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2020's Trash Skill "Gacha" deals with an ability whose name is only understandable to the (Japanese?) audience and is possibly not otherwise explained, but the in-universe uninformative name being a plot point is the point I'm circling around.

From TVTropes: Orphaned Etymology:

2010's(?) The Stormlight Archive has the mysterious origin of the "Hound" part of "Axehounds", which is relevant to the wider plot.

The 2000 Interactive Fiction Shrapnel has a character saying:

Einstein

And the everything about being a user of that word reveals to the audience that things aren't what they seem.

So, what's the first time a character / world uses a word they shouldn't have access to given their worldbuilding, and it's plot relevant, and the in-universe reason for that word, if any, isn't immediately obvious to the audience?

In fact, I'm not sure The Stormlight Archive is an example. I don't know if the reader is supposed to know the reason before it's explained.

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    Hmm... after your comments on the two answers, I'm honestly not entirely certain what you're going for. Is it a matter of "the word would make no sense but would to the audience because they're familiar with something the characters wouldn't know about such as current pop culture"? "... because they're familiar with the genre?" "word of impossible origins because that context doesn't exist in that world?" Commented yesterday
  • @FuzzyBoots - "Impossible" Word needs to be understood by the audience but not in-universe people, and when the word is first shown to the audience, they can't accurately guess how the word etymlogically makes sense in-universe, if there even is an in-universe explanation. Hopefully that's clearer? Commented yesterday
  • I get it now. As you say, it should be pivotal else it'd open the door to nitpicky answers. Commented yesterday
  • @JiminyCricket. - Great! I just changed the title to try and hit all the points I wanted. But I should sleep so not 100% sure of success. Please comment/edit/criticize if needed. Thanks! Commented yesterday
  • Thanks. Honourable mention goes to T H White's Arthurian saga where merlin referrs to aeroplanes, Hitler etc. whilst being in the 1200s. (The Sword in the Stone 1938). Not pivotal to the plot but pivotal perhaps to Merlin's history of living backwards and to what he was trying to teach Arthur. Commented yesterday

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Stephen Vincent Benét's By the Waters of Babylon from 1937 features a primitive man visiting ancient ruins he doesn't understand called "The Place of the Gods" or "The Dead Places" - but the inscriptions he sees but doesn't understand speak of things the reader will understand:

We shall go to the Place of the Gods—the place new-york—not one man but a company. We shall look for the images of the gods and find the god ASHING and the others—the gods Licoln and Biltmore and Moses.

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    Close, but too obvious that this is a post-apocalytic story. I'll need to refine my question wording. Commented yesterday
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    @Malady This is a valid answer to the question as written when the answer was posted. Commented yesterday
  • @DavidW - How are the words "impossible" or "not fitting the worldbuilding" if the cause is clear, being post-apocalytic? Commented yesterday
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F. Paul Wilson's ROVPD/CAVEE/EFI is from 1995, and as per my answer to A short story about a word that is always the right answer, is perceived as the right word for any situation.

A man happens on a magic universal word, misuses it, and is caught by the word's owners.

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    I don't know if that counts as "only understandable to the audience"; I at least don't understand it... Commented yesterday
  • Interesting. I guess I'll have to note that a key point is about its origin or something about its mysteriousness due to lack of origin.. Commented yesterday

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