Doesn’t this imply that he defiles orcs from Moria? There are others that war with orcs from Moria, skirmish with them, sap them… Orc syrup?
: Zubon
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10 thoughts on “Hyphen Usage”
That’s precisely what it implies. You *really* don’t want to know the details. (On a related note – Beater and Biter? Not swords, that was a translation error. Again, the specifics are very NSFW.)
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there’s the funny response so I’ll give the /nerdhat one.
And as a langui-phile* shame on you for not picking this up already!
He’s not an orc defiler, he’s an orc-defiler. ;-} An orc who does defile! Though that does not preclude him from defiling orcs.
*(yes I made that up, have fun!)
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(as so often happens, I had a point that I utterly failed to convey here. hopefully made up for it a little below.)
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I guess you would have a field day with the German translation if you find that already funny… :)
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My first impression was that yes, “orc-defiler” does, quite specifically, mean “one who defiles orcs”. Having read the usage outline for the hyphen at
however, I am not so sure. I don’t think it’s clear either way.
If I was writing a story in which there was a character who was an orc who defiled things (god forbid) and I was insane enough to try and construct a generic term for him, I think I’d go for “orcish defiler”, although that risks him being thought of as a defiler who’s a bit like, but not actually, an orc. I definitely wouldn’t go for the hyphenate, though.
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Well IIRC Tolkien does specifically have the habit of using “Thing-” as a direct substitute for where we’d use “Thingish” or i.e. “having origin among the Things”.
I still can’t reconcile that with Zub’s warg-riders example, so it looks like he did catch Turbine in an inconsistency there.
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There are also Moria Warg-riders. These are riders of Moria wargs, not Moria wargs that ride [something].
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A Moria orc-defiler would indeed be a defiler of orcs, by my reading, and not an orc who defiles generally. However he could be a defiler of orcs who just happens to live in Moria – he shouldn’t have to restrict himself to just defiling Moria orcs.
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Considering that the defiler’s role is to give other orcs and bad guys green morale luvving, maybe it -is- aptly hyphenated…
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Confusion stems form the fact that there’s no established adjectival form of Moria (that I’m aware of. If we could say ‘Morian Orc-defiler’ instead, it would go a lot easier.
That’s precisely what it implies. You *really* don’t want to know the details. (On a related note – Beater and Biter? Not swords, that was a translation error. Again, the specifics are very NSFW.)
there’s the funny response so I’ll give the /nerdhat one.
And as a langui-phile* shame on you for not picking this up already!
He’s not an orc defiler, he’s an orc-defiler. ;-} An orc who does defile! Though that does not preclude him from defiling orcs.
*(yes I made that up, have fun!)
(as so often happens, I had a point that I utterly failed to convey here. hopefully made up for it a little below.)
I guess you would have a field day with the German translation if you find that already funny… :)
My first impression was that yes, “orc-defiler” does, quite specifically, mean “one who defiles orcs”. Having read the usage outline for the hyphen at
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/punctuationhyphen/hyphen-
however, I am not so sure. I don’t think it’s clear either way.
If I was writing a story in which there was a character who was an orc who defiled things (god forbid) and I was insane enough to try and construct a generic term for him, I think I’d go for “orcish defiler”, although that risks him being thought of as a defiler who’s a bit like, but not actually, an orc. I definitely wouldn’t go for the hyphenate, though.
Well IIRC Tolkien does specifically have the habit of using “Thing-” as a direct substitute for where we’d use “Thingish” or i.e. “having origin among the Things”.
I still can’t reconcile that with Zub’s warg-riders example, so it looks like he did catch Turbine in an inconsistency there.
There are also Moria Warg-riders. These are riders of Moria wargs, not Moria wargs that ride [something].
A Moria orc-defiler would indeed be a defiler of orcs, by my reading, and not an orc who defiles generally. However he could be a defiler of orcs who just happens to live in Moria – he shouldn’t have to restrict himself to just defiling Moria orcs.
Considering that the defiler’s role is to give other orcs and bad guys green morale luvving, maybe it -is- aptly hyphenated…
Confusion stems form the fact that there’s no established adjectival form of Moria (that I’m aware of. If we could say ‘Morian Orc-defiler’ instead, it would go a lot easier.