[MR] Use of the word "Troll"

[logan]

as much as her excellency might hate it, i agree that words like
feast-o-crat, nasty-crat, etc are really useless.  there are proper, correct
terms already available instead of needing to make them up.  however, terms
like troll, dragon (for cars), small/goslings/halflings/etc (for children),
have little place in an organization like the sca.  the old war cry of "ITS
THE CREATIVE BLAH BLAH BLAH" would make sense except the word creative
doesnt demand inaccurate.  troll, in and of itself, is a fantasy sounding
word that makes little sense for the sca.  sure, it was used 30 whatever
years ago when fairies and wizards were invited to "events" but why continue
to use a term that is so easily replaced and without harming anything or
anyone?  changing the armor standards, or the forever changing ok for this
month seems safe for now.. combat archery standards, all put a large strain
on those affected (or is that effected, i miss that one sometimes..) but to
use a much more appropriate term is sooooo easy.  

there was a "discussion" not too long ago between master hervus and myself
about the term 'baronetcy'.  he had his documentation that claimed its
origin was X date and it meant Y.  i had different documentation that it was
from Z date and it meant A.  well, we all know that A comes before any of
them and i was right.  however, i was the only one with that documentation
and i have given up on using the term the way i did since we all agreed that
there was a better term.  a better, more appropriate term.  not some made up
term like troll to be used to describe the hard working person at 2am that
takes my money so i can wander around and enjoy myself while they sit in an
area known as her/his booth.

i certainly dont think that there is anything wrong, corrupt, or negative
about asking if we should not be using terms that actually were used in the
middle ages in an organization that still, regardless of how bad some people
feel about it, claims to be about those times.  learning is not a painful
thing and, often times, it can be a lot of fun.  the history of the words
that apollonia forwarded was very interesting and educational.

regards
logan

several times head cook, steward, and gate(keeper)

-----Original Message-----
From: atlantia-bounces at atlantia.sca.org
[mailto:atlantia-bounces at atlantia.sca.org] On Behalf Of Elaine Koogler
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 5:13 PM
To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org
Subject: [MR] Use of the word "Troll"


I have absolutely no problem with using the word "Troll" to designate the
person who welcomes me to an event, checks my membership, etc.  It is, at
least, a real word.  I have a greater problem with words like "Feast-o-crat"
or some of the other terms along the same lines that I have heard and am
hearing more and more recently.  I just plain old don't like constructed
words...ask my friends...I get touchy over using nouns for verbs and vice
versa, so this really bugs me.  When I am in charge of cooking a feast, I'm
the Head Cook.  I would even like to see "autocrat" replaced by
"Master/Mistress of the Hall" or something similar.  But even that is
preferable to the made-up words I see being used.

End of rant.

Kiri
----- Original Message -----
> >             Here are a couple of new names for Troll.  Let me  know 
> > what you think is the best or an alternative.
> >
> > Gatekeeper  or  Concierge (Websters definition: Multilingual hotel 
> > staff person who handles reservations, mail and luggage 
> > arrangements)
> >
> >
> > In your service
> > Lord Galen Storm



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