Resource Earth Words and Their Star Wars Equivalents - a helpful index for writers

This thread is intended to help writers find a Star Wars equivalent to every day earth terms. Don't you hate sitting there for an hour trying to remember if there is a Star Wars word for a bee?

It will list only words used in ?official? Star Wars books, comics, etc. Please don?t add words that you have created for use in your own stories. This is only for Star Wars, not other science fiction works. If you come across a term that is an equivalent for an earth term, just post it here and we?ll add it to the official list the next time I update.

This will not include alternatives for swear words, which you can find Here

Also remember that the Fan Fiction Index has a lot of helpful links.

 

A-F


air conditioner = cooling unit
ant - garnant or myrmin
Bandaid - Bactapatch
bathroom ? refresher, or ?fresher
batteries = power cells
Bed- Sleep Couch
bees- honeydarters
binoculars ? electrobinoculars, can also be macrobinoculars, also electrobinoculars
birthday ? Naming Day
black-and-white (as in old movie or TV show) = monochromatic
blender - sonicblender
cafe/bar - tapcaf
caffeine pill - stimpill
camera - holocam
Cappachino - StimCaf
Car-landspeeder/airspeeder/speeder
Chat Rooms = HoloChat Rooms
clock- chrono
coffee - caf
concrete- duracrete of ferrocrete
Credit card- credcard
Diamonds - chrysopaz
dice- chance cubes
Disk - Datacard
Doctor- Medic or Healer
drugs?spice
drug dealers = slythmongers
duct tape = space tape
electric plug = power recharge socket/recharge power coupling
English-Basic
First Aid Kit- Medpack
Flashlight- Glow rod
forklift-binary loadlifter

 

G-L

glass - transparisteel
godparents - Hold-parents
gum - Chew stick
hacker - Slicer (Computers)
handcuffs- binders
Hospital- Medcenter
ID card - Identicard
jack (for lifting) - hydrojack
Jazz music - Jizz music
Jazz band - Jizz wailers
Jolt! Cola - Stimfizz Can keep a person up for nearly 2 standard days
Kevlar = armorweave
lamp/lightbulb (flat?) = lumapanel

 

M-R

money -credits
motorcycle - swoop/speederbike
movie - holodocumetary/holodrama
novel - Holonovel
On/off button = activator panel/button
Pajamas - Sleep-suit... or Sleep-pants for the guys
palm pilot = datapad
paper - flimsiplast
PDA = datapad
pen-stylus
photograph = holograph or holo
pistol- slug thrower (see also, rifle)
plastic - plasteel
Plug- Power Socket
Poker- Sabaac
rabbit- hoojib
radio/TV/cell phone antenna = signal receptor/reception antenna
rain poncho = rain cloak
rifle- slug thrower (see also, pistol)
rifle scope/crosshairs = rangefinder

 

S-Z



Scissors- cutters
Spanner ? Hydrospanner
Standard day= 24 hours
Standard week= 5 days.
Standard month= 35 standard days
Standard year(Coruscant) about ten standard months.
steel - durasteel
tiger -vine tiger
vacuum cleaner/Dustbuster = sandstat (Tattooine)
video/movie - holovid
vinyl = synthleather
walkie talkie/communications devices - commlink
Watch - Wristchrono
wheelchair = mechno-chair (maybe the un-fancy Tatooine version of Yoda's hover-chair)
Windows (on spacecraft) - Viewport
windshield = windscreen

 

This section is for the SW equivalents of common Earth phrases


Idioms

Wild goose chase - wild bantha chase

 

I've seen "reporters" or "paparazzi" referred to as "holoshills" before. I'm pretty sure that came from profic, too. Might wanna check though.

 

This is extremely helpful, thank you for starting this thread. I was just wondering about the SW equivalents to a few earth objects earlier today!

 

Zahn's "Alliance" had quite a few equivalent words if you want to look through that for more. I don't have my copy with me at the moment, else I'd mention them.

 

I think Watto might dispute equating "credits" with "money" there...

Do you have any suggestions for words such as sadistic, maudlin, or quisling?

 

This is EXTREMELY helpful. I wish I found this sooner.

 

Just because I'm a little pain in the behind...

The Mechno-chair isn't the gffa equivilent of a wheelchair, it's a status symbol in Nemoidian society. It raises the rider above others, showing their higher position in society. They're highly uncomfortable though.
In the novelisation of Episode 2, Cliegg Lars is noted as using using a hoverchair.

Credits is probably a better swap for dollars. It's the most common form of currency in the Republic but many worlds still have their own currencies.

Birthdays have also been refered to as "lifedays" (in Starfighters of Adumar)

Diamonds are still refered to as diamonds in the Bacta War.

Luma panels are also refered to as glow panels.

Cred cards also called cred-chips or credit sticks. Also cred account.


That's all I've spotted so far. I'll be sure to be irritating if I see any more.

 

Part of the problem here is lack of continuity in the EU itself.

In the novelisation of Episode 2, Cliegg Lars is noted as using using a hoverchair.

And in Truce at Bakura, Luke uses a repulsor chair. Sighs...

 

^Hmm...maybe that's just a sign of improved technology. The repulsor chair must be a more advanced version of a hover chair. Or their just the same thing.

 

A word of warning: please do not think that the words on the list are the only ones that can be used. It's a big GFFA, filled with many things for which Basic has no word for. Feel free to come up with your own words.

Frankly, the list is misleading in many ways. For example:

There are more tigers in the GFFA than vine tigers.
Hoojibs shouldn't be used as a substitute for rabbits unless those rabbits are sapient.
While spice is a drug, not all drugs are spice.
Sabaac is Poker and Blackjack rolled into one and, given the rules of the game, I'm more inclined towards Blackjack.
As Fanficfan pointed out, diamonds are diamonds are not chrysopaz, which seems to be an entirely different gemstone in its own right.

And so long as I'm ranting . . . my impression of a holonovel is more a movie than a book. I mean, do you actually need 3D for text-based stories? Even with illustrations?

Also -

DarthThesaurus :This section is for the SW equivalents of common Earth phrases

Please go through KW Jeter's Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy with a notebook and a pen. If you haven't given up by the end of the first book, you're a better being than I.

- lazy

 

On another thread, someone asked about what they use to prepare food in the GFFA and I was wondering about that, too. 'Autochef' came up, but I don't know what that is. Sounds like a droid. The only cooking I recall in the movies is Beru in ANH and Yoda in TESB. What does the book say Beru is using? Yoda is easy; it's still called 'fire' in the GFFA. What other things do people use to cook with?

 

This is very helpful.

 

what's the GFFA Equiv. for stockholm syndrome?

 

Sorry, I just found that hilarious.

I don't believe there is an official SW equivalent, but since the term was named after a hostage incident in Stockholm, Sweden, I don't think there's any reason why you can't do the same and come up with your own name.

"Coronet Syndrome" or "Mos Eisley Syndrome," that sort of thing. Be creative!

 

Autochef is from the Death in.... series by J.D. Robb.

 

ok, as this is the place for where helpful stuff begins, I thought I'd throw my problems at it and see what happens:

what is denim? syringe? and doorknob?

I know "doorknobs" are really the little keypads next to the doors, what then what are the keypads called? I know there's a special name for it, I just don't know what it is.

-Lures

 

I call the door keypads "activation panels"

This thread is actually very useful...I'm coming back here more often.

It got me thinking...what is the equivalent of TV in a galaxy far, far away? And what kind of shows would they watch?

 

(was wondering when this thread would get made)

OK, some notes: 'Star Wars Equivalents' is poetic license. Nothing in the GFFA is ever truly equatable to an Earthly person, place, or thing.

Take Denim, to use Ms. Lures as my unwitting example. Denim is an Earth fabric that is weaved from cotton - an Earth plant - in a very specific manner. It is certainly likely that there is some legwear floating around the GFFA with a similar roughness or texture of what we'd call "Denim", but as there is no cotton to be found in the GFFA, this particular piece of apparell could never really be Denim, nor even a synonym of Denim. It would merely be a form of clothing that, for whatever reason, happens to contain one or two Denim-like characteristics.

In that same vein, I implore you all to be warey of the Main List. Simply because it says 'this' = 'that' does not necessarily mean that the GFFA word-in-question is exactly, or even partially, equal to the Earth word-in-question. They are merely ways to help you get across a basic idea through large brush strokes. Any attempt at a more detailed inspection will inevitably (and should, to be honest) collapse any and all comparable similarities between the two objects.

I just wanted to throw that out there before we continued. It's an easy thing to forget.
That said, if anyone out there does know the GFFA equivalent of Denim, I'd also love to know

 

what is a tent called in star wars?

 

Well the word "tent" is extremely basic. So basic, in fact, that the orginal meaning is essentially the same as the current meaning: "portable shelter of skins or cloths stretched over poles" - attested to in English as far back as 1297. Super basic words like this do not tend to require an 'equivalent'. So I think, without even doing any real research on the EU end, it's safe to say that in Star Wars, a "tent" is called a "tent"

That said, if ya wanna get fancy, here are some words that convey 'tent' in a different, less modern-Englishy manner:

marquee (large tent)
pavilion (very large tent)
proscenium (entrance to a tent <-archaic use)
barrack (military <-archaic use. As a group, could be refered to as a bivouac)
ramada (spanish influence. similar to 'pavilion')
skene (greek, meaning 'tent' in reference to a booth or temporary place of business)