A tisket, a tasket, a queen's head in a basket.

[truepenny]

I have encountered a shining example of the moss-troll problem in the goblin book, viz. and to wit, the word "guillotine." Instead of merely brooding about it, I decided to burst into song make a poll.

[Poll #1506528]

Feel free to expound in the comments if you need to.


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*From the Turkey City Lexicon:

“Call a Rabbit a Smeerp“

A cheap technique for false exoticism, in which common elements of the real world are re-named for a fantastic milieu without any real alteration in their basic nature or behavior. “Smeerps” are especially common in fantasy worlds, where people often ride exotic steeds that look and act just like horses. (Attributed to James Blish.)

Comments

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

For me, the "it depends" answer has a lot to do with the nature of the fantasy world. Words do come with contexts - I have problems with the use of "sabotage" in pre-industrial settings, for example. But if you need a head chopping off device, then you need to decide one way or the other. For some reason it would work better for me if the social structure would be one that shares some of the same context as 18th century France. I really want to say a similar Weltanschauung would make it ok.