Internal Terminological Consistency

Sometimes, an sf story set in a future society introduces terminology specific to that society. For example, in Star Trek:

"transporter" means "teleporter";

"Star Date" means a way of avoiding saying when anything is happening.

The ground vehicles in Centauri are called "groundbugs." A few pages later, Arinnian and Hrill:

"...took a taxibug to the Nest..."
-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 437-662 AT p. 505.

We have become accustomed to flying taxis or "aircabs" in Poul Anderson's works and in other sf. In fact, sometimes we are surprised when a future vehicle stays on the ground. However, it becomes clear that this taxibug is also a groundbug when we read the whole sentence:

"They took a taxibug to the Nest, which was the tallest building in the city, and a gravshaft to its rooftop since neither had brought flying gear." (For the reference, see above.)

Thus, Anderson remains consistent first in calling the local vehicles "bugs" and secondly in keeping them grounded. This might be the only time these vehicles are mentioned. Nevertheless, we get the impression that Anderson has created a complete environment including details that we are not told in this narrative, such as the design of these particular vehicles.

And here is a sentence that concretizes Avalon as an inhabited environment:

"Morgana was sinking toward the western bottomlands, though it still silvered river and Gulf." (ibid.)

As with Poul and Karen Anderson's Ys, we feel that we have been there.

I am on a roll with the Technic History and with a particular period of it so I will see if we can stay with Avalon for a while longer.