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iceman comments on Friendship is Optimal: A My Little Pony fanfic about an optimization process - Less Wrong Discussion

63 Post author: iceman 08 September 2012 06:16AM

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Comment author: iceman 08 September 2012 06:20:57PM *  6 points [-]

Thank you very much for your feedback.

Sigh. "Alicorn" is supposed to mean just the unicorn horn, not an entire winged unicorn / pegacorn / unisus. It's been corrupted; I guess you don't really have a good alternative on how to refer to the species with a single word, but if you're only saying it once or twice "winged unicorn" is serviceable.

I am actually aware of this and the first several drafts stubbornly referred to Princess Celestia as a winged unicorn. I gave up after having a discussion with my roomate about how we write to be understood by others, and, at least in the minds of my target readers, the correct word to refer to the concept of a winged unicorn is "alicorn."

Comment author: Ritalin 29 October 2012 11:44:02PM 0 points [-]

Words mean what most people think they mean. Language is, after all, a convention. Etymology and history are only guidelines.

Comment author: adavies42 15 September 2012 03:15:16AM 0 points [-]

at least in the minds of my target readers, the correct word to refer to the concept of a winged unicorn is "alicorn."

This may be Piers Anthony's fault. At any rate, the Xanth books were where I first encountered the term.

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