Terminology for 24 hour wake-sleep cycle on world with longer dark-light cycle?
Take the Jovian moon Ganymede as a real-world example. It has an orbital period of ~7 days around Jupiter, which is effectively its day and its year simultaneously.
My characters will need the words 'day' and 'night' to refer to the 7 day dark-light cycle. What words might they use to refer to the 24 hour wake-sleep cycle? All I could think of is 'cycle', which sounds a bit too cold and clinical for my fantasy setting.
"We had only two more BLANKS before the new day began and sunlight revealed our position."
EDIT: I think I might go with 'phases', as in phases of the day. Instead of 'days of the week' I'll have 'phases of the day', which will each be named after the light conditions. Dawnphase, Deepnight, etc.
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1 answer
Possibly one would refer to the most common thing/action that happens during the 24h cycles. For instance,
- sleepies, from sleeping
- wakies, from waking up
- waits, from the fact that you need to wait for seven such cycles before a full day has passed.
- zeptees, from epta, or seven in Greek, and sieben, which is seven in German
- Dutes, based on chores, where the scheduling follows the 24h pattern, rather than the daily pattern. ( Suggested by can-ned-food in the comments )
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