Found The Meaning of Taffer! Does Not Mean "Thief"!

**Khamoon** · 2nd Sep 2001 23:02

I found the true meaning of the word Taffer! It dosent mean Thief! Therre is talk from a Hammerite priest on the word and it's usage, as in sound file
Hammer1\English\HM1C0352.WAV
Where he speaks of the word taffer, not as a word for thief, but as a curse, a short word for The Trickster! It's like calling someone a Devil, or something to the like.
Am I close?

**Dave Angel** · 2nd Sep 2001 23:14

Wow! That is good. I always just thought Taffer was a general insult, but I'd never even considered that it could be a term for the Trickster.

Of course, 'taffing about' could mean the sort of malicious trickery the Trickster would have perpetrated and so forth.

That's a truly great discovery, by the way. I don't think anyone's come up with that before (and God knows for how long the debate has gone on) and, to my knowledge, not even the designers answered with that full explanation when questioned.

I think that's the definitive answer on the origin of the word. Great work, I'm well and truly impressed.

**Pointdexter43** · 2nd Sep 2001 23:20

Coolness.

**Khamoon** · 2nd Sep 2001 23:22

Yea, not only that, its apparent that some use it as an Invocation to Him, "To speak Taffer is to speak the name of the Defeated advsary, The Trickster" "To speak it is to gove Him an opening into Thy Thoughts...."
Thanks, Dave.

boojum · 3rd Sep 2001 01:22

I never really considered stuff that didn't get used in the game as canonical.

In any case, if we accept that particular conversation as true, it's only the old Hammer who knows the etymology, it's not a general synonym. Sort of the way you might have someone getting chewed out for saying "Gosh" and taking a corruption of the Lord's name in vain - only the truly anal would really make a big deal of it. Not that there are any truly anal Hammers or anything...

-Laura

Nebula-AtUni · 3rd Sep 2001 02:45

Sounds plausible, but it still doesn't explain Thief 2's: "Taff off!". I think the word may have evolved a little above it's original meaning. Much like f**k in many respects

**Spitter** · 3rd Sep 2001 05:54

Originally posted by Dave Angel:
That's a truly great discovery, by the way. I don't think anyone's come up with that before (and God knows for how long the debate has gone on) and, to my knowledge, not even the designers answered with that full explanation when questioned.

I remember seeing someone with that thing in his/her sig around 1999-2000?

**NoCokePepsi** · 3rd Sep 2001 06:24

Very interesting. Good work, Khamoon.

**tafferette** · 3rd Sep 2001 07:05

There was an interview in a mag (forget which one) in which one of the designers said that Taffer was just a word one of them made up. It's supposed to mean "lowlife" in general.
But I suppose its how you take it. In the context of the game it could mean the Trickster... or it could mean lowlife.

**Filben** · 3rd Sep 2001 07:45

Very good find Khamoon!

I'll have to listen to the sound file as soon as I get home. BTW, is it in T1 or T2?

**Grundbegriff** · 3rd Sep 2001 09:03

Originally posted by Dave Angel:
That's a truly great discovery, by the way. I don't think anyone's come up with that before (and God knows for how long the debate has gone on)

I'm afraid you're a bit behind on the flow of the discussion, Dave Angel. Kudos for discovering these soundfiles goes to Saracoth in November of 1999:
Definition of Taffer...no more doubts! Straight from the Hammer's mouth!
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/cgi-bin/u...&f=41&t=000456

and, to my knowledge, not even the designers answered with that full explanation when questioned.

Your knowledge, though admirable, is limited in this area. The designers have clarified more than once that Laura 'boojum' Baldwin made the word up as a generic slur.

See, for example,
Does anyone know where the word "Taffer" came from?
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/cgi-bin/u...&f=14&t=006221

**Grundbegriff** · 3rd Sep 2001 09:22

**Grundbegriff** · 3rd Sep 2001 09:43

Originally posted by boojum:
I never really considered stuff that didn't get used in the game as canonical.

Hi, boojum! May I quote you on that?

**Pointdexter43** · 3rd Sep 2001 11:16

Grundbegriff, where do you get all your links? Do you have something saved on your computer listing links of all different subjects? If so, mayby you could email it to me and let me take a gander.

**Keeper of Metal and Gold** · 3rd Sep 2001 17:26

I think links like that are in the Grymoire ... ?

**Yannick** · 3rd Sep 2001 17:39

That's one of the few things that got lost in the translation...

"Come back here you taffer !" thus merely became "Reviens ici, voleur !" (= come back here you thief !)

**fortuni** · 20th Oct 2019 08:05

Came across this necro thread, thought it may be of interest to all you taffers.

Sadly all the links are broken as those posts are sadly buried in the vault.

Did a search via the search box and they only other thread I could find is here

Is there a definitive agreement of the meaning of the word taffer and other theories of the original of the word taffer?

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