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!

[[RocketMaster]]: The word, Phlebotinum, sounds german somehow.

:: 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.)

MorganWick: "Black light" seems oxymoronic anyway, doesn't it?

LooneyToons: 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.

FastEddie: 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.

{{Ununnilium}}:

Apparently, Greenwalt DidNotDoTheResearch, or he would have known the prefix ''phleb--'' refers to "blood."

...he should have done research for a random exclamation?

HonoreDB: 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 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Etymology 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 TropesAreNotBad and TropesAreNotGood thing, but since AppliedPhlebotinum 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 TropesAreNotBad / TropesAreNotGood 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.