"Obscure" here means I would quite seriously bet money that most people who saw a trope called Ethologically Inspired Alien would have no idea what it was supposed to be.
A name relying on knowing what ethology is would easily be as incomprehensible to the majority of our userbase as all those lousy old names that relied on understanding anime fanspeak.
And for what it's worth, I'm familiar, though not in any real detail, with imprinting and imitation - which really should (but, I suspect, won't) prove my point here.
I don't know it either. :(
World's Toughest Milkman
More to the point, ethology is an ambiguous term, as it also means "[t]he study of human ethos and its formation."
I vaguely know the word, but I gotta say, I thought I was getting obscure with sophont, but I suspect a lot more people have heard that and know what it means than ethology. I see sophont in science fiction fairly regularly. I can't remember the last time I saw ethology pop up anywhere.
At least maybe you've prepared the ground to make people more willing to consider "Animal-like Sophont". :)
Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.
I'm perfectly fine with Animal-like Sophont, but I use 'sophont' routinely in my own works, so I'm probably a biased source.
edited 21st Aug '12 7:18:48 PM by nrjxll
Ravenous Sophovore
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
See, that's exactly why it's baffling to me that people are not taught the term in school. It'd be like talking about the uncertainty principle in a class on physics and not telling you that it's from a large sub-field of physics called quantum mechanics - it just doesn't make sense.
But I'm more than done arguing about it as long as we can find a name that people can actually agree on.
edited 22nd Aug '12 7:24:20 AM by ccoa
Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.
Gentleman Troper!
By my standards, since this has a lengthy Wikipedia article and over three million google hits, "ethology" is clearly an established term. Where established terms exist, I am strongly in favor of using them. So you've got my vote.
Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!
Bumping for more votes.
"Learning without thinking is labor lost. Thinking without learning is dangerous."
This is an existing term. No change is needed.
Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty
Crown Description:
What would be the best way to fix the page?
It's a name for a relatively large scientific discipline that's been around over a century, and most people are familiar with many of the things under its umbrella (is imprinting and imitation obscure?). It's not like it's a tiny subset of zoology like choncology. It's something that really should be covered at a high level in a high school level biology or psychology/sociology course.
How are we measuring obscure here? As "I've never heard of it?"
Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.