Fantasy Faction
Fantasy Faction Writers => Writers' Corner => Topic started by: NedMarcus on May 25, 2019, 02:16:40 PM
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I'm writing science fantasy, and one of my characters might not be human. I'm looking for a non-derogatory word (if that's possible) to describe this person. Other characters know she's not completely human, but they don't know whether she's really an artificially created life or not.
I thought of android, but is sounds dated. I know that some films make up their own terms. Can you think of any terms for this?
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A search on "android synonym" turns up some alternatives, but few better. I'd say it's the best word. Its etymology is the most appropriate, though its use as the name of an operating system ("My android runs Android!") taints it somewhat.
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I still use android. technically a female android is a gynoid, so you could use that.
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technically a female android is a gynoid
I never knew that. I don't think I've read a story with gynoids. This spellchecker doesn't know it either, it keeps trying to change it to synod.
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Maybe Droid? Common word and avoids conflicts with Android OS :)
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Unless your Android came from an Android. Hey I wrote a story about that starting Lanko already in one of the competition discussion threads but my robot was an iPhone ...
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I'm with the folks who think the OS has tainted it a bit :/
I'd see about making something up if I were you.
There are a few words already floating about, but you did say non derogatory which makes it trickier.
Replicant, cyborg, augment, etc might work as your character isn't known as an AI or just a modded human by other characters? It all depends on your world I think.
They're just off the top of my head, there are dozens of names that exist if you look into them.
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Humanoid or maybe an anagram name like SyL (Synthetic Life) etc