"What is it called?" Asked Tara, examining her golden hands. She let the glow fade away. "Other people have powers with names like pyrokinesis and stuff. I kind of want that. I wanna tell people I have something like pyrokinesis instead of 'I move rocks around.'"

Slade considered for a moment before beginning to answer, "Several possibilities come to mind. 'Earth Manipulation-'"

"Is a boring name," she interrupted.

"Do not cut in when I am speaking," he growled. "If you want a 'cool' name for it, you'll be hard-pressed to find one."

"Help me out here, Slade," she appealed.

He sighed heavily. "Geomancy is a word that gets tossed around a lot, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. The geos part fits fine-it means earth-but the end part doesn't work. Manteia, which is Ancient Greek too, you know, means divination. Telling the future. You don't do that, not by any stretch of the imagination."

Tara shook her head no. She wished sometimes that she could see the future, though.

"So geomancy is out. The other word that I've heard used for people like you is seismokinesis. Rolls off the tongue don't you think? Shame it's also unfitting. Kinesis is movement, which is what you do to rocks and so forth, so that part's fine. Seismos, though, is for earthquakes and major disturbances. Vibrations, really. Now, you can do earthquakes and you can do them well but it's not all you do. And you don't cause your earthquakes by making vibrations."

She interrupted, "This is all Greek?"

"Ancient Greek, originally. Quite different from modern Greek."

"You speak Ancient Greek?"

"No one really speaks Ancient Greek. Not out loud at least, but many people know the language. Like Latin."

The girl had a look about her that suggested that she had more to ask, but he wasn't about to let her derail his lecture.

"If I had to name it something other than earth manipulation, a phrase toward which you seem to have undue hate, I would say geokinesis. Earth movement."

Her face was expressionless.

"You hate it don't you?"

She nodded.

"Then, dear Terra, I cannot help you in this area," Slade sighed. He reflected for a moment, then offered, "Terra is Latin for earth you know. And land in general."

"I do know that one," she assured. "Can it be called terrakinesis?"

"No, you can't mix languages like that. It's like saying ignikinesis or pyroimpetus. It is simply not done."

"I don't understand."

"Do you ever mix Markovian words with English words?"

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

"Precisely."

A/N: The reference to 'Markovian' as a language is an allusion to Teen Titans comics, in which Tara Markov (Terra) is royalty from the fictional country of Markovia. I assume that people from Markovia either have their own language or they speak Russian or a similar Slavic language. Tara's citizenship is also canonized in the Teen Titans Go! Comics. Being a native of the country, I assume that she is fluent in its language.

Ignikinesis, which Slade uses as an example of an improper word, is composed of the Latin ignis, meaning fire, and Ancient Greek kinesis. Pyroimpetus is a similar sort of monster word, being made up of the Ancient Greek prefix pyro (for fire) and Latin impetus. Impetus refers to a sudden sort of attack or a force. In theory you could combine terra and impetus into a new word, but I do not know enough Latin to be certain.

This was written mostly because I get immensely frustrated whenever I see Terra's powers being given a name that is wholly unfitting, even by fantastic writers. The most commonly used one is geomancy, which baffles me. It's really a case of "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means" and hopefully this will clear all that up.