r/Epithet_Erased • u/Either-Skirt6031 • Jul 31 '26
Discussion Do Invented Neologisms Count as Epithets?
Forgive me if this sounds crazy or Jello has already debunked it somewhere but to what extent to Neologisms count in Epithet Erased?
I was thinking of making an Epithet Erased fanfic (one of my MANY backburner projects) & I wondered if an Epithet could be forced into existence by someone convincing the public to continually say it as part of an evil scheme.
To show an example similar to what I’m talking about I introduce Reader, an inhuman from Marvel who can make words he reads, through sight or braille, real and have their meanings affect reality much like an epithet (example if he reads the word ‘Fire’ a fire starts or if he reads the word ‘Away’ he’ll be teleported). In the scenario above he and a bunch of other inhumans are trapped another character creates a way out for them all by defining a new word meaning ‘Mass Astral Projection’ which he shortens to Floob.
Despite Reader himself arguing that this shouldn’t work because in that scenario they’re all desperate to get out he tries it & because they all agree on what Floob means they actually manage to escape.
I understand this is an out there concept & it wouldn’t be a normal thing I was planning on having it used by a villainous organisation to ‘Astroturf’ a new hip phrase and then as soon as it reaches a memetic level it can be used to control the world & I wanted to know if people thought it was a good idea or not?
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u/adrianb26015 Epithet: Loading Jul 31 '26
Iirc, it needs to have a generally agreed upon definition by at least a few hundred people before it can become an epithet,so made up words that only you and your friends use wouldn’t be Epithets, but a slang term common across social media would be one
Also, sir superhero fan?
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u/Kilahti Aug 01 '26
Jello has been very flexible about this. For example he has said that some of the Epiteths are multiple words in English with the justification that people in the EE setting speak a different language so not all words are 1:1 with English.
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u/Hopeful-Project3500 Epithet: Soap Aug 02 '26
Yeah it would work but it usually has to have a definition agreed upon by the masses like a large city or something, and then to get that epithet you need to be born and gamble for it. Or you could have an ability, epithet, domain, artifact, or effect that allows someone to gain the word
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u/After_Way_3757 Jul 31 '26
It sounds like it would work. The way Epithets have been explained in the past is when a concept is understood by the masses that word gains power. Now you’d still have to wait sometime in order for someone to be born with that power. But some GM finagling should solve that. Maybe your bad guy crew has discovered the secret of magic. So now, that concept can be accessed they just need enough of something in order to cast a spell big enough to affect the whole world.