Comment by peri-cl

> "The alien words, names, and characters are explained as coming from ancient languages such as Greek, Hebrew, and “Chaldean”"

Why is "Chaldean" in scare-quotes? Ah, TIL:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Aramaic#Chaldean_misn... ("Chaldean language (misnomer)")

(I think I might(?) have seen the same confusion in the wild. Voltaire's preface to Zadig (1747), the fantasy satire set in ancient Babylon, purports to translate a found manuscript written in Chaldean).