I've got two mostly unrelated things I don't know the proper words for. A friend of the family in my story sees the daughter of that family as her niece, but they're not blood relatives. My mother used to have a best friend I just called aunt. Kinda like that. How can I make it clear that the niece is not a real niece but only seen as such, and how to do it in as few words as possible? Currently I have "assumed niece," but I made that up, and I need people who don't know me to understand it as well. I wanna keep the word count on it low because it doesn't really matter. Just mention it in passing. "Lilith welcomed her assumed niece into the office." Then, tunnels. You know those stones around the edge of a tunnel's opening, as depicted in the link? What are they called? Are they called anything specific at all?
I'm not crazy about the wording "assumed aunt" - I would just say "who she called aunt though she wasn't" In the pic - that's an arch - I would just say "stones arranged in an arch wide enough to allow...."
For the first one I'd probably say something like 'She was like a niece to her.' Or alternately have the woman say "You've always been like a niece to me," or "I've always thought of you as my niece, even though we're not related." I got nothin' on the second one. Maybe just "There was some decorative stone work (or masonry) around the entrance to the tunnel."
The bottom ones are called springers, the central one at the top of the arch is called a keystone, and the rest are called voussoirs. But I wouldn't use those terms, as most people wouldn't know what they mean. I'd just call them arch stones, or something similar.
Assuming you have mentioned that she's the friend of the family's previously, just say "She welcomed the girl into the office." Then the girl can address her as "Aunt Lilith". Readers will mostly understand, as this isn't uncommon.
I got that far, yes. ;o) Welcome to my world. That's the first thing I thought. I'm literally hearing Voussoir for the first time, and Springers usually come with a Jerry. Hm, yeah. Think I'll just drop the whole aunt thing entirely. There are enough familial relations that matter in the story, and this one is probably just gonna get in the way.
Is this the first time we meet the characters together? In my manuscript, i have the same relationship. My FMC's aunt isnt blood related to her, but she still calls her aunt. I "explain it" in the second chapter. The aunt when the aunt refers to the FMC's father as "my adopted brother" because she was "close with his family growing up" And then after that, she is just "aunt". If this is this scene is the first time we meet them together, you may need a little bit more explanation than a one liner. Maybe "lilith welcomed her neice into the office. She was the spitting image of her mother, liliths bests friend" (i dont know what kind of interaction they are about to have so i cant offer much on expanding this further)
I agree, but at these points it becomes clear that English isn't my first language, and I need far too many words to describe something inconsequential. In fact, compared to the mess I had, "an arch" is already an upgrade. This could work. It's the first time the reader finds them together, but there's reference to them having met before. I'll see if the work in progress yields an organic place to slip your suggestion in.
I hope Bakkerbaard will pardon me for digressing, but this is interesting. I'd heard of keystones before (mostly when I read about the construction of the Hagia Sophia), but I'd never heard of springers or voussoirs. So, I did a little googling and found voussoirs in the Designing Buildings wiki. Apart from being an interesting read, I think I found a way to remember this: - The springers hold the arch upright, and mark the point where the arch "springs" (or "jumps") out into space. - The keystone (central to the top of the arch) is the "key" to supporting the arch. If you remove it, the arch would collapse. - The word voussoir is from a Middle English word (from French) connoting a "turn". Each stone is shaped like a wedge and turns aside the thrust of the mass above. Is this right, Naomasa298? I only found this on wikipedia and the wiki above, both of which seem fairly trustworthy to me.
You have been pardoned. Interesting often equals relevant anyway, and if not, at least I'll learn something.
There's a balance between using everyman linguistics and more specialized words. Books would be a lot less interesting if they didn't contain new words to learn, but at the same time your POV probably doesn't know what a voussoir is, and would just call it an arch.
