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Examples

  • "You Dennitzans, human and zmay -- ychan -- you don't strike me as hesitant people," Flandry remarked.

    A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1974

  • Those in front of her were simply clad, shirts, trousers, shoes on the men, a tunic on the zmay.

    A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1974

  • "Are you sure, then, the gain to us can justify a deed which someday will make lovers of beauty, seekers of knowledge, curse our names?" the zmay demanded.

    A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1974

  • Dennitza has its own culture, deep-rooted, virile, alien to Terra and rather contemptuous thereof -- a culture influenced by Merseia, both directly and through the, uh, zmay element in your population.

    A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1974

  • The old zmay was welcome company, not least because he knew when to be silent.

    A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1974

  • He said to Kossara and her fellow humans: "It's not for an old zmay to tell you wise heads how to handle a clutch of xenos.

    A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1974

Comments

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  • In various Slavic dialects (spelled alternately zmaj, zmiy, etc.) a worm, snake, or dragon.

    August 14, 2008

  • Ljubljana, my adopted hometown (if I may put it that way), uses a dragon (in Slovene, zmaj) as its totem and one of its most famous landmarks is the art nouveau Dragon Bridge (Zmajski most), built 1900–1901, shown here and here.

    August 15, 2008

  • I like to use it as an exclamation. "Zmays!" or "Raging zmays!" for a more emphatic. The plural is all wrong, it ought to be zmayu or something like that. But it's fun to say.

    (I am also known to use "domkops" as the plural. A Dutchie corrected me once, so now I know I'm wrong. But I still do it.)

    August 15, 2008

  • A lovely part of town the bridge is in too. Doesn't the dragon relate to the Jason legend and the founding of Ljubljana?

    August 15, 2008

  • Yes, it does in fact. Jason, who sped up the Danube, Sava, and finally, Ljubljanica rivers to get away from understandably perturbed King of Colchis, came upon a dragon, which he heroically slayed and forthwith founded the city that eventually became Ljubljana.

    The dragon in the city's crest – depicting a dragon on top of a castle on a hill – is, however, more likely related to the legend of St. George, to whom the chapel in Ljubljana Castle is dedicated.

    August 17, 2008

  • There's a famous Serb poet called Jovan Jovanović 'Zmaj'.

    May 12, 2009