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Line 1: {{trope}} {{quote\| '''Qui-Gon''': Let's see. Electro-axe. Energy mace. "Plasma bow"?? You just took a D&D equipment list and stuck techy words in front, right?~~<br />~~ '''GM''': Don't be stupid.~~<br />~~ '''Qui-Gon''': [[Laser Blade\|Ten foot laser pole...]]\|''[[Darths ~~<br~~and />Droids]]'' }} ~~''[[Darths and Droids]]'' }}~~ Out of the confusing twists and turns of [[Techno Babble]] and [[Expospeak]] come the [['''Sci Fi Name Buzzwords]]'''. These are short word components that can be clicked onto an existing word [[We Will Use Wiki Words in the Future\|portmanteau style]] to make it sound more sciencey. These tend to rise and fall in favor over time. Using one from a different era can give your technology a retro, period feel. Note that in the Victorian age, on which most [[Steampunk]] is based, it was common to name things using Latin compound words, i.e. quadro-velocipede, electro-fulminator (both from ''[[Legend (TV series)\|Legend]]''). Line 12 ⟶ 11: A [[Super-Trope]] to [[Space X]], [[Photoprotoneutron Torpedo]]. {{examples}}▼ ▲{{examples}} * General mechano- (early 20th century) Line 73 ⟶ 72: uvaser xaser [https://web.archive.org/web/20090305081453/http://www.sjgames.com/munchkin/starmunchkin/ bananafanabobaser] * Outer Space [[Space X\|space-]] * In his 1976 how-to-write-SF article "Living the future: You are what you eat!", Gardner Dozois gave a good tirade that culminated with this (cue the author's [[Sarcasm Mode]]): {{quote\| "Well, after all, science fiction is pretty easy to write, isn't it? It's just a matter of using fancy names -- just change the names, apply a thin layer of technologese and jargon, right? Say 'helicar' instead of car, 'helipad' instead of driveway, 'tri-vid' instead of television, 'feelies' (or 'smellies,' or 'grabbies') instead of movies. Better still, use the word 'space' as a prefix for everything: spacesuit, spacegun, spacehelmet, spacehouse, spacedog, spacecow. ... Right? Just change the names and you can write a confession-magazine love story, a cowboy story, a gothic, or a nurse novel, and sell it as science fiction. Right?"}} * Which is rather like saying you can compare a story about romance to a story about in-virtro fertilization because both in fact accomplish the same objective. -space<ref>[[Star Wars\|Hyperspace]], [[Halo\|Slipspace]], [[Star Trek\|Subspace]]...</ref>