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Subject: 
Re: Etymology of "mecha" and possible fixes
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.fun
Date: 
Sun, 2 May 1999 16:43:50 GMT
Viewed: 
262 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.fun, Jeremy H. Sproat writes:
I need a new word to describe large, walking machines with bad attitudes.
(1)  The word in vogue right now -- "mecha" -- is an English transliteration
of a Japanese transliteration of the English word "machinery", which could
describe a Thunderhead Drive Industries BashMaimKill Destroyer Mark XVIIa as
well as an electic bread dough mixer.  This leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
[...]

I just remembered -- somewhere I read in an interview with George Lucas that
the word Gungan was coined by Lucas's son.  But his son didn't mean it to
apply to a race of amphibious humanoid creatures (as it applies in SW Ep1).
His son meant it to apply to big beasts -- mechanical, in fact, IIRC.

It's a pretty great word for that, IMHO :) -- especially if you remove the
trailing 'n' -- then you get "gunga," which sounds vaguely like "mecha" and
"manga," and yet still sounds more Japanese than "mecha."  And not only does
it subconsciously contain the word "gun," but the word "gung" also means
"extremely or overly zealous or enthusiastic," which could permute into
"trigger-happy."  :)

--Todd



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Etymology of "mecha" and possible fixes
 
(...) :-, I especially like that trigger-happy part. Thanks for the info! I've settled for a pidgin-German mix, "Kriegmacht", meaning roughly "presence of conflict". "macht" really means power, force, or presence, but using those first two sounded (...) (25 years ago, 3-May-99, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)

Message is in Reply To:
  Etymology of "mecha" and possible fixes
 
Hey "mecha" fans, I need a new word to describe large, walking machines with bad attitudes. (1) The word in vogue right now -- "mecha" -- is an English transliteration of a Japanese transliteration of the English word "machinery", which could (...) (26 years ago, 11-Mar-99, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)

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