Imperium of Man Terminology

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Long story short the Imperium of Man has it's own set of names for things, many of which have analogs in the real world. Here is a list of some of said terms.

Many of these are Latin-ish, with some archaic English thrown in for good measure.

A to L

• Adept and Adepta: An official of the Adeptus Terra (the bureaucratic aparatus of the Imperium as a whole).
• Adeptus: A major organizational block in the Imperial Government (Administratum, Astartes, Arbites, etc)
• Augur: Any sort of long range radar detector. Essentially a bigger more powerful Auspex.
• Auspex: Any sort of device used as an analysis or detection scanner.
• Chirurgeon: Field Medic.
• Cogitator: A computer, specifically the part that does the processing.
• Crusade: The Imperial equivalent to the Ork WAAAGH!
• Departmento: A division of an Adeptus level institution (the Departmento Munitorum of the Adeptus Administratum)
• Emperor's Peace: Euthanasia, or mercy killing someone mortally wounded to end their suffering,
• Enforcer: Local police forces, as opposed to the Adeptus Arbites which are the Imperium's FBI.
• Etherics: Generic term for radar, radio and other signals intelligence equipment. Ships have a "Master of the Etherics" who handles oversees masters of the auspex and the vox.
• Frak: A child friendly swear word, we all know what it stands in for.
• Hab: Apartment or house.
• Hab Block: Residential facility/structure.
• "Him on Terra", "Him" and similar usages of the masculine pronoun: The Emperor.
• Hololith, Hololithic, etc: Holograms and Holography.
• Imperialis: A symbol of a winged skull. Mostly associated with Space Marines.
• Joygirl, Joyboy, etc: Prostitutes and Sex Workers.
• Krak: Anti tank warhead, found on grenades and missiles.
• Lumen: Electric light.

M to Z

• Menial: A waggie, especially those employed by the Adeptus Terra. Truck drivers, janitors, canteen cooks, etc.
• Medicae: Medicine and Healthcare.
• Motive Force: Catch-all term for all forms of electricity and magnetism, revered by Adeptus Mechanicus as part of their Holy Trinity.
• Lho-stick: Cigarettes or their local equivalent.
• Pict: Cameras and Video Technology, both 2D and 3D.
  • Pict-Feed: Video.
  • Pict-Recorder: Video Camera.
• Plastek: Plastic, pretty straightforward
• Recidivist and Recidivism: Criminal and Criminality. The IRL meaning of Recidivist is "a convicted criminal who reoffends", with the implication that everyone in the Imperium is a criminal by default and is to be treated as such. Once again, the Imperium is rather nasty.
• Rockcrete: the Imperium's equivalent to Concrete, various types exist based on local material.
  • Ferrockcrete: Reinforced concrete.
• Recaf: Coffee.
• Refec: Kitchen or more broadly Food Preparation.
• Refec House: Restaurant.
• Recyc: Food made from mechanically recycled biomatter.
• Rune: Button, Key or Icon.
• Schola: School. The Schola Progenium is a educational institution which operates on the Imperium level, but it's far from the only one. Quality ranges from private academies giving the best education the Imperium will allow to the elite to a dingy room where an overworked dame tries to teach kids their ABCs for a couple credits or a bottle of beer a day from their poor parents.
• Servo: Short for the arm-like or skeleton-like mechanisms that power things like the "servo-motors" on power-armor.
• Twist: Mutant.
• Twistcatcher: Someone whose job is to hunt down mutants, so they can either be enslaved, immediately executed, executed publicly, or if they have taken action against the Imperium as revenge for their oppression, brutally tortured publicly. Most commonly referring to a specific type of mutant catcher who searches the festering bowels of huge ships, looking for the mutated descendants of slaves who escaped their post into the darkest depths of the ship, devolving over generations into Ghilliams and Hullghasts. These Twistcatchers do this to re-enslave these mutants whenever the "pure" slave stock is depleted from a disaster, although this is often seen as a last-resort, due to the disgust normal serfs feel towards their new mutant "coworkers" running the risk of inspiring a riot on the ship for the heretical act of not immediately killing the mutants.
• Vox: Audio Technology
  • Voxcaster: Field Radio.
  • Vox Hailer: Loudspeaker.
  • Vox Thief: Concealed audio recorder/audio spybug.
• Void: Space.
• Voidborn: Someone born on a Starship or Space Station.
• Xeno: Alien, specifically in the context of being inherently corrupt or dangerous. This usually means intelligent Alien. But also things of Alien origin like Eldar armor, Tau Grain, or more neutral things like Xenoflora and Xenofauna on a Death World.