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Old 12-17-2020, 01:48 PM   #1
Agemegos
 
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Default Re: Names for Wizards based on Magical College

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If you'd like linguistically rigorous names, you might consider the meanings of -mancy and -urgy, which come from Greek. -mancy has to do with divination (a necromancer is someone who speaks with and learns things about the dead), and -urgy is about doing work.
And mageia ("-magy") is magic.
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Old 12-17-2020, 06:27 PM   #2
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Necromagy is an interesting word. Would someone who practiced necromagy be a necromage then? Or would they more properly be a necromagi?
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Old 12-17-2020, 06:35 PM   #3
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As long as they don’t get mistaken for a necrophage.

More seriously, magi is the plural form of magus
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Old 12-17-2020, 06:39 PM   #4
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As long as they don’t get mistaken for a necrophage.

More seriously, magi is the plural form of magus
So, necromagus for singular and necromagi for plural?
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Old 12-17-2020, 07:19 PM   #5
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Necromagy is an interesting word. Would someone who practiced necromagy be a necromage then? Or would they more properly be a necromagi?
"Necromage" is better. "Necromagi" would be (a) plural, (b) Latin, and (c) unattested. But "necromage" means "dead magician".

In Greek a magician is a μάγος ("magos"), dual μᾰ́γω ("magō", but English doesn't actually have dual number, so it would be an error to use it), plural μᾰ́γοι ("magoi").

The Latin version of that is magus (plural magī), but I don't understand the charm of putting Greek words into Latin form to use them in English sentences. I think it is usually better to transliterate directly from Greek to English and best to use the English forms and inflections.

There is a perfectly good English word that is derived from and equivalent to Greek μάγος: "mage". The art of a mage is either "-magy" (from Greek μαγεία) or "magery" (by a regular English inflection).

Meanwhile a μάντις ("mantis") is a fortune-teller or diviner, and μαντεία ("manteia") is fortune-telling. That's what gives us the compounds in "-mancer" and "-mancy".

An -ουργός (-ourgos) is a -wright or -maker, a craftsman who makes the type of thing specified in the first element of the compound as a wheelwright makes wheels, a shipwright makes ships, and a playwright writes plays. An -urgy is the work of the corresponding kind of craftsman, i.e. xylurgy is woodwork, hamaxurgy is coachbuilding. The word for "work" is ἔργον ("ergon"), not "*ourgeia".

The only actual Greek word in -ουργός that I know of that has anything to do with magic is ταχυδακτυλουργός (quick-finger worker), which is modern and means "prestidigitator, sleight-of-hand artist"). "Thaumaturge" and "thaumaturgy" are English words, not Greek (though they are compounded from Greek roots). They were coined as fancified versions of "wonder-worker" and "wonder-working", and inasmuch as either of their roots has anything to do with magic its in the "thaum-" bit (from Greek θαῦμα, meaning "marvel, astonishing thing"), not the "-ourgos" bit.
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Old 12-18-2020, 06:01 AM   #6
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Never date a fortune-teller; she'll just end up biting your head off....
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Old 03-25-2020, 11:13 AM   #7
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Is Jason Momoa an aquamancer?
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Old 03-25-2020, 11:15 AM   #8
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The Greek word for Chef is sef. So the food college could have Sefimancers.

The Greek word for Pattern is protypo. The Meta Magic College could have Protypomancers.
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Old 03-25-2020, 11:25 AM   #9
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Food: Kitchen Witch?
Gate: Gatekeeper?
Illusion and Creation: Worldweaver?
Light and Darkness: Photomancer?
Making and Breaking: Thaumoclast?
Meta-Spells: Dweomercrafter?
Plant: Herbomancer? Druid?
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Old 03-25-2020, 11:26 AM   #10
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Default Re: Names for Wizards based on Magical College

I've started editing my original post to incorporate the suggestions provided so far.

Thanks Stormcrow for the Greek breakdown

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Is Jason Momoa an aquamancer?
umm... <looks around nervously>... maybe?
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