Eldraeic Word of the Day: Cagál

[avatar (Alistair Young)]

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@morgrimmoon <morgrimmoon@gmail.com> on 2018-07-18 19:13:52 wrote

So in the common curse “Shit and waste heat”, are they using cagál in root form or mézcagál? You say the latter isn’t in common usage, but the curse seems to be invoking the term in it’s useless/entropic form and stuff like curses and proverbs seems to be where obsolete words linger longest.

@Alistair Young <athanasius.skytower@arkane-systems.net> on 2018-07-18 19:39:10 wrote

You’re quite right - it’s the latter, and a holdover usage from earlier days.

@Specialist290 <carpentereli@outlook.com> on 2018-07-22 21:27:48 wrote

archaic term for a useless substance, no longer in common usage due to its high value in ecopoesis and closed life-support systems

From which I deduce that Eliéra must have had unnaturally and nearly-uniformly fecund soil if it took them this long to figure out the wonderful commercial potential for “night soil,” something that was relatively well-known to pre-industrial agrarian societies here on Earth.

(See also: The entry from Working IX to V on “stercorarius”: Working IX to V: Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns, and Other Prized Professions ... - Vicki León - Google Books )

On that note: Does eldraeic have a term for the local equivalent of stercorarius (“manure entrepreneur”)?