Lyra's World

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Lyra's Oxford

An Alternate Universe, one of many in the multiverse, and the world in which Northern Lights/The Golden Compass takes place, along with parts of The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. The world is very similar to our own world, but with certain differences. The most important difference is that humans in Lyra's World have dæmons, while those in other worlds do not. In Lyra's world the Church is much more unified and has much more temporal power.

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Esoteric Renaming

To enhance the feeling of being in a parallel universe, Pullman renames various common objects of our world with historic terms or new words of his own, often reflecting the power of the Church in Lyra's world. The alternative names he chooses often follow alternate etymologies, while making it possible to guess what everyday object or person he is referring to. Below are some of the significant renamings.

Anbaric: Electric. From amber, which the ancient Greeks in our world thought was the source of electricity. The English word "electric" is based on the Greek "ηλέκτρινος", meaning "amber".

Atomcraft: Research into particle physics, specifically using uranium.

Brytain: A phonetically identical respelling of the country Britain.

Cauchuc: Rubber and possibly also plastic, from the Native American word cauchuc or caoutchouc meaning the sap of the rubber tree.

Celestial Geography: Celestial navigation.

Chapel: A scientific laboratory.

Chaplain: The head of a scientific laboratory.

Chocolatl: Sometimes hot chocolate, sometimes "a bar of chocolatl" (a chocolate bar).

From the nahuatl (Aztec) word for chocolate.

Chthonic Railway Station: A tube-station (subway station). "Chthonic" is defined in some dictionaries as "relating to the underworld".

Coal-silk: Carbon-fibre (coal as in carbon, silk as in soft, like carbon-fibre coats). An artificial fibre similar to rayon, which was once known as art-silk in our world.

Corea: A phonetically identical respelling of the country Korea, which was formerly used.

Eireland: Ireland, as referred to in the Cittàgazze universe. Presumably a mixture of Ireland's Irish-language (Éire) and English-language names.

Electrum: An occasionally used latin word for Amber.

(Experimental) Theologian: A physicist.

Gyropter: a helicopter.

Gyptians: Boat-dwelling "Gypsies". In reality, the word "Gypsy" is derived from "Egypt". Gypsies were once thought by "native" Britons to have come from Egypt due to their darker skin. Pullman is clearly referencing this etymoloical heritage.

Lascar: An East Indian. This is a real, though archaic, English word.

Marchpane: Marzipan. In reality, "Marchpane" is an archaic word for "marzipan".

Muscovite: A Russian, a reference to the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

Naphtha: Oil (as in oil-lamp, rather than naphtha-lamp), named after a petrochemical like kerosene.

Nipponese: Japanese. From Nippon, the Japanese-language name for Japan.

Norroway: A phonetically identical respelling of the country Norway.

Oratory: An individual church.

Philosophical: Having to do with the study of physics. In our own world, physics was once a part of philosophy.

Poppy: Opium, which is made from poppies.

Roman: Specifically, the Latin language.

Skraeling: A Native American/First Nations (Inuit) person, particularly one from Greenland. Natives of Greenland were once named similarly by the Vikings of our world (see Skraeling).