Help me find a word/concept for my fantasy novel.
December 22, 2019 9:48 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for a word to use for a social unit for this fantasy species that I'm creating. I would rather use an existing English word, phrase, or concept rather than invent a new word.
Okay, so, historically this fantasy species practices something like arranged group marriages, with like 6 to 10 individuals involved. Only they're not so much marriages because the focus isn't on romance but on raising children together. The older people in an area would discuss who would be a good fit in terms of personalities, existing likes and dislikes, and (to a lesser extent) reproductivity. The expectation isn't that everyone in the arranged family unit would be sexual with each other (there's social space and recognition for queer sexuality and asexuality and actually it is seen as helpful to have at least one to three people in a family unit who won't biologically parent anyone) or even that sexual/romantic connection outside the unit is forbidden. There is social pressure to prioritize the well-being of the unit--romance in general is seen as frivolous and/or foolish (which is partially biological, in that the species has a specific mating season and typically low sex drive through the rest of the year).
I want a name for this social unit, something that evokes the sense of disparate parts brought together into a stronger whole. The idea of a braid or a weave could work, except I'm already using weave for another concept in this fictional world, so that's out. Something like circle or ring? I was hoping there was some kind of architectural concept specific to building a circular foundation, like for a tower, but seems to just be called circular foundation...
Those are just some possible starting places! The main thing is a word or concept for bringing and binding together multiple, separate parts into a new, more powerful collective. Could be an engineering or science concept or ecological or social or... or anything that works!
Okay, so, historically this fantasy species practices something like arranged group marriages, with like 6 to 10 individuals involved. Only they're not so much marriages because the focus isn't on romance but on raising children together. The older people in an area would discuss who would be a good fit in terms of personalities, existing likes and dislikes, and (to a lesser extent) reproductivity. The expectation isn't that everyone in the arranged family unit would be sexual with each other (there's social space and recognition for queer sexuality and asexuality and actually it is seen as helpful to have at least one to three people in a family unit who won't biologically parent anyone) or even that sexual/romantic connection outside the unit is forbidden. There is social pressure to prioritize the well-being of the unit--romance in general is seen as frivolous and/or foolish (which is partially biological, in that the species has a specific mating season and typically low sex drive through the rest of the year).
I want a name for this social unit, something that evokes the sense of disparate parts brought together into a stronger whole. The idea of a braid or a weave could work, except I'm already using weave for another concept in this fictional world, so that's out. Something like circle or ring? I was hoping there was some kind of architectural concept specific to building a circular foundation, like for a tower, but seems to just be called circular foundation...
Those are just some possible starting places! The main thing is a word or concept for bringing and binding together multiple, separate parts into a new, more powerful collective. Could be an engineering or science concept or ecological or social or... or anything that works!
Household?
posted by Segundus at 10:07 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Segundus at 10:07 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
Circuit, circlet, wheel, girdle? Lace, enlacement, netting? Compass? Cord, knot?
I'm assuming "kith" is not as figurative as you'd want?
posted by desert outpost at 10:14 PM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm assuming "kith" is not as figurative as you'd want?
posted by desert outpost at 10:14 PM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
Union, myriad, bundle...
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 10:19 PM on December 22, 2019
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 10:19 PM on December 22, 2019
henge
broch (iron-age Scottish round tower for dwelling, defense and refuge)
quoit (prehistoric burial\ceremonial feature)
lens\e
oculus - open skylight
round (as in who's\where's your round?\what round are you from?)
posted by unearthed at 10:32 PM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]
broch (iron-age Scottish round tower for dwelling, defense and refuge)
quoit (prehistoric burial\ceremonial feature)
lens\e
oculus - open skylight
round (as in who's\where's your round?\what round are you from?)
posted by unearthed at 10:32 PM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]
Matrix
Hub
Camera
Focus
Amalgam
Nexus
Entanglement
Plex
Bastion
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 10:46 PM on December 22, 2019
Hub
Camera
Focus
Amalgam
Nexus
Entanglement
Plex
Bastion
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 10:46 PM on December 22, 2019
Phratry?
posted by jamjam at 10:52 PM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
In ancient Greece, a phratry (phratria, Greek: φ(ρ)ατρία, "brotherhood", "kinfolk", derived from φρατήρ meaning "brother") was a social division of the Greek tribe (phyle). The nature of these phratries is, in the words of one historian, "the darkest problem among the [Greek] social institutions."[1] Little is known about the role they played in Greek social life, but they existed from the Greek Dark Ages until the 2nd century BC; Homer refers to them several times, in passages that appear to describe the social environment of his times.[2]In anthropology it seems to used as a subunit of "clan".
posted by jamjam at 10:52 PM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
Would it be too on-the-nose to call it a village?
posted by muddgirl at 10:54 PM on December 22, 2019
posted by muddgirl at 10:54 PM on December 22, 2019
I think it'd make sense for them to be called after the unit they live in - do they live in one big house? Or like a villa or courtyard?
posted by bleep at 11:03 PM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by bleep at 11:03 PM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
You could call it a house. But that’s not very exotic sounding. A pod? (Like whales?)
posted by aubilenon at 11:08 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by aubilenon at 11:08 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
Bulwark / Bastion both relate to architecture and strength.
"Weft" could work for going along with the weaving theme.
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 11:21 PM on December 22, 2019
"Weft" could work for going along with the weaving theme.
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 11:21 PM on December 22, 2019
Sept is close, but historically a slightly larger group. Or Sippe, which is Germanic, but the same. I also like pod, as mentioned above. What you are describing is also a crèche, but with kinship grafted on, so maybe marriage crèche? Ancient Hawaiians practiced something similar, but limited to siblings, called punalua. Actually, now that I think about it the Oneida religious community in New York practiced almost exactly what you are describing, so you could call that group an “oneida.” Whether or not you capitalize is up to you.
posted by seasparrow at 11:35 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by seasparrow at 11:35 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
Non biological parents are called alloparents.
In birds this kind of set up is pretty common and called a creche as mentioned above. Its often durable for years. The idea of the whole is also a little like the collective child rearing of a kibbutz, which was designed to break down the nuclear family bonds in favor of allegiance to the community
posted by fshgrl at 11:54 PM on December 22, 2019 [6 favorites]
In birds this kind of set up is pretty common and called a creche as mentioned above. Its often durable for years. The idea of the whole is also a little like the collective child rearing of a kibbutz, which was designed to break down the nuclear family bonds in favor of allegiance to the community
posted by fshgrl at 11:54 PM on December 22, 2019 [6 favorites]
Congregation
Co-family
Creche-clan
Kinderbund
posted by zaixfeep at 12:42 AM on December 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
Co-family
Creche-clan
Kinderbund
posted by zaixfeep at 12:42 AM on December 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
Knot? Splicing? Holdfast? Loop? Binding (noun)?
posted by Grunyon at 1:47 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Grunyon at 1:47 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
clowder
Feral mother cats often help each other raise kittens, and feral cats in general are way more social than people realize. Sometimes they make babies.
Mainly, though, the sound of the word is great for what you want, and people only vaguely know what it means -- if they recognize it at all -- and the meaning is close even if it's not precisely what you want.
The virtue of people not knowing it 100% is that: the sounds are familiar so the word is memorable, and the story you're working on is free to add nuance to the word without people getting too caught up in whether your metaphor matches precisely, or making assumptions about your meaning/social structure before you've shown what you mean.
posted by amtho at 2:17 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
Feral mother cats often help each other raise kittens, and feral cats in general are way more social than people realize. Sometimes they make babies.
Mainly, though, the sound of the word is great for what you want, and people only vaguely know what it means -- if they recognize it at all -- and the meaning is close even if it's not precisely what you want.
The virtue of people not knowing it 100% is that: the sounds are familiar so the word is memorable, and the story you're working on is free to add nuance to the word without people getting too caught up in whether your metaphor matches precisely, or making assumptions about your meaning/social structure before you've shown what you mean.
posted by amtho at 2:17 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
Collage?
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 2:22 AM on December 23, 2019
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 2:22 AM on December 23, 2019
Reef
(shamelessly stolen from the brilliant fandom creation of Clownfish ABO)
posted by Mizu at 2:27 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
(shamelessly stolen from the brilliant fandom creation of Clownfish ABO)
posted by Mizu at 2:27 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
At least one of Ursula Le Guin's short stories describes an arrangement similar to this -- she calls them Hearths, along with words like flock, school, swarm, warren, and clan.
posted by Rhaomi at 2:46 AM on December 23, 2019
posted by Rhaomi at 2:46 AM on December 23, 2019
Troop/troupe
Spousehood (eg ungendered brotherhood for spouses)
posted by zaixfeep at 2:48 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
Spousehood (eg ungendered brotherhood for spouses)
posted by zaixfeep at 2:48 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
Cousins
posted by einekleine at 2:48 AM on December 23, 2019
posted by einekleine at 2:48 AM on December 23, 2019
A thing very much like this is part of the worldbuilding in Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series of books. She calls this unit "bash" from 居場所/ "ibasho". Previously in mefi.
posted by sukeban at 3:44 AM on December 23, 2019
posted by sukeban at 3:44 AM on December 23, 2019
I think you might want a word that both describes the verb of joining the unit and the noun of the unit itself. Something that could be DONE and Used to describe the whole. Like Thread?
posted by The_imp_inimpossible at 4:22 AM on December 23, 2019
posted by The_imp_inimpossible at 4:22 AM on December 23, 2019
Cluster.
posted by tomboko at 4:35 AM on December 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by tomboko at 4:35 AM on December 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
The Icelandic word “aett” means “those we are related to,” but also refers to the point of a compass or the direction of the wind.
posted by chrisulonic at 5:46 AM on December 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by chrisulonic at 5:46 AM on December 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
Nest. A nest is made of a lot of different items woven together and of course it's appropriate for a group that will be raising children.
Social insects join together to form colonies that are almost like superorganisms. So hive, colony, or mound (as in termites) would make sense.
As many cells or organs make one body, you have multiple people coming together to make a larger body. They could call that by some word usually used for a single person, like mother, father, or parent. (Maybe capitalized.) Maybe if people in this world always reproduce in groups, those words are only used for the group, not an individual. Or they might use some word or phrase implying that the group is like a person, but bigger or better than one ordinary person: bigmother, betterbody, greatbody, strong one.
Chain. Made up of small links that are stronger fastened together. Or maybe chain circle.
And then you could think about things that are made up of smaller things. Garlic cloves in a bulb. Sections inside an orange. Atoms in a molecule. Stars in a galaxy.
posted by Redstart at 6:17 AM on December 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
Social insects join together to form colonies that are almost like superorganisms. So hive, colony, or mound (as in termites) would make sense.
As many cells or organs make one body, you have multiple people coming together to make a larger body. They could call that by some word usually used for a single person, like mother, father, or parent. (Maybe capitalized.) Maybe if people in this world always reproduce in groups, those words are only used for the group, not an individual. Or they might use some word or phrase implying that the group is like a person, but bigger or better than one ordinary person: bigmother, betterbody, greatbody, strong one.
Chain. Made up of small links that are stronger fastened together. Or maybe chain circle.
And then you could think about things that are made up of smaller things. Garlic cloves in a bulb. Sections inside an orange. Atoms in a molecule. Stars in a galaxy.
posted by Redstart at 6:17 AM on December 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
Clade.
posted by 4th number at 6:19 AM on December 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by 4th number at 6:19 AM on December 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
Creche seems like the best word for this to me. A group of multiple adults collectively caring for the young. You don't even need to define the word specifically in the story, that's exactly what it means.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:28 AM on December 23, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by caution live frogs at 6:28 AM on December 23, 2019 [4 favorites]
Gestalt
posted by _DB_ at 9:45 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by _DB_ at 9:45 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
Going for the architecture idea, maybe a keystone? (a central stone at the summit of an arch, locking the whole together.)
posted by devonia at 10:33 AM on December 23, 2019
posted by devonia at 10:33 AM on December 23, 2019
Just brainstorming on the off chance I might hit something unsaid that you end up loving.
Adjacency
Commune
Accord
Brood
Filiation
Synod
Pack
Intent
Grounding
Array
posted by DrAstroZoom at 11:42 AM on December 23, 2019
Adjacency
Commune
Accord
Brood
Filiation
Synod
Pack
Intent
Grounding
Array
posted by DrAstroZoom at 11:42 AM on December 23, 2019
Plinth
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:46 PM on December 23, 2019
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:46 PM on December 23, 2019
Sounds much like an Aandrisk "house family" in Becky Chambers' Wayfarers-verse.
posted by mumkin at 7:09 PM on December 23, 2019
posted by mumkin at 7:09 PM on December 23, 2019
Nthing “creche” (“crèche” if you’re fancy). As a reader, that’s the suggestion in this thread that I would be most receptive to.
posted by cabbage raccoon at 11:37 PM on December 23, 2019
posted by cabbage raccoon at 11:37 PM on December 23, 2019
a Scaffold
a Set (as in, the set of all beings who are in my set, and maybe even a Russell?).
I like Redstart's Molecule. Maybe abbreviate it to 'Cule.
posted by at at 4:10 AM on December 24, 2019
a Set (as in, the set of all beings who are in my set, and maybe even a Russell?).
I like Redstart's Molecule. Maybe abbreviate it to 'Cule.
posted by at at 4:10 AM on December 24, 2019
A book I just read used the word 'clave, short for enclave and with the apostrophe. If none of the words above work, you might consider manipulating them similarly (e.g., 'amily, 'reche, 'butz).
posted by cocoagirl at 1:57 PM on December 28, 2019
posted by cocoagirl at 1:57 PM on December 28, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by slidell at 9:56 PM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]