm sure they have names for the Necrons and Eldar, but I don't recall ever reading about them specifically.

You are correct that "Dark Eldar" is not a term humans would use. 99.999999% of humans just see a single species, Eldar with no differences between any of the variants. And even from their own point of view, the Eldar don't see such a massive distinction between themselves. Dark Eldar aren't to Craftworld Eldar an utterly unfathomable viewpoint. They're more viewed like cousins who are making questionable life choices.

Eldar refer to humans as Mon'Keigh. Which is really just an internal joke from GW, that the Eldar word for humans is Monkey. Humans call the same thing the Eldar call themselves, likely due to some trading of words.

Orks call themselves Orks. The ork word for themselves has crept into other languages. Again much like the word Eldar has, if a species has a language and you can have translation between them you'll get some sharing of words.

Eldar have referred to Tyranids as The Great Devourer, referring to the Hive Mind.

Necrons likely refer to orks as orks. Again due to there being the opportunity for translation between the languages, there is no reason to come up with your own word if you can borrow one.


As for the Tyranids themselves... The Hive Mind is really above petty things like language. When it does show signs of communication, it does so with mental images and direct wordless thoughts.

Orks have quite a few names for other races - Humies (humans), Beakies (Astartes), Panzees (Eldar), Bugeyes (Tyranid), Fings (mutants or chaos spawn), and Stunties (Squats).

I like to think that Necron refer to Orks as Brutals, Zardoz style. That's just in my head though.

Nids are too alien to have any form of language anyone in 40k would recognize as such. Also the races are just grubs living on the planets they are looking to digest. The nids have little to no reason to communicate with anyone.

Orks call humans, "Humies" and Eldar "Pointy Ears" and Necrons "Botboyz" and Chaos as "Chaos Boyz."

The Eldar have names for most races I think.

Necrons/C'tan - Yngir (definitely C'Tan, I don't think there's a named word for their servants)
Tyranids - IllMureead
Humans - Cresistauead/Mon'keigh (although the latter is supposed to refer to any species deemed beneath the Eldar so could equally apply to pretty much anything in the galaxy)
Orks - Orkead (original I know...)
Space Marine - Losseainn (meaning Iron Warrior)

I also know that they call the Tyranids 'The Great Devourer' or 'Voidborn', the latter is from the Valedor novel.

I think I can name some Ork names for other races from bits of lore I've read over the years

Human - humie/'umie
Eldar - panzees/pointy eared gits
Tau - Blue Gits
Space Marines - Beakies
Daemons - Weird Fings
Chaos Marines - Spiky Gits

I'm certain the Orkoid term for tau is "squishies" as once they're in close combat, the Tau are as effective as a teapot made of chocolate

Necrons (well the Ctan, before they were retconned) knew the orks by their original name, The Krork

Ork names
Umies
Beakies
Stunties
Panzees
(Ok these are very dated lol)

It's late, and I'm tired, but certain humans (and space marines) do know enough to determine Eldar as raider type, though that is often based entirely on the actions that are going on at the time. They do not seem to differentiate between the different classes of Eldar. That said, the Chaos Marines do seem to notice, though they do not have any sort of formula against them. Eldar strikes are swift and varied, and it's only at the last moment that even the well informed can garner a sliver of information. At least with Word Bearers, they seem to know the difference. And DE souls seem to carry even more worth than the craftworld type, for good reason.

Tyranids:

Humans: Food
Eldar: Food
Dark Eldar: Food
Orks: Food
Tau: Food
Astartes: Food
Daemons: Not Food
Necrons: Not Food

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
Tyranids:
Humans: Food
Eldar: Food
Dark Eldar: Food
Orks: Food
Tau: Food
Astartes: Food
Daemons: Not Food
Necrons: Not Food

Haha! Nice.

 Unusual Suspect wrote:
The Tau have names for most of the other races.

Without doing any research, I can tell you that

Gue'la refers to humans - literal translation something akin to "helper/servant person"

Gue'la is "lowest being", Gue'vessa is "lowest helper"


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Unusual Suspect wrote:
Gue'ron'sha refers to the Astartes - something akin to "Swift wind servant"

The Orks are Be'gel - I've forgotten what the translation is supposed to be.

Gue'ron'sha is like "human engineered warrior and be'gel can be "simple creatures". Most Tau names are sort of snobby/condescending. Except Y'he for Tyranids; "without number".

Var Sin'da: "Dark raiding ones", Dark Eldar
All I know of eldar is they call the swordwind thing Nan'Sha'is, which is "sword wind" easy enough.
Ves'ron: "Robot beings", Necrons
Jikita: Kroot