A Note on My Imaginary Country's Slang

This note on Voledadian slang is provided by your correspondent in Voledads, Adora Svitak.

While Voledads prefers to consider itself elite, the "bumpkins" of society do use a certain amount of slang. Because of Voledads' elitist standards for proper Dadish (the language of Voledads, similar to British English in pronunciation and American English in spelling, but with some added words and convoluted spellings), you will not find these words in dictionaries. Some examples include:

Pigseye (peeg-saay): Pigseye means a fire. In the countryside, peat (also known as peeg or pig) is the main fuel for fires, and seye is a superstitious term used to describe a warm tingling as though by magic. As one farmer described, "fire is like magic when it warms yer bones after a day in the field," perhaps giving rise to the slang phrase pigseye.

Arcking (Arrr-king): Heavy coughing, most likely from the sound of severe coughing.

Rolt: Brought. Probably some form of the word "rolled."

Backnocker: A beggar. Those begging for food often came to the back doors of restaurants and other establishments to get leftover food scraps, and thus the word "Backnocker." Backnocker can also be used to describe a freeloader or a shiftless person.

Nodder: A sycophant, toady, minion--a person who agrees with everything their master, etc., says. Nodder originated as a propaganda term in anti-government groups, which led the oligarchy to censor its appearance in books. It remains, however, a pop term for the teenage generation, and "nodder" is forever memorialized in the pantheon of high school insults.