If you’ve made it this far: congratulations! Fruit cup for everyone!
Takklemaggot
True story: one Saturday many years ago, as my friend Paul and I were driving back from a Magic tournament somewhere in the Willamette Valley, we were listening to a Blue Öyster Cult tape and I thought I heard something. “Paul, did they just say “takklemaggot?”
Paul didn’t think so. We rewound and listened again, but weren’t sure because of a) the quality – or lack thereof – of my car’s stereo system and b) I was driving a VW Bug at the time, and if you drove faster than 50 miles per hour, you couldn’t hear yourself think.
About a month later, in my latest InQuest magazine, I discover that, indeed, yes, Takklemaggot was named after a line of verse from Veterans of Psychic Wars. There’s some BÖC fans in Renton, apparently.
As for what a takklemaggot actually is…you’ll have to track down and ask Buck Dharma about it.
Tantiv
I give, I have no clue here. The closest reference my research found is tantivy, an adverb meaning at full gallop or at full speed. I suspect this one’s made up; anyone else want to fathom a guess?
Thaumaturgist
A fancy-schmancy way of referring to a wizard or magic user, from the Greek for “miracle worker.”
Torque
Not the verb or the unit of torsional measurement, but an item of jewelry: a torque (or torc) is a collar or necklace of twisted metal, popularized by the Gauls and Britons, now commonly found only at SCA shindigs.
Wight
There’s several different definitions for this one. Isle of Wight? No, that’s not it. Strong and brave in battle? Not the definition we’re looking for. A human being? Closer, but not there yet. A witch or sprite? Winner winner chicken dinner.
This word can be traced all the way back to the Gothic wiht, which then entered Old Norse and so on, and so on. Wights were very common in Scandinavian folklore and many myths about them still abound in those countries. Whereas Magic’s wights tend to be nasties on the Black side of the spectrum (again, most likely D&D’s influence), Scandinavian wights are more akin to gnomes or leprechauns, either neutral or benevolent. Read Adam Grydehoj fine articles if you’d like to learn more about Magic’s creatures and mythology.
Valkyrie
From Norse mythology, the valkyries (multiple pronunciations, but stick with val-KY-ree and you won’t be slapped by any Norwegians) were Odin’s handmaidens who would escort the souls of fallen warriors to Valhalla and wait upon them for eternity.
So, if I get killed in battle, I’ve got Lucy Lawless at my beck and call until the end of time? No wonder the Vikings were so ferocious in combat.
There’s plenty of Norse that made it over to English, but I’ll award bonus points if you can find one of the few words from Icelandic to enter the English language.
Ventifact
A rock that has been polished and/or shaped by wind-driven sand, usually found in deserts or other arid environments. They have nothing to do with how big your coffee is, although I imagine you could brew up a fair cup in the Ventifact Bottle.
Vex
The synonyms for Vex are numerous: confound, annoy, harass, provoke, distress, perplex, just to name a few. Not surprisingly, most of these words have also been used on various counterspells, but there’s still plenty left in the dictionary to use. For future trivia reference, it’s also, I believe, the shortest non-split, non-Un card name. [Tied with Hex, probably – Craig.]
Vigilante
The term for “one who takes justice into his own hands” does come from the root word vigilant, but in a more circuitous fashion, from the Spanish vigilante, or watchman. In the old west, “vigilance committees” – essentially a volunteer police department – would keep the peace when no law enforcement agency was available, or said law enforcement agency was perceived as unable to do the job. The word evolved into its current definition from there. You got a problem with that, punk?
Viscid
Sticky, gooey, gelatinous. Probably scarier than “hyalopterous,” too.
Worms of the Earth
A rare literary reference (I’m guessing) in the title of a Magic card. Worms of the Earth is a Lovecraftian short story written by Robert Ervin Howard, a friend of the aforementioned H. P. Lovecraft. In the story, the king of the Picts, Brak Mon Morn makes a deal with the Worms of the Earth, a race of people who were once men but, after centuries of living underground, had become reptilian monsters, to deliver the Roman governor Sulla to him for vengeance.
If you’re a fan of the Lovecraft canon, it’s worth digging up, har har.
Xanthic
Having a yellowish color, or pertaining to xanthite or xanthogenic acid, which, no surprise, are fairly yellow.
This brings me to one of my bigger pet peeves as a logofascist: when a word begins with “X,” it is pronounced as if it were “Z.” Xanthic, therefore, would be pronounced as “ZAN-thick,” not “egg-ZAN-thick.” It’s not “egg-ZAY-vee-ur,” it’s “ZAY-vee-ur,” dadgumit! Stupid X-Men comics will be the death of the English language yet.
Zephyr
It can refer specifically to the west wind, but is used more colloquially as any mild, gentle breeze.
I can see that we’ve come to the end of the alphabet, and thusly, the end of my week. I hope you’ve learned a few things with which you can astound your friends and confuse your enemies. Welcome to the wonderful world of logofascism!
Don’t fear that the creative folks at Creative are running out of words. There’s still a goodly chunk of the dictionary left to go, and, as in the case of Hans’ and Saffi’s good friend the Lhurgoyf, Creative is quite capable of making new words up. That being said, and in no particular order, the Top Ten Arcane Words I Want To See On Magic Cards Someday are:
Ossify
Coventrate
Janissary
Defenestrate
Fusilier
Exsanguinate
Oligarch
Desiccate
Quisling
Xeric
Panoply
Yes, this list goes up to eleven. Hooray bonus words!
But what the hell do these words mean? That, good reader, I leave for you to discover. I, personally, would love to see what a card named Defenestrate would do.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this as much as I’ve enjoyed researching it, and as soon as I can dig up another five days worth of oddball words, we’ll have to do this again.