two questions of word choice

[swan_tower]

I have two questions to put to you, my faithful readers, regarding Midnight Never Come. Both are issues of word choice, but on a broad scale.

[Poll #1010219]

Comments

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

The issue is the lack of alternatives. I wouldn't use "ouph," even though it's period, because who would recognize it? But the midlands of England are a dead zone for surviving information on faerie folklore, so I have to put way more thought into my word choice than I would if the novel were set along the Scottish border. "Elf" is recognizable and period, and judging by the poll results, it doesn't upset too many people.