Bernard L Bailey III
New Member
Hello everyone,
I've been google searching for a little while now, and I can't seem to find a word that I like. I was hoping that someone here might have something useful.
So the premise is this, I'm working on a story that involves anthropomorphic animal societies. As part of their history there of course were clashes between traditional predator-prey relationships. The current version of the world is that most of that has been worked out though there are still some lingering ideological issues. That said, the term predator is still functional, but the term prey would be derogatory. Right? What animal would label itself prey. It might look at the other side and say that is a predator, but it isn't going to look at itself and label itself prey.
But that creates a bit of an issue for me because I can't seem to find a reasonable replacement for prey. I am trying to avoid words like herbivore as that describes the diet as opposed to that hunter/hunted relationship. Now technically fruit and vegetable eaters are considered predators as well, which is odd to me but I get it. But that still leaves me with the word gap.
If it helps imagine a scene with a predator calling someone its prey. Both parties can agree that the predator is a predator. But there would be an argument between them over the use of the word prey. The 'prey' might respond, "I'm your prey. I'm not your food... I'm ___."
Something empowering, and negating to the idea of victimization.
Any help would really be appreciated.
P.S. I'm posting this here, instead of say a writer's forum, because I'm hoping to keep the term within the vocabulary of existing Zoo/Animal/Biology words. If that isn't possible, so be it. I'm not going to overlook a good idea just cause it isn't latin...
I've been google searching for a little while now, and I can't seem to find a word that I like. I was hoping that someone here might have something useful.
So the premise is this, I'm working on a story that involves anthropomorphic animal societies. As part of their history there of course were clashes between traditional predator-prey relationships. The current version of the world is that most of that has been worked out though there are still some lingering ideological issues. That said, the term predator is still functional, but the term prey would be derogatory. Right? What animal would label itself prey. It might look at the other side and say that is a predator, but it isn't going to look at itself and label itself prey.
But that creates a bit of an issue for me because I can't seem to find a reasonable replacement for prey. I am trying to avoid words like herbivore as that describes the diet as opposed to that hunter/hunted relationship. Now technically fruit and vegetable eaters are considered predators as well, which is odd to me but I get it. But that still leaves me with the word gap.
If it helps imagine a scene with a predator calling someone its prey. Both parties can agree that the predator is a predator. But there would be an argument between them over the use of the word prey. The 'prey' might respond, "I'm your prey. I'm not your food... I'm ___."
Something empowering, and negating to the idea of victimization.
Any help would really be appreciated.
P.S. I'm posting this here, instead of say a writer's forum, because I'm hoping to keep the term within the vocabulary of existing Zoo/Animal/Biology words. If that isn't possible, so be it. I'm not going to overlook a good idea just cause it isn't latin...
