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In the opinion of the illustrious authors and readers here, do you think it is worthwhile to come up with unique names for types of magic or advanced technology/sciences in your fiction? 

As an example, I am currently working on a fantasy magic school kind of game where the main stated purpose is to learn how the various kinds of magic work and it's impact on the world .  There are numerous types of magic to be educated in such as Alchemy, Elemental, Divination, Weather, Life/Death, Arcanotech, Divine, Resist/Amplify, Constructive/Destructive, Nature, etc.  To add to their integration into the world I have developed a name for each type based on the suffix -urgy meaning "to work" as magic is a method of doing work via certain domains.  Since that suffix is Greek in origin, I have come up with Greek portmaneaus for each type.  Alchemy = Alchimurgy, Elemental = Stoichiurgy, Arcanotech = Michanurgy, Life/Death = Zoiurgy, etc.

Given that the game is a school learning about these, I don't think there is as big an issue using these new terms as there might be in other scenarios, but what do you think?  Is saving possible confusion worth losing the word-building of unique terminology?

I dont like learning new magic systems through exposition. I'd rather learn it more naturally. But my magic systems are literally just analogous to electronics and electricity irl. In the CYS fanfic when Thara drew a triangle with 3 lines it's literally just an ideal op-amp to boost her magic lol.



I figured circuit diagrams to normal people look like sigils and electricity is magic to them, I may as well use it as a fully realized magic system that can arbitrarily create almost anything we make with electricity out of mana instead.



For example, above is a FM reciever. If you get rid of the values for each component you're left with a bunch of squiggly lines and symbols connected together that would mean nothing to a normal person. But a mage could inscribe this into a crystal or some shit and pour mana into it and recieve a long distance communication from a radio tower equivalent in whatever setting / magicland.

I've never tried to describe a circuit this complex in a written work before, but I think I'd just gloss over it all and say it was made by specialized great sages. But I can easily make custom magic circuit diagrams myself in an actual electronics design program and then edit them onto a crystal as an image and put that in the game for immersion. I think that sort of thing would be cool.

This has the advantage of everything being explainable even to the most autistic of nit-pickers because it's modeled after real life things that work and are understood. Though I dislike involving "real life" level non-idealities into my "magic" circuits, which is why Thara's op-amp only had 2 inputs and 1 output, it was just a symbol for amplification of power through recognizing the difference between two sources. No need to explain gain, noise, power rails, etc. Readers can just recognize that triangle = bigger magic.

I like the idea of being able to use Visio to make magic runes, that is a cool idea.

Reminds me of this CYS story.

I dont know. Generally im not a fan of this idea. As it can often feel like an info dump, or you have to relearn things like a new language. I think Dune does it well with "spice" they use a word already in English that people know, but its just reassigned to a new subject. Similar to how "Indians" used to be assigned to native americans historically speaking, people do this because it allows for easier recall into what youre actually talking about, people dont want to stop and have to think for a few seconds to go ".....oh wait... yeah, that one!" Due to having to translate in their minds. 

To me your idea is like translating "hello" in English to translating it to Russian, its just going to confuse less dedicated readers. 

A good suggestion for a magic system is to use words people actually know in english but are used for different things but  are loosely connected. So you could equate magic with "auras" or "essence" etc. At least thats how i feel about it. Thats obviously a bit more difficult with your system though.

 

TLDR: people dont want to be translating in their minds. Best to use words people already know. 

As much as I enjoy autistic world-building I have to agree with Crimson here. In fact there's already multiple precedents with for example pyromancy and chronomancy being universally accepted terms for time and fire magic (chronos, time and pyro, fire), making the whole idea not original enough to warrant the autism. Basically every fancy magic term borrows heavily from either Greek or Latin, while also being used often enough by other authors to have entered the cultural consciousness and become recognizable as its own thing.

Also, I am pretty sure that alchemy already has a Greek root (khemeia, transmuting metals), making your version sound more like something put through google translate five times over and translated back again.

On the other hand I appreciate an artist or autist being unwilling to bench their idea wholeheartedly so try this: make your weird versions the official and elitist names of the magic, where most students except the truly posh ones or most old-fashioned professors just use the bastardized and recognizable versions. Helps instantly with characterization too.

Another and far more interesting train of thought: why use Greek? Does your civilization have the same Greco-Roman foundation as our Western one? I assume you are already using some kind of translator engine to come up with interesting names, so why not explore further: go Norse (I'd pick Icelandic for that one), Yoruba or Hindi, whatever language and associated culture sounds and feel like the right thing for your world.

I had been thinking along the lines of those specific names only being referenced in books and by professors/teachers, with students and regular folk deferring to more common names to help emphasize the academic bent of the school environment.

The history is identical to the world up until 1500 AD, which is why I was leaning into Greek or Latin (and just liked the -urgy= "to work" connotation).  I could do a breakdown of which cultures likely developed a formalized system for each particular type of magic and have an official name constructed by the rules of that culture's lexicon.  That would help feed into stuff for the history coursework, so would have multiple funcitonality.  I like that.

Depends on how much it matters to the story and how much you'll use it. For example, if they're casting a spell and you only say, "Tim references his knowledge of Ziourgy and attacks successfully," that's hard to remember. But if "Zoiurgy" is only used when Tim is in the library and he's looking up spells, finding a spell that drains life; and then he uses it, "Tim casts his new spell and drains the life from his target," that's a whole different deal. I'd so go for it, it can add real depth to the story, just don't make it so that, as the others have pointed out, the reader has to memorize a whole new language.

Yeah, I think that is really solid advice and kind of the way I am going to approach.