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this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
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"cancer-light"
Make it fancy. "Malluminance" or something
Disease-light might be the best medieval equivalent, actually.
"Death-light", maybe? Depending on the intensity.
They have "ray of frost". They can understand "radiation". Not necessarily what is radiating but the word itself is old.
radiation(n.)
mid-15c., radiacion, "act or process of emitting light," from Latin radiationem (nominative radiatio) "a shining, radiation," noun of action from past-participle stem of radiare "to beam, shine, gleam; make beaming," from radius "beam of light; spoke of a wheel" (see radius).
Tldr "radiate" is like 1500's whereas "emitter" is a fairly modern word, from the 1880's.
The latin source word is much older than 1500s, but the question is whether they understand what it's about.
Both the 15th century "radiacion" and the latin "radiationem" are about emitting light and are synonymous with "to shine" or "to glow" (though without the heat connotation).
None of that conveys the sense of danger and fear of death that the modern word "radiation" means.
Kinda like how the word "plane" was in use in English in the 1600s and derives from the much older Latin word "planum", but if I'd tell some from 1600s England or from ancient Rome that I took a plane/planum to another country, they'd be utterly confused about what that means.
The word is the same (or at least very similar), but the concept is unknown.
So you need to find a concept that's similar to what you want to convey, and then use the fitting word.
For example, someone from the 1600s might understand the term "flying machine" (which was a well-known word in use in research and "science fiction" at that time).
No, they don't convey the sense of danger, I agree.
But "light-emitter" would be worse than "it radiates death/evil", imho
You think?
A light emitter could be quite useful. If I am in a low-tech society, having a device or material that would emit light in the dark could be pretty desirable.
It might confuse me though, because that "light emitter" doesn't actually emit any light at all. Maybe this ancient society was full of liers or maybe their devices are all expired and broken. Probably their warnings aren't worth anything either.