On the Planet Flargg, when the main character makes a snack from a thin slice of Sqroom meat between two rounds of Bhachto, he will still call it a sandwich.
But at least it hadn't been hard to give the species a name. It looked like an enormously smaller version of a "hexapuma", and like the hexapuma, there was something very (or perhaps inevitably) feline about it. Of course, Stephanie knew "feline" actually referred only to a very specific branch of Old Terran evolution, but it had become customary over the centuries to apply Old Terran names to alien species (like the Sphinxian "chipmunks" or "near-pine"). Most claimed the practice originated from a sort of racial homesickness and a desire for familiarity in alien environments, but Stephanie thought it was more likely to stem from laziness, since it let people avoid thinking up new labels for everything they encountered. Despite all that, however, she'd discovered that "treecat" was the only possible choice when she started considering names, and she hoped the taxonomists would let it stand when she finally had to go public with her discovery, though she suspected rather glumly that her age would work against her in that regard.
As it fell to the ground, a huge spider—if an eight-legged creature with spines instead of hair, many-faceted eyes, and a bloated, globular body weighing hundreds of pounds, may be called a spider—leaped upon it and, mighty mandibles against poisonous sting, the furious battle raged.
Thimble is right on the ocean, and the seafood they have here is incredible. They've got what they call 'lobsters,' even if they don't look anything like ours—or like Old Earth's, for that matter...
— Michelle Henke, of the planet Manticore, writing a letter home, Storm from the Shadows
Rob: You just mind your own damn business when you fuck the shit up for the hell of it. That's horse slaughter! You'll get life in horse court!
Johny: Uh, unicorn court. They get pissed off when you call them horses.
Rob: Like when you call zephyrs Pegasuseseses.
Johny: What?
Rob: Nothing.
— Siblings, "Runesuck"
This is a beach. Of course it is a beach. What else could it be? It is a stretch of pale particulates and roiling mists. The air smells of salt and things that mummified in the sun, of cinnamon and liquorice. It is pebbles and grains of blue glass, tendrils of something curious and organic: worm-like growths tufting through the sediment.
This is exactly what beaches are.
—Sunless Skies, welcoming you to Worlebury-Juxta-Mare
You thought an imp was a cute little dude in a red suit with a pitchfork. Where did these brown bastards come from?
—Doom instruction manual
Finarfin: By thy gracious terming, dost thou signify the herb that giveth ease unto heart even as body, the which we in our tongue name maralasse?
Steward: In your speech it would be rendered athelas.
Aegnor: [abruptly] No, it doesn't grow there, Father — what she's talking about looks something like it, but it isn't the same thing at all although it smells similar and has the same effects.
Nerdanel: Nay, nephew, wherefore claimest thou difference, and it be in all respects more greatly of sameness?
Aegnor: It grows much lower to the ground, the leaves are shaped differently and aren't the same colour, and it has a different number of sepals and the climate's too cold for it there part of the year.
Ambassador: I seem to recall, Prince Aegnor, that you said much the same thing concerning all the creatures of Beleriand, whereupon it was demonstrated that your names and ours were in fact the same, taking into account the variances introduced by the passing of years and leagues.
Aegnor: [shortly] That's because our ancestors gave them the same names when they got to Valinor, not because they were actually exactly the same—
Steward: In your speech it would be rendered athelas.
Aegnor: [abruptly] No, it doesn't grow there, Father — what she's talking about looks something like it, but it isn't the same thing at all although it smells similar and has the same effects.
Nerdanel: Nay, nephew, wherefore claimest thou difference, and it be in all respects more greatly of sameness?
Aegnor: It grows much lower to the ground, the leaves are shaped differently and aren't the same colour, and it has a different number of sepals and the climate's too cold for it there part of the year.
Ambassador: I seem to recall, Prince Aegnor, that you said much the same thing concerning all the creatures of Beleriand, whereupon it was demonstrated that your names and ours were in fact the same, taking into account the variances introduced by the passing of years and leagues.
Aegnor: [shortly] That's because our ancestors gave them the same names when they got to Valinor, not because they were actually exactly the same—
I know here [book worm] probably means unholy, blood-sucking snake monster, but in the Human Realm, that's just a cute name for nerds.
— Luz, The Owl House
Not to be confused by the ordinary (albeit equally beautiful) fish that goes by the same name, the Monster Kois aren't shackled by their namesakes' earthly boundaries.
— Koi's bio, Monster Sanctuary
“Sir,” [the technician] said at last, very slowly. “This is a Cell Phone City.”
“Uh-huh.” I pointed at the device. “And that’s a cell phone.”
He looked back at it, then at me. “Is it, though?”
“The technical name in Galard is rshthalansh, which approximately translates to ‘personal communication thing you carry in your pocket,’ which more accurately translates as ‘cell phone.’” I gave the device a little nudge closer to the clerk. “And you guys jail-break cell phones.”
“Uh-huh.” I pointed at the device. “And that’s a cell phone.”
He looked back at it, then at me. “Is it, though?”
“The technical name in Galard is rshthalansh, which approximately translates to ‘personal communication thing you carry in your pocket,’ which more accurately translates as ‘cell phone.’” I gave the device a little nudge closer to the clerk. “And you guys jail-break cell phones.”
— Eleutherophobia: How I Live Now
"Why are there Earth animals on Krypton??" there AREN'T. if europeans can move to america and call a grouse a partridge i can call whatever lovable quadruped they have in space a dog. do you think i won't invent a language for krypton? don't try me. "a qingus florped corpulently in the distance, disturbing a flock of xwants." is that what you want to read??? no. please appreciate my self control in trying to only use words that already exist in the english language.
—Sorrowful and Immaculate Hearts, author's note on "Last Sons of Krypton
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