Ever read a work of fiction and wish it included a glossary of the book’s unusual terms and names? Or do you think of glossaries as useless wastes?
In General
More common in nonfiction, glossaries sometimes appear in science fiction and fantasy books, to help readers orient to the unfamiliar world of a novel bristling with strange words and numerous proper nouns.
Daniel J. Tortora posted a nice discussion of glossaries giving you everything you need to know.
Your Context-Free Slang Word Quiz
My new book, The Seastead Chronicles, lacks a glossary. I hope readers can pick up terms from context, without needing a reference section.
Readers might discern the meanings of many words even without context. For example, can you guess what the following seasteading slang words from my book might mean?
Here’s your list: blub-blub, blubbing, ebb-tide, flotz and jetz, fluke, kelpee, pelagic, squido, steader, tidal, and up-bubble.
In the book, character actions and dialogue provide context as they use these terms. Even if you couldn’t guess meanings without reading the stories, you’d deduce them without pondering too hard.
While creating the world of my book, I assumed characters would create new slang as they moved to live in ocean-based cities. That seemed likely, since the phenomenon occurs whenever people relocate and settle in a new environment.
Quiz Answers
Ready to find out how well you did at guessing the meanings of my fictional seastead slang? Below, I’ve provided a part of the glossary that doesn’t appear in The Seastead Chronicles. I bet you came close, even without context, to the correct meanings for many of them.
Word/Phrase Meaning
Blub-blub yada yada
Blubbing kidding, joking
Ebb-tide disappointing
Flotz and Jetz nonsense (from flotsam and jetsam)
Fluke swear word/oath
Kelpee kelp tea
Pelagic out/away, as in “I’m going pelagic”
Squido crazy
Steader a resident of a seastead, also Seasteader
Tidal popular, viral
Up-bubble positive, enthusiastic
Grading Yourself
If you couldn’t guess many slang term meanings, I blame myself. I didn’t give you any background material, but readers of The Seastead Chronicles have all the context needed.
I think the book works well without a glossary, but that’s the biased opinion of—
Poseidon’s Scribe
