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Difference between Not Using the "Z" Word and Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp"?

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YourIdeas Since: Mar, 2014
#1: Mar 16th 2018 at 10:14:49 PM

Not Using the "Z" Word and Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp" look similar to me, but it might be that some of the same examples being in both pages throws me off.

There's this one for example about Final Fantasy XII under Not Using the "Z" Word:

  • In Final Fantasy XII and the other Final Fantasy games set in Ivalice call Humans "Humes", borrowing from Final Fantasy XI. Cid never uses the term "human", when he talks about bringing "History back into the hands of Man". Maybe "Man" is used to describe all of the sentient races of Ivalice, but it is never really explored.

I definitely see why this falls under Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp" but aside from the mention of "man", it doesn't really seem to say that Ivalice actively tries to avoid the use of the term "human" like Not Using the "Z" Word implies. There's also a few others like calling demons Voidsent, using replica instead of clone, etc. but again, this sounds more like a world-building intention, not a "we want to avoid the connotations of this other word" intention. Is that the main difference between these two tropes?

Lymantria Tyrannoraptoran Reptiliomorph from Toronto Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Historians will say we were good friends.
Tyrannoraptoran Reptiliomorph
#2: Apr 5th 2018 at 1:32:39 PM

I would think that you got the difference right, that Not Using the "Z" Word is for euphemising and Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit" for worldbuilding. I'd also assume that NUTZW is about fictional things (that you wouldn't call by a "normal" name in the first place) and CASAR about real things, but I might be wrong since Tropes Are Flexible.

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