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Q&A Tiptoe or tiphoof? Adjusting words to better fit fantasy races

Adapt to the culture. If it's a town of demons and the narrator is implied to be well familiarized with them, then you can go with 'tiphoof' and other such expressions, coining new idioms for the c...

posted 5y ago by SF.‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T11:31:18Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44047
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar SF.‭ · 2019-12-08T11:31:18Z (about 5 years ago)
Adapt to the culture. If it's a town of demons and the narrator is implied to be well familiarized with them, then you can go with 'tiphoof' and other such expressions, coining new idioms for the culture, replacing common phrases with more suitable counterparts, often playing puns with the expressions.

On the other hand, if there is a culture clash, with the speaker/narrator being unfamiliar with the demon customs and language you'll either go with common 'human' expressions, or show hesitation. Express that inner nitpicker!

> "The demon tiptoed... tiphoofed? Can one even tip-hoof? Eh, let's say the demon crept sneakily across the room."

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-03-26T12:59:37Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 39