Origin of D&D words/names?

[Quasqueton]

I'm wondering if some words and names in the D&D lexicon have Real World roots. For instance:

aasimar
tiefling
genasi

Are these words just made up, or do they actually mean something in some Real World language?

If you have words that you'd like to know the meaning/history of, list them in this thread too.

Quasqueton

 

[DanMcS]

These are all words from 2nd edition Planescape, and were probably made up like a lot of words for that setting. However, some were made from real roots.

Tielfling seems related to thief, from ME theef, OE thEof, and that's from old high german diob, meaning thief, but it also seems vaguely related to the root word for diabolic, giving a nice sense of evil or just deviousness to the creatures descended from fiends.

Aasimar would be derived from Aasimon, another D&Dism, but I don't know the root of that. Astral, maybe, or latin astra, the stars?

Genasi are elementals, just like the genies in D&D, and there's your root for that.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Tiefling = to go along with what Dan said, the German for devil is teufel. Yea, that's where it comes from as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Zarrock God of Evil]

These are all words from 2nd edition Planescape, and were probably made up like a lot of words for that setting. However, some were made from real roots.

Tielfling seems related to thief, from ME theef, OE thEof, and that's from old high german diob, meaning thief, but it also seems vaguely related to the root word for diabolic, giving a nice sense of evil or just deviousness to the creatures descended from fiends.

Aasimar would be derived from Aasimon, another D&Dism, but I don't know the root of that. Astral, maybe, or latin astra, the stars?

Genasi are elementals, just like the genies in D&D, and there's your root for that.

Of course now that most Celestials will again be called just "angels" we should probably redub Aasimars to AngeLITES

-Zarrock

 

[Kae'Yoss]

tief is German for deep (like in the lower planes). If you would give Tieflings an English name, it would be Deepling.

 

[Dave G]

What about Sahuagin?

The Sahuagin bug me, everyone in our group pronounces it differently, and when I try to look it up, I can't find anything about it.

Anyone know where it comes from?

How about proper pronunciation. It's my favored enemy for cryin' out loud!

 

[Dave G]

bump?

 

[Monte At Home]

I think Zeb Cook coined tiefling. I'd be very surprised if it didn't come from the German root mentioned above.

I think Rich Baker coined aasimar. I'm sure it's just a variation on aasimon.

I coined genasi. It's a variation on genie.

 

[Welverin]

Re: What about Sahuagin?

The Sahuagin bug me, everyone in our group pronounces it differently, and when I try to look it up, I can't find anything about it.

Anyone know where it comes from?

Nope but here's a phonetic pronunciation from a text file I have (attached to this post):
Sahuagin: sah-HWAH-gin

There are also so audio files on the classics downloads section of WotC's site under Planar Adventuring, but it's all outer planes stuff.

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

Woohoo! It tells you how to pronounce those manta-ray type things, xithichitichihaixihiahcilitil!