StarCraft Lingo: Abbreviations

[Remy]

First of all, let me cover all the common abbreviations used in SC1 just in case(although doubtful) there are people on these forums who are unfamiliar with them.

I will list the names, then first list the most commonly used abbreviation then other ones commonly known but less used. If the first item listed is the same as the full name, then it means the full name is most commonly used. If there are no commonly used or known abbreviations other than the original name, it will not be listed.

StarCraft: SC
Brood War(expansion pack): BW

PROTOSS: Toss; P

Zealot: Lot
Dragoon: Goon
High Templar: High Templar; HT, Hi Temp
Dark Templar: DT
Dark Archon: Dark Archon; DA

Nexus: Nexus; Nex
Photon Cannon: Cannon
Cybernetics Core: Cybernetics
Shield Battery: Crap; Trash, Garbage, Junk, Poop, Dung, Feces, Turd, Waste, Excrement

Psionic Storm (HT ability): Psi Storm; Storm
Disruption Web (Corsair ability): Web
Stasis Field (Arbiter ability): Stasis
Mind Control (DA ability): MC

TERRAN: Terran; T

Marine: Marine; Rine, M&Ms(refers to Marines and Medics)
Firebat: Bat
Medic: Medic, M&Ms(refers to Marines and Medics)
Siege Tank: Tank
Battlecruiser: BC
Science Vessel: Vessel; SciVes, SV
Valkyrie: Valk

Command Center: CC
ComSat Station: Comsat
Supply Depot: Supply Depot; Depot
Barracks: Rax
Engineering Bay: Engineering; E-bay
Missile Turret: Turret

Stim Pack (Marine and Firebat ability): Stim
Nuclear Strike (Ghost ability): Nuke
Spider Mine (Vulture ability): Mine
Defensive Matrix (Vessel ability): Matrix
EMP Shockwave (Vessel ability): EMP
Yamato Cannon (BC ability): Yamato; Yama
Scanner Sweep (Comsat ability): Scan
Healing (Medic ability): Heal
Optic Flare (Medic ability): Blind

ZERG: Zerg; Z

Overlord: Ovie
Zergling: Ling
Hydralisk: Hydra
Mutalisk: Muta
Queen: *(see Protoss Shield Battery)
Lurker: Lurker; Lurk
Defiler: Defiler; Filer
Ultralisk: Ultra
Devourer: Devourer; Dev

Hatchery: Hatch
Creep Colony: Creep
Evolution Chamber: Evo Chamber; Evo
Spawning Pool: Pool
Sunken Colony: Sunken
Hydralisk Den: Hydra Den; Den
Nydus Canal: Nydus

Dark Swarm (Defiler ability): Dark Swarm; Swarm

With that out of the way, let me move on to SC2. Here is my list of suggested abbreviations for SC2 units that have been revealed so far.

Stalker: Stalk
Immortal: Immo, Mort
Colossus: Colo, Los, Pod
Phase Prism: Prism
Phoenix: Nix
Warp Ray: Ray
Mothership: MS (everyone's already using this one)
Tempest: Temp
Soul Hunter: Fagbag
Star Relic: Relic
Baneling: Bling (originally by Zombine)
Reaper: Reap

[concreteasflesh]

Shield Battery: Crap; Trash, Garbage, Junk, Poop, Dung, Feces, Turd, Waste, Excrement

Queen: *(see Protoss Shield Battery)

Soul Hunter: Fagbag




HAHAHA i dont think Soul Hunter could of been put any better. heres a few other ideas:

Twilight Archon: T-con, T-arc
Warp Gate: WG, W-gate
Protoss War Shrine: PWS, P-shrine
Mother Ships' Planet Cracker: protASS cracker, P-Crackdizzle, WTFBBQFTW waz crackalackin' yo base homie?

I dont know anything u havent so gracefully already listed. .

[Patuljak]

On the contrary, markus, it could be... ;)

[generalrievous]

yay for list of lingoz I really like the soulhunter one ;D

[10-Neon]

Some additions I would make to the list. I havn't seen a few of the ones you used, so I imagine you won't have seen some of the ones I will list. I'm including a lot of the first-three-letters abbreviations that people seem to favor. Maybe you counted them as being the same as the name. My list, too, is incomplete, but, one step closer, you know?

Zealot: I've seen Z, and Zeal, though I personally use Zel
High Templar: I usually see them referred to as Temps, people usually know that they aren't talking about DTs.
Carrier: Car
Corsair: Cor
Arbiter: Arb
Observer: Obs
Gateway: Gate
Stargate: also Gate...I suppose context helps.
Cybernetics Core: Core, Cyber Core
Shield Battery: People actually just call them Batteries, nothing to do with bowel movements. "They walled themselves in with excrement, what noobs!"
Templar Archives: Archives

Terran: Some people refer to them as Ran
Medic: Med
Goliath: Gol
Yamato Cannon: I don't think this one is actually common, but I call it Y-Gun

Defiler: Def
Devourer: Dev
Evolution Chamber: Chamber
Spore Colony: Spore

Baneling: I personally think Bane will be favored over Bling.

[Remy]

Nice additions. Obs and Cyber are common ones that I've seen but missed. I've seen people refer to corsairs as Sairs but never Cor. I've also seen people use GW for gateway but not Gate I don't think.

Meds and Gols I see once in a while, but Temps I definitely see that used pretty commonly. Oh I forgot but people also refer to DTs as Darks.

In my experience, Zerg units usually just used the first one or two syllables while Toss units usually adopted the ending syllable, with some exceptions of course.

I love T-con btw, that's a good one.

[ImaGiNe.]

Protoss:
Immortal = Imps, Mortys
Mothership = MS, Mother, Motherf*cker, Your Mom, Pimp Ship
Phase cannon = Phase, Mobi-cannon
Soul Hunter = Silver Surfer (I seriously think that Soul Hunters are based off of the Silver Surfer), Hunter, Soul
Stalker = Pedo, Stalk, JBS (Jack and the Bean Stalker), DD (Dark Dragoon)
Star Relic = Rel, Relic, HMA (Hide My Ass)
Tempest = Pest
Twilight Archon = Archon (assuming it is the only one), Arc, Twink

Terran:
Reaper = Reaps, Grims, The Jetsons

Zerg:
Baneling = Bane, Banestar, Baner, Boomshakalaka
Nydus Worm = Worm, Earth Worm Jim

[Meee]

Miscrosoft is not the mothership! :(


They WANT you to think that.
But I think MS is just natural for MotherShip

[Fenix]

I've seen PhoCan for Photon Cannon.....It's not to common though.

[paragon]

the shield battery is good if you know how to use it...

[burkid]

i personally like shield batteries, but i agree for the queens.

[paragon]

and generally (always) abbreviations are shorter than the actual word or take the shortest word if it is more than one word (i've never seen someone say cybernetics, most common is core and then cyber)

[Gorythax]

Also you forgot to mention Goth for goliaths. I see that quite often :P
Besides, I think the Mothership IS MS.
After all, isn't their job to mindlessly destroy everything in their wake?

[Fenix]

Yesh, they have an un-announced ability.....

*Drum Roll*



THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEEEEEAAAATTTTHHHH!!!

[Gorythax]

Time bomb ~ Dial-Up
Planet Cracker ~ Planet Hacker
Black Hole ~ Pac-Man Virus

Hurray for MS!

[Remy]

Cybernetics is actually the most common term for me, along with cyber(especially when typed and not said).

[paragon]

Time bomb ~ Dial-Up
Planet Cracker ~ Planet Hacker
Black Hole ~ Pac-Man Virus

Hurray for MS!

or following the fact that people shorten them:
Time Bomb - TB, bomb, ms bomb
Planet Cracker - pc, cracker
Black Hole - bh, hole

[Gorythax]

.. Sure ;D

I like mine better though :)

[Nikzad]

cy-core

I don't know about MS for mothership, I'm so used to using it for "movement speed" in DotA

I'll probably just end up calling it the mother****er, or George W Bush for short

[DontHate]

that isn't abbreviating it...

[Nikzad]

..................................................
if i have to explain the joke for you then you don't deserve to know

[Remy]

Just remembered another one.

Expansion/expand: Expo

[paragon]

expo is a weird one... theres no o in expand and the o in expansion is in the suffix

[FlyingTiger]

haha expand is like organic chemistry.

You don't say you are going to orga class, you say you are going to orgo. (haha if you are a science major, you would know what I mean).

So you wouldn't call it expa, eh? hehe ^_^

[Remy]

I've seen people use expo a lot.  That one's quite common I think.

There is no "y" or "ie" in overlord, yet people call overlords ovy, ovie, or ovies.

[paragon]

i know... they are suffixes

[Remy]

If the "y" in "ovy" is a suffix, then would the "o" in "expo" not be one as well?

Anyway, I have never heard anyone call it any other way.

[10-Neon]

I think "ovie" exists as a sort of endearment towards the unit, combined with the natural gravitation towards "ee" sounds.

"Expo" does annoy me, it feels like it is short for "exposition." I use "exp," which seems to work fine, since there aren't any RPG elements to confuse it with.

[Nikzad]

ovie reminds me of ovaries

[Hadean]

Didn't see one for Reavers:

Reavs

I've never heard of Cors but I know them as Sairs

Guardians: Guards

I only ever called DTs well.. uhm. DTs and templars were temps.

Med(s) for Medic, not sure if you had that one.

Drop(s) for Dropship.

BC for Battlecruiser

Vessel for Science Vessel

Never heard of Goths, knew them as Gols or AA

Vult(s) for Vultures

and pretty sure you covered everything else.

Oh yeah forgot. Spore and Sunken for Spore Colony and Sunken Colony :D

[FlyingTiger]

I think "ovie" exists as a sort of endearment towards the unit, combined with the natural gravitation towards "ee" sounds.

"Expo" does annoy me, it feels like it is short for "exposition." I use "exp," which seems to work fine, since there aren't any RPG elements to confuse it with.


haha if they implement that ranking system for each unit... exp might mean experience then

[kingsky123]

immortals will never shrug off that 'goon' image

so when you play scII and people tell you to build goons you click immortals :P

[FlyingTiger]

haha that might happen. i can't think of an example right now, but that's so true sometimes.

[Gorythax]

Speaking of which, I don't like Immortals. To me, they just look like toss goliaths. I really preferred the more traditional look of goons =/. Maybe it's just me (and everyone says that) though.