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Rude Name or Not?

bughousebughouse Posts: 105 Arc User
in Champions Online Discussion
Would it be offensive to use the word 'dwarf' as part of a name for a little person hero? One that isn't a fantasy-style dwarf, that is?

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    legendarylycan#5411 legendarylycan
    legendarylycan#5411
         Posts: 1,569 Arc User
    people get offended if they have to so much as breathe the same air as other people nowadays...if not the name, someone will find something else about the character to be offended about

    so as long as you aren't doing it to mock or disparage little people, do whatever the fork you want and don't give a cat's ash about what anyone else thinks of it​​
    #LegalizeAwoo
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    jonsillsjonsills Posts: 6,317 Arc User
    Depends on context, really. "Jimmy the Dwarf" would probably come across as pretty offensive; "Dwarf Star", for say a toon with energy powers, should be okay, I would think. (I have a 4' 6" electrical toon named "Short Circuit".)
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    ealford1985ealford1985 Posts: 3,582 Arc User
    Call him Stunt Growth, a midget stuntman
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    themightyzeniththemightyzenith Posts: 4,599 Arc User
    Or Low Down Bum, a short legged cowboy.
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    ealford1985ealford1985 Posts: 3,582 Arc User
    Short Change, the Shady trader
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    bughousebughouse Posts: 105 Arc User
    Thanks all. Guess I was overthinking it.
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    ealford1985ealford1985 Posts: 3,582 Arc User
    Hahahahahahaha overthinking a midget. You guy!!!
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    warcanchwarcanch Posts: 1,077 Arc User
    Friend and I have short toons named: Jack Squat and Diddley Squat. Theme overcomes possible problems.​​
    .

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    ealford1985ealford1985 Posts: 3,582 Arc User
    Those are great!
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    iamruneiamrune Posts: 965 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    Yeah, DwarfStar was one of my favorite characters back in City of Heroes, and I believe the name was first used [to my knowledge] in a Gurps Supers IST setting book, or the base Gurps Supers example Characters section. Great name.
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    spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    I think the title of Dwarf is strong and respectable.
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    As a short person, I have no problems with this word u3u​​
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    jaazaniah1jaazaniah1 Posts: 5,431 Arc User
    Some synonyms from Merriam-Webster for midget. Interesting how some of these terms would likely be seen as perfectly acceptable, while others would be seen as pejoratives.

    Synonyms of midget
    diminutive, dwarf, mite, peewee, pygmy (also pigmy), runt, scrub, shrimp, Tom Thumb

    Words Related to midget
    nubbin
    mini, miniature
    bantam
    homunculus, hop-o'-my-thumb, manikin (also mannikin)
    half-pint
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    legendarylycan#5411 legendarylycan
    legendarylycan#5411
         Posts: 1,569 Arc User
    a homunculus is an artificial humanoid construct created through magic (or alchemy) - it has nothing to do with small people​​
    #LegalizeAwoo
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    themightyzeniththemightyzenith Posts: 4,599 Arc User
    shadowfang240 wrote: »
    a homunculus is an artificial humanoid construct created through magic (or alchemy) - it has nothing to do with small people​​

    It literally means "little person" in latin.

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    jonsillsjonsills Posts: 6,317 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    themightyzenith wrote: »
    shadowfang240 wrote: »
    a homunculus is an artificial humanoid construct created through magic (or alchemy) - it has nothing to do with small people​​

    It literally means "little person" in latin.
    And "robot" literally means "worker" in Czech (robota), but you wouldn't refer to a carpenter as a "robot", because you know that its usage in modern English is not its usage in Czech in 1922. I mean, there's pedantry, and then there's this.
    "Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"

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    spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    Literally literally means actually except when it actually doesn't o3o​​
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    themightyzeniththemightyzenith Posts: 4,599 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    jonsills wrote: »
    And "robot" literally means "worker" in Czech (robota), but you wouldn't refer to a carpenter as a "robot", because you know that its usage in modern English is not its usage in Czech in 1922. I mean, there's pedantry, and then there's this.

    And with that last sentence, irony exploded whilst waving a white flag.
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    themightyzeniththemightyzenith Posts: 4,599 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    A homonculus is generally defined as "little person" or "little man" in most English dictionaries also. They're also usually depicted in images as little men, albeit a bit malformed. It's not comparable to your example of 'robot' (see post below ;) )


    It is inherently connected to the term "small people" contrary to the opinion below (the context of my first comment ;) )....
    shadowfang240 wrote: »
    it has nothing to do with small people​​

    Post edited by themightyzenith on
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    themightyzeniththemightyzenith Posts: 4,599 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    jonsills wrote: »
    And "robot" literally means "worker" in Czech (robota), but you wouldn't refer to a carpenter as a "robot", because you know that its usage in modern English is not its usage in Czech in 1922. I mean, there's pedantry, and then there's this.

    Actually, the original term 'robota' in Czech means means servitude or forced labor. The modern word 'robot' ('roboti' in Czech) was coined by artist Josef Čapek, the brother of famed Czechoslovakian author Karel Čapek. Karel Čapek was, among other things, a science fiction author before there was something officially known as science fiction, in subject matter along the same vein as George Orwell. He introduced the word in a play called R.U.R. The full title translated into English as Rossum’s Universal Robots, which debuted in January of 1921.

    He actually invented the word 'roboti' (derived from the Czech word robota), which became robot in English. In the play it referred to manufactured, living, simplified people called robots that were created in a factory using a chemical substitute for protoplasm.

    As an adept of pedantry, I thought you might like this.
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    spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    https://youtu.be/OpbdGnJbneE​​
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    jonsillsjonsills Posts: 6,317 Arc User
    And the term "homonculous" was coined to describe the (imaginary, obviously) servant of a wizard, being a small humanoid animated by magic to scurry around the wizard's lair performing all manner of simple tasks. Its meaning in Latin comes from this fact; in usage, it has only been used to describe actual humans in an insulting manner, just as it would be difficult to take "golem" as a complimentary term for a large person.

    The meaning of words is dependent on more than their ultimate derivation. As I said, there's pedantry, and then there's this.
    "Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"

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    soulforgersoulforger Posts: 1,649 Arc User
    jonsills wrote: »
    And the term "homonculous" was coined to describe the (imaginary, obviously) servant of a wizard, being a small humanoid animated by magic to scurry around the wizard's lair performing all manner of simple tasks. Its meaning in Latin comes from this fact; in usage, it has only been used to describe actual humans in an insulting manner, just as it would be difficult to take "golem" as a complimentary term for a large person.

    The meaning of words is dependent on more than their ultimate derivation. As I said, there's pedantry, and then there's this.

    And yet, you still proved his point. So, this argument is rather pointless in the end of all thing. Homonculi are nothing more than little golem people. End of discussion.
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    themightyzeniththemightyzenith Posts: 4,599 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    jonsills wrote: »

    a small humanoid
    jonsills wrote: »

    it has only been used to describe actual humans in an insulting manner


    B)

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    jennymachxjennymachx Posts: 3,000 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    jonsills wrote: »
    And the term "homonculous" was coined to describe the (imaginary, obviously) servant of a wizard, being a small humanoid animated by magic to scurry around the wizard's lair performing all manner of simple tasks. Its meaning in Latin comes from this fact; in usage, it has only been used to describe actual humans in an insulting manner, just as it would be difficult to take "golem" as a complimentary term for a large person.

    The meaning of words is dependent on more than their ultimate derivation. As I said, there's pedantry, and then there's this.

    So you're in agreement that the term basically means "little people" which is akin to "small humanoid".

    The only real pendatry I see is coming from you.
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    jonsillsjonsills Posts: 6,317 Arc User
    jennymachx wrote: »
    jonsills wrote: »
    And the term "homonculous" was coined to describe the (imaginary, obviously) servant of a wizard, being a small humanoid animated by magic to scurry around the wizard's lair performing all manner of simple tasks. Its meaning in Latin comes from this fact; in usage, it has only been used to describe actual humans in an insulting manner, just as it would be difficult to take "golem" as a complimentary term for a large person.

    The meaning of words is dependent on more than their ultimate derivation. As I said, there's pedantry, and then there's this.

    So you're in agreement that the term basically means "little people" which is akin to "small humanoid".

    The only real pendatry I see is coming from you.
    The question was whether the name selected might be offensive to a little person. As I noted, it's all in context - "Jimmy the Dwarf" could hardly be anything but offensive, while "Dwarf Star" clearly is not, even if the toon in question in fact has dwarfism. If you call your toon "Homonculous", then it's not automatically offensive, precisely because the term does not reference human beings (the derivation of the word is unimportant). On the other hand, if you want to use "homonculous" as a descriptor for someone else who happens to be small, that's pretty doggone offensive, and attempts to deflect from this can only be seen as appeals to pedantry.

    The meaning of a term is often unrelated to its ultimate derivation. "Awesome" once meant "deserving of awe and terror", but is now understood to be a term of general approval, often of things that don't inspire awe in the least. (I can think of several examples of incredibly offensive terms which, on a strictly pedantic level regarding literal meanings, could be "defended", but I'm far too nice a person to cite them here.)
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    themightyzeniththemightyzenith Posts: 4,599 Arc User
    And the pedantry continues......

    8xpnu5w.jpg


    The context of my statement that you decided to take exception to was stated clearly, I was responding to an exact statement from another poster and even quoted the person I was replying to.

    Scroll back to see or continue in your futility.
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    spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    This thread should return to being about dwarves o3o
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    avianosavianos Posts: 6,028 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    Dude Dwarves are awesome!
    latest?cb=20140216222239​​
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    themightyzeniththemightyzenith Posts: 4,599 Arc User
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    soulforgersoulforger Posts: 1,649 Arc User
    Now, you want to know what a rude name is? "A Rude Name".
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    thebluelinkthebluelink Posts: 26 Arc User
    Uh, obviously Skyrim dwarves are the best dwarves though, as shown by this picture!
    Bl0rRYM.png

    nice profile picture bro
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    galactickirigalactickiri Posts: 92 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    Apparently you can get called out for a rename if someone finds it 'rude'. We have far too many whiners and weaklings on this shard.
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    themightyzeniththemightyzenith Posts: 4,599 Arc User
    Ultimately it won't be changed because some "whiner" finds it rude though. It will only be changed if a GM/mod deems it necessary.
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    pantagruel01pantagruel01 Posts: 7,091 Arc User
    galactickiri wrote: »
    Apparently you can get called out for a rename if someone finds it 'rude'.
    You get renamed if you come to a GMs attention and he deems the name inappropriate. Someone filing a bug report brings you to the GMs attention, but doesn't force any decision about appropriateness.
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    warcanchwarcanch Posts: 1,077 Arc User
    I've reported some of my own characters to make sure they pass muster. Of course, that doesn't mean some future GM won't decide differently.​​
    .

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