Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Should I use the real name or attempt to describe?

What do you want? Do you want readers to think that they are in some kind of alternative fantasy ancient Egypt? Then call those clothes "haram" and "usekh". Do you want readers to think that they...

posted 6y ago by Frogson‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T07:42:02Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/32583
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Frogson‭ · 2019-12-08T07:42:02Z (over 4 years ago)
What do you want?

1. Do you want readers to think that they are in some kind of alternative fantasy ancient Egypt? Then call those clothes "haram" and "usekh".

2. Do you want readers to think that they are in a world completely unrelated to any historic period on Earth? Then

* * *

But beware.

If you choose (1) because, as your question implies, you think that Egyptian clothing names make it more clear to the reader what kind of clothing you refer to and you won't have to describe the clothing if you use them, I must disappoint you. I have no idea what "haram pants" or "usekh collars" look like, and I suspect that the average Westerner doesn't know either. So even if you used those terms _you would have to describe the clothing anyway_ (if their style and look was important to you). Using those terms brings no advantage (because most readers aren't familiar with them), so you might want to stop obsessing about them.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-01-16T09:30:51Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 1