Sorry, but I write in a real language

As a reader I have a pet peeve. I do not like to read fiction that an author has made up an entire language for. My mind stumbles over  the new argot like tiny mental speed bumps. There have been wonderfully written works that the author polluted with his or her made up nonsense. Richard Adams' Watership Down (look if the rabbit's language is being translated to English? then we don't need their word for shit, just say "shit"), King and all the words he made up for The Dark Tower books (Can-to, taheen, ha-ha I'm Steve King and I can make up nonsense and you'll buy it ha-ha!), and please do not get me started on Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.

If you enjoy made up languages? that's fine, I don't want you to feel bad. I just personally don't care for them and you will never see them in Any of my books.

I tell you this because my friend Paul was unfamiliar with some of the language I use in Grey. He kindly looked up every word and provided the audience with a quick-glance glossary of those terms: 

Bestial – 1. Beastly. 2. Marked by brutality or depravity. 3. Lacking in intelligence or reason; subhuman.

Cajoling – To persuade by flattery, gentle pleading, or insincere language

Cerulian - Azure; sky-blue

Cloying – To cause distaste or disgust by supplying with too much of something originally pleasant, especially something rich or sweet; surfeit

Coalesced – To grow together; fuse

Copse – A thicket of small trees or shrubs; a coppice

Corpulent – Excessively fat

Detritus – Loose fragments or grains that have been worn away from rock

Fodder – 1. Feed for livestock, especially coarsely chopped hay or straw. 2. Raw material, as for artistic creation. 3. A consumable, often inferior item or resource that is in demand and usually abundant supply

Genuflect - 1. To bend the knee or touch one knee to the floor or ground, as in worship. 2. To be servilely respectful or deferential; grovel.

Lackeys – 1. A liveried male servant; a footman. 2. A servile follower; a toady

Laconically - Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise

Mayhap – Perhaps; perchance

Metaphycial - 1. Of or relating to metaphysics. 2. Based on speculative or abstract reasoning. 3. Highly abstract or theoretical; abstruse

Nape – The back of the neck

Omnipresent – Present everywhere simultaneously

Paladins – A paragon of chivalry; a heroic champion. 2. A strong supporter or defender of a cause

Palsied – 1. Affected with palsy. 2. Trembling or shaking.

Piety – A devout act, thought, or statement

Pique – A state of vexation caused by a perceived slight or indignity; a feeling of wounded pride

Piteous – Demanding or arousing pity

Placatory – To allay the anger of, especially by making concessions; appease

Prattle – To talk or chatter idly or meaninglessly; babble or prate

Prehensile – 1. Adapted for seizing, grasping, or holding, especially by wrapping around an object. 2. Having keen intellect; insightful. 3. Greedy; grasping

Sagacious - Having or showing keen discernment, sound judgment, and farsightedness

Sardonic – Scornfully or cynically mocking

Subverted – To destroy completely; ruin

Suppositions – The act of supposing.

Swarthy  - Having a dark complexion or color

Sycophants – A servile self-seeker who attempts to win favor by flattering influential people

Tableau – A vivid or graphic description

Taciturn - Habitually untalkative

Ululating – To howl, wail, or lament loudly

Umbrage – Offense; resentment

Verdant – 1. Green with vegetation; covered with green growth. 2. Green. 3. Lacking experience or sophistication; naive.

 

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