It's all for science! ;)

[artaxastra]

A couple of people have commented that they've been hitting google and the dictionary to look up things in my current Sanctuary series, because I'm doing the Victorian vocabulary with a vengeance!

So have you? What are the most fun/interesting things you've looked up?

I'll start. Tribadist, anyone? ;)

Comments

[dbalthasar]

*waves hand* I know, I know!

[artaxastra]

Was I asking for volunteers? ;)

I'll remember yours was the first hand up!

[m_nivalis]

Normally I don't google unknown words if I understand them in context, thus no googling of tribadists. However, I did check Anacreon, but Wikipedia didn't say anything in particular of his poetry being homoerotic in general, so I guess James would be referring to particular works - alternatively, Anacreon is way less well-known today than Sappho, and therefore such details were not included on Wikipedia.

[artaxastra]

Anacreon had more of a reputation than some, although frankly I think he's milder than many of the Latin poets. But there's an 18th/19th century British song, To Anacreon in Heaven, that our boys would probably have been familiar with, including "So my sons from your Crackers no mischief shall dread, While snug in their clubroom, they jovially twine, The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine." Unless they've got girls in the clubroom....

[couplechemistry]

I love how you have introduced me to so many new words. I look up every word I don't know, even if I get the meaning of it from the context. They really do add to the story.

[artaxastra]

It's a lot of fun pulling out all the obscure things, and the words we don't use much anymore. I have a really good time looking up what was in use when.

[palmaceae]

*raises hand*
Yeah, I had to look up tribadist, but from the context I had a pretty good idea of what it meant anyway lol. I love that you don't shy away from using older/unusual words.

[artaxastra]

I had to look up when the usage changed. In my stuff early in the 19th century it's the right term, but of course it changes later and I wasn't sure exactly when. 1890s, it turns out!

[st_aurafina]

*giggles* You are wicked.

I'm not doing so bad on the Victorian era, I mostly need to look up people, rather than words.

In other spheres, I swear, you're responsible for fifty percent of my history education. And I'm probably the only person reading your historical fiction to find out what happens, not to find out how you're interpreting what actually happened. /philistine

[artaxastra]

*g* Another volunteer to help Helen with the term!

I think most people reading are reading to find out what happens! I do tend to pick kind of obscure things to write about!