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   Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 12-Jan-2025 21:37:00 JST Charlie Stross

   #WritersCoffeeClub Jan 12 — Do characters use words not in the language you write in? Italics for this, or not?

   Publishers have style guides for a reason: and I'm lazy, so I tend to leave italicization of loan words up to the copy editor.

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     David Lee Holcomb (davidleeholcomb@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 12-Jan-2025 23:19:19 JST David Lee Holcomb

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     @cstross -- I've been wondering about that. English is such a salad of other languages. It's hard to know where to draw the line. Is "deja vu" English enough now to forego the italics? What about "fajita"? "Per capita"? "Aficionado"? It seems arbitrary to just pick a random date and say "everything adopted after this point is still foreign." I struggle to find clear guidelines.

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     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 12-Jan-2025 23:19:19 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • David Lee Holcomb

     @davidleeholcomb Heh: "the French language has no word for 'entrepreneur'"—George H. Bush.