What does Arcoscephale mean?

[moderation]

I think cephale means "head", as in the case of cephalopods, but what is does "Arco" mean? All I can think of is either the Arco gas company or a misspelling of acropolis. Anyone have insights into the name of this nation? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Omnirizon]

it probably is just 'acro' with the 'c' and 'r' rearranged and tagged onto 'cephale'. both are greek words.

[Randvek]

Arco is a musical term you might know if you played the violin, but that seems rather obscure to me.

[moderation]

Hmm... acrocephalia is a medical term for someone with a pointed or conelike head. If 'arco' is a misspelling of 'acro', then that means Arcoscephaleans are coneheads. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

http://www.medicineword.com/acrocephalia.shtml

[Fal]

and likewise, what does T'ien Ch'i mean?

[Technowolf]

T'ien Ch'i basically means "Heaven and Earth". Pretty ambitious name once you think about it.

[atul]

I remember this question has surfaced before. Apart from extensive forum search, I'd think Arcoscephale's beginning meant something like an arch (or bridge), and cephale might mean head or leader.

...make your own mind about that.

[Technowolf]

atul said:
I'd think Arcoscephale's beginning meant something like an arch (or bridge), and cephale might mean head or leader.



Actually, it might be a corruption of Argos, a Greek city on the southeast coast of the Peloponnese, to the northeast of Sparta. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argos) the word Argos is pre-Hellenic and means something like 'shine' or 'brightly shining'.

So Arcoscephale might mean 'shining heads'. Whether this refers to their bright helmets or their bald heads is for the devs to figure out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Zeldor]

Fal:

T'ien Ch'i is chinese emperor. Probably the worst one in history.

[BesucherXia]

Zeldor said:
Fal:

T'ien Ch'i is chinese emperor. Probably the worst one in history.



Being a Chinese, I can not recall whom you mean. Could you please make further explanation?

IMO, T'ien Ch'i comes from the Chinese myth concept "Tian Chi", which is the palace for Celestial Beings.

I am also excepting an official declaration <font color="#666666"> </font> .

[lch]

Google came up with this:
http://www.sportstune.com/chinese/coins/tienchiming.html

Dynasty: Ming (1368 - 1644 a.d.)
Emperor: Hsi Tsung (1621-1627a.d.)
Reign Title: T'ien Ch'i (1621-1627 a.d.)

Following that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianqi_Emperor

[sum1lost]

I'm guessing that he may have named his reign after the myth, not the other way around.

[Endoperez]

I've always thought Arcoscephale meant "end (head) of an arc". This made more sense back when the current MA Arcos was the only one that existed, and there was no "early" Arcoscephale.

Wikipedia gives Tien Chi as "Sky Spear", Taiwanese surface-to-surface ballistic missile.

[BesucherXia]

Hmm... I have never checked the era names before.
It sounds logical now.
The emperor of Tien Chi had given his eunuchs too much power, who were responsible for the corruption of Ming dynasty and the "invasion of barbarians".

For the original meaning of this era name, it could be translated into something like "revealed by heaven".

(Technically speaking, Chinese Pinyin-language has too many homonyms, which leads to confusion even for Chinese themselves.)

[zzcat]

Being a Chinese too, I don't think T'ien Ch'i is came from "Tianqi", Obviously the barbarian king is Mongol (the Yuan Dynasty), Why use an era even later than LA to name the nation?

Perhaps it means "Celestial dynasty", "Tian Chao" in pinyin language, or "Gift of Heaven"("Tian Ci" in pinyin)

[Zeldor]

Many names here are just to be nice and somewhat influenced by nation theme, not to really mean something.

P.S. Where are you exactly from? I am in Xi'An now.

[Twan]

No no, names give very precise information.

Arcocephale = their head is an arc... an allusion to the fact mind mages are the only good ranged unit of Arco

Man = a nation of simple men, standing no chance against magic and gods

etc...

[Sombre]

Ulm - the sound you make when you're randomly assigned them in a duel against Arcoscephale.

[Dedas]

Anyone here from Ulm?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulm

[capnq]

Maybe the capital of Arcoscephale is an arcology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology).

While we're on the subject, does anybody have an educated guess on how Arcoscephale is pronounced? When I look at it, I think "AR-co-seh-FAYL", but my limited knowledge of Greek makes me think it's more properly "ar-CO-seh-FA-lay".

[zzcat]

Zeldor said:
Many names here are just to be nice and somewhat influenced by nation theme, not to really mean something.

P.S. Where are you exactly from? I am in Xi'An now.



I'm in Shanghai http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Agema]

Ancient Greek did not have a 'c', just kappa. Although kappa is often translated into English via the letter 'c', pronunciation should always be hard like a 'k'. In the case of Arcoscephale, all the vowels should be short (as in pAt, pOt, pEt). I think it should pronounce as 'Arkoskefaly'.

As for what it means...

"-cephale" would refer to head, as pointed out. "Arcos" would not mean arches or bridges as that's a Latin root. I think the nearest you could get to "Arcos" would probably be "arch-" rather than "arc-". The root is to be first or come before; an Archon was an ancient Greek ruler or magistrate for instance.

Hence Arcoscephale would mean literally 'head first'. You could interpret that several ways with artistic licence, but I like to do it as 'The mind is paramount'. I think it suits a nation who put great store in philosophy, science and other mental pursuits.

[Tuidjy]

Mine interpretation is very close to Agema. I always translated it as "lead by the Mind",
and I pronounce it Ar-KO-ceh-FAH-lee. They are also a favorite nation of mine.

[Technowolf]

Twan said:
Man = a nation of simple men, standing no chance against magic and gods



I always thought it was named after the Isle of Man, a British Territory located between Ireland and Britain.

[Agema]

I think Twan might have been joking http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Professor_Dyar]

Man is a reference to the Isle of Man, which is an island in the straits between Wales and Ireland that has had an active parliament for over a thousand years. I think that the island has been likened to the fabled island of Avalon, which is why the Devs chose it.

[lch]

I pronounce Arcoscephale like Arcoscephalos, and then lose the -os.
Arcos like arc, Cephalos like zephyr. So, more or less: Ar-Kos-Ze-Fal.

[Agrajag]

Ar-Kos-Ka-FAIL.

This is a combination of "Aroma", which is a coffe-restaurant thingey over here, "Kos Kafe" which is "cup of coffee" in Hebrew, and "ale" mixed into the "e" of "kafe", because Arcoscephale is full of sandwich eating coffee drinking drunkards?

BTW, I pronounce R'lyeh as "R'lyeh" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif