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doctor who - The origin and use of the term TARDIS



In the first serial, "An Unearthly Child", Susan Foreman claims, "I made up the name TARDIS from the initials, Time And Relative Dimension In Space."


In "The Name of the Doctor", the guard watching the monitor showing the Doctor sneaking about the repair shop says, "What kind of idiot would steal a faulty TARDIS?"


Was this simply a writing error or do all Gallifreyans call them TARDISes? Assuming it is a mistake, this would mean the Doctor's TARDIS is the only "TARDIS". However, I recall that other characters had time machines referred to as TARDIS, e.g. the Rani and the Master.


Wikipedia states the TARDIS is a Type 40 TT capsule (TT meaning Time Travel). Should the guard not have stated, "What kind of idiot would steal a faulty Type 40? Also, why would other time lords and ladies call their time machines (whatever model) TARDIS?



Answer



Do we have any evidence that a guard on Gallifrey speaks 20th-Century English?


The dialog was presented in 20th-Century English for our convenience, but I doubt that in-universe the dialog was English. (I seem to remember that the Doctor told Rose that speaking and understanding other languages is a "gift from the TARDIS".)


As long as they are translating the English for our benefit, they might as well use the word we expect.


So, my answer is that on Gallifrey they don't necessarily use the word TARDIS. It's also possible that they do use the word but it isn't an acronym in their language.


EDIT: After I wrote this, I noticed that this is basically the same as a comment by @Ferruccio below the question.



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