Tactile Writing

[rolanni]

OK, this is making me crazy. I need a word. The word should have the same shape and weight as "abbot." It can be -- probably should be -- a made-up word (usually, I have no trouble at all making up words -- rather otherwise, so that my friends very rightly consider any Weird Word I may come up with in conversation with a degree of suspicion -- but this one is for some reason a stumper). In context it will refer to the head administrator of a magical hospital.

In other news -- Ebayers take note. If all goes well, the coreboard promotional poster for Balance of Trade that Meisha Merlin carried around to conventions will go up on ebay this weekend. Much depends on figuring out how to sensibly approach the shipping issue. It will have to go UPS and I feel in my heart that it ain't gonna be cheap.

Tomorrow, I have a six month review at the dayjob. I haven't had a six month review in more than a decade. This ought to be interesting...

Comments

[autopope.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with "Dean"?

Or maybe "magister"?

[djonn]

Chirarch, from "chirurgeon" and "autarch".

Titles

[baggette.livejournal.com]

The process of making up titles for fictious purposes .....HHMmmmmm.
Not an enviable position. My thoughts were thus;
Hospital administrators are usually thought of as up-tight, officious, squirrelly individuals. One would expect an ostentatious title for such; rather than something as quaint and modest as 'Abbott'.
Unless the individual is Very different from the stereotype, I would suggest something more like
"Magistrator Superior"

ABBOT

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe you dono't have to make up a word...in German, it's Aebte and late Greek it's Abbas

Lorna

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Valetudinarian? (a hospital is valetudinarium -- ominous, but I suppose it was in Rome)

Magister saluteris (master of healing)

Medicus (healer in Latin)

[reedrover]

Abbot is so short and squared off at the end that it is hard to make another word that is shaped and weighed the same.

Carist (the most caring of the hospital => care-est => carist)
Loreot (lore + abbot; plays on the sound of "laureate")
Magischar (sort of like "Mage Chairman")

Are you going for something that sounds like it should be English, or something accented?

[damara.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the review.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Maggot?
Abbé?

Odd words

[(Anonymous)]

Other options from a groggy, end of day brain:

Derived from how medical personel call drugs "meds" now: Meddott, Medmin (medical admin), Medicat (moving toward advocat though perhaps too close to the furry cats), Medager (medical manager), Medner (medical partner), Medveep (medical vp), Presmed, Admedott...

One could also ring the changes on "Hosp-" or "Care-"

B. O'Brien

strange words

[lord-percival.livejournal.com]

Jurist? As in the person who has to make the hard decisions. A chateline is the keeper of the keys, but that might map to janitor on some level. Provost might fit, as well. Of course, Hippameister is an in-joke ... (HIPPA are the collection of medical privacy laws, so the person who is most skilled at that ...)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

FWIW - my first thought was Primate. Then I got to pondering the head, and remembered cranium and that led to arch, keystone, sanctum, crux, and similar floods from the thesaurus. The Sanctum Scriptum (aka head papershuffler?).

Is this magical culture Latin based? What linguistic roots does the society draw on? That's usually where fancy titles come from, and the head administrator probably would get one. Unless the magicians look down on the mere admin?

Oh, perhaps something such as "Signor Podal?" with the backstory of the administrators as the feet that make the hospital run?

Sorry, not helpful here. Good luck with the review!

[howl-at-the-sun.livejournal.com]

Prestor - from prelate and pastor. It also sounds a bit like "presto," which is magic of course.

[klingonguy.livejournal.com]

I have the same sense of "abbot" as you (velvet bag, quarter full of sand), a very tactile kind of thing.

And I have a long history of playing with languages (both natural and constructed).

Having established my bona fides, I offer you shorbd. It has that soothing, voiceless, sibiliant beginning with the solid weight of a cluster of voiced stops at the end, which creates a title that doesn't easily blur into the name that followes (aside: many people here my name, when others introduce me, and conclude my first name is "Lorren." When I say it, I add the extra juncture between first and last names).

If you choose not to use shorbd I'll probably slap it into play somewhere myself.

I can't help myself...

[joythree.livejournal.com]

Tumper

[swalles.livejournal.com]

Perhaps an anacronym? Head Administrator MAgical Healing? HamaH