This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
How do you pronounce Phlebotinum? Ive been doing it Fle-bot-inum. Seth
Gus: You are probably on. That first 'e' is long, so "flee-BOT-inum " might be a better rendering. Accent is on the second syllable.
Ununnilium: Like phlebotomy, only better!
[1]: The word, Phlebotinum, sounds german somehow.
Midas Mint: In Orbiter some of the tech. relies on elements further down the periodic table than we've found that're heavy and stable. Which of the subtropes would that fall under?
- I've edited the line on Luminol. It's a common misconception that luminol glows under black light; it actually glows under it's own power when iron ions (from traces of blood) catalyze the reaction between luminol and hydrogen peroxide (the two chemicals are mixed together shortly before use; the solution is not stable.)
Morgan Wick: "Black light" seems oxymoronic anyway, doesn't it?
Looney Toons: It is, however, an accepted standard synonym for ultraviolet light, at least for the last forty or fifty years.
Lale: I still think "blood" whenever I read this word. I wonder if this David Greenwalt was aware of the meaning of the phleb- prefix.
Fast Eddie: Chances are pretty good. A number of these executive-producing writers have fairly good vocabularies. You could think of it as "magic blood" or "blood-magic". ;-)
Kizor: Fle-bot-i-num, but I'm on the wrong continent.
Apparently, Greenwalt Did Not Do The Research, or he would have known the prefix phleb— refers to "blood."
...he should have done research for a random exclamation?
Honore DB: Removed "on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the phlebotinum is the tunnels underneath the town, which provide a convenient way for the vampires to travel during the day without encountering sunlight," since it doesn't quite fit. It's a useful plot device, but it doesn't exactly get invoked in order to re-soul vampires or cure magic addiction.
Dangermike: ...So if real-life technology like Luminol applies, then what are the standards of Phlebotinum versus ordinary plot device? I had the impression that in order to qualify as Phlebotinum, it had to be something fictional.
EricTFBat: I have this strange feeling that phlebotinum should be pronounced phlebotinium in Australia and England, and endless arguments should be constructed to defend each pronunciation
...
octochan: I'm from Canada, and I consistently think of it as phlebotinium, and then have to correct myself.
ErikTheAppreciator: Okay, I know about the whole Tropes Are Not Bad and Tropes Are Not Good thing, but since Applied Phlebotinum is such a ubiquitous supertrope comprising several hundred subtropes (as listed on this page), shouldn't there be a little more elaboration about whether or not having a lot of it contributes a potential "weakness" to a show's narrative? This page honestly looks like an ideal page to explain how this trope and Tropes Are Not Bad / Tropes Are Not Good apply to each other, since for now it's really easy for me to think that because of this huge trope category, a show where a character defeats another character using his own fists is, for any potential number of subtle reasons that could exist, "better" than a narrative where a character defeats another character with magic-spouting cannons.
