Topic: How to include definitions of words within dialogue and narrative?

Hi, I have several words/phrases that I need to define in my book and am not sure what format is best.

1.) I have a cab driver who uses the Italian term Stronza as a curse word. One of my characters asks what it means. Currently the response is "It means bitch." I have the word "bitch" in italics without single quotes. Should it be italics or should I put the definition in single quotes. Also, should there be a colon after the word "means"?

2) (Similar to 1) Same driver uses hand gestures to insult vehicle occupants chasing him. When asked what the gesture means, he answers "It's an old Italian insult. It means your mother was inseminated by a Greek." I have "your mother was inseminated by a Greek" in italics, again without single quotes. Once more, should there be a colon after "means"?

3) I use the term AI throughout the book. It's a synonym for computer (e.g., the palace AI, personal AI, etc.). In Wikipedia, I found that artificial intelligence is always abbreviated as AI withough periods (i.e., not A.I.). AI without periods is also consistent with other abbreviations in my opening chapter, such as CO (commanding officer) and HQ (headquarters), neither of which is normally spelled with periods (i.e., not C.O., nor H.Q.).

These abbreviations all occur in the first chapter and is from a science fiction novel targetted at older teens and above. I would think readers of that age group would know what AI, CO, and HQ stand before, but maybe I'm wrong. One reviewer told me I should define all acronyms before using them, so I wrote:

     "Those cannons are three times as big as a supernova, admiral," the ships artificial intelligence system, or AI, responded.

Should AI be in italics when I define it in the example above?

4) I use the term "deep fryer" as a synonym for energy rifle (i.e., stormtrooper style blaster rifles). I have the sentence: The marines carried energy rifles, or deep fryers, and distributed them to the bridge crew.

5) I use the term Galaxinet and don't bother to define it, since it's pretty obvious what it is. I have many other words that I've made up (e.g., supernova, titan, annihilater, etc.) that the reader can generally understand from the context in which they are used. For example: "We count nine ships, Admiral. A new titan and eight battle cruisers." I later describe the titan so that it's obvious that it's the biggest/most powerful ship in the aforementioned fleet.

If I were to stop every time to explain what a word means it would come off as silly. However, as you can see, I sometimes use italics, sometines phrases like "or deep fryers", "or AI", etc., and other times I leave the reader to imagine it based on my descriptions rather than stopping to insert an explicit definitioin. The last approach seems like it would be preferable, but I can't always do it that way, as the examples above show.

Is there a standard way of handling these example?

Thanks.
Dirk

Quote Post 1

Re: How to include definitions of words within dialogue and narrative?

First, definitely no colons! I think italics works fine. Just be consistent. Single quote marks should be reserved for quotes within a quote. As for defining, no. I think if you say artificial intelligence in sentence one then AI in sentence two, most folks will get it from context.

Quote Post 2

Re: How to include definitions of words within dialogue and narrative?

Following are three uses of "means" I found after scouring the Internet. They both use quotes for the defined word(s).

    The Latin verb "duco" means "to lead," "to consider," or "to prolong."
    Another common Latin expression you might come across is sic transit gloria mundi. It means “thus passes the glory of the world.”
    Booth is said to have shouted “Sic semper tyrannis!” He meant “that’s what tyrants get;” literally, “Thus always to tyrants.”

Using the above examples would result in the following in my conversation between Joseph and Leonardo:

    It means "Your mother was inseminated by a Greek."
    It means "bitch."

I also use quotes for things like:

    Joseph Windsor was four years old the first time he heard "God" speaking to him.

In this case, the quotes are used because the author of the sentence (a religious scholar from the distant future) wants to emphasize that it may not really have been God that Joseph heard.

Dirk

Quote Post 3