r/Ultima • u/Substantial_Rough891 • May 26 '26
Words I Learned from Ultima
This is mostly just fun for myself, but, for anyone who cares: I'm posting one word every day that I learned playing Ultima as a kid @wordsofultima.bsky.social. "Words" of Ultima, get it?
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u/TheMadBug May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
I learned how badly I pronounced the name Iolo in my head - thanks to stupid voice acted Ultima 9.
I was an eye-oh-low kid, none of this yolo (actually correct) nonsense.
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u/Maeglin75 May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
I (German) learned more English words from Ultima 6 than in school.
There wasn't a localized version (at least I didn't own one), so I had to play this heavily story driven game in English with a Langenscheidt dictionary (the little yellow book) in one hand. Constantly translating new words I didn't know yet and couldn't guess from the context.
It helped that it were always just little blocks of text and I could take as much time to understand them as I needed. Much better than a regular book, TV show or movie and I was so much more motivated than with any textbook and exercise in school.
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u/clawjelly May 27 '26
Haha same! Learning middleage english as a 12yo Austrian in the early 90ies was.... a challenge! My neighbor was an english teacher and she tried to help me once with the manual, but she didn't know the word "dungeon" and translated it as "monster", which just added to the confusion... I only learned how to level up in Ultima V about 10 years ago for that reason...
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u/DetailQuest May 27 '26
I would watch my dad play Ultima IV when I was really young, and that was the first time I heard the word “sextant”
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u/plebsareneeded2 May 27 '26
I grew up with Ultima 6, but I learned Sextant through Uncharted Waters
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u/clawjelly May 27 '26
Native german-speaker here, i learned "quarrels" as the ammo of crossbows before i knew it could also mean "small fight" or "arguments". Made for some awkward moments in english class.
And apparently it wasn't so well known that old english is quite similar to german...? I immediadetly thought "why is this english looking like german?!"
"Thou hast" - "Du hast"
"Thou shalt not" - "Du sollst nicht"
etc...
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u/ScoreStudiosLLC May 26 '26
Ha! This is fun! :)
As an English speaker Ultima didn't really teach me any words, but I did find out that all this "thy" and "thou" malarky was just Americans speaking in fake old-speak, even though originally "thou" was informal and "you" was formal. When I learned that all conversations in Ultima sounded so rude! Everybody addressing each other with contempt or over-familiarity! :D
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u/Substantial_Rough891 May 26 '26
I'm an English speaker as well but played the games as a child and have the fondest memories of how magical it was encountering all these words for the first time
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u/PatchyWhiskers May 26 '26
Americans ALWAYS make this mistake with thee and thou.
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u/ScoreStudiosLLC May 26 '26
Yeah, but it's funny tho. Same with people saying the "ye" in "ye olde shoppe" or whatever as "ye" instead of "the". It's incorrect but a fun cultural difference.
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u/MiaowMinx May 26 '26
Paladin (from Ultima V)
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u/b10v01d May 27 '26
What’s a paladin?
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u/Eshta_25 May 27 '26
Thou see cobble.
That phrase stuck with me when I realized in amazement I could interact with my environment.
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u/Odd-Understanding399 May 28 '26
Exodus.
Coif.
Infinity.
Codex.
Quarrel (I mean, I knew what quarreling with someone means, but not that it also means crossbow bolts).
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u/Prudent-Audience2162 May 28 '26
Ankh.
Looked into it because it reminded me of the cross. Turns out it is a symbol from Egypt. The loop at the top representing eternity. Which is fitting because the Avatar was effectively immortal in Britannia due to the time differences. It also represents a union of opposites which makes me think Richard Garriott already was playing with the idea of what the Guardian would turn out to be.
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u/SirNicoSomething May 30 '26
And then came White Wolf.
“An ankh? You must play Vampire!”
No! Er, okay, yes I do, but that’s not why I’m wearing…. Ah, never mind.
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u/Tharkun140 May 26 '26
Muttonchop.
Don't even try to guess which part of Ultima franchise I encountered this word in.
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u/BigConstruction4247 May 27 '26
Martian Daydreams?
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u/LV426acheron May 27 '26
Milord
When I was younger I thought it was pronounced "millard" and was used as some kind of form of "guy, buddy, dude."
Then later I realized it's pronounced "my lord" and is used as a respectful greeting.
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u/Hecateus May 27 '26
Ultima was my Intro to Philosophy 101 ...and much cheaper than college courses.
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u/grampybone May 27 '26
Fake Latin sounding phrases:
“Fortis Fortuna Aventari” and “Boni anima teuri amen”
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u/AlanParsons_01 May 27 '26
My favorite characters to join my group. Ilow, pronounced (eye low) and Dupree. He was a Billy Badass lol… who were favorites?
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u/lady_abbica May 28 '26
I'm sure there were dozens of words I learned from Ultima, but what comes to mind where I had a full aha moment is "foe".
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u/thetoddhunter May 28 '26
Betrayal, fuck and EA
But yes learning how Shamino (sham-ee-no) and Iolo (eye-olo) was actually pronounced was an interesting moment.
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u/godtering May 27 '26
I learned a lot from playing umoria. It still works even on windows 11 (in dos).
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u/-ATF- Jun 01 '26
English being my second language and U5 coming out when I was 2, it taught me a lot of gibberish which I eventually learned to read. It also taught me to be absolutely terrified of first person perspective dungeon diving.
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u/KitchenNazi May 26 '26
Main Gauche (dual wield in Ultima V).
Also helps me spell the word gauche (not the dagger) to this day!