I don't get behind the naming of the tyranids.
I mean, I know GW's IoM uses an own version of latin and invents new words and so on. But tyranids don't make any sense at all to me.
Carnifex. Carni for meat/flesh (understandable) and fex for "producer" or "maker"?
I understand it sounds nice, but how is a Carnifex meant to "produce" meat and not eating/absorbing it? (-trophe)
Zoanthropes/Venomthropes.
Anthropos, like, "human"? What? Doesn't make any sense at all to me.
Weirdly, in the german version they're called Zoantrophen/Toxotrophen. I don't know if it's because GW thought germans couldn't pronounce it correctly or they acknowledged their fuckup and changed it to -trophe for "eating" which makes sense for tyranids.
So, am I missing something or doesn't GW give a damn about naming their creations plausibly?
Because Latin and Gothic are not the same language
Carnifex= The executioner
in latin
>>46099673
>Carnifex.
Butcher. As in this beastie will butcher people.
>Zoanthropes
From Zoanthropy, a madness where people believe they are animals. Weaker connection, but basically because they're crazy psychic animals.
>Venomthropes
Later day Tyranid unit with no thought behind it besides it shares a look with the Zoanthorpe but is poisonous.
>>46099673
Tyranids are named that because the designers wanted to remind people of tyrants/tyranny and dinosaurs (tyrannosaurus)
>>46099673
>I mean, I know GW's IoM uses an own version of latin and invents new words and so on.
Nope. Latin is just a representation for high gothic.
Both are spoken by the clerus and the elite.
What high or low gothic actually sound like is left completely open.
>>46099673
Tyranids->Tyran (first imperial planet with a recorded attack of them) + idi/ids (an addition to a noun meaning "son of-", "spawn of-")
Carnifex means executioner
You're right though, GW doesn't give a flying fuck
>>46101194
>What high or low gothic actually sound like is left completely open.
I always thought High Gothic = Faux Latin and Low Gothic = Modern English
>>46103859
>Faux Latin and Modern English
Those are proxies for what the languages actually would be in-setting. It's sort of like LotR - Frodo and Sam don't really speak English (and their names aren't even Frodo or Sam), it's just that English represents the in-setting language called Westron.
But you might already get this and I just misunderstood what you were saying.
>>46104033
Imps actually have English and Latin written and inscribed on their banners, armour, weapons and buildings though.
>>46099673
I know specifically that Carnifex was the term for the person in charge of killing wounded gladiators at the arena, too unpopular or crippled to continue.
That's the reason I named a kinda roman fantasy death god after it. With a flax, the weapon both sword and scythe.I know the pic is of a Rhompaia.
>>46104121
Again thats just translation for our convenience.
>>46106632
I don't buy it, it takes up real physical space.