Magic: The Glossary - Aetherdrift
"ADMIT ONE. ENJOY THE RACE."
Most words related to Vehicles that I know, as a non-mechanic, are onomatopoeiae. Cars go vroom. Their tires screech, engines clunk, and brakes squeak (or at least mine do). The annoying retiree who lives on my block with the $35,000 Harley-Davidson rumbles and up and down my street at 1 a.m. It's all sound.
We can probably assume the same's true with Aetherdrift. We'll comb through each and every card for fun and interesting words, but I'll have an eye out for the aspects of Vehicles with which I'm most familiar. For example, Air Response Unit
Welcome back to another edition of Magic: The Glossary, in which we learn a word or two. I'm happy you're here. And if you want to catch up on all the words we've learned since the start of this series, I recommend you head to the articles for Bloomburrow, Duskmourn, Foundations or Innistrad: Remastered.
No more delay; we've got the green light to proceed.
Aatchik, Emerald Radian
We'll start off our article this time around with a word that means two very different things in-universe and IRL: "radian."
I had to look this up, but apparently in the world of Magic, or more specifically, the world of an unpronounceable plane full of sentient bug people, "radian" is a title of honor given to bug people deemed exemplary in some way. Aatchik is one such bug, and the modifier of "emerald" also contains value in lore.
For we mammals on Earth however, a radian is a unit of measurement for angles based on the radius of a circle, determined by the value of equality between the radius and the arc. A radius is the line going from the center of a circle to its edge, and an arc is the length of circumference of a circle...you know what, this isn't Magic: The Geometry, it's Magic: The Glossary. Let's just move on.
Alacrian Armory
This is the first card alphabetically that mentions Alacria, which is a new plane invented for the story of Aetherdrift. As you probably assume from that descriptor, it's a made-up word, and thus we'd normally skip it. But while it's a proper noun and name of a place, it's also rooted in our modern English. For us, the term "alacrity" means to exemplify a cheerful readiness. An excitement to do a thing. If someone's like, "hey, do you want this last slice of pizza," and you're starving to death and this is the greatest offer you've ever received in your entire pizza-deprived life, then you'll likely respond with a healthy dollop of alacrity.
It, like a lot of our words, comes from Latin. In this case, alacer, meaning "brisk" or "lively." Sadly, I'm not up on my Magic lore as much as I probably should be, but I'm going to guess that the plane of Alacria is suited for its name. Other than the Armory, there's also an Alacrian Jaguar
Autarch Mammoth
This is a very powerful mammoth indeed, as an "autarch" is the ruler with absolute power in an autocracy. It's odd, then, that any random creatures with five or more total power can just sit on it and tell it what to do. Doesn't sound very autocratic to me, but then again, I'm looking at it through the lens of being a human person in 21st Century Earth; I'd be remiss to superimpose my own set of values and mores onto whatever system of government to which this mammoth adheres.
Boosted Sloop
Yes, this one is probably named as such because designers wanted to showcase their thick assonance. But we can still delve into the words themselves, because there are some interesting tidbits to learn from each.
First up is "boosted." In this context, considering it's a Vehicle, I'm going to assume we're using the slang meaning of "boosted" that's synonymous with "stolen." You may have encountered this word during your weekly viewings of the Nicolas Cage classic Gone in 60 Seconds. Remember, they can steal two-and-a-half cars in the time it takes you to buy popcorn.
People have been using "boost" as slang for stealing for more than a century, first encountered in a 1912 text describing a shoplifter as a "booster." It started to lean toward grand theft auto specifically around the 1950s, and we still hear it today.
Keep in mind I could be way off, and this card is using the word "boosted" to mean "increased in power." But we're not going to let the truth get in the way of a good etymology.
As for "sloop," it's a sailboat with a single mast and one headsail. The word itself comes from the Dutch sloep, which is actually more like a dinghy. We could write an entire article just on the definitions related to boats, but we'll save that for the eventual sequel to Aetherdrift that sees a focus on yachting in Ixalan.
Bulwark Ox
Simply, a bulwark is a defensive wall, but it's also used as a way to describe any structure, institution, individual or concept that positions itself as a protector. Freedom of the press is a bulwark against corruption, your cat is a bulwark against a relentless invasion of field mice, and all the grey hair on my head and in my beard is a bulwark against people asking me if I want to stay out past 10:00 p.m. on a weekday.
And, as a bonus, I'll also share that if we're talking about the construction and composition of a medieval castle specifically, the bulwark is the outer encircling wall surrounding the courtyard.
Oh, and an ox is any cattle over four years old trained to do fieldwork, but describing one as a "big cow" is also mostly acceptable.
Chitin Gravestalker
Magic designers have showed admirable restraint with the word "chitin." The weaker among us would have slapped that adjective on any and all critters featuring an exoskeleton, but in Magic, it's only appeared thrice. Here, on the Gravestalker, as well as on Oath of the Gatewatch Equipment Chitinous Cloak
The word itself describes the hard outer covering seen on such critters, usually bugs and crabs, and their associated variations. If you want to get granular, it's a polysaccharide, a biomolecule found in most food that also forms a structural component of a plant cell. Do not confuse this with a boimolecule, which is the tiny bundle of atoms that drive masculine people when they reach a certain age to develop an overwhelming fascination with either the Roman Empire or World War II.
We get the word from the Greek, who used it to describe what is essentially a Snuggie. If you don't believe me, look it up.
Clamorous Ironclad
Here's another one that shows the Magic worldbuilders were having fun with names in Aetherdrift. It's almost poetic; clamourous Ironclad. The alpha and the omega, if both were cla. It's like a palindrome for your ears.
The word "clamorous" means something that can be described as noisy in a way that is not harmonious. Most of the music I listen to can be derided by nerds as clamorous.
Fearless Swashbuckler
We all know that the term "swashbuckler" is more-or-less a synonym for a pirate, but most of us probably don't know where it came from. In fact, there's a boatload (pun intended) of pirate-adjacent terms like "swashbuckler": corsair, buccaneer, freebooter, marauder, picaroon, privateer, early 2000s Limewire enjoyer. They're all pirates in form or function.
But also, they aren't. Not exactly. Each of those words adds a bit of extra zest to the base description of a pirate. We'll go over them all should they appear again on a Magic card in the future, but today, we're on swashbuckler.
Technically speaking, a swashbuckler is a daring adventurer, with heavy seafaring connotations. Pirates can be swashbucklers, and swashbucklers can be pirates, but they're not a direct one-to-one analog for each other. We've had this term for quite some time, as it first appeared in texts dating back to at least the 1500s. It was originally a portmanteau of a sort, as "swash" means to strike at something with a sword in a menacing manner, while a "buckler" is a small shield used in melee combat, as any RPG player can tell you. So by smushing the two words together, a "swashbuckler" is a person who strikes down with swagger at someone's shield.
You could imagine that this act of aggression would be intimidating if you were the one behind the buckler, and the act itself would make a clamorous noise. That's why those described as swashbucklers were usually the kind of fighters who were well aware of how cool they probably looked, and played into that fact.
Mendicant Core, Guidelight
This is one where the name itself made me go read the lore of the character to understand how the definition fits the story. I'm still not entirely sure, so if you can explain it, please do in the comments.
From what I understand, Mendicant Core is the captain of one of the Aetherdrift racing teams. It's the only sapient member of the team, and it hails from an unknown plane with no way to return home. However, in our world, the word "mendicant" is a somewhat archaic word for someone who begs. A "wandering mendicant" is essentially a vagrant, or a vagabond, and the term itself derives from an order of Franciscan monks who as part of their religious observances owned no personal nor community property.
Today, its usage is often carrying negative connotations, which makes the application here on this Magic character even more puzzling. It'd be like if this character was called "Hobobot, Guidelight."
Quag Feast
I've always been a fan of synonyms for the word swamp, which I fully understand is an odd thing to be a fan of. That doesn't make it any less true, however.
A "quag" is one of those terms, in the same vein as bog, marsh, fen, moor, morass, mire, slew (or slough or slue), wetland or wash. Like how swashbuckler is to pirate, all of these terms mean slightly different things depending on location, oxygen content, water saturation, and other factors, but they're all basically the same place in the sense that you'll need galoshes and mosquito repellent to fully enjoy them.
As for the card's name in totality, I can't imagine a scenario in which I'd want my feast to originate in a quag, but to each their own. And it's an interesting choice that they'd include art that evokes perhaps the most traumatic scene in cinema history for Magic players of a certain age. If you're curious; yes, that link is to the clip you think it is, and no, I refused to watch it. I just snagged the link and clicked away as fast as I could.
Vnwxt, Verbose Host
I can't define for you the first word in this card's name, because I require a minimum of one vowel to even get out of bed in the morning. But "verbose" I can do, because it also describes pretty much every article I write for this website.
In short (ironically), "verbose" means to contain more words than necessary. It's the antonym of that The Office scene with the guy who says "why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?" A person or homunculus considered "verbose" finds few word not as fun as lot word. Strange, then, that the flavor text features a quote with only four words, regardless of how many extra Is contained within; perhaps another irony considering Vnwxt's monocular physiognomy.
"We're all junk for the cleanup crew."
As a little treat thanks to the general referential-ness of Aetherdrift, I'll also list for you all the Vehicle/race puns I could spot. You'll either hate this list of cards or love it. That's on you, either way.
"Exclamatory: Hang on to something."
Thanks for joining on another perusal of the Multiversal Dictionary. I hope you had as much fun as I did.
Was there any vehicular verbiage that you valued? I'm keen to hear about it in the comments, or over on Bluesky -- and frankly, the latter would elicit more interaction, if that's something you desire.
Be verbose in the meantime, friends, and we'll pick this up again when it's time to fill the sky with dragons.
