History Main / CallARabbitASmeerp

* Advertising/{{Cryptoland}}: Pigeons are called "hackers".

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', the main characters have no frame of reference for [[spoiler:modern-day ballistic missiles]], so they refer to them as "javelins of light".

** "Human" is more or less a general category for humanoid people, which includes the Hylians (typically the most common), Gerudo, Sheikah, and even FairFolk like the Kokiri. The round-eared mundanes we're familiar with usually either go unnamed or are lumped in as a variant of Hylians, as there's not much you can say that differentiates them from everyone else.

* Mitch Benn's ''Literature/{{Terra}}'' practically epitomises this trope. Here he is describing a sports match: "To Fthfth's delight, Terra's gfrg skills came on in leaps and bounds (quite literally; there's a fair bit of leaping and bounding goes on in gshkth). She would convert Fthfth's zmms into zdds, smashing frkts and forcing yk yks and slotting the bdkt neatly to Fthfth so that Fthfth could ram home a victorious ghhh, to the rapturous hisses of their classmates." To be fair, it's a children's book, and children might well find that quite amusing.

** [[http://xkcd.com/890/ "Etymology"]] points out what happens when this trope is ''averted'', instead. [[Franchise/StarWars Han Solo greets Luke]] and introduces him and his ship, the Millennium Falcon, only for Luke to get confused and ask what a "falcon" even is.

[[quoteright:335:[[VisualPun https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CultofthePancakeBunny_7030.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:333:A ''smeerp'' wearing the ceremonial ''jackflappen''.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/Pikmin2 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_800px_courage_reactor_scan.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Because Energizer is for cowards.]]

** [[http://xkcd.com/890/ "Etymology"]] imagines what would happen if this trope is ''averted'', instead. [[Franchise/StarWars Han Solo greets Luke]] and introduces him and his ship, the Millennium Falcon, only for Luke to get confused and ask what a "falcon" even is.

* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' comments on this in [[http://xkcd.com/483/ strip 483]] and [[http://xkcd.com/890/ strip 890]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'' does this with food. Butter is now "blutter", coriander is now "snoriander", pizza is now "feetsa", etc. It should be noted that the characters themselves are named after actual foods, such as Chowder, Truffles, Schnitzel, Gorgonzola, Panini, etc.

* Many marine animals are named after land analogues, such as the sea cow, the sea lion and the sea horse, among others.

** Eventually, Europeans discovered that not only did ''A. alces'' live in North America, but ''C. canadensis'' lived in East Asia. Because ''A. alces'' also lives in East Asia (albeit further north), Europeans decided to call the Asian specimens of ''C. canadensis''... wapiti. Which is a lesser-known term for ''C. canadensis'' from the Cree language... which is spoken in Canada. Yes.

* In ''VideoGame/AtlantisOddysey'' the Atlanteans refer to cows as "moo'calva".

* In ''VideoGame/FreedomWars'', most food aside from the tasteless nutritional paste most denizens of the Panopticon eat get this treatment, since resources to produce real food is scarce. These include "So-Chlo" (an exotic drink which is actually carbonated water flavored with '''so'''dium '''chlo'''ride, AKA: table salt) and Q-Cumbers (cucumbers).

* In Creator/MercedesLackey and James Mallory's ''Literature/TheEnduringFlameTrilogy'', there are shotors, which from the description sounds like they are camels.

** Collecting empty bottles from the street to cash in for money is referred to as 'collecting tare', an intentionally inaccurate translation of 'container' (as in 'tare weight').

** Elves are referred to as 'welkins', which, despite showing up mostly in fantasy boardgames and books in the story where this trope may be in effect, is the commonly understood term (e.g. Jean refers to Harry's ex-girlfriend as 'welkin-like'.)

* Creator/GeorgeRRMartin's ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' features a few such creatures, and one of the joys of the series is how immediately evocative most of the terms are. One of the best of these is the "lizard-lion", which almost every person who reads the series understands to be an alligator. Others include zorses (for zebras, and not actual zorses), puff fish, pricklefish, snow bears, and colorful talking birds. Certain inanimate substances also get this treatments, such as obsidian (dragonglass).

We're [[RecycledINSPACE in space]], so regular old Earth flora and fauna just won't do.

Solution: Introduce creatures (or sports, or political institutions, or dishes, or…) that are just like familiar Earth concepts that the audience will recognize but '''[[RecycledINSPACE IN SPACE]]''', and give them funny names.

See Part One of the SFWA's Website/TurkeyCityLexicon for more detail. Writers are warned against this trope in Creator/OrsonScottCard's ''How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy''. However, this trope can also be used intelligently by works with characters that are part of a culture that [[{{Xenofiction}} has a unique way of viewing familiar concepts]] (e.g., the rabbits from ''Literature/WatershipDown'').

May also be {{justified|Trope}} by a TranslationConvention. If the viewpoint characters in the work encounter a lifeform that's new to them, but already familiar to an alien culture, the alien culture will probably have their own word for it, and there's no reason for that to match the common real-world name of the thing. However, in monocultural stories, it's much easier to overuse this trope (in this case, calling it a "space rabbit" might even be ''more'' realistic in colloquial speech, by analogy with things like "sea cow").

* Creator/GeorgeRRMartin's ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' features a few such creatures, and one of the joys of the series is how immediately evocative most of the terms are. One of the best of these is the "lizard-lion", which almost every person who reads the series understands to be an alligator. Others include zorses (for zebras, and not actual zorses), puff fish, pricklefish, snow bears, and colorful talking birds. Certain inanimate substances also get this treatments, such as obsidian (dragonglass) and napalm or GreekFire (wildfire--although admittedly that's because it's probably not actually napalm[[note]]Napalm requires gasoline or similar petroleum distillates; suffice it to say that Westeros does not have the fractional-distillation technology required to produce gasoline[[/note]] and there are no Greeks in this world). It should be noted that zorses are actual zorses, hybrids of horses and some striped animal, possible a zebra. Lizard-lions casts doubts on the rest, as there are references to crocodiles and lizard-lions actually appear in another work of the author, Tuf Voyaging, and are described as a different animal, with only the snout of a alligator, with a whip-like tail thrice the size of the rest of the body and dagger teeth. It casts doubts on the other "smeerps", as the author would have used the Real World species names unless they are not from the Real World.

* Particularly in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise, alien plants, animals and foodstuffs tend to have names following the pattern, such as "Romulan ale", "Aldebaran whiskey", "Altarian chowder", "Delovian souffle", etc. Klingon stuff gets more detail, because they have their own language, but they still have blood pie. Diseases get the same treatment; for instance, "Rigelian fever". Alternatively words can be rendered Startrekky by the addition of a prefix: not mere [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycythemia polycythemia]], but ''xeno''polycythemia; not common-or-garden [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triticale triticale]], but ''quadro''triticale. With quadrotriticale at least, it was [[MrExposition explicitly noted]] that the stuff was developed up from the original grain:
-->'''Barris:''' Quadrotriticale is not wheat, Captain. I wouldn't expect you or Mr. Spock to know about such things, but quadrotriticale is a rather --
-->'''Spock:''' Quadrotriticale is a high-yield grain, a four-lobed hybrid of wheat and rye. A perennial, also, I believe. Its root grain, triticale, can trace its ancestry back to 20th century Canada-
-->'''Kirk:''' Mr. Spock, you've made your point.
** A particularly horrible visual example occurs in "The Enemy Within" where a putative alien creature is played by someone's poor dog in a costume made of orange acrylic fake fur and horns.
** One of the strangest is the "Bolian" Double Effect Principle that they developed in "their [[TheMiddleAges Middle Ages]]" which is identical to the Double Effect Principle as developed by St Thomas Aquinas and the Catholic Church during 'our'' Middle Ages.
** Similar to the ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' example with ''Star Wars'' above, ''Website/SFDebris'' took exception to Star Trek "updating" metaphors like describing someone as a 'third nacelle' rather than a third wheel, pointing out that ''we'' haven't updated metaphors about horses and carriages to make them about cars, for example.
** Indeed, ''Star Wars'' has a least a little more justification than Franchise/StarTrek in using this trope when it comes to metaphors. At least ''Star Wars'' is meant to be in its own 'verse, with no canon ties to Earth. Whereas Star Trek is meant to be our own Earth (pretty much, anyway), just centuries into the future.
** In [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E15FirstContact an episode]] where Riker is hospitalized on an alien world, we see a number of common medical terms treated by this convention, with such references as "intercostal strut" instead of "rib." This leads to one of TNG's classic unintentionally hilarious lines ''"look at this - he has digits on his terminus!"'', which is alien-speak for Riker has toes.

* Largely averted in Gurney's ''{{Literature/Dinotopia}}'' books; flora and fauna are meticulously called by their scientific names, no matter how long those might be; it's mentioned that learning these is an essential part of a child's education. And no matter that the setting takes place before most dinosaurs were given these names. However, the trope ''is'' used with skybaxes, GiantFlyer pterosaurs who have appeared in every one to date. ''Journey to Chandara'' mentions in passing that they're Quetzalcoatlus, but people usually just call them skybaxes. They, and no others, are called by a common name. It's made odder because a larger Quetzalcoatlus subspecies showed up in a previous book and was mentioned to be ''Q. northropi''. The Ovinutrix are another one. They are Oviraptors, but dislike the name because it is a mistaken reference to them eating eggs, which in real life was proven likely false. So they, particularly the hatchery attendants, use "Ovinutrix" or "Egg Nurse" instead of "Oviraptor" or "Egg Thief".

* In ''Anime/SuzysZooDaisukiWitzy'', dandelion puffs are called ''wishing puffs'' in the English dub of the show. This is unique to the English version however, the Japanese originals still call them "dandelions".
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** Starting with Unova, the English dub refers to all fruits as "berries". This was likely done to be in-line with the games, where the only fruit shown until ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' were berries. Even when they're blatantly eating apples (and they're called apples in the Japanese version), they're referred to as "berries". They also have a tendency to not refer to vegetables by name but, instead of a fictional or unusual name, they just call them "veggies".
** [[ConeOfShame The Elizabethan Collar]] is referred to as the "Heliolisk Collar". Helliolisk are lizard Pokémon with frills. Justified because there likely was no Elizabethan period in the Pokéverse.
* In ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'', the internet is referred to as "the Wired" and computers are "navi".
* Subverted by ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''. In-universe, {{magical girl}}s are called... magical girls. Not "puella magi." The GratuitousLatin is [[NeverTrustATitle just for the title]].

* In ''Anime/YukiYunaIsAHero'', government-assigned {{Magical Girl}}s are referred to as "Heroes".
* In ''Manga/BlueRamun'', the [[ThePowerOfBlood magically curative]] blue blood of the Blue Ramun tribespeople is called "ramun."

* The ''Film/MyFavoriteMartian'' [[TheMovie movie]] has the "electron accelerator", which is nothing but {{Technobabble}} for a car's alternator.
* [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Earth#Animal_species Wookieepedia]] has an exhaustive list of this trope as it applies to ''Franchise/StarWars''. Dice, for example, are called "chance cubes" (although actual dice with pips instead of colors have appeared and gone by "dice" in the EU), guns, as in [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter kinetic firearms]], are called "Slugthrowers", etc.
** The ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' is a grab bag of names — looking at alcoholic drinks alone, there's lomin-ale, Corellian Whiskey (with brands like Whyren's Reserve), lum, juri juice, [[Literature/DeathStar A Walk In The Phelopean Forest]] (even the bartender doesn't know what's with the name), Savareen Brandy, and a [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Alcoholic_beverages lot more.]] There are occasional subversions; a duck is still a duck, for example.
* Creator/KevinSmith once said [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgYhLIThTvk in an interview]] on his having written for ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' that studio executives asked him to call the GiantSpider demanded by the producer, Jon Peters, something other than a spider. He suggested Thanagarian Snarebeast (Thanagar being Hawkman's home planet), and they told him to go with it.
* ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'': "He just took two hundred and forty-eight Space Bucks for lunch, gas, and tolls!"

* In ''Film/TwinPeaksFireWalkWithMe'', the last scene has character(s) (When you roll with Creator/DavidLynch, the pluralization can be confusing) telling BOB that they want... "Garmonbozia", which the subtitles helpfully suffix with "(pain and suffering)". It manifests itself as... ''creamed corn''.
* The Film/{{Coneheads}}' speech is a heavy mixture of this and SesquipedalianLoquaciousness.
* In the ''Film/Underworld2003'' series, the sworn enemies of the vampires are not werewolves, they're Lycans (though Selene does call them werewolves in the first film when telling Michael about the centuries-old conflict that he has just found himself in the middle of). Justified in the sequel and the prequel, which both feature first-generation werewolves that are related to Lycans, but do have a few key differences. First-generation werewolves retain very little, if any, of their original human minds, have longer snouts and are covered nearly head-to-toe with fur in their wolf forms, and are permanently stuck in their wolf forms, unable to ever revert back to human form. Lycans, on the other hand, retain all of their original human minds, have shorter snouts and very little fur in their wolf forms, and are able to shift back and forth between wolf and human forms at will. Or it could simply be short for lycanthrope, from the greek wolf-man. The commentary track for the first film actually admits that "lycan" is a contraction of "lycanthrope," and that they used it because they thought "werewolf" would sound cheesy. [[SarcasmMode As opposed to "vampire,"]] [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer which lends it that touch of classic elegance.]]

* Satirized in ''Film/AmazonWomenOnTheMoon,'' in which the Amazon women speak English but inexplicably have a different word for "year."
* ''[[Film/CaptainMarvel2019 Captain Marvel]]'': The alien characters all call Goose the tabby cat a "Flerken", and find the idea that the heroes keep a "Flerken" as a TeamPet downright horrifying. [[spoiler:{{Subverted|Trope}} when it turns out they're right. Flerkens and cats are two different species, and Goose is the former -- hidden CombatTentacles and StomachOfHolding included.]]

* ''The Court of the Air'' goes berserk with this trope, coming up with alternate Steam-Punky names for everything from journalists ("pensmen") to computers ("transaction engines") to the Sun itself ("the Circle"). Some of the Smeerp-names, amusingly, also have entirely unrelated meanings in English, such as "cardsharps" for computer programmers (because they poke holes in punch-cards to operate the mechanical transaction engines). These names range from the understandable ("[[FantasyCounterpartCulture Carlists]]" instead of "[[DirtyCommies Marxists]]") to the baffling ("combination" instead of "[[WeirdTradeUnion union]]").

** The ''Assassins' Guild Diary'' inverts the "bizarre parallel explanation" trope; it doesn't try to justify the word "byzantine" at all, but does claim the politics of the ancient Komplezian Empire were so byzantine, they led to the modern Morporkian word "complex".
** Creator/TerryPratchett parodies this in ''Pyramids'' by using the term "camels of the sea" for ships (given that camels are "ships of the desert"...)
* Dragaerans from Creator/StevenBrust's Literature/{{Dragaera}} novels refer to all predatory birds as "hawks", even if they're owls, shrikes, or whatever. There are occasional mentions of an animal called a "mock-man", which is probably a monkey or small ape to judge by its descriptions.

* In the 1930 science-fiction story ''The Gostak and the Doshes'' by Dr. Miles Breuer, the sentence "The gostak distims the doshes" plays a major role. This sentence is not Dr. Breuer's invention; the credit goes to a writer named Andrew Ingraham, who coined it in 1903. The sentence became much more widely known as a result of its appearance in the 1923 book ''The Meaning of Meaning'', by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards.

* In ''The Legacy of Heorot'', by Creator/LarryNiven, Creator/JerryPournelle and Steven Barnes, fish-like creatures swimming in the stream of a colony planet are referred to as "samlon" (much to his chagrin, it took some folks half the book to notice it wasn't "salmon"). Of course, they turn out to be rather more than that...

* In ''Literature/TheLastAngel'', the Compact, Askanj, and Humanity all have different words for ranks and titles. An Askanj Shipstress, a Compact Group Leader Prime and a Human Captain are all equivalent for example. The different naming conventions underscore the alien nature of the different civilizations.
* The Literature/ChaosTimeline often does this. America is called Atlantis, teddy bears are ''mishkas'' since they were invented in Russia, computer hackers are ''Logos'' (from 'logic'), {{angst}} is called ''horreur'', a blitzkrieg is a ''molniya'' (Russian for 'lightning'), tanks are ''Walzen'' ('steamrollers' in German), capitalism is ''monetarism'' etc. Justified, since history diverged in 1200 and people could well invent different names for things.
* In ''Literature/ForAllTime,'' HIV/AIDS, discovered in the Soviet Union in this timeline, is referred to with its Russian name: ''Sindrom priobretennovo immunodeficita'' (Syndrome of Acquired Immunodeficiency) or SPID.
* Just as in ''Literature/TheDraka'' series it's based on, Drakia in ''Literature/SeparatedAtBirthAmericaAndDrakia'' maintains a form of slavery by any other name based off indentured servitude, though they're known as "bondsmen" rather than "serfs".[[note]] In the original series, it's noted that the Draka do call their serfs "bondsmen" rather than serfs initially[[/note]] However, the slave-like nature of the system is a point of contention between Britain and Drakia, and the potential abolition of the bondsman system is one of the reasons why Drakia declares independence.
* ''Literature/TheOneAndOnlyBob'': At the beginning of the book is a list of phrases dogs have for various things they do.
** Crazy mutt: Exuberant greeting ritual.
** Full Wag: The happiest tail position, a relaxed circular swish, sometimes including hip wiggles.
** [=FRAP=] '''F'''renetic '''R'''andom '''A'''ctivity '''P'''eriod (synonym: zoomies)
** Toe-Twitcher: Dream (often squirrel-focused) resulting in foot movement.
** Playbow: Body position with elbows down and rear up, signaling an invitation to have fun.

* The original ''{{Series/Battlestar Galactica|1978}}:''

-->BARRIS: Quadrotriticale is not wheat, Captain. I wouldn't expect you or Mr. Spock to know about such things, but quadrotriticale is a rather --
-->SPOCK: Quadrotriticale is a high-yield grain, a four-lobed hybrid of wheat and rye. A perennial, also, I believe. Its root grain, triticale, can trace its ancestry back to 20th century Canada-
-->KIRK: Mr. Spock, you've made your point.

** Similar to the ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' example with ''Star Wars'' above, ''WebSite/SFDebris'' took exception to Star Trek "updating" metaphors like describing someone as a 'third nacelle' rather than a third wheel, pointing out that ''we'' haven't updated metaphors about horses and carriages to make them about cars, for example.

* In the AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho audios, the bats in the rafters of the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS are "fledershrews".

* ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye'' contains a few mineral and vegetable examples: oranges are known as as "aranges" (after the region they're most common in, Arania), hemp is called "ilmenleaf" (possibly to get its recreational use past the censors...) and platinum is known as "Moonsilver".
* White Wolf games in general do this a lot, especially [[TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness both]] [[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness lines]] of the World of Darkness imprint. Each supernatural faction seems to have multiple terms for themselves, the other supernatural groups, and normal humans. E.g., they're not ''[[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]]'', they're Kindred, Damned, the Get of Caine, Servants of the Wyrm, etc. They're not ''mages'', they're Awakened, Enlightened, [[RealityWarper Reality Deviants]], Willworkers, etc. They're not ''humans'', they're kine, canaille, Sleepers, Children of the Weaver, etc. The factions with long-established histories like the vampires and mages tend to include a generational divide in terminology, with the elder vampires and mages using traditional terms often derived from Latin, French or German, while the younger ones use a form of modern street-slang.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has a few examples, from the Eldar ('space elves')[[note]]A reference to Tolkien's work, where Eldar is the Elvish word for "Elves".[[/note]] to the Squats ('space dwarves'), though most of the common usage words are either abbreviations of normal words (lasgun for laser gun, frag warheads for fragmentation warheads) or can be explained as something different from what they sound like (lho sticks, which are described as being remarkably similar to cigarettes, but probably have a more futuristic narcotic inside). Not to mention Jokaero, the space orangutans, and gyrinxes, the space cats. The world of ''40k'' hasn't always been the grim place it is nowadays. There's also recaff for coffee, amasec for something like whiskey, tanna for chifir (Russian gulag tea), vox for radio transmitter of any kind, Auspex and Augurs for sensors and quite a couple of other "futuristic" and/or grimdark names.

* TabletopGame/MiddleEarthRolePlaying:The modules often used the elvish names of common animals/objects, even in [[GratuitousForeignLanguage non-flavour text]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Ryzom}}'' lives and breathes this trope. The pigs are yubos, the toucans are ybers, the dingos are gingos, the crabs are cloppers, the ''other'' crabs are kitins, there are four different kinds of giant mosquito... and there's [[UpToEleven many, many more]].
* The Interactive Fiction game ''The Gostak'', by Carl Muckenhoupt, is based entirely on this trope: you are thrust into a world where not only nouns but even the entire vocabulary of common verbs is replaced with a fantasy dialect. The grammar is still recognizably English, but the main puzzle of the game is working out the game's alien vocabulary.
-->''"Finally, here you are. At the delcot of tondam, where doshes deave. But the doshery lutt is crenned with glauds. Glauds! How rorm it would be to pell back to the bewl and distunk them, distunk the whole delcot, let the drokes uncren them. But you are the gostak. The gostak distims the doshes. And no glaud will vorl them from you."''
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' series consistently refers to common clucking barnyard fowl as "Cuccos". One character even refers to a cowardly character as a "Cucco". It's less out-there than most examples, since it's based on the Japanese equivalent of "cock-a-doodle-doo" (''kokke'''kokko'''h!'' --> ''kokko''). Mind you, this is rampant throughout the series. Crows are called Guays, bats are Keese (except in [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Termina]], where there are Keese and Bad Bats, classified as two different species), vultures are Takkuri, snakes are Ropes, ghosts are Poes, skeletons are Stalfos, zombies are Redeads, mummies are Gibdos. It's important to bear in mind, however, that almost all of these examples of mundane things (like Cuccos) have extraordinary powers. To use the Cucco example, chickens cannot instantly form vast indestructible {{Determinator}} flying swarms to avenge fallen brethren, whereas Cuccos ''do''.
** To make things more confusing, it seems [[SubvertedTrope chickens do exist by name]] in Hyrule, though for the most part they're interchangeable with Cuccos. Link obtains one as a quest item in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', and in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'', a Cucco enthusiast argues that if his Cuccos couldn't fly and carry heavy loads, [[LampshadeHanging "they'd just be chickens."]]
** "Human" is more or less a general category for humanoid people, which includes the Hylians (typically the most common), Gerudo, Sheikah, and even FairFolk like the Kokiri. The round-eared mundanes we're familiar with usually either go unnamed or are lumped in as a variant of Hylians, as there's not much you can say that differentiates them from everyone else.
** It's not a photo camera, it's a Pictobox. It takes "pictographs" rather than photographs.
* In the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series:
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' refer to regular humans as "beorc." To make matters worse, the laguz (a race of humanoid shapeshifters) use the word "human" as an ''insult''.
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', the main characters have no frame of reference for [[spoiler:modern-day ballistic missiles]], so they refer to them as "javelins of light".
* ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' is full of either specially named animals or combinations of animals we'd think of as normal. Rabbats (rabbits that hang upside-down), Kotekas (hybrid chicken/crows), Icebirds (the only birds in the game that can't fly), Huskras (small dogs), Arcwhales (flying arctic sperm whales)...Not to mention the Delphinus, which is named after an ''extinct'' species of dolphins with wings.
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** No, humans in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' can't just be humans. They're "humes." Those techniques you use in battle? "Technicks." Oh, and that isn't magic you're using against your enemies; they're "magicks." Strangely enough, though, creatures based on real-life animals usually keep their real names -- wolves are wolves, rabbits are rabbits, etc. And yet something as simple as a manufactured crystal is actually "manufacted."
** No, they're not dinosaurs, they're ''tyrannids''[[note]] Possibly a ShoutOut to TabletopGame/Warhammer40000's Tyranids[[/note]].
** Tall, slender humanoid races with pointy ears are usually called "Elves", but VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI chooses to call them [[OurElvesAreDifferent Elvaan]].
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' does this, even to ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'''s names. The Humes are now Hyur, Tarutaru are Lalafell, Elvaan are Elezen, Mithra are Miqo'te, and Galka are Roegadyn. Worth noting there are subtle differences between these races, and the old ones are mentioned as having been around in the last age.
*** Played more straight with measurements. Ilms, fulms, yalms, and malms are, more or less, inches, feet, yards, and miles. Bells are hours.
*** Animals and vegetables are also like this. Such as strawberries and potatoes being called rolanberries and popotoes, respectively. Giraffes are called dhalmel, tyrannosaurus are vinegaroon, and elephants are marid.
*** The First, a parallel world in ''Shadowbringers'', introduces counterparts for the Hydaelyn races with their own names: Hyur are Humes once more, Elezen are Elves, Miqo'te are Mystel, Roegadyn are Gladjent, Au Ra are Drahn, Lalafell are Dwarves (and classified as a beast tribe in the First), Viera are Viis, and Hrothgar are Ronso.
* Only a person who has played ''VideoGame/UltimaUnderworld II'' can adequately describe to you what it means to use a Delgnizator on two Control Crystals to skup a new Bliy Skup Ductosnore.
* In ''VideoGame/FreedomWars'', most food aside from the tasteless nutritional paste most denizens of the Panopticon eat get this treatment, since resources to produce real food is scarce. These include "So-Chlo" (an exotic drink which is actually carbonated water flavored with '''so'''dium '''chlo'''ride, AKA: table salt) and Q-Cumbers (cucumbers).
* ''VideoGame/GroundControl'' and its sequel have Terradynes (Tanks and tracked vehicles) Aerodynes (Planes), Helidynes (a different kind of aircraft)and Hoverdynes (Hovering tanks). Strangely enough, the [[TheEmpire Terran Empire]] doesn't go with AMechByAnyOtherName, simply calling them "walkers". In the sequel, the Virons call their Hoverdynes "Centruroids", even though they're functionally the same.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
** Those large-mawed reptilian creatures you find near water aren't crocodiles, they're crocolisks. And those big pincer'd and stinger'd exoskeletal creatures aren't scorpions, they're scorpids. Considering that there are normal-sized scorpion critters simply called "scorpions", it seems that Azerothians only use the term "scorpid" to refer to scorpions as big as wolves with the temper to match. Also, the number of legs on real life crocodiles is generally known to be a number somewhere south of six. The crocolisks actually seem to be a type of aquatic basilisks, which are also fairly common in the ''Warcraft'' universe and ''also'' have six legs when presented. The two even use the same basic models.
** Those giant bipedal dinosaurs with the really tiny arms are not theropods, they're devilsaurs (then again, what would you call one of those things if you saw it alive). Those long-necked aquatic reptiles with flippers are not plesiosaurs, they are threshadons (presumably from their habit of swiping their tails to "thresh" opponents).
** The zebra-like horned creatures are zhevras. Other unicorns in the game, which share a model with the zhevras, are called "chargers". It's not clear whether this is intended to imply that they are the same creature. Actually, these are technically "kirin" rather than unicorns since they have cloven hooves. They also use the same animation set as the deer: except for the Thalassian charger which uses horse animations.
** The dodo-like creatures found throughout the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor are tallstriders. actually they are like a cross between a dodo and an ostrich. And make a horrifying shrieking noise.
** The elephant-like creatures from Outland that the Draenei use as their racial mounts are elekks. Outland also has creatures known as talbuks that look like horse-sized goats, though there are actual goats in-game as the dwarves' racial mount and mountain goats you can purchase from the Tillers.
** This even extends to some of the playable sentient races. Those humanoid cattle people that are part of the Horde are not minotaurs, they're Tauren. The new sixth race for the Alliance in ''Cataclysm'' are not werewolves, they're Worgen (named after worgs, which are basically dire wolves).
** In an even more interesting example: the large cats found near Silvermoon are called "lynx", and look like the cats of the same name from the real world (apart from color: the in-game ones are red and gold). However, identical large felids found on the plains of Mulgore are called "prowlers" (these ones are plain tan). In other instances large cats are called "tigers" or "lions" despite being the same size as the "lynx" mentioned above. In all likelihood they are actually regional variations of the same creature. The different names, probably just reflect what aspects of the creature the local people care more about. The elves being very scientifically minded, probably care much more about it's genetic relationship to other animals. The Tauren meanwhile, care much more about it's tendency to prowl large areas stealthily. The "tiger" and "lion" meanwhile, are clearly so named just because they share characteristics with the real-world animals of the same name (stripes and manes respectively). they actually appear to be the same type of cat as the "lynx" and "prowler". As Azeroth is smaller than the real world, and the continents were only separated 10,000 years ago (rather than the millions of years our continents have been in their current formation) it stands to reason there would only be one large cat species. Particularly because it shares it's range with wolves.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'' doesn't have werewolves, it has balverines! Who (in the first game) [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything can only be hurt by silver, disguise themselves in human form, howl at the moon, and, oh, can infect other humans who survive being bit.]]
** There are also hobbes (goblins) and hollow men (undead skeletons).
* Day 9 TV gets a kick out of ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' doing this -- calling a coyote a lyote, to be precise -- in http://day9tv.blip.tv/file/4946816/ (starting around 47:15).
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** They're Koopa Troopas. Not turtles. Given the game's origin country as Japan, you'd think that there's some etymology of the name from '{{kappa}},' a Japanese turtle {{youkai}}. Averted when you learn that it's because they're so-called for being Bowser's forces, and Bowser is spelled 'Kuppa' in Japan (and pronounced Koopa). As in, [[https://www.theverge.com/culture/2017/1/17/14296396/bowser-korean-food-koopa-japanese-nintendo-miyamoto Korean foodstuffs.]]
** Also of note is that this is the case for ''every'' FunnyAnimal species in the series. Dogs are Doogans; birds are Craws, ants are Antottos, and quite a few other examples. The normal versions of the animals have their normal names.
** In ''VideoGame/MarioBros'', turtles are Shellcreepers (unrelated to the Koopa species) and crabs are Sidesteppers.
** In the Japanese version of VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG, in the battle against Exor, his mouth is named... "mouth". But in the english version, it's named "Neosquid" for no discernible reason.
* ''Videogame/{{Clonk}}'' has zaps instead of bees. Oddly, the trope isn't used for anything else.
* Lampshaded in ''VisualNovel/EienNoAselia'' where Yuuto refuses to refer to yofwals as anything but waffles.
* In a more literal example of this trope, the rabbit-people of ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'' are called "Pookas" (not to be confused with the other [[VideoGame/DigDug Pooka]])

* ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}''
** Wolves are called "rhebolls", squirrels are "quias", etc.
** Pikkards are actually ''not'' an example, though they're easily mistaken for such. Despite taking on the same role in the game world as pigs do in real life -- both as livestock, and in phrases like "pikkard sty" --they're actually a large rodent-like mammal somewhat resembling a hamster or marmot.
** ''VideoGame/YsVIIILacrimosaOfDana'' doesn't have dinosaurs, but it ''does'' have Primordials.

* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStar'' refers to its magic as "techniques". ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIV'' [[{{Justified}} justifies]] this by making techniques different from "real" magic, [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration both in lore and in gameplay]][[note]]Techniques draw on a character's [[ManaPoints Technique Points]], while magic use skill charges[[/note]].
* ''VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins'', with their spinoff series ''VideoGame/GargoylesQuest'', have a race which has been called Red Devils, Red Demons, and other assorted names in the past; their correct name is "Red Arremer".
* ''VideoGame/TheTowerOfDruaga'' and its [[Anime/TheTowerOfDruaga anime spinoff]] both do this with classical dungeon-crawling enemies. Minotaurs are "Kusarakks" and Dragons are "Quokks", for example.
* ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'': No, those aren't swords, they're "nails".
* ''VideoGame/EarthDefenseForce5'' goes out of its way to not describe the aliens as exactly what they look like. That's not a giant ant, that's "Aggressive Alien Species Alpha".
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonVietnameseCrystal'', a poorly translated bootleg of ''Pokemon Crystal Version'', all of the people, places, and Pokemon have been renamed. To name a few, Venonat is called "Corn," Rattata is called "Caml," Goldenrod City is called "Xiaojin City," Professor Oak is called "Oujide Dr.," and Slowpoke is "Yedong."
* ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'' uses dinosaur terminologies similar to ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'', including "Earthwalkers" for Triceratops, "Snowhorns" for Woolly Mammoths, and "Red Eyes" for Tyrannosaurus.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' skirts this and CallASmeerpARabbit in its monsters (at least in the English release), many are variants of normal animals with variations of normal animal names. To wit, Antols are ants the size of a dog, Brogs are large frogs with armored scales on their backs. There are also Ponios, Skeeters, Krabbles, Piranhaxes, etc. [[spoiler:Although it seems like an example of this for most of the game, Homs are not in fact humans by another name.]]
* ''VideoGame/TheNeverhood'' has one scene where Klaymen gets chased around by a giant clawed monster called...a Weasel.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'':
** ''VideoGame/Pikmin2'': Justified. No animals that have Earth names are to be seen, but the captains find loads of [[https://www.pikminwiki.com/List_of_Pikmin_2_treasures treasure]] -- junk, tin cans, toys -- and their ship, wanting to sell them, gives them wildly creative, often pretentious names that typically come nowhere near the names we'd use. Beyond the trope image (a D Duracell battery called a "Courage Reactor"), a chestnut is a "Seed of Greed", a juicer is a "Merciless Extractor", red tape is "Furious Adhesive"...
** ''VideoGame/Pikmin3'' has the Koppaite travellers gathering fruit to avert a famine on their home planet. They're all recognisable earth fruits, but are given amusing alternative names based on their appearance or taste - lemons are "face-wrinklers", a banana is a "slapstick crescent", a peach is a "mock bottom" and so on.

* ''VideoGame/TwoWorlds'' renames fairly typical goblins as "Groms" and, in II, reanimated skeletons are called "Necris."
* ''Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters'' calls escalators "Electro-Stairs."
* ''VideoGame/{{Darksiders}}'' has an "Ortho," also known as the "Angelic Beast". It's a [[OurGryphonsAreDifferent Griffin.]]
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' has the citizens of the 15th-century kingdom of Mikado using terms such as "mystic script" and the "Unclean Ones' country". As it turns out, those two terms refer to [[spoiler:Japanese script and Tokyo (the people of Mikado use English)]]. As for why this is the case, it's a very long and spoilerrific story.
* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' has a couple of mildly obscure ones. Guinea pigs are known in-game as "cavies", which happens to be their original name in the language local to their country of origin, and Corinthian Bronze goes by "black bronze", likely to avoid any references to real-world locations. [[{{Unobtainium}} Adamantine]] is also basically Tolkien's {{mithril}} under another name, but that's more of a trademark issue. "Hearthperson" appears to be an odd translation of the word ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housecarl huskarl]]''.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld:'' Many of the monsters are named after real or mythological animals but deviate in design from the real thing, sometimes quite substantially. For example, the "raven" is a large black eagle or hawk, the "orca" is draconic or sea monster-like, the "Cerberus" only has one head, the "griffin" lacks the front legs that normally define a griffin as something different from a regular bird, etc... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4M_G4Na0Vs Seen here.]]

* Chumbucket in ''VideoGame/MadMax'' has no idea what a dog is actually called, so when Max arrives with one in tow he refers to it as a "Dinki-Di", after the numerous cans of Dinki-Di brand dog food scattered throughout the Great White.

* ''Videogame/{{Warframe}}'' has the Kubrow and the Kavats, which are functionally canines and felines respectively. However, Kubrows are hatched from eggs and have bat-like snouts while Kavats have reptilian features and can turn invisible. The Plains of Eidolon have Condrocs, which are just buzzards and Kuakas, which are chinchilla-like rodents. The Tenno refer to a wedding as a "Nuptia".
* The four advanced crops of ''VideoGame/ArkSurvivalEvolved'' are "savoroot" (potato), "rockarrot" (carrot), "longrass" (sweetcorn), and "citronal" (lemon).
* When ''VideoGame/DragaliaLost'' reached its second anniversary, firearms were introduced as a new weapon type. However, to keep with the fantasy RPG setting, they go by the name of "manacasters", and they fire mana bullets.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Phoenotopia}}'' and its VideoGameRemake, ''VideoGame/PhoenotopiaAwakening,'' sheep are called "pooki" and chickens are called "perro." The "perro" name is a bit unusual, since "perro" means "dog" in Spanish.
* For ''VideoGame/ThemsFightinHerds'', the different ungulates technically have specific names for their races, [[CreaturesByManyOtherNames but it’s downplayed as they are interchangeably called by their actual species more often than not.]] (Deerfolk for reindeer, Cattlekind for cows/bulls, Sheeple for sheep, Goatani for goats, etc.) Averted for the unicorns and longmas, who are always called just that. Invoked by the alpacas, ''who prefer'' to be called “Alpake”.

* In ''Atlantis Oddysey'' the Atlanteans refer to cows as "moo'calva".
* ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'' uses a lot of alternative terms for everyday items in order to give a sense of the RetroUniverse, European [[MeltingPotNomenclature melting-pot]] setting.
** Collecting empty bottles from the street to cash in for money is referred to as 'collecting tare', an intentionally inaccurate translation of 'container' (as in 'tare weight').
** PTSD is called "Trauma and Stressor Disorder".
** A crowbar is called a "prybar".
** Elves are referred to as 'welkins', which, despite showing up mostly in fantasy boardgames and books in the story where this trope may be in effect, is the commonly understood term (e.g. Jean refers to Harry's ex-girlfriend as 'welkin-like'.)

* ''Webcomic/GuildedAge'': Syr'Nj has plant-based names for body parts. Toes = Taproots, Hair = Foliage, etc.

* The various ''Franchise/{{Peanuts}}'' do no have credits for "art" or "animation", but rather "graphic blandishment".

** Justified in ''VideoGame/Pikmin2''. No animals that have Earth names are to be seen, but the captains find loads of [[https://www.pikminwiki.com/List_of_Pikmin_2_treasures treasure]] -- junk, tin cans, toys -- and their ship, wanting to sell them, gives them wildly creative, often pretentious names that typically come nowhere near the names we'd use. Beyond the trope image (a D Duracell battery called a "Courage Reactor"), a chestnut is a "Seed of Greed", a juicer is a "Merciless Extractor", red tape is "Furious Adhesive"...

** In 4th Edition, there are monsters called the Macetail Behemoth and the Bloodspike Behemoth, which have an uncanny resemblance to an ankylosaur and a stegosaur respectively. The 4E names may be inspired by TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}, where halflings name all dinosaurs this way. The dragons also have their own names for the dinosaurs, so every species has three different names. There's a chart in one of the books to help keep things straight.

** On the conceptual side, ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' also features inquisitives and chronicles... otherwise known as detectives and newspapers.