What is a "gish"?

[Ahnehnois]

Alright, let's see what the general understanding of this word is.

 

[Starfox]

Both #1 and #2, but I still answered #2.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

never like the term though and only really ever heard of it from the 4e material.
Of course as some with very litle time for the great Wheel anyway I never bothered much with the githyanki either.

 

[Umbran]

It is either githyanki-specific, or the sound made when the gods trod upon the person misusing a canon term

 

[Savage Wombat]

Just because the OED defines "literally" as "figuratively" doesn't mean it's literally true.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

#2. It was originally a githyanki term, but it's been copied and became a Common word in the Prime Material Plane/natural world. It's a loanword, like "loot", which I believe is Hindi in origin but has also become a "Common" word.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Both #1 and #2, but I still answered #2.

#2 is inclusive of #1, so I kept the poll options separate. I doubt that anyone uses the term for general fighter/mages, but not githyanki.

 

[Umbran]

#2. It was originally a githyanki term, but it's been copied and became a Common word in the Prime Material Plane/natural world. It's a loanword, like "loot", which I believe is Hindi in origin but has also become a "Common" word.

I have never seen it used as a general in-game term. People in a tavern in the game world don't say, "Gee, that gish who walked by was an idiot," or anything. I've only seen it used by players outside the game (as in, "I want to optimize my gish, should I take spell X or feat Y...")

 

[Samloyal23]

Someone needs to really expand the githyanki tongue, give it the full Klingon treatment...

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I have never seen it used as a general in-game term. People in a tavern in the game world don't say, "Gee, that gish who walked by was an idiot," or anything. I've only seen it used by players outside the game (as in, "I want to optimize my gish, should I take spell X or feat Y...")

I figure "gish" is a better in-universe term than "fighter/mage". While it's metagamey, fighter/mage is even more metagamey. It's a term I heard used in-game in the last Planescape I did, a few years ago. (Pity it only lasted three sessions.)