Phantasy Spelling: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

The tendency for common words describing fantasy concepts to be deliberately misspelled, typically:

 

== [[The Fair Folk|Fairy/Phaery]] ==

{{quote| '''Tea:''' Fairies? Faeries? Phayrighies? It doesn't matter; they all mean the same thing. }}

* ''Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theater''.

** "Pharisees" as a term for fairies really has been used in various rural locations across England, mostly Sussex but also Somerset where the above story is set.

** There's at least one of [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s "Puck of Pook's Hill" stories, set in Sussex, where a farmer uses "Pharisees" in this sense.

* Averted in ''Goblin Moon'', where "fairy" is the name of the race, while "Fae" and "Farisee" are apparently two different ''nationalities'' within that race. (The Biblical overtones of the latter may be intentional, as some of [[Teresa Edgerton]]'s nonhuman cultures are analogs to real-world human cultures.)

* In [[Wicked Lovely]], they are commonly refferd to as the fey, one on it's own is a faery. The world is faerie.

* Extremely common in general in fantasy stories that mention fairies. They will usually be spelled Faerie or Faery.

 

== Fantasy/Phantasy ==

* In ''[[The Baroque Cycle]]'' by [[Neal Stephenson]], it's consistently spelled "phant'sy".

** The apostrophe is actually there to indicate that the word "fancy" is a contraction of "fantasy", which is [[Truth in Television]].

 

== [[Our Vampires Are Different|Vampire/Vampyr(e)]] ==

** Also, in the pilot there was an old-looking book titled ''Vampyr''.

{{quote| Vampyres are just the same, the only real difference being that they can't spell correctly.}}

* One ''[[Blade]]'' series implies that vampires and vampyres are actually different things.

** That setting did the same trick with "goblin"/"goblyn", making them two different monsters.

* The Usenet group alt.vampyres.

* The Vampyr boss from the Sega CD game ''Vay'' (in addition to being a lame-as-hell boss) doesn't even get the courtesy of having an "e" on the end of his name.

* [[City of Heroes]]' [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler|5th Column]]/[[No Swastikas|Council]] Vampyri are explicitly stated not be "true" vampires but the end result of a super-soldier program.

* Brian Lumley's ''[[Necroscope]]'' series features the classic Romanian mythological variant "Wamphyri".

* ''[[Runescape]]'''s vampires are vampyres (noted in the quest name "Vampyre Slayer"), with the tie-in novels being the current notable exception spelling-wise.

** This would be because originally they were all called vampires, then the race was split into the mindless vampires and the intelligent and stronger vampyres, then in mid-2011 they were changed again so the race as a whole was called vampyre, with the intelligent ones referred to as vyres. The novels were released before the changes to spelling and terminology.

* The eponymous being of Meredith Ann Pierce's [[The Darkangel Trilogy]] is variously called darkangel, icarus or vampyre. As it turns out, a darkangel is a {{spoiler|human boy adopted by [[Big Bad|the witch]], raised as her son ''and'' lover. Eventually she drains his blood, gives him his wings, and gilds his heart with lead before sending him out to collect some souls for Mommy. When he succeeds, he flies home, Mommy drinks the souls like shots, as well as his own soul, which will make him a complete darkangel.}}

* ''[[The House of Night]]'' series would like to remind you that their vampyres are in fact super special. They have [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|no association with feral, violent 'vampires']] of any sort. Spelling vampyre with a 'y' both differentiates from these completely imaginary creatures and creates a cozy learning environment. The House of Night would also like to wish you a nice day.

* While ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has no vampires per se, the San'layn come close. One of the dungeon bosses in ''Wrath of the Lich King'', Prince Taldaram, has an attack called "Embrace of the Vampyr".

* ''[[Darkened Skye]]'':

== Other/Multiple ==

* The "Wi'tch" series of novels.

* Don't forget about "Dwarfs ''vs.'' Dwarves" and "Elven ''vs.'' Elfin ''vs.'' Elvish".

** Or even, [[Fan Nickname|on rare occasions]], "[[Dwarf Fortress|dorfs]]."

* [[Warhammer 40000]] in an odd mix of sci-fi and fantasy. Orks ''vs.'' Orcs, Psykers ''vs.'' Psychics, Daemons ''vs.'' Demons, etc.

** Daemon is the Latin spelling, which is understandable because the Imperial High Gothic language is [[Canis Latinicus]]. Of course, [[Warhammer Fantasy]] likewise.

*** ''[[Ever Quest]]'' divides them into Griffawns (lowest-level), Griffennes (in the middle), and Griffons (highest-level)

* In the latest ''[[The Tomb of Dracula]]'' series, starring Marvel horror mainstay Blade, it's indirectly implied that a vamp''y''re is comepletely different from a vamp''i''re. From the context, they're apparently analogous to the real life vampire subculture, except they hobnob with actual vampires and are really obnoxious about it.

 

{{reflist}}