I've got a bit of a twist on the often-asked question of what type of language should be used in a pseudo-medieval fantasy story to not yank the reader out of it / shatter the illusion.
What if you need to describe something, and using the real-world, modern term for it would make it immediately clear, but the term actually sounds fantasyish?
For example, in one of my WIPs, a princess gets a haircut, and it's described as a pixie cut. Pixies just happen to be mythological creatures, although I haven't specified whether such creatures exist in my world or not.
Would something like this be an acceptable cheat, or would it be clearly out of place?
What if you need to describe something, and using the real-world, modern term for it would make it immediately clear, but the term actually sounds fantasyish?
For example, in one of my WIPs, a princess gets a haircut, and it's described as a pixie cut. Pixies just happen to be mythological creatures, although I haven't specified whether such creatures exist in my world or not.
Would something like this be an acceptable cheat, or would it be clearly out of place?